Hahahaha... that's a nice way of putting it


Agreed! And kindda worried, that whenever I do get a new bike I might go nuts riding

Facing the same here
First responsibilities and then need a need a new bike too

Thank you Sir

Might I add once again, you're quite the inspiration to a lot of us here!!

Hahaha, aren't you a slave too ? If not, then lucky you !!

On my way to work, all I can think of .. "rats running a race to get to work"

Thank you.. Now change the tyres on your 220 first, they are 3 years old.

To be frank Praful, yes, me too a slave of corporate world You are right, rats running 24X7 But, glad to see you back on the saddle riding away from office

Today the 'LoneWolf' tag is supposed to be lost by evening. I am supposed to meet my friend Veda who is supposed to start from Bangalore late, since he cannot wake up before the sun comes up. We are supposed to catch up at the now famous Badra coffee shop in Balehonnur. He would have to cover 330 Kms, whilst I would be doing just 145 Kms, but a large part would be through areas with possibly no roads. After checking up a lot of forums, I could get any information about this forest route through Bhadra Tiger reserve. A new article link from December last year about a tiger attacking a villager on the route was not helping the cause much either

So I've decided to take it easy and wake up at a comfortable 6.30PM, quick freshen up and I head down in search of breakfast. A masala dosa and coffee later I'm heading back to my room to freshen up and pack for the day. Since he's not replied back to my messages, I know he's still sleeping at 7.30 AM. I decide to take it even easier, I just lounge about in my room whiling away time on Facebook getting packed up at the slowest pace possible. Despite all the 'slowness' I am packed up and ready to check out by 8.30. I dropped Veda a message that I will be starting and will keep in touch.

Bike geared up and a tank full of petrol I start my journey with butterflies in my stomach, part fear of the "wildlife", part fear of roads being blocked and having to do regular routes. This is easily going to be the most exciting day of the ride for me, unknown roads, forests, broken/non-existent roads ... what more could I ask for? The road from Chikmagalur to Kaimara and finally onward to Lingadahalli is beautiful, wide & smooth roads passing through plantations on both sides and with a backdrop of Baba Budangiri hills. And much to my surprise it is still very lush green despite the strong presence of summers. Then a small ghat section started which literally crossed over to the other side of the mountain and all the greenery literally vanished. It was dry and arid on the other side of the mountain, I felt as if I had entered another land.


I switched my phone's data back on and messages from Veda read, "We are delayed and will only be starting around 11.30, you ride easy". I was like WTF, I'm almost done with 45 Kms of my 145 Kms for the day and they have yet to start from Bangalore. It was already a few minutes over 10AM, I decided to change the plan and meet with them directly at Kalasa instead, that way I add about 40 Kms to my route and given that I probably have a long stretch of non-existent road ahead of me we could still meet without either one of us waiting for too long. So the order of the day was to 'take it easy', decided to ride easily and take lots of breaks for pictures. But my break here was cut short by a huge group of youngsters who decided to take a break right at my spot. I reached Lingadahalli and took a hard left going back almost in the same direction I came. Soon enough I was climbing up the mountain again and was riding right in the midst of massive estates on both sides. Sparse traffic and lush green trees made this an enjoyable ride. I was riding at a very relaxed pace, partly because of Mr. Veda's delayed start and partly because I was trying to mentally prepare myself for the forest ride. Took another long break of almost 20-25 minutes some 10 Kms before reaching Kemmangundi top.



No Airtel signal here, so I switched sim's and put in my BSNL sim into my android phone. Few messages from Veda again, at 10:30 AM he sent me a message saying he's starting in 20 minutes. That was good news, this meant I might not have to wait for long for them to catch up. After starting from here, soon enough I saw a board that I've been waiting to see all morning but never expected it to arrive so early. And with this sign board came bad (interesting in my dictionary) roads. After maybe about a kilometer the roads finally vanished altogether and it was just a very rough and bumpy track. Low ground clearance vehicles would need to maneuver with extreme care. I reached a Y junction, the road right in front was blocked by forest check post and the road going to my left went further up to Kemmangundi.



I knew that this forest check-post is the one I need to cross over to start my journey towards Balehonnur and beyond, not only did the road look far worse on the other side of the check-post but also the forest guard didn't seem to have that look which meant I can pass through the barricade, but more on that later. For now, I just head to the top of Kemmangundi. After 5 Kms of non-existent super fun roads, they reappeared again. Around the top of Kemmangundi there seems to be a lot development of resorts and pretty big ones at that. Tourism is killing the tourist places in India, sad but true. I reached the top only to find a dead end and the rest of journey to be done on foot. Not keen on walking with all my gear on in this heat that too up a hill, combined with the fact that I'd have to leave my luggage on the bike at the mercy of monkeys and the other type of monkeys called tourists




In light of Veda's last message, I decided not waste too much time and just head forward considering the 'unknown' nature of my route today. A few quick photos around the top and I was starting my descent back towards the forest checkpost. I was almost sure that the forest guard would ask to turn around and go back via Chikmagalur, more so because I was all alone on a bike. Much to relief and surprise he allowed me to pass through, but not before handing me a time-stamped receipt with my vehicle number which I was supposed to hand over at the next checkpost. Without wasting time and giving any time for the forest guard to change his mind I quickly made my way on the forest trail and vanished from sight. Quite rapidly the forest around me got thicker and the road, if I can call it that got more and more broken. I had no idea for how long will the roads be like this, in fact I half expected this to be the condition all the way till Balehonnur.


Two parts thrill, One part fear is what best summarized this section of road. The forest was so dense that at most places it formed a canopy over the road with sun light making it in only through the gaps in some branches. Over that the road was so broken that I was at best managing 25-30 Kmph on the "good" stretches. The Tiger attack news was still fresh in my mind and quite frankly if it was not for the forest opening up once in a while I would have shitting bricks already. And to be quite honest, stopping to take pictures was the last thing on my mind. But, I did muster the courage and took a quick break to capture the roads.




60% of my concentration was focused on the road ahead, 20% searching for imminent meat eating threats and the rest 20% enjoying the scenery. So you could say this was my 2 parts thrill and one 1 part fear.

The forest had just cleared up a little and to my left was the hill, out of nowhere all of a sudden I saw two huge brown 'things' jump right in front of me onto the road. The first second my mind just froze, I did not brake neither did I accelerate. The second felt like an hour and finally by the time the next second was complete, my mind realized that these were just harmless Sambars. They were running a little ahead of me and quickly took a right turn and vanished into the forest. Two seconds later I was breathing easily and the panic dissipated, luckily I did not do anything stupid like the jam the brakes and fall. But again my mind was alert, that these Sambars were obviously running from 'something'. In all probability, they must have gotten scared after hearing my bike and were trying to flee from me, or this is what the logical part of my brain reasoned. The other part just said, Run! Run! Run!. I did not stop and neither did the deep forest on both sides for almost the next 5 Kms. Throat parched due to heat and the adrenalin kicking in, I decided to take a break in the forest finally :


After this the forest thinned out and I came upon a road going along the side of the mountain, the dried up brown grass just got me thinking how would this look in the monsoons. After riding on this mountain side road for maybe about 1-2 Kms I entered forest again but this time it wasn't so dense and neither the roads were that bad. Soon enough the broken roads gave way to butter smooth tarmac, I was very tempted to whack open the throttle and ride the dust off both the tyres. Luckily for me I did not give into that temptation because the exit forest check post came at an almost blind corner, and I had been going all guns I sure would have had a hairy moment.



From here on the roads were butter smooth and it was apparent I was out of the forest since I was passing through small villages. My plan was ascend Baba Budangiri and that would complete my visit to the trio of Mullayangiri, Kemmangundi & Baba Budangiri. The twisties along with butter smooth tarmac just egged me to ride faster given that I was barely doing 10-20 kmph through the forest stretch. After a while I could see the road split along the mountain face into two directions this was my cue to check my phone GPS to be sure I was en-route to Baba Budangiri. Quite to my dismay, I had actually left behind the turn to Baba Budangiri almost 10 Kms from where I had stopped. I was in two minds whether to go back and climb up Baba Budangiri hills or head forward, the dilemma was heightened because I had no signal in either Airtel or BSNL, so I was only to assume Veda's last message still stands true. Given the distance between me and Balehonnur-Kalasa was at a minimum now, but I still had 40 Kms of riding through unknown forest roads still ahead of me. So I decided to take heed to the words of a wise man I know, 'Leave something for next time '.



I knew that despite all the bad roads through the forest from Kemmangundi and 'taking it easy' I was still quite ahead of Veda and would reach Kalasa much before him. The plan now was to take a lesser used and much lesser written about forest route through Muthodi forest. The diversion for this is supposed to right after Attigundi. I resumed riding and I was again back to blasting around the corners, I passed an unmarked 'Y' fork on the road, there were no directions written even in Kannada here. Desperate not to miss another turn and a hunch made me stop just ahead of the turn and switch on my phone GPS. Bingo! This was actually the turn to the hidden route via Muthodi forest. U-turn and a left turn later I was on a narrow road along the mountain face again. I thought I would make a GPS trail of this route for the benefit of others, but for some weird reason my GPS tracking app decides to crash. The road continued like this along the mountain for the next 4-5 Kms after which it transformed into a series of hair pin turns which meant I was rapidly descending and more importantly heading straight back into the forest. The last and only report I had about this route said it was broken and muddy, but from the looks of the tarmac on this stretch looked fresh and quite honestly I was a bit disappointed. But that was short lived and the big guy above had answered my prayers and the road just vanished after I think third or fourth hair pin turn.


Plunged deep into the forest with nothing but a bumpy road I thought I must start my worrying about 'threats' again, but somehow that never happened because even though I was in deep forest there was a touch of civilization almost all the way. Looks there were plantation estates going deep into the forest, sometimes I would pass through some huts along the mud road but apart from that not a single soul to be seen. The roads were muddy and non-existent, but less bumpier than the Kemmangundi stretch. Some patches I could even manage 60-70 Kmph, albeit bumping around but it was super fun. The pattern of coming across a small cluster of huts and then forest was a repeating theme. Suddenly in the middle of the forest I reached a place where there was a village market setup . I knew I was much closer to civilization then, because after off-roading for almost 40 Kms tarmac made a reappearance.



Tarmac even though it existed was alternating between smooth and broken, I passed through many villages before I finally landed up on SH 27 heading toward Balehonnur. I reached Badra Coffee shop around 3PM and decided to take a break to grab a bite and understand where is Mr. Veda. They only had Neer dosa and bread omlette, a hungry biker never complains, he just orders both items . After spending about half an hour eating lunch and giving my butt some rest from the bumpy roads it had seen last few hours, I started after dropping Veda a message since I had no updates from him except that he was having lunch at Channarayapattana. I knew that even though it was almost 3.45PM I was still ahead of Veda, I decided to take it even more easy now. I was riding at 40 Kmph riding at the easiest possible pace allowing every vehicle to overtake me. The last time I had done this route was in the peak of monsoons of 2011 and back then the road was butter smooth black top tarmac, as of now it was in a pretty bad state with road construction at multiple places.

As agreed with Veda earlier I was supposed to meet him at Kalasa, but when I reached there the little town was crowded and sunny. Not the kind of place where I wanted to stop, so I decided to head towards Kudremukh and wait someplace with lots of trees and away from all this crazy human population. At the outskirts of Samse the last village before entering Kudremukh there are tea gardens along the road, and this is some place where I have stopped during my earlier rides to Kudremukh.



I parked my bike at a tea stop, with a nice view. I sent Veda message that I have moved ahead of Kalasa and will wait for him and quite interestingly he was in Kalasa after about 15 minutes, but he was going to take a long break at one of the hotels where its almost a ritual for him to stop everytime. He invited me to come back too, but going back 10 Kms and then coming back again was something which was highly optimized in my mind. I just decided to sip tea with leaves fresh from the nearby tea gardens and waited for the next 45 minutes for Veda and his friend to catch up. The plan now was to secure a place to stay within Kudremukh itself, and this is something I'd never done before. Nice easy riding in the roads in Kudremukh National Park and soon enough we were in the township of Kudremukh Iron Ore Corporation.

Took some asking around to find the KIOCL guest house and when we reached there there was no electricity. For me Kudremukh has always an eerie ghost town, similar to the one from the movie Silent Hill. The hotel without electricity with its slightly dilapidated exteriors just add to its eerie enigma. After resting for a while, electricity came back. Veda was insistent on going back to Kalasa for dinner, agreed the food at this guest house would be nothing to brag about, but going back 20 Kms for dinner was not something I was keen about. And the only reason why I agreed was the fact that I would get to ride through Kudremukh in darkness, which was a superb experience. But the food at Kalasa was only masala dosa and a plate of meals I had been struck again by one of the famous 'Vedaisms' and this was not going to be the last one of the trip. The ride back was superb as well, but on entering KIOCL township I could not shake off the eerie feeling, compounded by the fact that electricity was again gone. After many days I had seen a night sky with so many stars, stupid me had forgotten to get my tripod and any of my attempts to click pictures from the room's balcony proved futile. So we just decided to call it a night, and we were thankful that the temperature had dropped to very comfortable limits, in fact it was starting to cold as the night progressed.

I lay in bed, thinking about my day and ride I had done today, I knew that this would be the most exciting day and the upcoming days will not match up to the excitement, I wish I could say I was proven wrong in the later days. But the fact was that LoneWolfRides bit of this ride was over (well almost!! ) and the upcoming stretches of road were not new to me. But then again, they were exciting as hell ....



To be continued ....

Day 3 : Teaser

Thanks!

Will be difficult to attach pictures to xBhp and then insert them into the Tlog. Plus I loose out on a lot of formatting capability if its hosted on xBhp. And if I had attached to xBhp, and hyperlinked to the larger resolution pictures it would still open them in a browser.

Thanks man

Wooot?? What time did you reach the check post? And which one, the one at Kemmangundi top or the one from the Baba Budangiri side?





____________________________
Sent using a Jedi mind trick !!

From Kemmangundi side at around 2 PM. Btw have you been to Z-point there? It has a separate route about a KM before you reach Kemmangundi's top point.