Riders: Jay (Karizma ZMR), Prad (Machismo 500)
From: Bangalore
To: JOG falls (Shimoga district, Karnataka)
When: Aug 2010



Day 1 : Bangalore to Sagar

An usual drowsy Saturday morning...

Tired of those stupid shifts..... opened my eyes saying "Thank god, its saturday" yippee

Clock ticked 9am....it was drizzling and the smell of rain brought a lot of unusal energy in me

It seems to be a wonderful day to give a ride myself and my baby being rested for the whole week...next minute Prad passed through my mind talking about some long ride last night....next minute I felt I should have a (Crtl + F) for my mobile ...somehow found it and woke him up and asked for a ride and named few places....it was not yet finalized but we planned to meet at the BEL circle, Tumkur road ASAP.

Clock ticked 10.00am and I left home with a casually filled back pack...reached the fixed place in no time by the nice road... As usual, Prad took his own time to come there. I spent that waiting time with a boring conversation on phone.

Clock ticked 10.45 am: I was like uffff to see prad in that beautiful rear view mirror of my baby...and now the big task was where to go I said Coorg, he said Jog Falls...I didn't even let a thought pass through my mind and said lets gooooooooooooooo.....after all how would a biker argue for a specified destination

Its 11 am and Finally the journey Started....we were at Nelamangala toll gate...Met one of my friend there and we started...

It was nice stretched road with flyovers which mislead us at the very starting ...damn how could we miss it... We were suppose to take a diversion at the flyover but the newly laid road fooled us...


Well..we just minded on enjoying the ride on those roads...which made us to slow down for lunch at Tumkur but I said lets go ahead to next nearest place Sira...and again at Sira, this time we both nodded our head and said lets go ahead... Finally reached Hiriyur around 1.15pm and felt hungry so there goes a butt break and for lunch as well...

Went to a hotel ordered some Thaali's. I was relaxing myself by walking around and found a local map on the hotel's wall, there it flashed we are 150 kms ahead in the wrong way . I gave a surprising look at Prad and what he had a little smile on his face asusal.

The worst part of me is only then I realized I have to give a chance to the GPS on my mobile (thanks to Nokia for free maps). It says we have shortcut road next to the hotel which leads to Hosadurga 48 kms and Ajjampur 80 kms and then finally Tarikere 110 kms which was in the proper route. Checked with the hotel people for the best route, he said that the shortcut route may not be so good as it was raining and to take the same 4 lane road till Chitradurga 45 kms ahead and from there its 110 kms to reach Badravathi.

We had a little discussion and decided to take the shortcut route, finished our lunch and it drizzled a bit which again bought a lot of energy in me. Started from there took a diversion to the shortcut road and headed towards Hosadurga...it didn't take much to realize hotel wala's advice on those slushy roads, it was bit hard to ride but enjoyed the beauty of farm lands and the wind mills on the hills, soon we reached a diversion where it showed Vanivilas dam 10 kms. Thought of going there but the heavily covered clouds diluted our thoughts and carried on.

Vanivilas Dam:



This was best part of that slushy shortcut, Prad off the Helmet for a click..



Do you see me?.....




It took an ample 1 hour 20 mins to do that 48kms and reached Hosadurga. Then again we headed with a hope that somewhere the road would get better and reached Ajjampur with the hope never coming true an then finally we saw some black road..Yesss thats the NH 206. Thank god. Tarikere was 3 kms from there and we desperately needed a butt break.

Had a butt break,Tea, snacks, withdrew some money from ATM. Kemmangundi was in sight of 25 kms but again gave up because we have only two days for the trip and need to be back in office by Monday, clock ticked 5pm and our target was to reach Sagar which was 120 kms away from there.

So Jet set go....

Then reached Badravathi in half an hour, roads were pretty good but have to be careful with the on coming traffic as there was no divider. Headed to
Shimoga and rain started to play with us. At one point it started to rain heavily, I stopped the bike and ran into a temple near by.

Prad with so much of confidence told to me get on and said there wont be any rain after some distance. Guess what...his prediction was correct with in the next 1 km there was not even a single drop of rain. From there onward we didnt care any such rains and headed towards our target.

The sad thing was, we could not have any camera work despite Prad being a good photographer among us.... The So called "Pradography"

Here I have experienced something usual but for the first time on my bike, the ZMR stock tyres being poor on the wet road, I had few tyre locks as well which got butterflies in my stomach. I became so conscious on riding after that, never crossed 60 kmph.

It was dusky, me with a tinted wiser and already had a disadvantage of tyre locking could not lead anymore, Prad took the lead I was just following his tail lamp like a Sheep.

It was a deep forest and I never tested my bike's mileage before, the bike too started threating me by ticking to last fuel point. I was little worried. So many thoughts passing through my mind. What if the petrol gets over in midway does any human live here Will anyone help us coming this way What if we have to stop and some animal comes to us damn my temperature raised With all these thoughts I had a big relief of seeing a petrol bunk in the middle of the forest. Know what it was a well maintained one and nothing less than the city one's. I nowhere wanted to take a chance and filled in petrol. Sagar was 30 km ahead.

Clock Ticket 7.30pm: We reached Sagar comfortably and started searching for a hotel. Almost had a complete round of that small town and found a decent double room for Rs600. Hotel had a nice parking space. Parked the bikes, Dumped all our drenched clothes, backpacks, helmets were a bit wet on the back but that wouldn't worry us.

Got the shorts on and went for dinner. It was bit cold due to rain but ok, finished dinner and came back to hotel by 10.30pm. Now please don't ask me why it took so long for dinner

Slept with so much of relief, Jog was just 35 kms away and We were so excited for the tomorrow' ride.

Alarm was for 6am

Woke up by realizing this truth: The laziest person in the world is the one who invented 'snooze' option for Alarm's

We woke up by 7am got rid drowsiness, pushed ourselves from the bed and got ready by 8am. Weather was absolutely exotic with light drizzle and sun hiding in those dark clouds. Helmets were still wet, so finally decided to go without helmets and feel the breeze as we were into deep forest. I know its stupid but we didn't had any other choice, no traffic either.

So finally left all our luggage at hotel and the only thing with us was the Camera hoping that we can have some clicks at least today

After a fantastic and unforgettable ride through the forest, we reached Jog falls.

My First ever rear view of Jog falls, I was so excited then.



The Bikes:



Bridge on the Shravathi river:





The River:



The Entrance & Parking:



We found some parking place for our bikes and went on for the view.

My First glimpse of the falls... ooooooooooooooooooo















When Sky Kisses the Earth





Pipeline to the powerstation:



Look at moi..



The footpath to reach the bottom of the falls was closed for renovation we turned back with little disappointment



After an amazing and once in lifetime experience.

We had our breakfast at the one and only hotel, was bit costly but never mind.

With our filled stomachs, the next thing is to do some adventure, yessss the "Mungarumale" scene. So took off our bikes and went to the other side.

Our next target was to reach that tip of the falls:



Trust me there was no restriction or no one bothered to ask us where we are going. It made our adventure easy

In the heavy rain:


Till now the rain played hide and seek with our camera, suddenly it rains like hell and the next moment its the sun with clouds around, that was amazing somehow managed to get the pics.

Fully drenched:



My stunts at the tip:



This one is the best ever experience for me:



Prad at the tip:


With a loads of Joy and experience, we turned back thinking of reaching Bangalore before it could get dark, we left Jog around 12.30pm

Butt break while coming back:



Came to hotel, checked out and we felt it as a long journey for us to reach Bangalore all the way from Jog.

This time we didn't miss any routes lolz....

Finally at home by 10pm, rejoiced.