Re: Bike's Bday Solo Ride to Hampi,Mantralayam !

Travelogue Approved

Re: Bike's Bday Solo Ride to Hampi,Mantralayam !

i think Hampi is the hot favorite this season
btw.. bumble-bee looks nice with green around
waiting for the rest..

Re: Bike's Bday Solo Ride to Hampi,Mantralayam !

Nice teasers there, mate! More on Hampi. Keep'em coming.

Re: Bike's Bday Solo Ride to Hampi,Mantralayam !

Planning : I wanted to celebrate my bike's bday(10th August) by riding to someplace good enough for a two day trip. Had Hampi and Tunga Dam on my to do list from a long time. Saw a good weekend opportunity to knock this off the list. While reading some logs I came across Phanikar's Hampi trip via Mantralayam. The roads looked good hence I tweaked my map a little bit to add Mantralayam to my list. I never like to do a to-fro same route on a ride unless there is no other option.

Day 1 : 9th August.

Route Taken : Bangalore - Gooty - Adoni - Mantralayam - Siriguppa - Kampli - Hampi

Since it was a solo trip there were no restrictions on start time. Started the ride from my flat in AECS Layout at around 5am. Joined the boring straight NH7 and for the first few kms cruised at 60-70 just to feel the wind. Then started the ripping session. That sweet exhaust note of NS at higher RPMs is too good to miss, that's why I never use earphones when I ride. Decided not to take any break till Anantapur. But just as I crossed the Nandi Hills junction the NH7 became a bit interesting. That's when I clicked this pic :




Since I had already taken a break before Anantapur , directly took a coffee break near Gooty. Tanked up from the next petrol bunk and took the diversion towards Adoni, Mantralayam. After crossing the first village on that route the landscape turned beautiful. Green Grass Blue Skies and a nice smooth tarmac , throw in some curves into it and the combination becomes perfect.



Eid Celebrations on the way :




Reached Mantralayam at noon only to find the Tiffin Room ( famous for Idli's) closed, remains closed till 4pm. Visited the Mantralayam Temple and ate some idlis at a nearby place to satisfy the hungry me.












Thought of starting from there soon as I wanted to click some pics in Hampi before sunset. Started asking the way to Siriguppa, everybody said either go to Adoni or via Raichur. I asked if there is any other route, was routed to Kupgal and the locals warned me for bad roads. At that moment I decided to go with it. I was amazed by the clouds and farms there. Rarely saw anyone in the initial stretch.















Yes the roads or potholes did not allow me to go fast. More than 70% of road area was potholed. It took me around 4.5 hours to reach Hampi. Approaching Hampi from Kampli was amazingly serene. The structures , the reducing light and sudden rains. Could not take any pics of this stretch because of heavy rains.

Upon reaching Hampi, moved towards Virupaksha Temple, dumped extra stuff in the lodge and ran to click some pics of the Virupaksha Temple Compound.















When I was clicking this shot, I had kept my telephoto lens in the bag but did not zip it, and the security guard started escorting people out of the compound. In a hurry picked up the bag and BAM BAM BAM. Three hits to the lens between two rocks (forming a valley) from the waist height and three big DHAK DHAK DHAK to my heart. Was so angry at myself for being careless. Picked up the lens Shook it to check if there is any broken part inside. No noise relieved me a bit, but did not check it with body. Was very very disappointed and started thinking about how heavy was this blow to my pocket, should I go for the MH ride next week or buy this lens, millions of calculations, aarghh.

Went to a nearby place for dinner, good ambiance but pathetic food. Finally gathered the courage to check my lens and it worked.

First photo after the lens crash :



Was listening to Dazed and Confused in a very low volume over dinner. A guy named Dave(David) from New Zealand came up to me and asked : Do Indians listen to Led Zeppelin ? I asked him another question : Have you ever been to Bangalore ? He had a misconception that Indians only listen to Enrique. We had a nice chat , he is traveling in India from past 2 months and was shit scared to visit Kashmir , which is the land of bomb blasts and a live battlefield according to him. I showed him some pics of Leh, Pangong Tso lake and surprised by the beauty he said if he finds a company he is surely gonna visit Leh.

A surprise meet up with a famous Bull rider and an excellent route back to follow on Day 2.

Re: Bike's Bday Solo Ride to Hampi,Mantralayam !

Nice log. Keep it coming. Who is this "famous Bull Rider" by the way?

Re: Bike's Bday Solo Ride to Hampi,Mantralayam !

Nice log there!! The pic are lovely and so glad that your lens survived. Bring on the rest!

Ride On & Ride Safe

Re: Bike's Bday Solo Ride to Hampi,Mantralayam !

Amazing pics there, [MENTION=54406]kaydee_bangalore[/MENTION].

Re: Bike's Bday Solo Ride to Hampi,Mantralayam !

I loving it, keep it coming

Sent from my GT-P3100 using xBhp Connect mobile app

Re: Bike's Bday Solo Ride to Hampi,Mantralayam !

Haha the name is Sakshar i guess !!

Thanks a lot sir ! Yes the lens saved a few rides worth of money !

Thanks

Thanks. Day 2 follows here.



Day 2 : 10th August
Route Taken : Day 2 : Hampi-Hospet-TB Dam-Bellary-Challakere-Hiriyur-Tumkur-Bangalore : 540 kms

Got up early in the morning and wanted to climb matunga for some pics. My guest house owner warned me about it and said they are not allowing people up there because a sloth bear had attacked a foreign tourist a few days back. So I just packed up my stuff and was on road by 7am. Ate two snickers and avoided a breakfast break.

Was clicking this magical misty compound , then saw two other people clicking pictures, the face looked familiar, one of them came up to me and said "I am also a biker" , my knee guards , jacket made it pretty obvious that I am one. Suddenly I realized I have read his trip logs in xBhp, he was Sakshar Ray Chaudhuri and I had read his Mangalore - Kolkata - Mangalore triplog. After a few normal exchanges they went to have breakfast and I started roaming around. And while going he gave me a photo idea and asked me to keep the bike here and click.

The misty morning :

















After roaming around for sometime I climbed half matunga and clicked this :






And then I head out to the famous Vitthala Temple.

The Musical Pillars !
















And finally one photo of me :







Next stop was Tunga Dam, rode quickly towards Hospet and saw some amazing scenery on the way. Reached Tungabhadra Dam and was disappointed that I would have to leave my bike and go on a bus to the top.
But the view from the top was worth it.












After being amazed by the super huge tungabhadra Dam, started my ride back. I had heard that If I go via Bellary, just before Bellary a road goes towards Challakere and that is a beautiful stretch.
Excited , i rode on the bad roads till Bellary, took a stop at the junction where I had to take a turn. Had some parle g, water and some more snickers.

The road after that was indeed beautiful. The barren lands, some factories , only trucks on the roads. After 10-20 kms saw some trees alongside the road.









Challakere - Hiriyur Route :




After this joined the boring NH4, clocked 153kmph for the first time and sustained there for some seconds.
It started raining but I was in no mood to take out the rain coat, got drenched and then in the next 30 kms got dried up completely.

And by the time i reached home, I was smiling for all the good things that happened on this trip and was super excited for the Maharashtra ride from 15th-18th Aug.
Cheers !