My Memories

YET ANOTHER RIDE TO GOPALASWAMY BETTA AND BANDIPUR - JULY 2011

2011-07-16T11:17:00.000+05:30

With a break of 10 days after I quit the job at Tyco, was evaluating a possibility of a ride for about 3-4 days. Getting an approval from the government would have been far easier than getting a green signal from home to the ride.

With loads of pleading, finally the ride duration came down to a day. With no other option the location was again Gopalaswamy Betta and Bandipur. Though nothing to regret about.

Had to get the wiring set up ready for the LED parking lights. Done and dusted with that task, next was to put the hella comet 500 on the bike. Fuelled up the bike to the brim at the Shell petrol pump station. All set for the ride.

Read on for some interesting things in the ride.

Scheduled time of leaving home was 4 am; however, I was able to leave home only by 4:10 am. I rode with moderate speeds through the city to cross Kengeri. The air was quite chilling after crossing Kengeri. I stuck to speeds of 60-70 for most of the journey towards Gopalaswamy Betta. Enroute, I ensured I Stopped at quite a few places just to ease in to the weather. The chillness of the air ensured that I got as lazy as one can get. So not much photos this time.

One photo Enroute.

The roads are re-laid from Mysore to Nanjangud which was in very poor state during the previous visit. However, the road is still bumpy though re-laid.

With my slow cruising ride finally reached Gopalaswamy Betta at 10 am. This is the first time I have ridden so slow, a good 5 hours and 50 mins.

Now some interesting facts about Gopalaswamy Betta which have changed due to a few unwanted instances that have happened (which I will not mention here on the blog).

The entry timings to the temple has been changed from 6 am - 6 pm to 8.30 am to 4.30 pm.
Checking at the check post to ensure no traveler is carrying food items and plastic
Trekking at the hill is strictly prohibited.
Forest guards now have walkie talkie to get update and provide update.

My personal view is that things have changed for good. The serene environment here was getting gradually degraded to yet another tourist place.

Spent a good hour and half soaking the atmosphere near the temple, but not before bowing to the deity and offering my prayers.

Not much of photos as I did not venture out of the temple premises and encourage other tourists to follow my activities.

Rode up to Bandipur and was actually feeling sleepy so enquired at one of the hotels to see if I can get a room for about 500 bucks to take a quick nap before the safari. However, the plan had to be shelved as the room cost quoted was 1200 bucks + taxes. I said “No Thanks” and simply walked out.

I headed straight to the safari ticket counter and met one person from one of the shops who accommodated me at the shop where I could chill off. I was checking with my contacts over the phone for a slot in the jeep safari. This shop guy overheard my conversation and offer help in getting a slot at almost the same cost as the bus safari cost. With a good 2 and a half hours left before the safari, I had lunch that was packed and chilled off for some time. After about an hour and a half, I simply wandered around the place waiting for the clock to tick over to 4 pm.

Finally the jeep came at 4:15 pm for the 2 hour safari. The safari was eventless with me being click happy with whatever animal that I could sight.

Now enough of me talking let the photographs narrate more.

Returned back from the safari at 6:30 pm. It was time to pack things and head home. Managed to leave at 7:45 pm and reached home at 10:50 pm. A nonstop ride for 240 odd kms from the forest office in Bandipur to my house. This includes city limit speeds at all the towns and speed limit inside the forest reserve.

Trip Stats

Odo at the beginning = 46211

Odo at the end – 46709

Total distance travelled – 498 kms

Fuel consumed – Full tank yet to come to reserve. Approx cost as per the past mileage record – Rs. 780/- (11 litres of fuel consumed)

Mangalore - Udupi

2011-06-02T15:41:00.004+05:30

The calendar had already landed me in to the first week of February. Add to it no trips from December 2010 made matters worse. The phone rings and it’s a call from one my friend asking if I was interested in joining in for a trip to Mangalore. I was more than happy to have received this call. My answer was an emphatic “YES”. There we go for a trip to Mangalore.

The group consisted of me, my good friend Sandeep, Mukunda and Srinidhi (The latter two are classmates of Sandeep). Only one grouse that I had was travelling by bus. So I left the burden of booking the tickets to my friend.

Off we started on the Thursday night (3rd Feb 2011) taking the last bus to Mangalore (if my memory serves me right 11:30 pm bus). The bus was a Mark IV Volvo 9400 series. The bus was quite empty with few passengers. We had our seats in the middle. Soon after reaching the new express way on the NH-4, the bus was doing a good speed. In less than 3 hours we were at the new Hassan Bus Stand. All this while, I was struggling to find some sleep. The conductor was friendly and hence I requested the conductor to let me sit in the front (conductor’s seat). He let me sit at the front. I was all smiles. The Shiradi ghats combined with the suspension modes at the disposal of the driver made it very interesting.

Our Airavat Volvo – 9400 Mark IV

We reached Mangalore without much drama at around 7 am. Checked in to the nearest hotel, time to catch a power nap while the others got ready. A good hour’s sleep and my turn to freshen up and we all were ready in the next few mins.

Now though we planned a trip to Mangalore, we had no plans as to what we should be doing in Mangalore (quite exciting you see). We decided we will head to Pilikula a biological park (read as zoo) located approx 18 kms from Mangalore. Travelling by the private bus in Mangalore is quite an experience (read as scary for pedestrians, other road users and the bus travelers as well).

A few pictures from Pilikula.

The King Cobra

The Python

Leopard – seemed to be in its old age.

No idea about the name of this bird

The Bengal Tiger

Mother and Kid

The young Lioness

After the zoo visit we decided to head back to Mangalore. On the way have lunch and head to the hotel for some rest. The heat was already getting on us.

For the evening only me and Srinidhi went ahead with the plan of visiting the Panambur Beach.

View from the Panambur Beach/Port

A few sunset shots

After returning back from the beach. It was time to get some blessings from the Mangala Devi, a good serene temple. Being a Friday there were lot of devotees. After a brief visit and blessing, had some light food for dinner and headed back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep.

5th February 2011

A relaxed morning, ours plans to head to Udupi and visit the temple was finalized. We checked out from the hotel, had breakfast and boarded one of the many private buses to Udupi (the express category).

A pic on the way to Udupi.

Visited the Sri Krishna temple, had lunch at the temple itself and it was time to head to St Mary’s Island.

Little description and more photos this time.

The forgotten scavenger

After the sun set at the Malpe beach, we headed back to the room. I had to take the 9:30 pm bus from Udupi to Bangalore as I had to play a cricket match the next day morning. The group continued towards Murudeshwar the next and returned to Bangalore.

Trip to BR Hills and Bandipur – Dec 17th to Dec 19th 2010 – PART -2

2011-02-02T14:23:00.009+05:30

Day 2 continued.

After the safari we headed straight back to the lodge packed all the stuff and headed for a late breakfast. We checked out at the lodge well before 12 noon and the next destination was the Himavad Gopalaswamy Betta. Soon we were atop of the hill. With my good friend (a forest guard) we dumped the luggage inside a room which belongs to temple. After the darshan we headed off for a small trek with the intention of spotting a few sambars and gentle giants.

We trekked down the hill till the fort and we were greeted by a herd of elephants. It is their world and we had to back off to a safer distance and watch these beasts go on with their routine stuff.

By now we had decided to head back to Mysore to stay at my colleague’s house. So we trekked back up the hill and relaxed for about 20 mins and it was time to ride back to Mysore. We planned to reach Mysore at least an hour before 7:30 pm to catch the Mysore Palace basking in the lights. The road up to Nanjanagud is pretty good. We stopped over for snacks and a cup of strong coffee to keep ourselves going for the rest of the day but not before we caught a glimpse of the sunset and the moon rise.

The nightmare started right from Nanjanagud to Mysore. You don’t need to hire a rocket and head to moon to see the moon’s surface. The road is a replica of the moon’s surface on the entire distance of 25 kms between Nanjanagud and Mysore as the potholes ranging from small to extra large is very evident. Finally we reached the Palace only to know that the lights would be turned off in a couple of mins. Managed to click one pic of the entrance.

Finally, reached my colleague’s house. After lapping up a tasty dinner it was time to hit the sacks.

Day 3: December 19^th, 2010

With not much being planned for the Sunday, we woke up to be familiar and inline for a Sunday morning. The plan was to visit the Zoo, finish lunch and head back home. As usual the visit to the zoo being pretty normal, I will let the pictures narrate more about it.

The hornbill

The warning signs for the visitors

White princess

The Royal Bengal Tiger

A glimpse of what’s inside the pretty face

Ancestors

The wolf

Naughty little boy

The leopard

King of the forest

The king is not just about brute power, but affection as well

The Rhino

After the zoo visit we headed back to my colleague’s house. A late lunch and it was time to get back on roads to be back at Bangalore.

I mentioned about an important learning in the previous post. My better half who was all enthu for the ride, finally found it tougher by the end of day 3. Though we had done a good 600 kms previously in a day, but not this time around. This might be the root cause for future statements like "No more rides with wifey". Probably a better plan with more leisure time will yield better results? A question that only time and my efforts in better planning & execution will answer.

Reached home by 9 pm due a very slow and leisurely ride with many stops. At least to me a part of the life was reclaimed.

Trip to BR Hills and Bandipur - December 2010 - PART 1

2011-02-01T14:56:00.008+05:30

December 17^th 2010, being a holiday on account of Moharam, had a long weekend. With loads of thinking and discussion with my wife, we decide we will have ride to BR Hills and the Bandipur over the next 3 days. There was an important learning at the end of the trip which I will mention at the end of the log.

Now, the next question was who all would join us. As usual our gang was contacted, then we were a team of 5 now (Myself, my better half, my cousin Ramesh, Vijay and Mahesh). By the way Vijay and Mahesh would join us at Gundlupet after the office hours as Vijay could not bargain for a leave with his manager.

Day 1: December 17^th, 2010

We left home by 11 am after packing all the stuff. On the way my cousin joined us at the Rajarajeshwarinagar arch and off we headed towards the NICE road but not before filling the petrol tanks to the brim.

It was time to deviate at the Kanakapura road and head towards Kanakapura. It was slow progress until we hit the Kanakapura Road. A ride of approximately 45 mins ensured we reached the Kanakapura town at right about lunch time. Had a quick lunch, and then moved on towards Kollegal via Malavalli. It was a very leisure ride and we finally were able to reach the BR Hills temple at 4 pm.

A couple of snaps on the way.

The Hella MicroDE Fog lamps

After paying a visit to the deity, we rode on towards Kyathadevara Gudi (K. Gudi) with lots of hope to spot a few wild animals. All that we spotted were elephant dung and a barking deer.

An old elephant at the Kyathadevara Gudi

We cross the forest check post by 6 pm (closing time) and rode on towards Chamarajanagar. It was time to take a break. We left Chamarajanagar by 7:30 pm and rode to Gundlupet where we had planned to stopover for the night.

After checking in to the lodge, we headed for dinner. With dinner over and with an early morning safari planned up, it was time to hit the sacks. So we did, but not before Vijay woke us up at 12:45 am.

Day 2: December 18^th, 2010

Got up as per alarm and we were ready to head to Bandipur office for the safari. However the gates would open only by 6 am.

The ride up to Bandipur office was almost a nightmare with absolutely poor visibility due to heavy fog. This is where the Hella made my life easier. See the pic to really understand the utility of the Hella microDE fog lamps coupled with 3000K HIDs.

The early morning fog

The Hella MicroDE Fog lamps with 3000K HID at work

With no gypsy available for the safari with the forest department, we had our shoulders dropping. But somehow I managed to talk to one of the resort jeep drivers and arranged a Jeep with a permit to enter the forests. (Cost – Rs. 750/- per head and non negotiable, peak season you see). Finally we were off for the safari at 7 am. The initial 45 mins we did not spot anything other than the an eagle atop a tree branch.

We headed towards a water hole and observed. We could not spot anything and we moved on, but something that caught our attention was the alarm call of the Langur or the lion faced macaque whatever the species is named as. We followed in the direction of the alarm call and we were not disappointed. We spotted the first leopard which was lazily sleeping on a tree branch quite high up. Spent quite a bit of time watching the beauty resting on a tree branch. A few more gypsies arrived at the spot. With the noise getting higher by the minute, the leopard slowly descended the tree and disappeared.

A lazy leopard

Looking at the intruders

A peacock on the way

We moved towards the waterhole in anticipation of spotting our national animal. The national animal is still eluding me.

We were lucky to spot a male leopard atop a tree, dozing off. As usual the remaining jeeps reached the same spot and disturbed the sleeping leopard. The leopard descended the tree, crossed our path and disappeared into the bushes, but not before posing for us while descending.

Spot the leopard contest

A neat little posing by the beauty or rather the beast

Yawn, its bed time for the leopard, but too many distracters to keep the sleep away

Another pose

Going down, head first in leopard style

On the way, we met another bunch of people who had spotted the tiger near (Hulikatte) in the Bandipur forest range. We drove towards the Hulikatte, but we could not spot the Tiger there. But on our way back to the forest office, we spotted another leopard (may be a little over a year old). This time the credit must be given to my wife who spotted it first.

The third one for the day

Demonstration of the leopard skills

A better view

The good old lion faced macaque who gave the alarm calls and helped us spot the Leopard

Another Peacock, what a contrast of colors

The remaining part of the trip coming in the post. Stay tuned.

Halol visit (Official)

2011-01-27T11:38:00.002+05:30

A new project means an opportunity for a travel. This visit is not to a tourist place, but to one of the industrial areas of Gujarat.

Departure from Bangalore – 21st November 2010
Arriving back at Bangalore – 26th November 2010

Mode of travel was air travel. Now the company travel agent cannot book a particular iternary which has a clubbed ticket. Individual tickets would cost at least 130% more. Weird it seemed, with no choice booked the ticket with personal cost and raised a reimbursement request.

To reach Baroda/Vadodara, No direct flight is available. Options that are available are a stopover flight via Mumbai would be the one with least travel time.

As per the plan, fly to Mumbai on 21st November 2010 and stay overnight at the company guest house and then take 5:20 am flight to Vadodara.

Booked Jet airways tickets for Bangalore to Mumbai with scheduled departure at 18:05 from BIAL. However, inevitably the flight was delayed by half an hour. An overall delay of 55 mins when the flight landed at the Mumbai airport. Took a taxi to the guest house located at Powai. Headed for a dinner and ended up at RODAS in Powai. A nice dinner was followed by a short nap.

Got ready by 3 am and left the guest house by 3:30 am. We just about reached to board the next flight to Vadodara – Jet airways. Reached Vadodara by 7:30 am. Checked in to the hotel, a quick breakfast and was ready to take the cab to the factory at Halol which is about 50 odd kms from the Hotel.

After the day’s work we would leave Halol after 6.30 pm and reach back at the hotel by 8 pm. This routine continued all the five days with very little time to spend in the evening and that too after grueling day at office.

For the return journey on the 26th November 2010, we had already booked the Indigo flight between Vadodara and Bangalore with a stopover at Mumbai. An appreciative fact with the Indigo airlines they are sometimes late to depart, but arrive bang on time or sometimes even ahead of time.

A few pics.

A Gujarathi Thali.

At the Vadodara airport before boarding the Indigo flight

The busy Chatrapati Shivaji domestic terminal at Mumbai.

Entering the Apron from the taxiway at the Bengaluru International Airport

Jet airways flight at the Bengaluru International Airport

Went home by the Vayu vajra service of the BMTC.

Travel week in God’s Own Country

2010-11-15T11:11:00.009+05:30

A couple of weeks with just the routine work are sufficient to make you look out for an opportunity to get away from the concrete jungle. And it’s a boon to have likeminded people at your office itself. Great, now with the people ready, the next question that popped up was, where are we gonna go? My colleague/team mate’s home town is Kollam. So it was an unanimous decision to head to Kollam. The dates were fixed 30^th October 2010 to 4^th November 2010.

Now everybody wanted to travel by train. I thought why not, because it is the cheapest mode of transport available in India. However, we did not get a direct train to Kollam. Instead we had a stopover at Jolarpet to board the train from Chennai to Trivandrum.

So the Journey was planned as departing from Bangalore on the 30^th October 2010 in Brindavan Express (Train No – 2640) to Jolarpet and then board Trivandrum Express (Train No 2695) from Jolarpet to Kollam. Return journey would be in Kochuveli Bangalore Express (Train No 6315) on 4^th November 2010.

Day 1: 30^th October 2010

As usual, after all the last minute hiccups in packing the required things, we finally reached the station with only 15 mins in hand to the Departure of the Brindavan Express. Brindavan Express being its usual stopover at platform no 1, it was life very easy for everybody.

The journey was pretty usual with just a little over couple of hours to be seated to reach Jolarpet. Had masala dosa served by the IRCTC Catering service, but the masala dosa did not have masala in it ;-) (Tamil Nadu style masala dosa). Reached Jolarpet about 5 mins late.

Not many photos for day 1. Just a shot from the moving train.

Had a good couple of hours to spend until our next train arrives from Chennai. In the meanwhile, explored the Jolarpet Junction Railway Station and shifted our entire luggage to Platform no 2 (proposed platform as per the station master for Train no – 6295). The announcement was made on the arrival of the Trivandrum express with about 15 mins before the actual arrival, but the train would not arrive on platform no 2, instead it will arrive in platform no 1. All the luggage shifting exercise again, we’re ready to board the train.

Had the IRCTC dinner (read Veg Biryani), oops forgot to mention that all the members of the group are pure veggies. Then it was time to hit the bed, sorry berth this time. It started to rain somewhere near Erode and it was raining all the way till Tiruvalla.

Day 2: 31^st October 2010

With the alarm ringing, I woke up everybody to be ready to get down at Kollam. Something in my mind was telling, something is wrong somewhere. That something was nothing but the usual delay of the Indian Railways by 45 mins.

Some shots from the train.

Astamudi Lake

Got down at Kollam, hired couple autos and loaded them with the luggage and the group headed straight to my colleague’s house.

Some shots from the garden at Mahesh’s house.

The day’s plan was to visit places near Kollam, later reach the beach by afternoon and stay there till sunset. However, this changed for a very valid reason, somebody had come home with a marriage proposal for Mahesh. We had a blast teasing Mahesh all day.

We headed to Paravoor lake/lagoon. It was time to get ourselves wet. So we did just what was needed but not before clicking a few snaps.

We returned home and the plan of refreshing up before we reach the Kollam beach for sunset actually ensured we missed the sunset. With the darkness setting in, I had nothing much to click apart from the few shots.

Day 3: 1^st November 2010

One of our friends was to join us early in the day. He joined us bang on the scheduled time. Now we had planned to hire a self driven innova for ourselves. The plan was to drive to Kumarakom near Kottayam. But we actually added another place, that is the Koratakkara temple, then afternoon we would spend in the boat house and then head to Vagamon for the night.

Our innova arrived at around 8 am (at least an hour later than we had planned). Packed the things that were required and off we went towards Koratakkara.

With the visit to the temple and our first mission accomplished we went ahead with our plan but not before clicking this good bit of work.

The Elephant statue outside the Temple.

We reached Kottayam and my colleague hired a house boat for a couple of hours. We decided to pack our lunch from outside and have lunch in the house boat. Not a bad idea after all. We reached the house boat place. Parked the innova and headed to the house boat. While the lunch was being served, I had the chance to click away to glory on the DSLR. A few snaps

The resting bird

The flying one

Another one

A painting inside the house boat

Yours Truly

The passage in the house boat

Church at the lake resort

Random shots

Our steed for the next 3 days

We drove back to Kottayam and stopped at the Indian Coffee house for a coffee. We lost almost 45 mins with the coffee break. It was already dark and we drove towards Vagamon via Pala. We packed dinner on the way as it was too late for us to place the request dinner at the place we would stay at Vagamon. Almost we lost an hour here. Reached the place at around 9:45 pm. It was time to get the camp fire on and get the dinner done.

The camp fire, a different view

It was snooze time and we hit the bed on a pretty cold night.

Day 4: 2^nd November 2010

Late night camp fire and dinner the previous day ensured it was equal to laziness for the morning. We had decided to have an early morning walk in the tea plantations nearby. This did happen but at around 8 am, may not be the right time to call it as early. As usual a bit of photography here and there, a nice hot cup of tea, we’re back the home stay where the breakfast (Idly and Dosa) was ready. With the breakfast finished, it took some time for everybody to get ready and leave. Finally we’re out very close to noon.

Our home stay

A plot for sale

Distant windmill

A month old calf

Panorama

Headed to the elephant ride nearby. The elephant that would give rides to people was named “Sundari”. Though a 26 year old elephant looked pretty out of shape. May be poor diet fed to the elephant, read as only palm leaves. Also they charge like 250-300 bucks for the hair on the elephant’s tail, though only if you need one.

Elephant on ice cream/candy diet

Elephant’s eye

We headed to the pine forest as it was our next stop. We had a good multi-cuisine restaurant and it was resort as well, Summer Sand Hill Resort. After our visit to the pine forest, we decided to have lunch at this restaurant, as it was already 2:30 pm.

Pine Forest

At the place where we stopped for lunch

After lunch we drove back to Kollam, stopping at a few places for photos.

It started to rain heavily near Mundakkayam. So the click happy hour opportunity was lost. Drove back taking the route via Mundakkayam – Erumeli – Ranni – Pathanamthitta – Kotarakka – Kollam.

Day 5: 3^rd November 2010

The day’s plan was to visit the Padmanabha Swamy temple in Trivandrum, visit a few places around Trivandrum and then head to Kovalam for the evening. Dinner was planned at another colleague’s house and then head back to Kollam.

We started off by 8:45 am towards Trivandrum. It took a good 2 and half hours for us to reach the temple. Since the closing time for the temple was nearing, we rushed to visit the temple deity (Sri Ranganatha Swamy alias Padmanabha Swamy). There is a rule in the temple that the ladies should be wearing sarees and the gents should be wearing Dhotis. It was good to see the ladies in the traditional attire. After the temple visit, we headed to the Palace very close to the temple. The guide who took us around the palace was good at explaining things. As expected we were not supposed to click photos at the temple and the palace, so excuse me for the absence of any pictures.

Veli was our next stop for the boating. We moved around the park and then finally headed for the pedal boats for half an hour.

Done with the boating, I was very eager to head to Kovalam. Drove off to Kovalam and it was merry hour clicking for some time and then it was merry time playing in the water. The photos will do the talking.

Day 6: 4^th November 2010

The day started off by handing over the Innova back to their owners and spend some time near the light house and the break water in Kollam.

We started off after a heavy breakfast around 10 am and headed to the light house.

Near the Light house

What next, shopping spree till the late afternoon. Sarees, handicrafts, all sorts of chips bought and we headed home. With the lunch being very delicious which was a routine now, had a real stomach full.

Packed the things and off we rushed to the railway station to board the Kochuveli Bangalore Express which did arrive bang on time. We bid good bye to our colleague and his family and the journey was nothing unusual except for the usual delays of the Indian Railways.

After a long gap, a vacation which we can relive for quite some time.

Camera Buying Experience – Sweet Stressful Memory

2010-11-12T16:25:00.002+05:30

The last time I purchased the digital camera, it was way back in Dec 2006. I did not want to go for an DSLR the first time I bought a camera. So bought Canon Powershot S3 IS the basic specification of this camera is pretty well known hence will not get into the tech spec aspect. Please refer to the www.dpreview.com for in-depth information on the camera.

It had served well for the past few years and is serving well even now. The need for a DSLR camera was increasing by the day (only in my view), started researching by beginning of October 2010. Had quite a few sleepless nights thinking about the DSLR and more so as to which one to buy.

Finally the day of purchasing the DSLR finally came on 28th October 2010. Read on as to know which one I finally purchased.

At first I fixed a budget of 30K for the camera and started the research. The cameras that I found was either costlier or the bare entry level camera. Gave hard thoughts for the three models that I have listed below.

1. Canon EOS 500D
2. Nikon D3100
3. Nikon D5000

Now with the short list done, it was to pick the right one that I am comfortable with. Being used to the Canon for almost 4 years now, I was seriously favoring the EOS. With many reviews read and hours spent over the internet, I finally decided I will buy the Canon EOS 500D though it was slightly over the budget. Since, I had budgeted another 10K for an additional lens. I prefer a telephone lens, initially was interested in the 18-200 mm lens of both Canon and Tamron. Being not so convinced about a third party lens initially decided to pick canon 55-250 mm IS lens.

The next big thing was where to buy in Bangalore. Checked at quite a few places, see the list

1. GK Vale
2. Camera Citi
3. CROMA

CROMA and GK Vale were out of the option purely on the price quoted which was very close to MRP.

Headed straight to FOTO Circle near Anandarao Circle near Majestic. He quoted 43K for the Kit and the canon EF 55-250 mm lens together.

Accessories bought

1. Lowerpro Bag
2. 2 UV Filters
3. 1 CPL Filter
4. Additional Batter – LP E5
5. Lens Hood

Finalized the deal and finally got to own my DSLR Camera.

Mysore Trip

2010-11-10T12:46:00.007+05:30

With all the works pending, this trip to Mysore invariably got delayed week after week. Finally the day came when we headed to my colleagues house for the weekend. Initially had planned to ride to Mysore along with my wife. However, that was not the case to be. After a couple of discussions with my better half, the mode of transport was decided as train from our great Indian Railways.

Day 1: 28th August 2010

It was the 5:30 am (Train No – 6231, Train Name – Mysore Express running from Mayiladuturai Jn) that we had to catch to Mysore from the Bangalore Cantonment. Though we did reach the station on time, we missed the train due the roundabout for the tickets that needs to be bought from platform no 2 instead of platform no 1. The reason being a new building with these ticketing amenities is coming up on the platform no 2 side. We took another train at 6:30 am (Train No – 6731, Train Name – Mysore Express running from Tuticorin). Reached Mysore a good 30 mins late. 140 odd kms took close to 3 hours and 40 mins. Headed straight to my friend’s house on the out skirts of Mysore. Got to ride in the non AC Marco polo bus of the Mysore city transport service. Had a quick grab and headed off to Chamundi Hills. Visited the temple and off we came to the prime shopping area, did a bit of shopping and headed back home to chill off for the of the evening.

Day 2: 29th August 2010

Got up early and after the daily chores, we visited Nanjanagud, a holy place with a temple of Srikanteshwara swamy (lord Shiva). After the visit to the temple and the persistence to visit the famous Mysore Zoo paid off. Off we went to the zoo, I will let the pictures do the talking.

The rest of the day had nothing much more than packing our bags and heading back to Bangalore via the same train albeit in the reverse direction (Train No – 6732, Train Name – Tuticorin Express running from Mysore to Tuticorin)

The Honeymoon Drive

2010-07-10T10:55:00.020+05:30

Date: 4th June 2010 to 11th June 2010
Car: FIAT Palio 1.2 ELX

The transition from singular to plural i.e from “I” to “WE” happened on the 30th of May 2010 by tying the wedding knot. With the marriage rituals coming towards an end. My fiancé (oops, now my wife) had planned for a honeymoon to the Munnar hill station. Now we then discussed the mode of transport, which again I won the round of discussion (at least at the beginning of the new life) that we would drive down to Munnar. Though there was a bit of hesitation from my parents, they agreed to the plan. So we start off on the 4th of June 2010.

Day 1: 4th June 2010
Started off from my residence at sharp 5 am. Drove straight to my M-I-L’s house in BEML 3rd Stage, Rajarajeshwarinagar. Then drive off from there at 6.30 am straight to the silk board and then took the elevated expressway towards Hosur. Filled our stomachs (ourselves and the car) in Hosur (Fuel costs lesser across the border you see). Continued driving on the NH-7 from Hosur at around 8.30 am to reach Dindigul by 12.15 pm.

Stopped at Dindigul for an early lunch. After leisurely lunch, started towards Pilliarpatti via Natham and Tirupattur. The roads were good, but a bit on the bumpier side. Reached Pilliarpatti at 3 pm and with the temple being closed had a chance to take a good nap for 45 mins with the AC running in the car as it was pretty hot.

The temple doors opened at 4 pm, and we went for the darshan and moved out from Pilliarpatti at around 4:45 pm and drove towards Madurai. On reach Madurai outskirts, it started raining very heavily with gusty winds. Though the speeds were low, the drive was fun with the sunlight still left. Then lost way in taking the deviation to Theni, entered the Madurai city and wasted a good one hour finding the correct route. With the rain following us we made slow progress and finally reached Theni at around 7.45 pm. Early dinner, then off we leave towards Kumily where we had planned to stay. By this time, wife was into questioning mode as to how long do we need to travel. Kept on telling another 15 mins and finally reached Kumily by 9.15 pm. Off we to go the Hotel we had earlier booked and hit the bed by 10 pm.

No pics on day 1. Lazy me, had forgotten to charge rechargeable batteries. Put them to charge overnight to ensure the pics are clicked atleast on day 2.

Day 2: 5th June 2010
As per the instructions of my wife not to wake her up till 9 am in the morning, decided to shelve the boat safari plan at Thekkady. This came as a punishment for the previous day’s almost continuous drive. Got ready and finished breakfast by 11 am, then headed for the elephant ride. Had our chance to ride on Mr. Unni Krishnan (the 25 year old male elephant).

We headed to the nearby restaurant, finished lunch and drove off towards Kottayam to find a tea estate to give the camera a bit of work.

Headed back to the room after having lemon tea. It was time to watch a Telugu movie “Pravarakyudu”. We both liked the movie very much. A movie about love which is not so romantic, which is a bit weird.

Ending the day by hitting bed, but not before having the kerala parotas for dinner.

Day 3: 6th June 2010
This time I was successful in getting my wife up and ready by 5.30 am for the boat safari. We headed to Thekkady from Kumily which is about 5-6 kms away. Waited at the check post to buy the entry tickets.

There was another queue for the boat tickets. We bought the upper deck tickets and off we go at 7 am for a 2 hour boat safari. Though the water levels were a bit low, both of us had high expectations of spotting a few tuskers at the least. But luck had something else in store for us. We spotted a few wild boars and Bisons. Then on the way, it was time for a nap close to half an hour as it was boring with no animals to be spotted.

Woke up when we almost reached back the boarding place. It was time to head back to the hotel to pack up things and leave from Thekkady to Munnar.

Drove via Pooppara to take the NH – 49. After driving about 4-5 kms on the NH – 49 one can spot the Anayirankal Dam. Need to take a sharp ‘U’ turn and drive down for about a kilometer to reach the dam. Again the water levels were pretty low. Drove back to the NH – 49 and continued driving on the NH – 49. With quite a few stop overs to click pics and have tender coconut.

Reached Munnar and reached the SN Deluxe Properties where I had requested to block a room. It was misty and a good weather for the evening to be spent.

Day 4: 7th June 2010
It was a lazy cozy cold morning to start off with. This made our schedule go a bit hay wire. With lot of perseverance the new home minister agreed to finally get out of the bed and then head out to see the places. Wifey is dead against the cold weather. Nevertheless we decided to visit the Ervikulam national park and the Luckam Falls. Headed for an early lunch and then we drive off to the Ervikulam national park which is about 12 kms from Munnar.

The roads though in decent condition, I decided to drive pretty slow, enjoying the cool weather. We reach the Ervikulam national park entrance and it was time to buy the ticket and head to the Anaimudi in the bus service provided by the forest department of Kerala

Started off towards the Luckham falls and on the way, stopped at many places to sooth the nature and the greenery.

We reached the Luckham falls, the water levels were pretty low. Not so exciting. Returned back to the lodge to chill off for the day.

Day 5: 8th June 2010
The day did not start off too well with me; the previous day’s Gujurati Thali took its toll on me. The first half of the day gone, decided to have a light and a bit late lunch. Back to Saravana Bhavan for the lunch. After lunch was loitering around the town doing nothing, but ensure I saw all the roads in Munnar.

Then headed to one of the view point, oops I missed the name. It is located on Ernakulam route. A few pics from day 5.

Day 6: 9th June 2010
For a change my wife woke me up pretty early, a little surprising though. Got ready and finished our breakfast quite early by 8.30 am, which was actually a rarity. Headed off to Matupatty dam and the Top Station. It was nice drive all along.

I was very disappointed when I reached the Matupatty dam to see very shallow waters. Skipped the boating part and moved on towards the Kundala Lake. It was even worse. With high disappointment taking over control, drove back to the hotel room to pack up everything and vacate from the hotel.

Did so by 11.30 am, and headed straight to Saravana Bhavan, for an early lunch. It was time to bid adieu to the Munnar hill station but not before we bought quite some tea and other ayurvedic stuff from the TATA CTC shop. We decided to drive towards Chalakudy and halt for the day. With ample time on hand, drove very leisurely.

After a few kms from Munnar, the mist had completely covered the hills around. Thick mist I must say, visibility was very low. Time to get the head lights on at around 12.30 pm. It was like a competition to spot the right way contest all along the road for quite a few kms. Then the mist eased off after descending in the route for about 8-10 kms. Then a serious of spice gardens and the water falls greeted us through the route. The road is narrow and broken at a few places, the rest of the roads are in good condition.

Then after the ghats we took the Kothamangalam – Aluva route. Once we reached the highway still in broad daylight with only about 30 odd kms to Chalakudy. I wanted to drive more, so took the deviation towards Cherai Beach. On reaching the place, it was already raining heavily and also the road that leads to the beach was closed for some repair works. With a heavy heart headed back to the NH – 17 towards Edappally. From here turned left on the NH – 47 towards Chalakudy. Refueled on the way and halted at Chalakudy.

Day 7: 10th June 2010
The day started off as expected. We had breakfast (appam) at Chalakudy and then headed towards Chalakudy. It was raining all through, the rain varying from a drizzle to heavy showers. Reached Chalakudy around 9:30 spent half an hour or so clicking pictures of the falls and the headed towards Valparai. As usual the forest check post noted all the details like no of plastic bags, bottles, etc. Drove slowly enjoying the serene forests which is pretty dense. Sparse traffic made things better for me, but not the same for my wife. She started telling me it’s boring because I had just covered about 15 kms in an hour.

Drove on and reached Valparai around 2 pm. By this time, my wife was already home sick, so decided not to stay at Valparai (a reason enough to drive here again sometime later). Had lunch and continued our drive towards Pollachi through the hair pin bends. The roads were covered with mist and tea plantations on either side made the journey very pleasant. The visibility was ranging from reasonable to poor.

Reached Coimbatore, refueled and stopped over for coffee at Ayyappan Restaurant on the Mettupalayam road. This route is nightmare with loads of traffic driving at their own will. The private buses racing with the TNSTC buses. Crazy bikers with no helmets riding like morons. With all these, it took more than an hour to cross Mettupalayam.

The roads got better with lesser traffic. We started climbing up the ghats towards Coonoor. An interesting incident happened on the way. On nearing one of the hairpin curves, I spotted something weird in the night moving around. It was an elephant. An innova who was tailgating us did not spot this and overtook us. The moment he was taking the U turn, the elephant which at the corner started moving forwards and threw its trunk towards the innova. The innova missed it by a whisker. I wait back turning the headlights for the elephant to move away. After about 5 mins, the elephant uprooted a board and disappeared into the woods. Wifey was all excited and wanted more of the elephant to around. Being her first experience she was excited not knowing what a lone tusker can do it when it goes on destroying things it can see. Started driving up the ghats and reached Ooty by 9 pm. Halted at the Gangothri Sunrise in Ooty.

At around 11 pm, wife told she was hungry as she had skipped dinner. Ran out to the Barista shop close by, picked up a sandwich, cookies and a cappuccino for myself and headed back to the room to keep the hunger of my better half away.

Then finally it was time to snooze off after an eventful drive from Chalakudy to Ooty.

Day 8: 11th June 2010
Off we go from Ooty towards Bangalore which brings a big smile on my wife’s face who is already feeling home sick. Up and running with a cup of tea in the morning. It was pretty chilly as there was a cold breeze. Drove towards the Masinagudi route. It was misty through half way down the ghats.

After ghats slow drive with anticipation of spotting a few animals. This time we were not disappointed.

Then we headed to Gopalaswamy Betta. At this time of the year, it will misty all thru the day and winds blowing at pretty nasty speeds sometimes. A visit to the temple and we were back down the hill towards Mysore, no trek this time around.

Stopped at Mysore for Lunch and after the lunch it was a nonstop drive to Bangalore. Paid a visit to M-I-L’s house and then headed back home.

Ride to Gods Own Country

2010-01-09T17:42:00.006+05:30

Day 1: 23rd December 2009

I had planned to start the ride by leaving early from office. However, could reach home only by 6:30 pm. Started off the ride at 8 pm towards Salem to halt for the night. Rode till Hosur to stop for refueling, the petrol is about a rupee less in Hosur as compared to Bangalore. After refueling and free from the city traffic, rode on till Krishnagiri. Stopped for dinner after Krishnagiri, had a couple of parotas and little rice.

Continued riding towards Salem only to be stopped by Cops near Dharmapuri. Cops asked for the documents which were produced to them. Seeing everything in the right order, they needed some reason to extract money. They started telling stories that you are not supposed to ride after midnight on the highways. Without questioning them, started asking for details as to when this rule was enforced and any notification they had. Then the head cop jumps in to ask, give some money as “tips”. With no patience of stopping at every police check post handed over a 20 rupee note to them and moved on. Reached Salem at 1.30 am and hit the beds.

Day 2: 24th December 2009

Started off the day at 7 am riding towards Dindigul. Stopped at Namakkal for a yummy breakfast. Rode on till Dindigul to take the deviation towards Periyakulam. Had about 4 tender coconuts and rode till Theni to stop for refueling. Tanked up here itself as I knew not too many good petrol bunks on the route towards Kollam until you reach Kottayam. Stopped at Cumbum for lunch. After a quick lunch rode on till Kumily.

Booked a lodge there to stay for the day. Rested for a while in the room and then it was time to go for stroll to find out what are the interesting places Kumily. Had dinner and it was time to hit the bed.

Day 3: 25th December 2009

Being a holiday, there was quite a bit of rush in Thekkady. Since the boat safari is cancelled in Thekkady following a boat accident a month ago, planned for an early morning jeep safari in Thekkady Forest Reserve. However, it was cancelled due to non availability of Jeep, reason being Christmas. Decided to go for the Elephant ride. Was the first customer for the day, had the privilege of watching the domesticated elephants. Those elephants understood the commands from the mohut who was instructing in Malayalam.

After the elephant ride, headed straight for the breakfast. Went back to the room to ride to the Idukki dam. Idukki dam is the Asia’s largest arch dam and the second largest in the world.

Did not spend time around Idukki, had a quick return to the lodge in Kumily. Had lunch and rested for a while before we vacated the room at 3 pm and started off our journey towards Kollam via Kottayam. The roads were twisty with loads of traffic due to huge number of visitors to Shabarimala. It took about 3 hours to ride about 100 kms. With a couple of stops for a tea break and then a pee break. Took the deviation towards Tiruvalla and then headed to Kayamkulam via Mavilikkera. Stopped over to have Kerala parotas in Kayamkulam as I was very hungry after the ride in heavy traffic.

Rode off to Kollam to halt at my colleague’s place. As we reached Kollam my friend was already waiting for us. With an entry drink of Sharjah we headed off to his house. Freshened up, had dinner and we were ready to go to the beach. It was already well past 11 pm in the night. Spent about half an hour near the beach and we headed back towards the city center to roam around for another hour before going back home. Had a sound sleep as I was tired.

Day 4: 26th December 2009

Started off the day late, with a good breakfast we headed to have a look at the city. We were just roaming around the city and killing some time. But by noon, it was pretty hot and I was sweating pretty badly. Headed back home to find some shelter from the sun. After lunch had a nap for a couple of hours. By 5 in the evening we headed off to the beach again for the sunset. We spent the rest of the day near the beach.

But before heading back home, we went to the Kollam railway station and spent about half an hour sitting and chatting in the railway station.

With a yummy dinner with Idiyappam, it was time to hit bed again.

Day 5: 27th December 2009

We had planned to ride to Thenmala, an eco tourism place the previous day itself. Thenmala is about 80 kms from Kollam. It took us about a couple of hours to reach Thenmala. We headed to the adventure zone. Spent about an hour there, but there were not too many interesting activities.

We decided to go to Palaaravi a waterfall which is about 18 kms from Thenmala. This route is very nice for a drive/ride. With the company of greenery on both sides, a railway track running along on one side of the road and stream on the other side of the road. The Palaaravi waterfall is very good. It will be at its best during monsoon. Spent about an hour clicking photos.

It was time to head back to Kollam. Just about reaching Ponalur, it started raining heavily. The rain brought out big wide grin on my face. Reached outskirts of Kollam, I had to stop over at a hotel for parotas as I was very hungry.

Went back home to rest and pack up all the things as we wanted to leave the next day morning.

Day 6: 28th December 2009

Actually wanted to start pretty early in the morning. Started off at 7 am and the highway up to Ernakulam is pretty crowded with loads of vehicles. And to add to the slow pace, there was a traffic jam for about an hour. It was sultry hot and I was sweating very badly. It was hot there.

Then finally moved on towards Chalakudy, but not before refueling the bike again. We took the route towards Aithrapally Waterfalls. Being a holiday season, the crowd was a little too much. Further rode on towards Valparai and the rounds were twisty in poor condition. To add it started raining pretty heavily. All this contributed to a very slow progress. This route had very sparse traffic or even no traffic sometimes. The forests are thick and evergreen.

But the roads were very poor. Finally reached Valparai by 5.30 pm. Decided to ride on towards Coimbatore via Pollachi. This route has a fair bit of traffic. The mountains were completely covered in thick mist. The visibility was very poor, hardly a few meters was visible during daylight, it got even worse with the sun going down. The ghat section has 40 hair pin bends and they are pretty steep. But the roads here are in good condition, but speeding is a strict no in this route. Finally the roads opened up nearing Pollachi. The pace also increased and finally reached Coimbatore by 9:30 pm. Took a lodge, had dinner and slept like a log.

Day 7: 29th December 2009

Since I slept well the previous night did not want to start early in the morning knowing that it was 320 kms that I had to cover in the day, it was a leisure ride back. Decided to take the Chamarajanagar route. The roads were good until we reached Chamarajanagar. Then it is pretty poor till Maddur. Finally reached home by 3 pm.

A part of life reclaimed.

Trip Stats

Trip Odo reading - 1906.8 kms
Fuel – 40.8 liters

Route: Bangalore – Hosur – Krishnagiri – Salem – Namakkal – Karur – Dindigul – Periyakulam – Theni – Cumbum – Kumily – Thekkady – Kumily – Idukki – Kumily – Kottayam – Changanachery – Tiruvalla – Mavilikkera – Kayamkulam – Kollam – Thenmala – Kollam – Kayamkulam – Allappuzha – Cochin – Chalakudy – Aithrapally – Valparai – Pollachi – Coimbatore – Satyamangalam – Chamarajanagar – Kollegal – Maddur - Bangalore

Nagarahole - Nov 2009

2010-01-07T15:13:00.007+05:30

This being a team outing with official team building activity scheduled for the first 2 days and the third day being open for us to whatever activities we could have with the limited time we had.

Day 1 – 17th November 2009

Started off at 6:15 am which was a good half an hour behind our schedule, blame the driver for the delay. Our first stop was for the breakfast at the Kamat Lokaruchi. An hour well spent with delicious breakfast and headed off to Jungle Inn at Nagarahole at 10.50 am. With about 30 minutes to dump the luggage, freshen up and it was time to assemble for the team building activity. The rest of the day occupied with the activity, I had little time for any other activity. Had a camp fire before dinner and it was bed time after dinner

Pics from Day 1

Day 2 – 18th November 2009

Started off the day with the safari to the Tholpetty forest reserve at 6 am in the morning through the Nagarahole forest reserve road. The safari itself was not too yielding as very few animals were spotted apart from a few elephants and deer.

Back from the safari, back to the team building activity and occupied for the rest of the day.

Pics from Day 2

Day 3 – 19th November 2009

Started off the day with the safari to the Nagarahole forest reserve. The drive through the mist and the safari itself was refreshing. Again very few animals spotted during the safari. A little disappointed headed back to Jungle Inn. After breakfast we checked out from Jungle Inn to head to the still water rafting.

A couple of hours spent in the waters playing/swimming around, it was time to head back to Bangalore. Had lunch near Mysore, after lunch it was the boring journey back to Bangalore.

Back to the concrete jungle again 

Pics from Day 3

TO FIAT IN A FIAT ALL ALONG THE MONSOONED ROADS

2009-09-10T15:19:00.002+05:30

I had requested for a plant visit on CEO comment/feedback. I got a reply from them to pick a day for the visit. I was overwhelmed with a positive response from Fiat. Scheduled the visit for the 5th of September 2009. Planned to leave by 6 pm on 3rd September 2009, visit Jog falls, Unchalli Falls and then drive down to Pune via Hubli.

Day 1: 3rd September 2009: Started about a couple of hours late from the scheduled start and drove down via the Nice Road to Nelamangala from RR Nagar. Reached Shimoga at 1 am. Took a room to doze off for the day.

Day 2: 4th September 2009: Started at 7 am from Shimoga and drove down to Sagar. We had breakfast at Sagar and proceeded towards Jog. Reached by 9:15 am, initially very excited with the mist, but disappointed a little later as this hid the falls completely. It started raining, so was waiting around the place for the rain to stop. But a brisk breeze cleared up the mist which ensured I got busy with clicking pics.

From Pune - Shirdi

Then my companions decided to trek to the bottom of the falls. I was ok with myself waiting inside the car half asleep. After a couple hours they return completely drenched in rain. After they got back to normal dresses, we left for Unchalli Falls. This is one splendid falls. We reached Unchalli falls by 12.30 pm.

It was raining pretty heavy. Decided to give the umbrellas a bit of a workout. Reached the view point again completely misty, there was no letting from the mist. All along the leeches gave us company at the falls. The noise at the falls was deafening but we could not see the waterfalls due to the mist. We waited for about 45 mins for the mist to clear, but to no avail, we decided to move on. Drove till Sirsi and stopped over for lunch. Then drove through Yellapur to Dharwad to reach the Bangalore – Pune highway. After hitting the Bangalore – Pune highway at 7 pm and with about 430 odd kms still to go for Pune, started upping the speed, but the situation got only worse as it started to pour. The average speed being low due to rain, reached Pune by 1:30 am. Was tired and hit the sack for a sound sleep. But invariably I could not sleep, thinking about the next day’s program.

Day 3: 5th September 2009: Got up early, the executive from Fiat was ready to meet up with me. We headed off to the factory. The factory is about 57 kms from Pune. Reached the factory by 11 am. Delay as we visited a Ganapati Temple on the way. The findings from the visit will be put in a new thread.

After the visit around the plant, decided to visit Shirdi which is about 150 kms from the factory and about 200 kms from Pune. The roads till Ahmednagar were good and then from there on it was a night mare till about 20 odd kms to Shirdi.

A routine temple visit and dinner, hit the sack for a sound sleep after 2 days.

Day 4: 6th September 2009: Got up a little late, and finished the pending visits to numerous spots in Shirdi. Started from Shirdi via the same route I came from. Drove till Pune outskirts on the Bangalore – Pune highway.

Stopped at a fuel pump and also a dhaba was located there. Finished lunch and chilled out for about an hour. And started driving back. It was very leisurely drive cruising all along. Then unfortunately had a puncture so wasted another hour and half. Then after the puncture was fixed, drove on till Belgaum for a coffee break. Another delay here, because the milk was still on its way. In the meanwhile was playing with the Labrador dog that the hotel owner had. Then after the milk arrived, another 40 mins gone. Then drove up to Dharwad to stop for dinner. An hour gone. Stopped at Dharwad to withdraw money and refuel. Required quite bit of money due to the toll that one pays all along the highway.

From Haveri toll to Hiriyur toll the road is in very poor condition. Seriously pissed off with the road condition as I could not maintain even a decent average speed. Took about 3.5 hours to cross this stretch. Then from there on, the traffic was high in the night all along the highway till The NICE Road. Finally reached home by 6:15 am on Monday.

A long search ended when I found a White Angel

2009-08-29T18:28:00.006+05:30

For the past 5 odd months, I have been running around the used car showrooms, searching over the internet over this one particular car. I was ready to source one from any city within a radius of 1000 kms. Sounds like madness ah!

When I found the preferred model, either the car was in poor condition or had an accident history and also the owners quoted prices which would raise quite a few eye brows. Over the period of time, the search started to get frustrating as I did not want to settle for just another car.

Then one fine day, found one of the cars on the Sulekha ads which seemed good. Called up the owner to check if the car was still available for sale. The answer was yes. Went ahead immediately to have a look at the car. Was quite impressed when I found the car to be good condition if not excellent. It had 70K Kms on the odo; still the internals seemed quite good. Also the owner had the service history for the car. Checked the car with my mechanic who gave the green signal to go ahead. However, the owner had mentioned there was coolant leakage, which I checked with the service centre who said they can fix it.

I was pretty ok with the offered price, got a DD for the amount, made the payment, took over the documents and drove off on the Monday evening.

Headed to the service centre the next day morning to have the coolant leakage plugged. Even though there was a delay in getting the repair done, they did a good job of it.

The list of things done during the service.

1) Replaced the head gasket and ensured there is no more leakage issues
2) Got the disc pads changed (20% life left in them, still got them changed)
3) Got the engine oil, oil filter and fuel filter changed
4) Got a wheel cap which was missing
5) Got a new air filter (stock)
6) a new logo of the car
7) Bonnet rubber

The total cost came up to 7.5K inclusive of the labor and all taxes

BR Hills – Gopalaswamy Betta – Monsoon Edition 2009

2009-08-02T21:33:00.025+05:30

Date: 2nd August 2009

Scenario

What best reason to ride when you have not ridden (touring) for 350 days. Yes you read it right, after Three Hundred and Fifty days, previous ride on 17th August 2008. Wanted to do this solo as well with a target of 500 kms, to see how fingers and my right hand can handle the stress.

Location: BR Hills – Gopalaswamy Betta

Started at 6 am (instead of 5 am) as advised by my mom, left home at 5:55 am. Tanked up at Mysore Road Shell Petrol bunk, and rode till Maddur to stop for breakfast at new Kamat Restaurant. Had tasty idly vada and chow-chow bath. Continued towards Shivanasamudram, spent about 15 mins and continued riding toward BR Hills via Kollegal. Reached by 9 am, visited the temple and left by 9:40, rode via KG Gudi to reach Chamarajanagar. Had tender coconut and rode on, reached Gopalaswamy Betta at 11:15 am.

Was disappointed when I reached there, reason being no mist/cloud cover and too many people flogging the place. The place has gone dirty as well. Spend about an hour and headed to Pugmark Restaurant. a Had

Had decent food, rest for about 30 odd minutes and started the ride back to Bangalore. Reached home before sunset.

After almost a year, finally a ride for about 554 kms in about 10 hours with 13 litres of liquid gold.

From BR Hills - GP Betta - Aug 09

A Drive to Religious and scenic places

2009-05-05T16:49:00.013+05:30

May 1st being holiday just put me in a spot of bother, wondering what I would be doing over the weekend with the Friday being a holiday. On a lazy afternoon on Monday the 27th April 2009, my cell phone rang. My uncle had just helped me clearing all the bothering for the weekend. We together planned to visit the places listed below.

1) Kollur
2) Udupi
3) Sringeri
4) Horanadu
5) Dharmastala
6) Kukke Subrahmanya

We decided to start on the 30th evening. Here is how the drive for the next 3 days went about, but before we get into the details a quick list of facts.

Car: Alto LXI June 2008

Odo Reading: 2398 kms (the car is very sparing driven)

Day 1: 30th April 2009 – 1st May 2009

Planned to start at 5 pm, however invariably we got delayed and started at 6.45 pm with the odometer reading at 2398. Set the trip meter to ‘0’ and we set off. A big thanks to our Bangalore traffic, we were delayed even further. By the time we cross the Nelamangala it was already 9 pm. Reached Tumkur outskirts around 9.45 pm were we stopped to tank up. Next stop was for dinner somewhere after Gubbi. Had couple of rotis to ensure that I don’t dose off with a heavy dinner. The road up to Arayur which is about 20 kms from Shimoga is in excellent condition. Here I took the deviation towards Kollur. From here on the roads are ok, but very bumpy and narrow. This route had quite a bit of Lorries carrying the iron ore towards Byandur. We reached Hosanagara at 3.15 am. Stopped for a pee break and continued driving towards Kollur via Nittur. After Nittur the roads are pretty narrow and steep. We reached Kollur at 5.30 am. We took a lodge and dumped all the luggage and I dosed off for a couple of hours.

We got ready and visited the temple and after darshan had breakfast. Vacated the room and started off towards Udupi at 9.30 am which is about 75 kms from Kollur. It was getting hotter as the sun got higher in the sky. We reached Udupi at 11.45 am, had a tough time parking the car near the temple. Not to mention it was seriously hot and humid in Udupi, however the temple (for god sake the temple inside is air conditioned). After the darshan, we had lunch at the temple.

Now the most irritating part was to get the car out of the parking spot. The cars, MUVs, bikes all parked so haphazardly ensured that we almost wasted an hour getting the car out of the place. With the load of 5 adults and AC operating at full blast ensured the Alto was struggling to take even the slightest of inclines. After all the irritating parking woes, another one incident was in store for us. The boot lock spring jumped out of place to ensure that the boot cannot be closed. We searched for a nearby garage who could fix it. We indeed found a garage where we got the spring problem rectified.

We headed towards Agumbe. Agumbe is the Chirapunji of South India. This route from Hebri to Agumbe has dense ever green forest. This made the frustration to just disappear. The ghat section here is pretty steep and narrow. We drove up the ghats and stopped at the sun set point. We had some yummy pineapples here; the pineapples were just too good.

From here we drove to Sringeri. No rooms at the temple lodge in Sringeri, we were scouting around for a room to stay. We finally found one, which was very average. Left with no choice we had to opt for this one. Refreshed ourselves and visited the temple. We had dinner at the temple. I have to mention that the food serving premises at Sringeri temple is huge and it can easily serve food (lunch/dinner) to 5000 people at one shot. It was time to hit the beds for a sound sleep.

Day 2: 2nd May 2009

Got up early, paid another visit to the temple and then headed towards Horanadu via Kudremukh. Here we visited the Soothanabbi Falls; I’ll let the pics do the talking for falls and the Kudremukh road.

Reached Horanadu, we took a room there for a mere 80 bucks. This is the temple trust owned lodge hence the price being so low. Visited the temple and hand yummy lunch at the temple. It was time to dose off and remained indoors to avoid the scorching sun. In the evening it was time again to venture out, visited around the temple. Had the temple pooja related things done in the evening. Had dinner and time to hit the beds again.

Day 3: 3rd May 2009

We started early in the morning by 7 am as we had to reach Dharmastala by 9.30 am max. However the schedule went haywire as the Charmadi route has been closed until June 09. We had to go through Sakaleshpur and reach Dharmastala. We reached at 11.15 am. Now the frustrating part of waiting in the queue took toll on me. A good 4+ hours by the time we came out of the temple. Time to head to Kukke Subrahmanya which is about 60 kms from Dharmastala. The roads where pretty good.

We reached Subrahmanya at 4.30 pm, took a lodge and it was time for me to dose off up to 7.30 pm as I had to drive back till Bangalore. Visited the temple for darshan and then the dinner. But at the dinner place we got delayed it was already 9.45 pm when we finished dinner.

Quickly packed up things and started off at 10.30 pm. We had a couple of breaks on the way which lasted for about 45 mins. Reached Bangalore (my uncle’s house at 3.30 am)

A drive completed after quite a break. The reason for the break coming up in the next post.

Route:

Bangalore – Nelamangala – Tumkur – Arasikere – Bhadrawathi – Shimoga – Arayanur – Hosanagara – Nittur – Kollur – Kundapura – Udupi – Manipal – Hebri – Someshvara – Agumbe – Sringeri – Kudremukh – Kalasa – Horanadu – Kalasa – Kottigehara – Mudigere – Sakaleshpur – Dharamastala – Gundya Post – Kukke Subrahmanya – Gundya Post – Sakaleshpur – Hassan – Kunigal – Nelamangala – Bangalore
Total Trip Distance – 1188 kms

A Brisk Solo Ride to Jog Jalapatha

2008-08-21T10:28:00.009+05:30

Date: 17th August 2008

With all the hurdles crossed (objections from parents not to go out for ride due to eclipse and stuff), had finally succeeded to convince them to give me the green signal.

Scheduled start 5 am, however invariably got delayed by 45 mins and left my house at 5.45 am. Headed straight to the petrol bunk, only to see it not opened yet. Did not want to waste any further time, headed towards Tumkur. Hit reserve about 20 kms to Tumkur. Refueled to the brim and ready to ride, continued cruising at around the three figure mark. The roads were pretty smooth up to Birur, but not without irritating road humps near every damn village on the National Highway (NH – 206).

Stopped at Shimoga for breakfast, after a nice tasty idli sambar and a super strong coffee continued riding. Just after 10 odd kms, the rain gods were at full play. Put the rain gear on, also with a wide smile on my face. It was quite some time from the last time I rode in Rain.

Nice sweeping bend enroute to Sagar from Shimoga

The paddy fields @ Talaguppa

Arrow straight roads with paddy fields on either side @ Talaguppa

Thanks to the late start and the rain, reached Jog almost an hour late from schedule, which actually ruined the latter part of the plan. I expected quite a few people to visit Jog during weekend in Monsoon, but there were loads of people. Parked the bike and the rain just got heavier. Huh no respite from rain at least to click photos. Found a place where I can take shelter from rain and try my hand at the cam. Clicked a few pics and headed straight to a small hotel there. Had nice hot chapati and palav and left Jog at around 2.30 pm.

First view @ Jog Jalapata

Rain Drops

Umbrella and the rain

With the rain gods still at play and with very little traffic, enjoyed riding not without taking the sweeping bends with good leaning exercise. Rode till Tarikere, but saw a sign board with info that Bhadra dam is only 19 kms, it was pretty inviting to get there. Took the deviation and headed towards the dam. Initially the roads were excellent and started deteriorating to an extent where there was no tarmac at all. The suspension bottomed out at least half a dozen times. Spent about 15 mins there (it was still raining but not as heavy as when I was at Jog).

Bhadra Dam

Rode back till Tumkur and then stopped for a cup of coffee. The weather was dry and I sighed a bit of relief, but the relief was short lived, just after about 5 kms, it started pouring again to an extent where there was water flowing on the highway, invariably reduced the average speed. Finally reached home at 9.15 pm.

Only a little part of life reclaimed. Hoping to ride in the rain more very soon!!!!

Trip Stats

Distance covered: 828.7 kms

Total Trip Duration: 15 hours and 35 mins

Fuel costs: 19.8 Litres @ Rs. 1137/-

Beach – Falls – Rugged Terrain and finally the Mist

2008-07-18T12:25:00.012+05:30

Long time no ride, took 3 days off for wat else to do, ride and get the butt sore…………

Riders: Myself – Apache 200

NFSNFS (Santosh) – P180 V1

Day 1: August 19th, 2007

Planned to leave by 4 am initially, then the schedule moved to 6 am and finally got moving by 7 am . Had breakfast at Kamat and continued toward Shimoga via Tumkur. Reached Shimoga to find that there was some sort of a problem with the alternator as no current was supplied to the battery or the lighting circuit. Hmm got some help from one guy at the spare shop and got the coil thing fixed and continued towards Sagar. Reached Jog only to find a huge traffic jam with loads of people who were there at jog . So skipped visiting jog for now and continued towards Honnavar. Just a few kms from Jog the rain gods dancing to full glory. Stopped to get in our rain gear and this is what we were presented with.

With visibility being very very poor we continued riding towards Honnavar. Reached Honnavar at around 6.50 pm. Had coffee n snacks left Honnavar by 7.45 pm. Even though still raining heavily decided to continue to ride towards Karwar. The roads were sick for most parts and one big scare was that I was about to hit a dead buffalo calf on the road , lucky me some how escaped all this because visibility very poor. Reached Karwar at 9.30 pm, dumped all the luggage and had dinner. A sound sleep was very much required…………..

Day 2: August 20th, 2007

Got to up at around 8 to see the rains still continuing, thought why not get that rain pics as well. A pic to remember :-) With no choice but to ride, we started off towards Panjim. But rains not giving way, bad roads made us decide to visit Polalem Beach which is close to 45 kms from Karwar. Stayed at the beach for a couple of hours before heading back to Karwar. Relentless rain at Polalem Roads on the way after goa border and back to Karwar
My bike
Refuelled at a HP petrol near the Goa border, a good 6 rupees cheaper petrol in Goa . Came back to Karwar, had lunch and packed the entire luggage and headed off towards Sirsi.

We had to visit Bennehole falls and reach there we had to ride pretty fast. The falls is something like 6.5 kms from the main road (kumta-Sirsi road) Complete off roading experience, rains, sluch, boulders, broken tree branches, twigs, what not. Took the bike to last possible path, parked the bike and walked towards the falls, it was already like 6.15 pm. We need to be quick else, if would be tough to find our way back to the place we had parked the bike. With all the struggle this is what we were blessed with

A quick visit and return to the bikes only to a quite a number of leaches happily trying to suck blood on our legs, lucky me again, had Gum boots on which made it difficult for leeches. NFS donated a bit of blood to the suckers. Somehow rushed back to Sirsi and took a lodge and then the fun started to hunt down leeches on our clothes, jackets, luggage, saddle bags, everywhere. It took close to 90 mins to get rid off the suckers and kill a few too. Had dinner and a sound sleep……………..

Day 3: August 21st, 2007

Got up early, packed everything and decided to ride to Unchalli falls. Reached there at around 10.15 am and reached the view point only to find the falls completely filled with mist. Spent around 30 mins just to get few glimpses of the falls when the mist cleared up slightly.

From there rode to Jog falls, as usual clicked a few snaps, and reached Sagar for lunch.

The guy at the hotel, guided us through a shortcut to kodachadri via Hasirumakki, took a Ferry on the Sharavati Back waters.

Reached the other bank and headed off towards Kodachadri. We were at the Kodachadri base at around 4 pm, clicked a few pics as well to enjoy the surrounding.

Just a few hundred metres my bike slipped and slided on the slush to have a fall, so message very clear, “WELCOME TO KODACHADRI”……. Then on being very careful continued riding.

A few stops and were at the top by 5.20 pm. After unloading all the stuff from the bike, to have a hot coffee in the chilling weather. Being very misty restricted our movements to a few hundred feet from the PWD Inspection Bungalow. What next no electricity, nothing to do in the dark, started chit chatting, had yummy dinner at around 8 pm and we hit the bed at 9 pm.

Day 4: August 22nd, 2007

Got up at around 6.30 to find that it was raining heavily outside…. So packed everything and waited for the weather to clear up a bit, but to our luck that did not happen. After breakfast decided to descend from the heavenly place. Reached the ferry place by 9.15 am.

Reached the other bank and rode till Shimoga. Went to the nearby TVS showroom to get the coil fixed again…. Finally got most of the things fixed, but could not fix the compression loss due to no valve clearance. Did not want to take a chance with those mechanics as they seemed to know nothing about the bike. Just rode all the way back from Shimoga with poor compression. Left Shimoga at 3.30 pm and reached home at 7.50 pm. A good good ride with lot of events ended here.

Need to thank Santosh for all the help and his patience to overcome all the hassles and still make it back home riding.......
The Route:
Bangalore - Tumkur - Shimoga - Jog Falls - Honnavar - Karwar - Polalem beach - Karwar - Minvad - Bennehole Falls - Sirsi - Heggarne - Unchalli Falls - Siddapur - Jog Falls - Sagar - Hasirmakki (used the ferry service here) - Sampigekatte - Kodachadri - Sampigekatte - Hasirmakki - Sagar - Shimoga - Tumkur – Bangalore.

Bluff, Bluff, Bluff @ July 21st, 2007

2008-07-18T11:54:00.002+05:30

A lazy Saturday morning had nothing to do, what else, a short ride to Shivanasamudram (Bluff). Bluff is about 125 odd kms from Bangalore. One of colleague also wanted to ride along. Great had a companion too

Started off at 6 am and met up with my colleague at Rajarajeshwarinagar arch on Mysore Road. The next scheduled stop was at Kamat Lokaruchi near Ramanagaram.

Reached the place very leisurely and with not many people there, it was happy hour clicking photos.

After about an hour, we hit the roads back again towards Bangalore. This time being the rip session. Reached home after a quick blasting ride from Maddur till Bangalore.

Kodagina Kaveri

2008-06-20T11:19:00.006+05:30

After the Kudremukh ride, I and Santosh did not ride together for various reasons ranging from being stuck with work at office and having to get the bike back to shape. All in all a very good reason to ride.

Kodagu is not a bad place by any stretch of imagination at all during the monsoons.

So the plan to start off @ 7 am and the meeting point being the Shell petrol bunk on the Mysore road. Not really bad with the start off time, we head to Madikeri via Srirangapatna

Day 1: 7th July 2007

Being on time really helps. After tanking up at the Shell petrol bunk we rode non stop till the Kamat Lokaruchi after Ramanagaram. Had a nice yummy breakfast and continued on. There was a light drizzle all the way till Mandya. After Mandya surprisingly the drizzle stopped and we rode on a little faster here. After Srirangapatna we took the deviation towards Hunsur to avoid entering the Mysore City and the also the distance will be reduced by about 10 odd kilometers. We rode till Periyapatna. Thought it was definitely not a bad idea to exchange bikes. We rode on for a few more kilometers till Kushalnagar also clicking a few pics on the way.

We stopped over for tea also we required a 10 mins break to clean up the visors and also the bike a bit as we rode through quite deep slush. More so I wanted to ensure it does not hamper the breaking especially the discs. Then from here on we headed towards the Harangi Dam. We reached there about 10.45 am. Spent close to 30 mins, clicking away at the glory of the water gushing out of the 4 outlets of the Harangi Dam. It had completely submerged a bridge.

We rode on till Madikeri town and now the hunt for a decent lodge began. We were quite successful in getting a decent room for a decent price as well. Dumped the entire luggage, freshened up ourselves and headed straight for lunch in the restaurant at the ground floor. Sorry I forgot the name of the lodge. It was raining all the time.

After lunch we headed to Abbey Falls. Wow what a sight. It was just too good; let the pics speak more about it.

Almost an hour we headed back to Madikeri. On enquiring about the route to Baghamandala, the route was closed due to land slides and overflowing river. With the spirits a little dampened, we headed to the Raja Seat. Nice place with mist all around. Spent about 30 mins enjoying the cool breeze, luckily the rain had stopped for a while.

We had to head back to the room as it started pouring. The rain never stopped. Santosh had a very sound sleep in the evening. Left with no choice I was just viewing whatever was relayed on TV. Spend the whole evening in the lodge. Later in the night we watched the Movie “Poison Ivy” on HBO as well.

After the movie off we go to bed.

Day 2: 8th July 2007
As per our discussion the previous day, we first ventured out for shopping. We bought the Rubber boots as it is a cheap alternative to avoid getting your shoes wet during rains.

Packed everything, no better time to test our new rubber boots, we put them on and start riding towards Virajpet and then later head to Iruppu falls. We rode enjoying the scenery around and clicking pics where ever we got a chance. We reached the foot of the Iruppu falls. We had to walk for about half a kilometer here to go near the falls. It was raining all the time. On the way we found a few people coming back from the falls on the hanging bridge. It was a good experience as the water was gushing below the hanging bridge with good speed.
Clicked a few pics and headed back. We could not take the trek there to Brahmagiri as the guide from the forest dept was not available. We rode to Kutta and stopped for Lunch. Here we decided to ride to Sulthanbatthery and then to Gundlupet and back to Bangalore via Mysore. En route we had the opportunity to click a few good snaps.

Reached back home by 9.30 pm, the bed at home never felt so comfy. All in all nothing like a ride or a drive to the Western Ghats during monsoon. They are just awesome.

5 People 5 Destinations

2008-05-27T11:28:00.007+05:30

Charmadi – Manipal – Kalyanapur – Agumbe – Kudremukh

After the ride to Honnavar to attend the wedding of my colleague. It was already 40 odd days without a ride. Called up NFS (Santosh) to check if he had any plans of riding out on the weekend. After a couple of days, Vicky joins in with the idea of directions to head as well. Great, the day previous to our ride two more people joined in Srinidhi and Venu

9th June 2007: Day 1

Got up early and check if I had packed all the required things and left towards the Shell petrol bunk Yeshwanthpur. Met up with Santosh, we fueled up the bikes and started riding towards the other Shell petrol bunk near Dasarahalli on Tumkur Road. There we met up with Vicky and Venu and continued riding till Nelamangala. We waited there for about 30 minutes before Srinidhi Joined us. He was late as he had not turned on the alarm (previous days hangover). All five continued riding till Kamat Hotel near Chennarayapatna not before Venu had a fall on his spanking new black ZMA-R. We regrouped after breakfast and continued riding towards Hassan. At Hassan, we stopped for some medical help to get Venu clean up the wounds from the fall he had. We took the deviation towards Belur. The roads here are dream with good amount of long sweeping curves. Almost near Belur, there is blind curve towards left, where Venu lost the front end grip on his ZMA-R only to have another fall and hurt the wounds even more. We pull up on to the empty field and helped him clean up and relax. Mean while an Indica (cab), had a real close call on the same curve when he hit the road divider and somehow did not topple. With the drama thus far, we were checking with Venu if he can continue riding or wanted to head back. Credit must be given to Venu to sticking up and continue riding with us. We all rode together and ensured we stayed together as group and headed towards Mudigere, our lunch destination for the day. After a little hunt, we found a good place for lunch, courtesy Vicky who knows the place/people pretty well here.

We continued riding towards Kottigehara and stopped after the checkpost to click pics of the valley. Now Vicky with his wicked plans/routes found an off roading opportunity and voila good one too, about 6 kms on a jeep track ended up at a small village (not sure of the name) with a few houses. Vicky tried convincing those guys to let us stay there for the day. But an adamant no from the people there, because of the naxals activity around the area ensured it was unsafe for both us and the people there. So after convincing him to let us chill out for a couple of hours, we headed out trying to find all opportunity for clicking. An hour or so passed by, we decided we will ride till Manipal near Udupi.

The next stop was the Charmadi village where we stopped for tea. Now the route was Ujire – Belthangadi – Bajagole - Karkala and then Manipal. Nice roads with loads of twisties (was counting initially, but the shear number ensured I lost the count).

It was already past the sunset, with clouds hovering all over the place, we stopped for a couple of minutes to clean up the visors of our helmets. Nightfall, five bikes one behind the other, each with good quality headlamp, ensured the private buses and Jeeps neither bullied us around nor threatened us. When we reached Manipal it was already 9.30 pm. Found a lodge, one big room, and all five together. We headed out to Downtown (a pub cum restaurant) which was already flooded with people from various professional colleges here. Most of them are not localites. Vicky and Srinidhi wanted to complete the day with Alcohol. Myself, NFS and Venu left the place in look out for good restaurant for dinner. A decent place (at least we thought so) was open and we had to contend ourselves to a couple of Parotas and Dal.

Now time for some Zzzzzzzzzz which was for sure disturbed by Vicky who came back at around 1.30 am and still had wicked idea of going to Udupi beach. Nobody agreed and every body were Zzzzzzzzzz mode now.

10th June 2007: Day 2

Previous days events ensured we got up late and Vicky took Venu to a nearby hospital for some treatment. We got delayed a couple 3 – 4 hours. Myself, Srinidhi and NFS were watching a Kannada movie (Jaggesh known as the double meaning guru) sorry don’t remember the name of the movie.

Finally we left Manipal at around 12.30 pm; we skipped lunch and headed towards Kalyanapur. It’s a lovely place, with back waters, lot and lots of coconut trees, a hanging bridge, a lovely light drizzle a perfect combination.

We decided to ride towards Agumbe via Someshwar. The roads here were ok, but nothing great. We passed through the Someshwar forest reserve and the Agumbe Ghats was a treat with tight Hairpin bends all the way up. We reached the sunset view point and had churmuri there. Churmuri not being sufficient we headed to the familiar hotel Ganesh in Agumbe. Everybody went hogging Neer Dosa; we lost count as to how many we ordered and how many we ate. The hot goli bajji was a great combination.

We knew we wont be looted at this hotel for all that we ate (if the same thing was at Bangalore then we would have ended up paying in a few thousand rupees for all that we ate, just shows how costly Bangalore is getting). Rode to Sringeri and near the Junction we lined up for a photo session as Venu, Srinidhi and Vicky wanted to head back to Bangalore. Myself and NFS called it a day at Sringeri and lodge at a service apartment and nice coffee again and we chilled off till 7 pm in the evening. We freshened up and visited the temple.

After the temple visit it was time for dinner at the temple. If people did not know, here is a piece of information. Most of the temples in Dakshina Kannada district offer both lunch and dinner at the temple for all the devotees. A list of such places for reference

1) Sringeri
2) Horanadu
3) Dharmastala
4) Udupi
5) Kollur
6) Kukke Subhramanya

All these above temples offer both lunch and dinner, but Horanadu a step by offering even breakfast.

Time to doze off, but before that I called my manager and informed, I won’t be able to make it office, but lot of pressure from my manager to be at office the next day. I just switched off my mobile and did not bother to answer any of the SMS or the phone calls.

11th June 2007: Day 3

Another visit to the temple after which we had breakfast and we left Sringeri and headed towards Kudremukh. Water falls on the way, (it’s called with different names, and the one I am familiar with is Hanuma Gundi Jalapatha). Super weather ensured we spent a quite some time at the water falls. Lovely roads and the mines everything made it a perfect setting. Reached Kalasa and switched on my cell phone. Just a couple of minutes, got the damn call from my manager telling that 2 people are on sick leave and contingency situation had arisen and I had to head back at the earliest possible time.

After lunch, knowing that I had to ride 350+ kms to reach home and then to office, I convinced NFS and left and there we go another endurance ride. Had enough fuel in the tank (both bike and me) to ride non stop to Bangalore. Reached Hassan when it was 5 mins to 5 pm. It started raining, so pulled over to get the duck backs at work. Continued riding only to find an accident between a two wheeler and a bus.

The police who were clearing the place instructed me to ride slowly. I did for a couple of kms and was sure that at this pace I won’t be able to make it office by 8 pm. So decided to rip all the way back home.

The rain ensured my fingers and legs went almost numb. Reached home, took the badge, changed my dress and headed to office. When I logged on to my computer at office, it was 8.25 pm. A hell lot of work with more unnecessary escalations from the dumb sales people.

Stayed back at office till late night almost 3 am and complete all the pending work (not pending from my end, but from people who had taken planned sick leaves). No choice as the appraisal was near ;-)

Weird company policy ensured people misused the sick leave quota.

Nevertheless, all the havoc, the places, the rain, ensured, a good part of life was reclaimed.

Route: Bangalore – Nelamangala – Hassan – Belur – Mudigere – Kottigehara – Charmadi – Ujire – Belthangadi – Karkala – Manipal – Udupi – Kalyanapur – Someshwar – Agumbe – Sringeri – Kudremukh – Kalasa – Kottigehara – Mudigere – Belur – Hassan – Nelamangala – Bangalore

Total odometer reading – 980 kms

Link to the album: http://picasaweb.google.com/n.krishna.p/CharmadiKudremukh

A treacherous and butt paralysis ride to Kanyakumari

2008-05-08T10:24:00.006+05:30

With 4 days off and nothing to do is more than inviting for a ride. Checked with Bunty (my friend) if he is free over the weekend to join me for a ride. Yes, is the answer, so it did really feel great more so when a third candidate into the ride is Shiv Kumar and he would be pillion on the bike which Bunty would ride. Bunty has a 2 stroker, we did not want to either test the bike nor risk a break down. So we decided to pick my friend’s bike. With the things sorted out on which is the second bike we take for the ride, we decided to start of around 2 pm on the 5th of April 2007. Packed all the necessary things and ready to hit the roads.

Here goes the schedule

Ride up to Dindigul and rest for the night and visit the Pillayarpatti (more on this place later) temple the next day, and continue to ride towards Kanyakumari along the NH – 7. We wanted to visit a couple of beaches around and chill out at the southern tip of India.

Day 1: April 5, 2007

We started off as planned. Filled up the fuel tanks and we were cruising on the Hosur – Krishnagiri highway. We were something like 5 kms from the Krishnagiri city. Then suddenly Bunty communicates to me that there is some problem with the bike. We pulled over to the side on the highway, and on inspection we see that the precious fossil fuel is leaking out from the fuel tank. To check the extent of damage, I just tried cleaning up the portion where the leakage was present. But the situation got worse as the tiny hole just gave to make the petrol just rush out of the fuel tank. Now what, we had a couple of 2 litre water bottles, emptying them would hold only 4 litres of petrol, but still there is about another 7 litres of petrol. We some how source 3 more such bottles from a local person and ensure very little petrol is wasted. What next, removed the tank, took it to the nearby lorry workshop. These workshop people are well versed to get the tank back to shape. A good 3+ hours wasted in getting it fixed. After reconfirming that there is no leakage, we rode till Salem and called it a day. Salem in summer is awesome for its heat. Even an AC room can make you sweat. In such a situation we had no choice but to opt for the non AC due to unavailability of an AC room. Damn it was hot even at midnight, and to help myself, a cold water bath was not a bad idea after all. We hit the bed at around 12.30 in the night with a shortfall of our target by around 180 odd kms.

Day 2: April 6, 2007

We left the place around 8 am in the morning and started riding towards Dindigul. On the way we came across a few sun flower farms, with the yellow flowers more than inviting for a photo shoot. Since we were already off the schedule we thought we will move on without wasting too much of time.

Now a little more on the temple, the Karpaka Vinayakar Temple Pillayarpatti is an ancient rock-cut cave shrine dedicated to Ganesha, located at Pillayarpatti. This temple is famous for the Ganesha Shrine which is quite big. More so because it is believed that your problems would be solved by visiting the temple and offering prayers.

Reached Pillayarpatti around noon & the sun was scorching ensuring the April noon is pretty hard to bear. The temple had quite a few people waiting in the queue as the day was Sankastahara Chathurthi. Visited the temple and offered our prayers. Spent a close to an hour and half in the temple. Kumar did not have breakfast in the morning, and now no lunch as he would be fasting the whole day. Myself and Bunty had lunch in a nearby small restaurant and we were ready to hit the roads again. We had to ride more than 300 kms to reach Kanyakumari.

First we head to Madurai as we wanted to have the emission test on the second bike (F2) and adjust the chain as it was making weird noises. More than an hour wasted in getting these done and it was already close to 4.30 pm. We had to ride fast until nightfall to cover as much distance as possible because Bunty was not that comfortable riding at night.

The construction work of the 4 – lane ensured we made slow progress. We were making very slow progress all through the evening and I increased the pace for about half an hour and stopped around on the highway about 60 odd kms to Kanyakumari. The place was real dark, hardly any vehicles on the highway. Had lots of windmills all around which had slow revolutions due to the wind. It was cloudy and in a distant hill, I could see quite a bit of lightning. Almost waited for about 20 mins and then Bunty and Kumar joined me. We stop and chill there for about 10 mins. We decided to move not before we were questioned by the highway police as to why we were stopping there. We explained to them that we were on the biking trip to Kanyakumari from Bangalore. Being convinced, they asked to move on quick without staying for long at the place. We rode on to reach Kanyakumari at 11 pm. Checked into a lodge, again non AC. Kumar was really tired and he said he is hitting the bed after a bath. Myself and Bunty refreshed and headed for dinner. After dinner we decided to ride out to the beach which is about a couple of kms away.

The idea enough to keep me awake all night, we rode off to the beach. Wow!!! Was my expression, the cool breeze, the thundering waves, the sound, and almost no humans around us, very little light was very every inviting for me to spend the night at the beach. We sat around for about 45 mins after which Bunty said we will get back to the room as he wanted to sleep. Anyways the waves too was getting a bit more active as if it was enough for the time, making roaring noise when the waves was hitting the rocks on the shore. The distance light house added to the ambience. Its better to experience the place in the scenario rather than read it out in words. We head back to the room and it was already 1.30 am. Time for Bunty to sleep like a log.

Day 3: April 7, 2007
With the alarm set for 5 am and with sleep only for about 3 hours still wanted to capture the sunrise which has eluded me for the past 3 times I visited the place. Tried to wake both Kumar and Bunty but in vain, as they were pretty tired. Got up and headed to the sunrise point only to be disappointed that there was cloud cover, which ensured I was eluded from capturing the sun rise again.

Came back to the lodge, found Bunty and Kumar still asleep, I thought it would not be a bad idea to catch another couple of hours sleep. So we were all up and ready by 8.30 am.

We had breakfast, and then it was time to visit Suchindram. The marvelous temple is about 15 kms away from the southern tip of India. The gopuram of the temple has the puranas sculpted on it. The temple has fantastic architecture, with pillars sculpted out of single stone block. It has musical pillars which generate the saptha swaragalu when hit mildly at the middle of the pillar. The shrine here has Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva in a single shrine. There is also a 16 ft shrine of Anjineya. There is a big pond next to the temple as well. This is a must visit temple in somebody is traveling to the southern tip of India.

We returned back to lodge. Kumar was feeling a bit feverish, so was not willing to ride on the bike back to Bangalore. Myself and Bunty check with the local travel agent and booked 3 tickets to Bangalore on the KPN Travels Volvo bus, along with the luggage charge for the two bikes. The bus was at 9.30 pm. With loads of time left, we first headed to the restaurant for lunch. After lunch it was time to visit the Vivekananda Rock which is about 250 odd metres from the shore. One needs to go in a ferry to the Vivekananda Rock and the Thiruvallur Statue which is about another 150 metres from the Vivekananda Rock. We chilled out at the Rock soothing the cool sea breeze and then back to the room.

It was still 3.30 pm, so we decided to rest at the room for about an hour and a half. Then it was time to head out to the beach. We decided to go to the beach about 2 kms from the room Not too many people to disturb us we were enjoying the breeze. Again the sunset eluded due to cloudy weather, actually a bit surprising about the weather as we were expecting a clear sky in April. But our luck ran out with regard to the weather. Left with no choice we were chilling out on the beach. We returned back to the room, packed everything and left for dinner.

After dinner, we had to vacate to the room and ride to Nagercoil to board the KPN Travels bus. All done, we thought but we had about close 15 litres of fuel in the bikes. We had to drain it out, which we did, but had to give it away at a throw away price (Rs. 5/- per litre).

With no further hiccups, we had a good journey in the Volvo right through to Bangalore. After all the hungama, we were back in our home town.

For me a part of life reclaimed and sore butts for Bunty and Kumar.
Photos @ http://picasaweb.google.co.in/n.krishna.p/PilliarpattiKanyakumari

BR Hills - OOTY

2008-05-08T10:20:00.003+05:30

Its been quite a while since I rode, had been a part of 2 one day rides in Dec 2007. Definitely did not satisfy my hunger to ride more…….

So up came plan of visiting BR Hills and Ooty.

A little about the place BR Hills

The Biligiriranga Hills, commonly called B R Hills, is a hill range situated in south-eastern Karnataka, at its border with Tamil Nadu in South India. The area is called Biligiriranga Swamy Temple Wildlife Sanctuary or simply BRT Wildlife Sanctuary is a protected reserve under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1973. Being at the confluence of the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats, the sanctuary is home to eco-systems that are unique to both the mountain ranges. This makes it a very critical habitat.

The hills are located at the easternmost edge of the Western Ghats and support diverse flora and fauna in view of the various habitat types supported. A wildlife sanctuary of 322.4 km² was created around the temple on 27 June 1974, and enlarged to 539.52 km² on 14 January 1987. The sanctuary derives its name Biligiri from the white rock face that constitutes the major hill crowned with the temple of Lord Rangaswamy or from the white mist and the silver clouds that cover these lofty hills for a greater part of the year.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B_R_Hills

Udhagamandalam sometimes abbreviated to Udhagai is a city, a municipality and the district capital of the Nilgiris district in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

Ootacamund is a popular hill station located in the Nilgiri Hills. The origin of the name Ootacamund is obscure, but "mund" is the Badaga word for a Toda village, and it is probably a corruption of the Badaga name for the central region of the Nilgiri Plateau.[1] Another likely origin of the stem of the name ("Ootaca") comes from the local language Tamil where "Otta-Cal" literally means "Single Stone". This is perhaps a reference to a sacred stone revered by the local Toda people. Udhagamandalam is a more recent official Tamil name for the town. Ooty stands at an approximate height of 7,440 feet (2,268 meters) above sea level.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ooty

To be honest, the Ooty city has lost its charm, but the surrounding place does still have the charm. The reason being Ooty has become more commercialized.

Day 1: 11th Jan 2008

Took leave on Friday and this would be my last leave in the organization as I was changing jobs the same month. With no better reason rather than to celebrate on the occasion of the new opportunity at hand, BR Hill would be the right place to do it.
My cousin had to take his Driving license the same day, what a coincidence and this ensured we could not leave Bangalore before 6 pm. With nothing to do for most of the day packed bags and had a good afternoon sleep. We started after my cousin collecting his driving license and tanked up the Indian Oil petrol station on the Mysore road. With the first destination being Kollegal for the night, we were cruising with just 150 odd kilometers to cover in about 3 hours. Also my cousin was a new bie to ride, so decided to take it easy with ample breaks in between.

The road till Maddur is a dream, but once you take the deviation towards Kollegal, the roads from Maddur to Kollegal can definitely be rated below average with more potholes than tarmac

Reached Kollegal at 9.30 pm, Checked into the lodge, dumped the luggage and rushed to the nearby restaurant only to find that another 10 mins delay would have ensured we starved for the night.

Day 2: 12th Jan 2008

Saturday morning got ready by 7 am and left for BR Hills took time riding slow all through the route to enjoy the village ambience. Reached the forest check post and after duly entering our vehicle numbers we proceeded further. We stopped at quite a few places in between to click photos and of course hoping to spot a few wildies. But our hope remained as it is, because we could not spot any animals other than few monkeys and birds. Reached the temple and spent some time in the temple to offer our prayers. The environment here is better to experience rather than read about it. So why wait, go ahead to the place and get yourselves lost in the nature.

After a cup of coffee we continued our ride and moved on towards Chamarajanagar via KG Gudi Route. With no roads, we rode pretty slow, again hoping to spot a few animals, but our luck sucked big time on the day. Cross the other end of the check post and then continued riding towards Bandipur and reached there by 1 pm.

It was time for lunch and chilled off till 2 pm. All the while a person by name Richard from Australia was shooting a few queries asking our experience. Started off riding towards Ooty via Masinagudi. This route has the 36 hair pin bends and not so high traffic ensured we enjoyed the climb up the hill. Reached Ooty by 3.45 pm, checked into a lodge, dumped the entire luggage and headed for the nearest service station to get the Bike washed (lot of dust you see) and moved toward Dodda Betta, but the Check Post guys did not let us to the top because the gate closes at 5 pm and we had been there at 5.02 pm (found it ridiculous as per the IST standards, no offense here). Had no choice but to ride back, on the way had masala tea, and found a small place to off road and create our own sunset spot. Clicked pics and headed back to the Lodge, rested for a while and went out for dinner, again clicked a few snaps and came back and slept like a log till 6.30 am next morning… Zzzzzz time

Day 3: 13th Jan 2008

Sunday, got ready by 7.30 am and left for Coonoor, it was pretty cold in the morning, The winding roads, the chilling breeze, got me really excited. We had a very tasty breakfast (Idly and Onion Utthappam) at Coonoor and rode ahead to Lamb’s Rock to find out that we were the first one’s for the day there. The place is best with very less people. Do not know why, but I always preferred to go to places where very few people flock the place. The silence of the place was disturbed by the click sound generated from the camera when we were clicking photos. It was time to move on to Dolphins nose, spent about 30 mins and started riding back towards Ooty and had Doddabetta on the list to be done on that route. Doddabetta is the highest peak in the Nilgiri hills. The place has got a wonderful view all around the hill. Doddabetta already had loads of people around as it was already mid day, and this ensured, I left the place after clicking a few photos.

We headed back to Lodge, had lunch and packed the bags, refueled and starting riding towards Pykara Lake. This lake is about 20 odd kilometers from Ooty city. Pykara is blessed with popular attractions like Pykara Dam, Pykara Falls, and Pykara Lake. With little time left for us to go boating here, we left the place after regular session of clicking photos.

The road towards Gudalur can be termed as horrendous (can conclude as no tarmac). Took more than an hour for us to reach Gudalur. Reached Theppakadu at around 5.30 pm and spent some time at the canteen, actually wasted time over there to ensure I ride through the forest reserve when it’s dark. Took a new road which had new tarmac, none of the traffic took this route not sure as to why. I preferred to take this route to include some adventure in the ride and boy o boy it would, when I spotted a tiger leisurely walking into the bush on a curve. Since it was pretty dark, could not see as to where it was and clicking pics were of no use. Stopped for a minute for my cousin to join me who was riding a little behind, then moved on from there to exit the forest reserve. At last my thirst is fulfilled to spot a tiger in the forest, but no pics to cherish on that.

With the delight of spotting a tiger ensured I was high on energy all the ride on the way back home. Had dinner in Dhabha near Mysore and rode back and reached home at 11.30 pm.

A part of life reclaimed would definitely be an understatement…..

The route

Bangalore – Maddur – Kollegal – BR Hills – Chamarajanagar – Gundlupet – Bandipur – Masinagudi – Ooty – Coonoor – Ooty – Pykara – Gudalur – Theppakadu – Bandipur – Gundlupet – Mysore - Bangalore

Now I will let the pictures do the talking.

Link to the pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/n.krishna.p/BRHillsOoty

My colleague’s wedding at Honnavar (Ravi’s wedding).

2008-04-30T12:22:00.001+05:30

Day 1: April 27, 2007
With fiscal quarter ending at work none of the team members were ready to attend the marriage. What a pity on that part. So I decided to represent my team and also did not want to miss the opportunity to wish him all the best on the day where he starts a new part of life. With no better reason required to put up a ride, I decided to go ahead to Honnavar via Mangalore, also a solo ride after quite a while.

Had packed all the necessary things the previous day and had dumped the entire luggage in my friend’s room. Soon after working ending at 11 pm, I rushed to my friend’s room and freshened myself and got going. Fueled up at the Shell petrol bunk Yeswanthpur and was ready to hit highway at 11.30 pm.

The cool breeze of the night was very soothing, was consistently doing speeds close to 100 kmph. Reached Hassan in a real breeze, the roads are simply awesome even though the highway is a 2 – lane highway. Reached Donigal at around 2.30 am, stopped over for a cup of tea and also not to mention, a break to answer nature’s call. Reached Mangalore and took the deviation towards Udupi, roads being pretty ok and quite dusty, ensured I made a little slow progress. Reached Kundapur at 7.45 am and now feeling tired; I wanted to rest for a couple hours. Checked with the nearest hotel, only to find that the rooms were already booked, but would only be occupied in the evening. I somehow persuaded the receptionist there and promised that I would vacate the room by max 2 pm. So the room rent now was only 40% of its tariff for the duration. Dumped the luggage, had breakfast and slept for until 12.30 pm. Took bath, had lunch and now ready to move, I left the place by 1.30 pm.

Day 2: April 28, 2007
The next place to visit enroute was Maravanthe beach. More on the place now, Maravanthe is a beach near Kundapura, Karnataka, India. It is 50 kilometers from Udupi. The national highway NH-17 passes close to this beach (around 100 meters from the shore) and a stretch of a kilometer of this highway is flanked by the seashore of Arabian Sea on one side and the Sauparnika River on the other.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maravanthe

Spend about close to 30 mins in the hot sun and the breeze. Continued riding towards Murudeshwar. Reached Murudeshwar at 4 pm not before riding along with a Santro, who wanted to always out run me with 5 people onboard. Poor guy could not out run me.

Dumped the luggage at the cloak room, visited the temple and headed straight to the beach after having a cup of coffee. Happy hour clicking the photos of the sunset and the beach. Left Murudeshwar at 6.45 pm and reached Honnavar at 7 pm. Checked into the Kamat Lodge, but this time, 3 bed AC room just for me. Called up Ravi to check where he was, soon went and met him and stayed with him till 9.30 pm and then returned back to the room. Had dinner and it was time to Zzzzzzzz.

Day 3: April 29, 2007
Got up early, and got ready as I wanted to visit Idugunji temple. Visited the temple and came to the room, freshened up and headed straight to the Wedding hall. The rest of the day spent at the wedding.

After bidding bye to Ravi and his better half, started my ride back to Bangalore. I wanted this ride to be more of an endurance ride. So decided to ride back to Bangalore with no major breaks in between.

Started from Honnavar at 3.30 after refueling, took first break at the Sharavathi Valley view point to click a couple of snaps. Rode non stop till almost Arasikere to answer nature’s call. All in all, the breaks could total to a max of 15 mins. Reached home by 10.05 pm. Now I had ridden for 462 kms in about 6 hours and 30 mins, including breaks totaling to 15 mins. (462 kms in 380 minutes, not bad I thought)

Pics @ http://picasaweb.google.com/n.krishna.p/HonnavarRaviSWedding

Donigal – Edakumeri – Charmadi Ride 23rd Feb 2007- 25th Feb 2007

2008-04-29T15:07:00.002+05:30

After the Wayanad ride, it was almost a month that I had not ridden out. Santosh (NFS) came with the idea of doing Donigal, a trek/walk along the railway track in the Western Ghats. Not a bad idea at all, we both were game for this.

It was Friday the 23rd of Feb 2007, also the Quarterly Business Review (QBR) at my office as well. As I used to work in the EMEA timings, I wanted to leave office by 6 pm, reach home, pick the luggage up and start the ride to Sakleshpur.

Day 1: 23rd February 2007

As usual loads of work at office, and the (QBR) ensured that I would not be able to leave office before 8 pm. All things fall out of place when you actually want them to be in place. I was nominated for a Functional Excellence award to be presented by the VP of our business section. Since it was already close 8 pm, I gave a lame reason to my manager telling her that I have a severe head ache and left office around 7.45 pm. So my manager did the honors of collecting the award on my behalf.

Reached home only to find the house locked as my parents were out buy some groceries. Half an hour went by, they came home. I had dinner, quickly checked whether I have carried all the necessary things, started off from house @ 10.15 pm. Santosh too left after packing all the necessary things and we both met up at the Shell petrol bunk Yeswanthpur. We soon filled the fuel tanks to the brim. As usual Santosh somehow persuaded the petrol bunk guys to give a couple of toilet tissue rolls. After all this we started off exactly at 11 pm. With very little traffic till Nelamangala, we were covering the distance pretty quick. As we reached Kunigal the weather was getting colder and colder. Stopped over near Chennarayapatna for a hot cup of Tea (actual reason being to warm up our hands). 15 mins break and we started riding non stop till Sakaleshpur. Santosh had already booked a room in Sakaleshpur, so we just had to wake up the hotel guys. We reached Sakaleshpur @ 2.20 am. Not bad as we covered close to 230 odd kilometers in about 3 hours and 5 mins.

Dumped all the luggage, after parking our bikes in a safe corner in the parking lot, we dozed off until 6.30 am.

Day 2: 24th February 2007

Got ready by 7.30 am, had breakfast and took an auto to reach the Donigal railway station road. It was a steep climb for about 50 meters and there we see the Donigal railways station. We enquired the station master about the timings of the trains running on the route, if any, he said, he was not sure. Ridiculous that the station master himself does not when the trains run on the route.

With no information we started walking along the railway track. Actually there was another group which had taken the same track route at around 6 am. We were lagging them by about close to 2 hours. We maintained steady pace, cross a few bridges. A few under pinning were missing, a few nuts and bolts found along the track. We were wondering whether the train would run on this track without derailing. Soon we reached at the first tunnel. As it was not the rainy season, the tracks were not slippery. We walked for a quite a few kilometers happily clicking away with our cams. At one of the stations that was being built we met the group which had started earlier. They seemed to be pretty tired and were happily resting on the tracks. We spoke for a couple of minutes introducing ourselves, later moved on with our trail.

We spotted a train heading towards Sakaleshpur and it was goods train. Had 3 diesel locomotive engines at the front and 3 at the end. It had about fully loaded 93 wagons. It was moving at a snails pace. Waited for the train to go by, we waved at the train pilot, who was more than happy to wave back at us. Nevertheless he seemed to be amused to see us walk along the track. Soon we came across one of the highest bridges on the route. Posed on the bridge for a couple of snaps, and then moved on to find a stream flowing below. We decided to head to the stream. What a relief in the heat. We also had our lunch there, and rest for about an hour.

Now we were in a dilemma as to whether we need to take the route through the coffee estate and reach a near by village to board a bus to go to Sakaleshpur or walk back along the track. We decided to take the estate route based on the suggestions given by a person who was the care taker of the estate. He told us we need to walk for about 15 minutes to reach the village. Ok, 15 minutes not bad was what we thought. But the distance we walked was more; we walked for almost a couple of hours. The bus was scheduled to leave the village toward Sakaleshpur by 5 pm. So we reached the Edakumeri village (we only found only 3-4 houses in the village, a little surprising). After walking for another 45 mins we finally reached the village with about 15 minutes to spare and wait for bus as well as to take a well deserved rest.

We boarded the bus and reached Sakaleshpur after traveling about for 2 hours. Santosh in the mean while caught up a small nap in the bus. As soon we headed to the hotel, we freshened up and had coffee. Santosh deciding to call it a day, I was left with no choice but to loaf around along the roads of Sakaleshpur. Had dinner and dozed off.

Day 3: 25th February 2007

Previous day’s tiredness ensured we would start off only by 8.30 am after having breakfast. The previous day we had decided to ride down the Shiradi Ghats and then head towards Dharmastala and then ride up the Charmadi Ghats. Also our lunch destination being Horanadu, we had a good 160+ kms to ride. We started zipping off on our bikes riding towards Dharmastala.

Since the roads were good after a few kms, it was happy hours of riding, with peg scrapping curves with good tarmac ensured we fulfilled the racer within. Soon reached Ujire and took the deviation towards Charmadi. Stopped at the village for a cup of tea.

I decided to record a video of riding up the ghats. So got all the setting ready and soon started our ride. Reached Kottigehara and then took the deviation towards Horanadu. Initially the roads were good, but turned worse for quite a few patches. Reached Horanadu, we decided to take a room there and dumped the entire luggage and then visited temple. Had nice lunch offered by the temple as prasadham. Now it was time to take a good nap. We slept at around 1.30 pm and woke up by 4 pm. After good rest we freshened up and vacated the room and headed our way back to Bangalore. Refueled at Belur and then the ride went non stop till Bangalore. Bid good bye to Santosh at Mekhri circle and I headed back home.

A small part of the life reclaimed.

Route: Bangalore – Nelamangala – Hassan – Sakaleshpur – Ujire – Charmadi – Kottigehara – Kalasa – Horanadu – Kalasa – Kottigehara – Mudigere – Belur – Hassan – Nelamangala – Bangalore

Trip distance – 763 kms

Link to the pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/n.krishna.p/DongialEdakumeri

Wayanad: 27th Jan 2007 – 28th Jan 2007

2008-04-28T17:33:00.001+05:30

After the December 2006 ride, no ride for 28 days, was stuck up with office work as it was a fiscal year end in the company. Had to work on the 26th Jan 2007 as well, damn it.

This time it was my friend Bunty and Naveen accompanying me. So 3 people on 2 bikes

Myself – Apache

Bunty & Naveen – Pulsar 150 V1

27th January 2007

Scheduled start being 4 am, I had to pick up Bunty from Ramurthynagar. So left home at 3 am after packing all the necessary thing. This time we started on time, but the progress was slow due to very cold morning and also Pulsar’s poor headlight ensured we made slow progress until 5.45 am. From then on we moved faster. We had breakfast at Nanjangud. It was already 7.30 am. So we started doing decent speeds and covered a good distance in a reasonable space. Soon reached Kalpetta at around 10 am. Dumped all the luggage and headed off towards Soochipura falls. Had to walk for about half a kilometer or so. It was pretty decent place with quite a few people filled the space.

After spending close to an hour’s time at the waterfalls, we headed back to Kalpetta. On the way back, we decided to have lunch at one of the small hotels. A bad decision, ensured we wasted another hour and a half here. We headed back to Kalpetta and started towards a dam. Poor roads ensured we returned almost after dark.

Just before dinner, Naveen got a call from his Dad that he had got a visa appointment, so had to rush back before Sunday night.

28th January 2007

As per the previous day’s decision we started early in the morning 6 am. I did not want to waste the day, so persuaded Naveen that we will visit Himavad Gopalaswamy Betta. Not bad we made it quick time to reach Gundlupet. Had breakfast and headed to Himavad Gopalaswamy Betta which is just 25 kms from Gundlupet. Visited the temple and soon had a small talk with the forest guard and then set off for a small trek along the forest. It took almost about 2 hours there. Soon we were feeling hungry, so headed to the Pugmark restaurant and had lunch. I was still persuading Naveen that we will take the Jungle Safari, but this time a strong no, so headed back to Bangalore after lunch.

The Sunday traffic ensured we reached home by 7.30 pm. Bikers itch reduced to an extent but not completely.

Link to the pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/n.krishna.p/Wayanad

The Kanyakumari Ride

2008-04-18T12:49:00.016+05:30

After all the no ride weekends and just a sole one day ride to BR Hills did not cure the biker’s itch. It was long that I had to go out on a long ride more so because I have never had a chance to take a whole week off work. So the question next is where I can ride out for a week and that too curing the Christmas festive time. Over the week myself and Santosh (NFSNFS) did discuss a few locations and then decided to head to Kanyakumari via the Kerala coast and then take U turn and head back northwards and ride to Munnar. So the date to start the ride was fixed as the 25th of December 2006 and starting time would be 6 am. Initial plan was to ride for about 4 days with 2 days in buffer.

We avoided the weekend knowing that the traffic on the highways would be high more so because of the holidays. So packs all the necessary things on Saturday and Sunday. With Monday morning being awaited had a decent enough sleep and was relaxed because had nothing to do over the weekend. So let me start from day 1

Day 1 – 25th December 2006
As per schedule I would meet up with Santosh at the Shell petrol bunk on the Mysore road. We should have started riding @ 6 am. As usual after 30 mins delay Santosh joined me at the petrol bunk only to find that the Shell petrol bunk opens only at 7 am. So what next, no choice we waited there for a while talking about the route and the breaks that we need to take. Soon filled both the bikes up to the brim of the fuel tanks, oops I forgot to tell you about bikes or do I need to as my apache 200 (modified) and Santosh’s Pulsar 180 have done quite a few rides together. So there we go on a planned 4 day long ride. Soon crossed Bangalore outskirts and kept zooming on the 4 lane highway till Kamat Lokaruchi which is about 5 kms further from Ramanagaram. Headed to the Kamat Lokaruchi only to find that it was filled with people in there. Looking at our outfit with the riding jackets, knee guards/protectors, people were curiously asking us if we were racing on the highway or we were heading for some race. After telling them that these are essential protective gear for biking and letting them know on our plans, a few people were surprised and few even went to the extent of calling us crazy. Anyways had nice breakfast Idly Vada. Visit www.kamatyatri.in for more information on the Kamat group of hotels.

We were ready to move on, but first hurdle to face and cross was puncture on Santosh’s P180. Luckily right next to the place was a puncture shop, soon fixed it. Time to move as it was already 10.30 am. The weather was nice with cool breeze, so started moving on at almost 3 digit speeds somewhere in the range of 100-120 kmph. Rode non stop till Nanjangud which is about 25 kms after Mysore and stopped after crossing Nanjangud to have tender coconut and also to ensure we answered nature calls. Within 10 mins we were again zooming on the highway towards Gundlupet. We missed our other friends who were on the way back from Ooty towards Bangalore as we were doing speeds close to 120-125 kmph to make up for some of the lost time at Kamat Lokaruchi. However we spoke to them when we took a break for lunch. Rode till Pugmark Restaurant just a few kilometers from the Bandipur forest reserve. Had decent lunch (I wont call it a good one, because the cost versus food items on the lunch menu were somehow not matching) rest for about 30 mins chatting with a couple from Australia who were heading to Ooty. Soon we were on the road again riding towards Gudalur. Stopped at a few places to click a few snaps on the deserted road in the afternoon.

We knew were behind schedule by a good hour and a half. Reached Gudalur and diverted towards Nilambur not before seeking a little help from the locals on the directions. Soon reached the Kerala border. The roads after which were good with roads twisting through the forests, so peg scraping mode now for a good distance of about 40 odd kms. Reached Nilambur and then had to divert towards Perinthalmanna (sorry if I have spelt it wrong, these names in Kerala can get the best of them to commit errors). The roads from here were like a horror story. The poor roads with loads of dust ensured we were further behind schedule by another half an hour. Reached Perinthalmanna and had some tea, I somehow did not like the tea. Left with no choice we rode on. The twilight and the bad roads along with quite a few idiotic drivers of vehicles of all sizes who did not seem to care even a little bit about the traffic rules were driving me nuts. Soon reached Thrisshur and we almost missed the bypass road and entered the city. Luckily took the right road and rode on as it was already close to 7 pm. The highway between Thrisshur and Ernakulam was very crowded. We weaved our way on that busy highway an reached Ernakulam around 8 pm. Feeling happy that we have made it to the first stop for the day, we were thinking of finding a decent lodge with an AC room (AC is must if you are staying anywhere in the coastal cities, especially if you were riding all day).

Our big hurdle was that we were not able to find a good room in Ernakulam, so headed towards Cochin. Status still the same even in Cochin. Some how after hunting the room for about an hour and a half finally found an AC room which had windows which cannot be closed, also had to contend with mosquitoes. The room rent was Rs. 750/- inclusive of tax. The rating to the room from my side is poor. Anyways no choice, so freshened up and soon went to the restaurant. Since myself and Santosh both are Veggies, had to satisfy our hunger with Parota and Chutney. Headed back to the room, as usual checked the photos clicked and discussed about the next day’s plan and slept with the clock well past 11 pm and with 600 odd kms odo on day one.

Day 2: 26th December 2006

Previous day’s hassles and delay ensured that the trend continued. Got up a little late. After breakfast, we started to continue ride not before we changed the rear brake springs in Santosh’s pulsar 180. So we rode on just when the clock was about to tick 11 am. It was damn freaking hot and humid. Rode till Alleppey and we were looking out for tender coconut to soak the heat. Finally found a shop selling tender coconut, now the next surprising part the cost per coconut Rs. 16/-. Left with no choice, had a couple of them and moved on. We soon reached Kollam at almost 2.30 pm. Had to wait at a level crossing for about 15 mins, before 2 Bangalore – Kanyakumari express. Yes you read it right, 2 trains on the same route but in opposite directions. Soon reached the beach, spent a few minutes clicking photos.

Decided to skip lunch being fed up of paratas & chutney and to move on as we had to reach Kovalam beach, you will find as to why in the photos. On the way to Kovalam Beach found this pond similar to ever know heart shape.

Reached Kovalam reach without entering the Thiruvananthapuram City at around 5 pm. We had to keep our luggage, no cloak room, what next. Requested the priest at the nearby temple but to no avail, everybody refused to help us. I thought why people in Bangalore are so vastly different to people in here, that too from the same country. Anyways a guy from a fancy store was ready to help us and I was no wonder surprised. Later found the guy who helped was from Hubli. Anyways we went to the beach it was very soothing with nice breeze and lovely sunset. Just as the sun went below the horizon we went to the nearest restaurant for a cup of tea.

Soon packed our luggage and started to ride towards Kanyakumari. The rode were very good but quite narrow for a highway. A small town/village every 5-10 kms ensured we made a slow progress. Just after Marthadam the roads got wider and so did our speeds reached higher crossign the 100 kmph mark. The roads even though not straight was very nice to ride on. We reached Kanyakumari at around 10 pm. The next nightmare. Kanyakumari rooms almost completely occupied but with a help of porter we found a room but the one and half times the price of the room. We headed back to Triveni restaurant on the main road. Had nice yummy dinner and headed back to the room and rested.

Day 3: 27th December 2006
Got up a little early to catch the sunrise. But our luck running on thin lines, there were a lot of clouds which ensured we could not catch even a proper glimpse of the very famous sun rise.

What next, knowing that we would spend most of next day at this place, we came back to the hotel and relaxed ourselves. After resting for a couple of hours, we headed off to have breakfast. After breakfast we rode to Suchindram. Met a couple from England who were touring the whole of India on a bullet, quick chat and photo with them, we moved on.

Little more about this place now.

The Sthanumalayan Temple is of importance to Shaivaites and Vaishnavite Sects of Hinduism. The place got the name of Suchindrum, according to stalapurana. Hindu Mythological legend has it that king of devas, Indra got relieved of a curse at the place of the main linga in the temple. The term "Suchi" in Suchindrum is believed to have derived from the Sanskrit meaning that stands for "purify". Accordingly Lord Indra is supposed to visit the temple for performing "Ardhajama Pooja" or prayer.

The temple is an architectural marvel known for its quality of workmanship in stone. The musical pillars carved out of single stone and which stands at 18 feet is an architectural delight. There are 7 musical pillars in the Alangara Mandapam each cut out of single rock, which emit the sounds of various musical instruments when struck. There are 1035 pillars with carvings in the dancing hall. The Anjaneya or Hanuman statue stands at 22 feet or 3 m and is carved of a single granite block and is one of the tallest statues in India. The Nandi statue made of mortor and lime and which is 13 feet tall is one of the biggest nandi statues in India. Construction of the temple extended over a period of at least six hundred years. Parts date back as far as the ninth or tenth century, others from the fifteenth century, and a huge seven-storey pyramidal gopura was erected during the sixteenth century.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sthanumalayan_Temple

After spending little time being mesmerized at the Wonderful architecture, headed back to Kanyakumari and had yummy n of course a little heavy lunch. Went back to the room, parked the bikes and it was time to go to the Vivekananda Rock on the ferry. Spent some time there and returned back to the room, since it had gone cloudy, we decided we will ride till Thirunelveli, a city about 80 kms away from Kanyakumari. We left Kanyakumari at around 5 pm, on the way there were a lot of windmills. Stopped at a few places to click snaps. We rode till Thirunelveli we were enjoying the smooth NH 7, so continued till outskirts of Madurai. Soon had dinner and rested.

Day 4: 28th December 2006
We got up early and were ready to move on by 7.30 am. We rode on towards Kodaikonal. The ghats and the road were good with loads and loads of twisties. Time for peg scrapping again for a good distance of 45 kms, yes you read it right for 45 kms. Soon headed for lunch and had decent lunch. Actually we wanted to ride through the forest to reach Munnar. A real dense forest, but the hotel guy told that the road was closed a few years back. We were feeling low that the plan was not working out. So what next we rode back on the same route. On the way back on the ghats Santosh wanted to have a rest. So we chose the Valley view point, had tender coconut and we happily dozed off for 45 mins. We had rested the duty of ensuring our luggage and bikes are intact on the guy selling tender coconuts. Boy o boy he was really generous and was more than ready to help us. Woke up, nice breeze was actually pushing us to have another 45 mins nap. But decided against it and moved on towards Theni.

Just after Theni we took a deviation towards the right and headed towards Bodinayakanur (the place from where the Winding roads start). Stopped at a near by hotel for some coffee. Soon left the place to start the ascend. The roads were newly asphalted which brought a big grin on our face. Stopped after a few kms to click snaps, the off we went, there were plenty of land slides which were being cleared up. This is quite dangerous when its raining and misty. There are no barricades or the sidewall built along the road. If your luck runs out, you can easily start the deep descent only to ascend for lifetime and a word late would be added before your name.
Soon reached Bodimettu, a very small place right on top the hill and also acts as a border between Tamil Nadu and Kerala. It was already 6.30 pm, sipped another round of tea. The weather was cold, which ensured we pulled out another jacket which we wore beneath the riding jacket to keep ourselves warm. Started riding again, with another good 60 odd kms to go, we moved as the natural light reduced with only little moon light and a quite cold breeze. All of the 60 kms is through the tea plantations ensured the road is not wide enough to overtake a bus or a truck. Had to trail behind them for quite a while before we found some space to zip past them. Lucky that we were on 2 wheels instead of 4, else it would have all the way trailing the trucks and buses. Reached Munnar at around 8.45 pm, it was freaking cold. Now the next challenge was to hunt for a good room since this being a season for tourists, most of the rooms were occupied. After a good search and negotiation with the agent we found a room. So what next we dropped off all the luggage and came back to the shop where we had spoken to the agent as there was a Veggie restaurant. Had to taken a token and wait for quite a while before we were served food.

After dinner, we headed to the internet parlor to check the emails. Damn, just a week or so most of the passwords were forgotten. Signs of me getting old. After browsing for a while we headed back to the room, reviewed the day’s photographs and dozed off, but not before we requested additional blankets to keep ourselves warm. One peculiar policy I found was that these rooms had to checked out @ 11 am.

Day 5: 29th December 2006
We had planned to get up early and go to a nearby view point about 14 kms away. But the damn cold weather ensured that we got up late and had to skip that early part of the day plan. Got ready after our daily chores, our first agenda was to find another room to stay at Munnar for another day. Soon found a better one with even lesser price, soon shifted the entire luggage to the newly hired room and headed off for breakfast. Soon finished breakfast and the next place to visit was Top Station which is about 40 odd kms from Munnar.
Since already the place was flocked with tourists the place was pretty crowded with quite a bit of traffic. There are a lot of places on the way to Top Station to visit, like the Echo point, Bee hive, Madupatti Dam, and of course the Top station. After riding for about more than an hour’s time we reached the place but not before clicking photos at will. Parked the bikes and had to go the view point through steps.

After about 30 mins we decided to head back to Munnar so that we can give a try at the motor boat thingy at the Madupatti Dam. But to luck, we had to wait for about 2 hours, we decided that boating will be next time and we moved on. Reached back to Munnar and it was lunch time. This time we found a good Punjabi style restaurant, a new one too. Had very tasty Paratas (actually a variety of them). Headed back to the room and dozed off for a while. We had to reach the sunset point before 5.30 pm so that we will have loads of time to capture the sunset.

The spot is on the way enroute to Cochin. One has to get down along the steps to get to the view point. But there are no sign boards, so we missed it and then after enquiring a few people about the place, we rode back to this place. Hardly any people there to disturb us, it was time for clicking hour.
Sipped tea the view point from a near by small restaurant and headed back to Munnar. After dinner at the same Punjabi restaurant, we were planning for the next day. But since we had already overshot our schedule by one day, the next day could be used only to get back to Bangalore. We thought at least we will make it to the view point next day morning.

Day 6: 30th December 2006
Just like the previous day, we got up late due to the cold. After our daily chores, we packed our entire luggage and decided to move on. On the way we refueled our bikes to the brim again, we took the Coimbatore Route. Imagine twisting roads for 60+ kms with decent enough tarmac, we were treated with the occasion to peg scrape again. One the way we had to pass through the Chinnar forest reserve. We were cruising here with the hope to spot at least a few tuskers. But to our lucky did not even spot a single Tusker. Rode till Coimbatore along the highway. The roads were very good, but we spotted 2 accidents were a few people had died on the spot. Just on the out skirts of the Coimbatore city we had lunch. A little heavy to honestly accept it, made the ride a real tough one as our eye lids were dying to close. Left with no choice, started to rip on the bike. After we crossed Satyamangalam Town, after we crossed the forest check post, we went further and deviated from the highway and parked our bikes near a tree and dozed for almost an hour. Refreshed ourselves and then rode till Chamarajnagar. We were cursing ourselves for not having at least a 600 cc touring bike to enjoy these roads. But after Chamarajnagar the roads in the worst possible condition. This ensured that we were happy with the current bikes for these type of roads. It was already 7.30 pm when we reached Maddur. The roads from here are a dream with quite a bit of traffic on the weekends. In about an hour’s time we had reached the ring road. I bid bye to my friend Santosh and headed back home. Now knew why the home comfort is always better after the ride.

All in all a safe ride of 2099 kms, 6 days lots of places visited, just 890 photos clicked.

Anyways the route now
Bangalore – Mysore – Bandipur – Gudalur – Nilambur – Perinthalmanna - Shoranur – Thrissur – Cochin – Alleppey – Kollam – Trivandrum – Kovalam – Kanyakumari – Madurai (Tirumangalam) – Kodaikanal – Periyakulam – Theni – Bodinayakanur – Pooppara – Devikulam – Munnar – Udumalpet – Coimbatore – Satyamangalam – Chamarajnagar – Kollegal – Maddur – Bangalore .

Manchanbele Dam

2008-04-03T22:36:00.003+05:30

25th June 2006

Scheduled to leave home and meet the group at around 6 am on the NICE Road where everybody of the group had assembled. Got up only at 5.45 am definitely late courtesy previous day’s 600 kms ride. Some how reached the group on NICE Road at 6.30 am. Thanks to the boys for showing the patience.

We head to Mysore Road, detour towards Kengeri, and locate a hotel to have breakfast. Finished breakfast, here we waited for a little while as two more people were to join us. Soon everybody assembled 14 bikes in a line and rode like a train on the Mysore road, soon took a deviation towards Dodda Alada Mara. The roads were horrible. Soon our fears were realized, one of our boy’s bike had a puncture. So we located a puncture shop and got the tyre fixed. Soon rode through the horrible roads and reached the lake – Manchinabele. A little off roading, all our bikes were on the banks of the lake. Soon the photo session started. Soon every one of us were enjoying the breeze.

After good 2 hours, we all got to a consensus to ride towards Savandurga and then head back to Bangalore. Enroute, we stopped for fried groundnuts (hurida kadale kayi). Soon reached Savandurga which was pretty crowded, decided to leave the place. Now the twisties were very inviting. The peg scraping time had arrived. The roads being pretty decent and minimal traffic ensured, it was not risky to peg scrape, after all that what hardcore bikers crave for, the reason being no race tracks either to show your skills or improve your skills.

We reached the magadi road tollgate, bid goodbye to all and headed back home. Now time for the photos to speak more.

So 2 days, consecutive rides, totaling to around 750 kms, a part of life reclaimed.

Pics @ http://picasaweb.google.com/n.krishna.p/Manchinbele2006_06_25

Himvad Gopalaswamy Betta & Ooty

2008-04-03T22:10:00.006+05:30

23rd June 2006.

Just 2 days back had completed my ICWAI intermediate exams, a reason strong enough to ride out after the stressful exam week. So a reason in place, now the question where to go, had two days (Saturday and Sunday) so used a bit of google search engine to find a place. In came the beautiful location Himvad Gopalaswamy Betta and then head to Ooty.

Now a little information on both Himvad Gopalaswamy Betta and Ooty, the info taken from Wikipedia.

Himavad Gopalaswamy Betta, is a grassy hill located in the Chamarajanagar district of the state of Karnataka, India. It lies in the core area of the Bandipur National Park and is frequented by wild life including elephants. It gets its name from the Himavad Gopalaswamy Temple located on the top of the hill. Himavad means filled with fog in the native language of Kannada.

It is approximately 220 km from Bangalore and 80 km from Mysore. The preferable route from Bangalore is Bangalore > Maddur > Mysore > Gundlupet > Gopalaswamy Betta.

There is a motorable road all the way to the top of the hill. Entry fee is collected at the forest depeartment checkpost at foot of the hill. Visitors are allowed from around 6am till 5pm. Overnight stay on top is not allowed. Trekking and videography in the surrounding hills are allowed only with prior permission and to be accompanied by the forest department guides.

So was all set on Friday evening, had planned to leave early from office, but the plan was a flop courtesy my manager. Returned home late around 11 pm, had dinner and could hardly sleep. Got up at 3 am, after being done with daily chores, was ready the road at 4 am. So left on time for once, the reason to leave early was to avoid the majority of the traffic on the Mysore road. With a cool breeze hitting the face, it was just wonderful to ride soon rode till Ramanagara had hot tea, felt really good in the chilling weather early morning. Soon rode till Nanjangud where a visit to the famous Shiva Temple was scheduled. Visited the temple, seeked blessings and headed to nearest hotel. Had yummy breakfast (Idly Vada and Khara bath). Next destination was Himvad Gopalaswamy Betta. Reached the place around 9.30 am. The words fantastic, fabulous, wonderful will not be sufficient to describe the place. Let the picture below describe itself.

Reached the temple as usual a round blessings seeked. Then walked around the place, all I can say is this is just a wonderful with loads of mist. Then it was time to head to Ooty the planned destination. With the lovely weather, just was just cruising at around 40 kmhr in the Bandipur forest reserve. Soon spotted an elephant herd. Just stopped and saw how these gentle giants. Soon a forest guard who was on the way in a jeep somehow got the herd away from the road. Then the route I opted was through Masinagudi, and do I need to specify that this route has 36 hairpin bends.

Reached Ooty. Believe me the roads were horrible, a heavy drizzle to accompany made the matters even worse. Headed straight to Doddabetta, spent a little time there and decided to go to Conoor. But hear the rain became a spoil sport. So came back to Ooty and headed to a restaurant for lunch. Nice yummy lunch with Alu parotas, dal, rice, sambar, curds. Just finished lunch and was thinking over what next.

A blessing in disguise, a friend of mine from the biking group called me up to tell that Manchinabele (more about this in a different post) ride was fixed the next day morning. So what next, relaxed for about another hour or so in the hotel itself. Thought it would not be a bad idea do try and do an endurance test. A non stop ride for 280 odd kms a good part of it rain, seemed a tough proposition, nevertheless a challenge to look upto, so decided to go ahead.

Rode back to Bangalore, reached home at around 7.45 pm. What next, I knew that there would be a photo session tomorrow, so it would not be bad idea to give the bike a wash.

All in all, did close to 600 odd kms in a day…………….

More pics @ http://picasaweb.google.com/n.krishna.p/HimavadGopalaSwamyBetta

Sangam – Mekedathu

2008-04-03T21:46:00.003+05:30

10th June 2006

A reason to ride, this time my friend had bought a new bike, since he had just started riding just a few months, so the total distance should not exceed 250 kms. Mekedhatu was the place chosen by my friend. No objections by me, as he was the sponsor for the ride (he he).

Started lazily in the morning, rode till Kanakapura, and had breakfast. Soon headed off to Sangam, reached there found a good place to park our bikes. We had to cross the river which was just knee deep. We had to cross the river to go to Mekedhatu. Crossed the river, and soon an old bus was waiting for us to take to the spot. The spot is around 4 kms or so as told by the driver. We reached the spot, climbed up a few rocks to see the beautiful view, but the spot is dangerous too, its known to have claimed quite a few lives here, people jumping into the river willingly or accidentally, whichever way, the end result is pretty devastating. Soon after a little more than an hour, we headed back to Sangam in the bus. Now it was play time in the knee deep river. A couple of hours and then we headed back to the place we had parked the bikes. A small shop where we found, nimbe hannu chitranna (lemon rice), finished and it was time to head back home.

Rode back home, enough fun to rejoice and relish for the day.

HOGANEKAL FALLS

2008-04-02T19:24:00.003+05:30

Date: 13th August 2006

It was Saturday, spent a few hours at work and had stayed back at home all evening. Something I was uncomfortable with because I have not ridden out for quite a while now. Slept around 10 pm, could sleep only till 3 am. Now what, just that I picked my mobile up and called my friend and asked him as to what he was up to on Sunday, his reply “nothing” heightened my enthu. Now what, I just don’t know how it came to my mind, just asked my friend whether we could go to Hognekal Falls, my friend’s reply after a little pause was “YES”. So there were start at 5 am Sunday Morning.

Now a little about the place, this is one of the falls of the Kaveri River. Located near Dharmapuri, Tamil Nadu, about 180 odd kms from Bangalore. It is said that this waterfalls was acting as border between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The route we took was Bangalore – Hosur – Denkanokottai – Anchetty – Hognekal – Dharmapuri – Krishnagiri – Hosur – Bangalore.

Now 5 am, nice breeze in the morning, first stop at Shell Petrol bunk, filled up fuel, actually mistake on my part, I could have refueled at Hosur 40 kms away, would have saved close to Rs. 2.5/- per litre. Then had breakfast (yummy idli sambar and pongal at Hosur) and took the Denkanikootai – Anchetty route and reached Hognekal around 10 am. Rode pretty leisurely. Parked the bike in the parking lot where there was loads of shade.

Headed off to the banks of the river, caught hold of a guy, who agreed to take us on the round boat (sorry forgot the name of that boat thingy) he asked for 500, some how negotiated for 300 bucks. The we were on our way on the waters. Reached the other bank, myself and my friend were happy enough to take to the waters. It was a nice feeling to chill in the waters in the hot mid-day sun. Soon my friend wanted to have the fish, caught in the same river. As I am a complete veggie, just let me feast on whatever he wanted to. It was time to head back, the boat guy was generous enough to let us have a try rowing the boat in the river, believe me it is not that easy to row a boat even with three people on board (remember this one is round one). Soon we were on the bank. Shocked to the see the amount of dust on the bike, huh, it took close to 20 mins to just dust it off, it looked as it I had left the bike here a decade ago.

Left the place at 2 pm and reached Dharmapuri. The roads from Dharmapuri to Krishnagiri was really sad, with loads of pot holes (hold on did I say small, they were huge), the condition remained same till Krishnagiri. From Krishnagiri it’s a dream to ride on the road. Soon we hit Bangalore traffic near the electronic city. This ensured that we reached home by 5.30 pm.

All in all, a day was spent with some good memories to relish. As usual the itch to ride out had sort of temporarily subsided.

BR Hills Again

2008-04-01T14:38:00.003+05:30

10th December 2006.

Had a new bore kit on the bike, the best thing to do when you have a new bore kit on the bike is to ride, so I am at it again. Also another reason to ride was to test the new cam that I had purchased a week back.

The destination is again BR Hills. The route Bangalore - Maddur - Kollegal - BR Hills – Chamrajnagar – Gundlupet – Mysore – Bangalore

Had a good time clicking away because I knew I had a lot of time on hands to do everything leisurely. So the ride was not all zipping on the highway, it was cruising, cruising and spent almost close to 2 hours on the Hill and soothing in the lovely weather that day. Then rode till Gundlupet and enter one of the cultivated land and chilled off, it was almost 5 and then started riding back to Bangalore. A coffee stop at Mysore to revive and then continued riding and reached Bangalore by 9 pm. Close to 500 kms of running in of the engine in a day. Good enough it seemed because in another 3 weeks, another big time ride was on the way. More on that later.…………

Jog Jog Jogad Gundi

2008-04-01T14:17:00.002+05:30

After a month, it was time again for me to ride out. But I was uncertain as to where I should be riding out, but the urge to ride out was getting stronger and stronger. A small chat with NFSNFS (Santosh) the target destination would be the famous Jog Falls. Decided to meet and start off at 5 am from the Shell Petrol Bunk at Yeswanthpur. Somehow I’ve noticed, for whatever reason we always get delayed, as usual due to delay we started off at 6.10 am . Thanks to a big traffic jam caused by an accident near Peenya, we had do some off roading to exit from the city. Stopped at Kamat for breakfast on the NH4 on the way to Tumkur for about 35 mins. Started riding towards Arasikere and reached Arasikere by 9.15 am. A 15 mins delay at Arasikere to get the horn fixed on my bike. Continued riding towards Shimoga and reached Shimoga by 12.20 pm. We rode till Sagar and had lunch in Sagar and rode all the way to Jog and reached Jog at 2.30 pm. dumped the entire luggage in a Cloak room and started the trek down to the bottom of the falls. It took us about 45 mins or so go to the bottom of the falls. It was all fun getting down to the bottom of the falls. We did not have a clue as to what was in store for us on the way back up. Wondered how useful the lifts are. After clicking snaps we were ready to go. On the way up one guy who was drunk, was literally challenging us to trek back up with him and at his pace. It was drizzling on the way down, but to our luck, this turned completely on its head. It just got hot and humid. We started to trek back up, huh, super dehydration. We limped back to the top by 5.30 pm. We chilled there for about 45 mins. We were contemplating to ride back to Bangalore via Mangalore during the night. But this seemed almost impossible after the very tiring trek. So we decided to go to Gokarna and started off riding towards Gokarna via Honnavar. Reached Gokarna at 8.30 pm and with Arun’s help we lodged at Sea Bird Resorts. Had dinner and went off to bed.
Got up early (7 am) and we were ready by 8 am and left for the temple. Finished the Darshan and rode to the OM beach. Lovely beach, not too many people there to spoil the place. Spent about 40-45 mins there and came to the room to pack our luggage. We vacated the room to leave the AC room comforts and venture out in the humid weather and started riding towards Honnavar and next place to visit was Idugunji. We visited the temple and left the place and rode till Marvante Beach to take a few snaps and continued riding. Stopped at Kundapur for lunch. After lunch we left Kundapur (thanks to the delay @courtesy server at Harsha Refreshments) and rode towards Mangalore via Udupi. Reached Mangalore around 4.30 pm (thanks to pathetic roads that made NFSNFS to get his neck to ache, of course the roads were taking a toll on the butts too).

Stopped at BC road for coffee, just a few kilometers after BC road, the rain gods were in full fury. Rode almost non stop in the heavy rains and roads (oops I can’t call it as road as the tarmac is completely gone, and you cannot call that a road) till Sakaleshpur, It was 8.20 pm already. Started riding towards Bangalore, reached home at 12 midnight with sore butt, but a big grin on the face and part of life reclaimed

Also thanks to the Hella fog lamps which was very useful indeed….

Few more pics at the link http://picasaweb.google.com/n.krishna.p/JogFalls

Ride to Heavenly Western Ghats

2008-03-18T21:52:00.005+05:30

August 18th, 2006 to August 20th, 2006

Almost a month and a half without a long ride. Took the day off on Friday and indeed had to attend a marriage too. After attending the marriage headed off towards the Western Ghats .

Day 1:
Sringeri was the first destination. Started off at 1.30 pm. Rode till Dasarahalli (Tumkur Road Shell Petrol Bunk) filled up my bike’s belly. To reach Nelamagala it took one hour and 10 mins courtesy traffic jams. From there on just rode non stop till Chennaraya patna, took a break for 20 mins and then continued riding till Chikamagalur non stop as I was racing against time to have some rest and also free meals at the Sringeri temle :P. Reached Chikamagalur at 6.15 pm and found a good coffe shop and had good strong coffee. At 6.45pm started riding towards Sringeri. Just about 15 kms on the route, it started pouring. Thanks to PKM (Praveen KM) for suggesting the duckbacks, I was well prepared for this. The roads were getting from bad to worse and then worst. At one of the bridges had to almost ride through a foot deep slush, to make matters worse the were quite a few stones hidden beneath the slush to give me a scare every now and then till i crossed the bridge. I was very much motivated to keep myself on the two wheels rathers than falling into the sluch due to stones. Visibility was getting poorer due to fog. From Jayapura the roads where very good. Reached Sringeri at 8.50 pm.

Checked into an appartment that was being rented that too after talking to the guys over ther ein Telugu. Else it would have been a pretty tough task looking for the lodge in heavy rains. Dumped all the luggage and had dinner. After nice sleep

Day 2:
Got up casually in the morning, after all the daily chores, visited the temple. Started off towards Kalasa-Horanadu via Kudremukh at 10 am. First there is a forest checkpost where you need to register your vehicle and a slip is given to you, which you have to handover at the other checkpost (either route toward bajagole or kalasa there is a check post). Time given to cover 45 kms is 2 hours, which is quite a lot actually. Was riding pretty slow to enjoy the surroundings. Enroute to Kalasa, stopped over at a bridge to click a few snaps of the falls, found a snail as well to add to the charm of the surroundings. Reached Horanadu at 12.30 pm. After visiting the temple had lunch and headed off at 1.30 pm towards Dharmastala via Kottigehara-Charmadi Ghats. I have to admit the roads were not all in good condition by any standards. No choice, rode on towards Ujire.

On the way when we stopped to take photos, twice two leaches had started their routine of sucking blood (luckily realised it pretty soon, anyways I had salt kept ready for the leaches and it did really help). Reached Ujire (8 kms from Dharmastala) at 4 pm and took a lodge, rested for a while, freshened up and left for Kukke Subrahmanya at 5.30 pm. The Road to Kukke Subrahmanya is in the worst possible condition, moreover had to contend with rains as well. As usual after the Darshan, had dinner and left back towards Ujire at 8.15 pm. In between I missed up a road and took the wrong route in the dark. Hardly found anybody to check which way I was heading. Luckily an old man in one most remote petrol bunks that I have ever seen guided me with the route I had to take and I just as well followed to his instructions. Damn the road was very bad. Finally reached the highway and got on to the correct route and reached the lodge at 10.30 pm. Being pretty tired slept like a log which ensured I got up a bit late (by an hour from the scheduled time).

Day 3:
As usual after daily chores got ready and visited the temple and vacated the lodge at 11 am. Now headed off towards Mangalore and reached the Someshwar Beach. It was hot n humid. As usual took snaps and then got a wild idea to get the bike down to the sand. What next got it down easily, but the problem was geting back to road. The sand being very soft, never offered any traction. With the help of a few guys around the place, got the bike back on road. This ensured I used up close to 30 mins to clean up the bike. After all the hungama headed towards Bangalore. Had lunch at one of the restuarants at BC Road (Bantwal Cross Road). The roads leading upto BC Road the roads are very bad again. After lunch rode for about 15 kms and then rain started pouring down very heavily (visibility = 40-50 feet with head lights on), just rode in the rain and near Donigal the rain gods showed mercy to stop the rain . The roads are pathetic upto 10 kms to Hassan . At Hassan changed the stopped over at a remote (almosted haunted puncture shop) to put on a sweater as I was feeling lil cold after all the rain. I had a worst nightmare, after riding for about close to 30 kms, I got to know I had left my wallet there are the place where I had stopped to put the sweater on. Cursing my luck rode back to the place. It was pitch dark and it was raining. At first could not find the wallet. Without giving hope turned the bike's headlights on to find my wallet still lying there beneath a stone slab untouched. Then rode back non stop till Hirisave, had food. It was raining all the way from Hassan. If the first nightmare wasn't enough, just after Kunigal, I hit a road divider at about 80 kmph and luckily did not fall, god's grace I guess. but the rear brake pedal was cut and no way that could hold on, the CAT in the silencer had taken a beating which ensured it sounded a lil wierd and the foot rest was very badly bent. What next, took the broken brake pedal and put it in the bag and rode back for about 63 kms very cautiously in the rain with out rear brakes.

All in all, a good portion of my life reclaimed at the end of the ride.

Route:Bangalore – Nelamangala – Hassan – Chikamagalur – Balehonnur – Sringeri – Kudremukh – Kalasa – Horanadu – Kalasa – Kottigehara – Charmadi – Dharmastala – Kukke Subrahmanya – Dharmastala – Mangalore – Shiradi – Hassan – Nelamangala - BangaloreOdo reading 1197.6 kms

Let the pics do the talking, guess I have done enough on this ride………