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
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 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.
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.
