After my recent trip to Kudremukh, I was thirsty for more. More of western ghats. I had couple of places on my mind, Agumbe and Muliyanagiri. I shared my plan with my friends, Charan & Sudhakar. Both agreed to join. Our plan spread around and reached other ears, and many others mentioned their willingness to be part of this road trip.



Finally we decided upon Muliyanagiri as the destination. We also planned to cover few other places around like Hebbe falls, Kalhatgiri falls, Bababudan giri. Sudhakar did some research and also came up with another exciting addition, Yagachi water sports.



Just before trip few guys backed out. Finally, five of us decided to go ahead with the trip on March 31st early morning. Came from office, got the bike chain tightened and lubricated, cleaned the bike, packed required stuff and barely slept. Bad news was just before I could leave for the trip, I started sneezing like crazy, and that was an indication that all was not well with the system. But who cares Biker in me got the better of me.



I was joined by Ganesh near Navrang theatre in Rajajinagar. Then joined other bikers, Charan, Sudhakar and Ajith, near Yeshwantpur railway station. We checked our luggages. Took couple of pics and started with the trip at 3.45 am.



We reached nelamangala, had tea and decided about next stop to be after 75 K ms. However, to our utter surprise, just around Kunigal, we saw lightning, and heard a bit of thunder. Then it started drizzling. We could not believe this. Showers!!! that too in the middle of this scorching summer season. Then it started raining cats and dogs. The gust, the rain forced us to stop the ride and look for shelter. We were lucky enough to be right next to a poultry farm and people inside were extremely kind to allow us inside and share their towels and blankets. We waited their for about 50 minutes for the rain to stop. We spent that time chatting with farm guys and amongst ourselves and we were thrilled about the sudden rain and this is the best thing about bike trips. You never know where you are gonna stop next and for what reason Rain subsided, we thanked farm guy Ashok and resumed our trip at 5.50 am. Chilled weather, awesome stretch of tarmac, sky lashed with variety of hues and riding my cruiser...I was in a different world altogether.



We stopped close to CR patna and decided that we would have breakfast at Kamat between CR patna and Hassan. We were all damn hungry. Had breakfast and resumed our trip by 8.45 am. Reached Hassan. Charan and Sudhakar, trip's finance managers, withdrew money from ATM and we proceeded towards Belur. This is one of the best roads I have ridden in my biker life of about a year. Amazing road.



We rode at nice speeds and reached Belur and continued towards Chikmagalur. Reached Chikmagalur by 11 am. We asked for route to Muliyanagiri from few localites and proceeded. We reached a checkpost and enquired about availability of accommodation and food, and we were to happy to get positive response.



Till now the ride was easy and I was getting excited about riding in western ghats. As we rolled on, we were getting surrounded by more and more green. In this hot scorching summer, green is boon. Roads were getting curvy. We were getting a glimpse of peak from the base. As we looked up, we could not resist to reach the top. As we moved up and looked side-wards, we were amazed at the view. we started to wonder how better it's gonna be as we keep going up!!! We were not disappointed at all. We never expected to see such a beauty on this trip. Roads were getting narrow and more curvy, bit dangerous as other vehicles coming downwards did not have enough space to pass by and there was no fencing on the left side and a bit of carelessness or waywardness and you just go down and end up god-knows-where



At one point as we closed in, charan and I stopped and what we saw was overwhelming. I don't think I should even make an attempt to express it in words. Even photographs, atleast our photographs, would not justify the beauty. I really felt that i was blessed to come here on my favourite toy, and enjoy god's creation. Simply put terrific, amazing, splendid...I will certainly run out of adjectives.




We reached Muliyanagiri at 1 pm. Had ice cream. It was hot. But when we looked down, we just cooled down and melted like ice cream. Awesome place. We looked up at stairs leading to temple. We started climbing the stairs and you could see the foggy clouds moving right in front of you. We reached temple. We went in. Sat down on the cold floor. relaxed. Many others were there. Prayed and paid my respects, took blessings and left the temple.




We came down. I was thirsty and we had run out of water and there were no shops where we could find water. Got water from ice cream vendor. Quenched our thirst and we started our journey. It was very scary as we started rolling down the spiral-down roads. Slowly we moved on with our rear brakes pressed down and reached a spot where water was streaming down. Quenched thirst again, washed faces, relaxed and moved on. On the way down we started inquiring about home stay. Couple of places were expensive. Hunger was getting the better of us. We decided to g back to Chikmagalur, have lunch and then worry about accommodation and other plans for the day. Had lunch at a reasonable price. After lot of deliberation, we decided to stay in an estate-home stay at the base of the peak. after we checked in, Ajith and Ganesh decided to call it a day as they were dead tired and mentioned they cannot ride anymore. We respected their decision as they are new to bike trips and we decided to cut down our trip-plans. While others slipped into slumber, I got freshened up, had tea and was joined by Ajith for a stroll around the estate in the evening.




After everyone got up, Charan and Ganesh went toiChikmagalur, got food. There was a bunch of others who were staying next door and they had set camp fire and were having good time and invited us too to join them. Ganesh joined them while rest of us stayed back, had dinner, chatted about lot things and by 12.30 am decided to hit the sacks, and I could feel the temperature rising high in my system. Took tablets and slept like a baby.



Fever and cold got the better of me. I woke up last. We all got ready by 10.30 am, paid the due to homestay manager and started towards chikmagalur. Had our breakfast in Chikmagalur and proceeded towards Yagachi water sports. We reached Yagachi water sports by 12 pm. Nice place. Huge lake which is a part of Yagachi river. We decided to enjoy Jet-skiing, Banana ride, trampoline and finally a cruise. We had a great time. I forgot fever, cold, running nose, watery eyes and pounced on the opportunity of enjoying in the water. Every ride was unique and a lovely experience. We had a great time. We started towards Bangalore by 2.30 pm. We reached Hassan by 3.30 pm. Stopped by at Aadya's near CR patna for lunch. Finished lunch and proceeded towards Bangalore by 5 pm. Once we entered the toll paid express highway, we started ripping our steeds and maintained a constant speed of 110 to 120 Kmph. Took a break near Solur and reached Nelamangala by 7.30 pm. We all parted our ways from there and I reached home by 8.30 pm to my family's surprise.





Even though this was a short trip, enjoyed both god's creation and human's artificial creation. I have not got enough of western ghats in Karnataka. Planning has begun to ride to Agumbe and Jogfalls by May 1st week. Can't wait for it