Yashas B.M.

Hello Bikers!!
This log is about my latest road trip to the Western Ghats with two of my friends in the first week of July. This is the first time I am writing a travel log. ‘ll try to write my best..

Yashas(me): p220
Preetham : p200
Chethan(pillion)

Route map :



Prologue :

1st July! Sem end holidays had just begun. Its monsoon and I always wanted to ride to the western ghats in the rains! Basically i love riding in the rain. All the planning had begun during the exams and we had decided to go to jog falls, kodachadri, gokarna and around!.. had decided to leave on the 3rd!.. Got my bike serviced the previous day and changed the oil to motul 5100 SS.. and bike was better than when it was new.. tanked up.. had asked the mechanic to dry the tank completely because I wanted to check the capacity of the tank.. it showed 18.47litres (Rs1318)till the brim. I was surprised and shocked to see extra 2-3litres! I always thought the full tank capacity to be 16litres max!.. On my way back home from the bunk, it began to pour heavily.. all the washing and polishing washed away in the rain i reached home completely drenched and more bad news awaited me.. I get a call from my friend saying that 2 of them r backing out.. And soon the whole plan gets cancelled.. for the first time I didn’t feel bad about it because from the begining I felt somewhere something is gonna go wrong!.. I told myself whatever happens, happens for good. It was 11pm and next day being sunday I decided to get some solid sleep which I was deprived of during my exams!

I wake up at 6.30am. i was feeling really bad because the plan didn work out. I badly wanted to hit the road!.. atleast a 1 day trip.. I call one of my friend to check if he wanted to tag along for a short ride. He picks up the call and says he and his friend are on their way to Dharmasthala and they are already near kungal(70km from b’lore).. Next moment I decided I am game for this ride. I asked them to wait for me at yediyur (90km from blore) and I told I’ll be there within 2 hours.. Off my bed.. stuffed clothes into my bag.. took bath. Got ready within half n hour.. tied the bag to my bike.. I didn know for how many days I am goin.. no planning nothing! and I love it when such sudden plans happen those are the ones which actually work (atleast for me)..
All geared up.. bike super smooth.. and off I go ripping towards NH4..

DAY 1 : July 3rd - Pilgrimage road trip :P
Bangalore-Nelmangala- Kunigal- Yediyur(temple)- Adichunchingiri(temple)- Hassan- Sakleshpur- dharmasthala(temple) : 328 km overall

I left home around 7-30.. went till nelmangala at around 70-80kmph(30km) .. At nelamangala took a left towards NH 48.. I was greeted by straight and recently laid roads.. for next 45min I maintained an average 100kmph.. max I could do was 135.. all thanks to the wind :@.. reached yediyur by 9.. visited the temple and met my friends at the highway.. they were doing some photography sessions.. tied all our bags to preetham’s bike (p200).. and chethan had to ride as my pillion.. we left towards Hassan.. wihin few minutes we saw a board towards the right saying adi chunchungiri mutt.. we stopped there for a while and since our destination for the day was dharmasthala which was around 220km from there and we had lot of time, we decided to visit the mutt and finish our lunch ( for me it was brunch :P) before we head towards Dharmasthala.. we were completely exhausted and hungry by the time we climbed to the top and descended. Had our lunch at the Mutt and we were back again on our bikes with full josh!
Next stop was Hassan which was 70km from there.. boring roads till hassan.. and it was too sunny. we were riding at an avg of 85kmph. Reached Hassan by 2-30 with a small 15min tea break in between. After a short break in Hassan we again headed towards sakleshpur. Chetan wanted to ride. So I had to be his pillion. We had just got out of Hassan city and we were riding at 60kmph as we were talking to each other. We see a white van standing 200m ahead of us. As we went closer, we were shocked to see that the white van was nothing but HASSAN INTERCEPTOR!!! Interceptor on a national highway??? Wat the hell? Why can’t the cops leave us alone atleast on the National highways. Thankfully we were only at around 60kmph and dropped it to 50kmph after seeing the interceptor. We gave each other a shocked look and thanked god for saving our precious 600bucks! (300 per bike). The weather got better. we could see the dark clouds approaching us. Rather we were approaching the black clouds. i could see greenery everywhere around me and the weather was calm and perfect with light drizzle. Yes, we had entered the Western Ghats!!! As we were near sakleshpur, it began to pour heavily and we could not ride more than 40-50kmph. The road was scenic with greenery on both sides and recently laid roads complementing us. We didn’t expect the roads to be so good especially in the rains. Even the famous shiradi ghat was brilliant-Newly put cement roads. We were really lucky to find such good roads. Riding in the ghat section with such brilliant roads is simply amazing. Last stetch from gundhya to dharmasthala was superb! We were doing 80-90kmph constantly even in d curves. Reached dharmasthala around 5pm. Dumped the luggage in a room and got fresh. Went for darshan at around 6. Had dinner (prasadam) in the temple and got back to the room by 8.30. we bought a map to do the next days planning and decided to go to mangalore which was 75km from dharmasthala. Went to bed by 10pm.




shiradi ghat

DAY 2 :
Dharmasthala- Mangalore- Udupi : 150km approx

Its 5am. Alarm rings. Freshened up. Packed our bags and checked out of the room by 5.45. it was still dark outside. had breakfast at a hotel nearby as we didn wanna ride in the dark. Left the hotel by 6.15. Roads from dharmasthala were decent. The plan for day-2 was to spend time in beaches of mangalore and ride along to udupi by evenin. It was a much relaxed day as we had to ride only about 150kms. So we gave as many stops as possible. Did many photography sessions. Scenery was fantabulous!! Especially the stretch near bantwal, there was a lake next to the road and we had to ride next to it for 2-3km. Water on one side and greenery on the other. It was beautiful! Took a deviation to NH13. End of ghat section. But beautiful roads again. As we entered mangalore, it began to rain heavily. We spent some time in ullal beach and panambur beach. and finally reached Kaup beach (next to surathkal beach) at around 12.30. Had lunch. Udupi was around 40km from there. So we spent lot of time at Kaup beach. reached udupi by 5pm and found ourselves a decent room. Went to the famous Krishna temple in Udupi. Finshed darshan by 6.30 and went to malpe beach and spent time there. had dinner and got back to the room. Decided to go to Kudremukh and back to blore. slept by 9 as we had to get up early. we had to cover 450km on day 3.
























Kaup beach

DAY 3 :
Udupi- Manipal- Karkala- Kudremukh- Belur- Bangalore : 470

Woke up by 3.30. checked out of the room by 4.30. headed towards karkala (50km) through manipal. Had light breakfast on our way. reached kudremukh by 10. Not much description bout the ride to kudremukh. Let the pics do the talking :P.. left kudremukh around 11. Next stop was belur for lunch. Roads were bad in some stretches. But the ghat section was beautiful with tea n coffee plantations on both sides. Reached belur around 2pm. Hogged properly in belur. Belur- Hassan stretch was kickass - Country side roads and I love riding in such roads. Hassan-bangalore was the same old boring road again. Thankfully no rain til we reached blore. Reached home by 8. Overall it was an amazing trip and loved every micrometer I rode!
















































Total kms done :947km (3 days)

Noor

Triplog approved

Some beautiful pics there.

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rakesh_zmr

Superb pictures and nice write up dude..

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ridermax

Lovely ride guys! The pictures are great!

Take Care & Ride Safe!

pabi

good pics ... this part of KA is always fantastic to ride ..

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Yashas B.M.

thanks for the approval

thanks rakesh!

thanks!

yea! indeed it is. especially in the rains!

prashk

Hey nice trip there Yashas!
I have a question about the above pic. Was there a fenced power transformer and a non-tar/mud road on your right, in this place? with 1-2 houses near that mud road? And the road infront of you where you had kept your camera for this timed shot - it was a downward slope curving slightly left?