There were people talking about the long weekend of the Independence day. There were people travelling to nearby tourist spots, people lazing at home, people catching up on movies.. I wanted to do just one thing- Get on my bike and head out! So I decided to travel to my hometown (well, almost), Murudeshwar, Karnataka. Here's the route



This route involves straight streches, twisties, muddy roads and bad roads as well. I knew this route since I had done this last year along with my wife. This year, I planned to do it solo. The route was: Bangalore-Tumkur-Gubbi-Arsikere-Bhadravati-Shimoga-Sagar-Gerasoppa-Honnavara-Murudeshwara. Totally 483km from my house.


Here's the log. It contains less (and medium quality) pics since i was riding alone and was completely in love with the roads. So, less stops, less pics.

Day1: Left home early at 5:30 A.M. Had packed up everything in my Wildcraft Alpinist bag and tied it (with bungee chords) to my home made carrier on to the bike. Hit the expressway, NICE road and reached tumkur pretty early, around 6:15 A.M. I had raingear handy as this region experiences pretty heavy rainfall this time of the year. Crossed Gubbi to click the first pic of the day of my beauty.

I had very few breaks as I was very eager to hit the twisties of the Gerasoppa Ghat section. In no time, I reached Tarikere and stopped for a much needed break- breakfast and some extra nutrition. Also, refuelled my bike here. I did not catch even a drop of rainfall till I reached Shimoga. I had to stop and put on my rain gear. The road till Shimoga is more or less good. Except for the little Arsikere-Tarikere strech, everything is pretty manageable.


As I paused there for a short while, I saw a couple on another Karizma, completely geared heading towards the same direction as me. It really feels great to see similarly "dressed" people on the highway. The villagers and people in towns look at you like you've landed from Pluto, with all the riding gear on. Anyway, within no time, I was back on my bike- headed towards my destination.

Although my destination was Murudeshwar, all my eyes were on two major roads. One is Shimoga-Sagar road- mostly straight with some high speed, really long twisties. The second one is (yeaaaaahhhhh baby!!!) the gerasoppa ghat. By the way, this ghat houses the world famous Jog Falls. I just did not feel like stopping ANYWHERE on the former road. I just held the accelerator so that the bike's speedo was reading anywhere between 80 and 100. I experienced less rainfall till here, maybe some showers here and there. And then came my favourite part of the ride:



I was doing about 40-50 on the ghats except for the sections where I found loose gravel and slush. The MRF meteor tyre is great for these conditions I would say. I had fun cornering the bike and leaving all the cars behind on the ghats. There were some villages on the way and some places bridges to cross various tributaries of the river Sharawati.

I then reached Honnavara at around 2:30 and decided it was time to stop for lunch. It is really great to have Konkani food at hotels and speak to everyone in Konkani (my mother-tongue) as it is not widely spoken elsewhere. The road from Honnavara to Murudeshwara is newly laid and was surprised to see the absence of potholes (as I had seen last year). Finally I could check-in at th hotel (RNS Highway) at 3:45 P.M. It was raining like crazy there. Murudeshwar is the land of pristine beaches and coastal cuisine. I would stay here for the next three days and eat my heart out. Also, gotta visit a few relatives




The time is not set on the bike's clock- pleas excuse me.
Day 2&3 updates (though very less) are coming up once the thread is approved.

Cheers,

Karthik