Re: A little bit of Karnataka

6 month old pending thread approved!

I guess you first need to buy a fridge and learn to cook better

Waiting for the beaches also

Re: A little bit of Karnataka

Longing to go there for quite sometime now. Wonderful start!
Looking forward to the updates; will the ninja, eventually show up?

Re: A little bit of Karnataka

Good start. Waiting for more!

Re: A little bit of Karnataka

Holding the helmet pic is brilliant, appeals of a hardcore rider. Nice start, bring on the rest.

Re: A little bit of Karnataka

Thank you for the quick approval..

Heh heh no, Ninja is only a recent acquisition

Thank you

Baikal Fort, Kerela

This place was only 90 or so kms from my college, so covered it as well. This fort is located right by the sea and that gives it much of its appeal. Otherwise there is nothing grand about it, and frankly this doesn't look much of a challenge for a determined attack. Its basically a largely empty area surrounded by walls with a few out posts. There arent too many other places to visit nearby afaik so if you don't visit this place you won't really lose out too much. It was really hot and sunny when we visited this place and perhaps that is why we did not enjoy it that much.

Anyway the fort:




The view from the fort is amazing. Just after the rains meant the greenery was at its peak.








Yours truly..








Other reasons we did not enjoy the ride were extremely bad drivers of Kerela, and equally bad roads.. Take this as word of caution, be extremely careful if you go that side. We saw lot of truck accidents but that had no effect on the way people were driving. Car drivers were worse. On a two lane highway a car will just overtake a truck, even if that means you have to get down the road, the car will not even reduce speed and completely ignore you. On a short ride inside the Kerela border this happened more times than I could count.

Be really careful.

There aren't many good places to eat in that area, but there is a resort with restaurant adjoining the fort. Good ambiance and good food..

The entrance to the resort





Jog Falls

Not many images here, this place was ~190 kms from my college and there were some really bad roads. Also otal of eight motorcycles went, this meant slower average speeds. The day consisted of riding more than 14 hrs. But all in all a good day.

Also we chose to go after the rains, so the you won't see Niagara falls kind of images for which Jog is famous. The reason being that once the water subsides you can go all the way to bottom, at full flow the stairs are blocked. So decide if you want to take pictures or a bath in the pool..

Some small random waterfall on the way



The mighty Jog Falls



I don't have pictures of the road but there were tons of twisties and as is the case with everywhere in that region, the entire route was jam packed with natural beauty. In coming images lot of those areas will be covered.

Re: A little bit of Karnataka

Kondadri (Kundadri) Hills

You know how some places are a source of great joy,they don't feature in too many tourist maps, there just aren't enough tourist attractions to be worth the detour. But a source of joy they are.

Located at a height of above 800 meters Kundadri Hlls near Agumbe ghat is one such place. We went there mid rains,but we were mostly dry (on the peak that is), the rain clouds that did reach us just did not have enough water at that altitude to drench us. The worst they could manage was a mild misty drizzle, and that's a gift if you ask me.

We hardly covered 200 kms but it took us over 12 hours. Long breaks, beauty and some detours were the culprit.

If you come from Manipal/Udupi side, this is the way to Seetha nadi camp, before Agumbe, its an adventure sports camp..




The road starts...




It ends, and how...





In the background is Agumbe Ghat





Some random waterfall we tried to climb, apart from King Cobras this place has tons of Vipers and Kraits and Monocled and Spectacled Cobras. We were really careful to avoid any hidden vipers, they are really small and can strike like lightning. Back in the college snakes were really commonplace and everybody had seen vipers (hump nosed pit viper and kraits being the most common)





View from Agumbe Ghats





This little critter tore my seat cover.. But I was thankful, my keys were still in the ignition and the pitiful animal left them there, even though monkeys in that area have a reputation for taking your keys and sending you down a thousand feet trek to find them




Teeming with King Cobras, they are trying to make Agumbe the world's first King Cobra sanctuary (Romulus Whitaker the legend from Chennai has been fighting for this). There is this Agumbe Rain Forest Research Centre (ARRC) in the Jungle, we decided to visit the place. Below pics from resulting off-roading required to get there. We hoped to see some king cobras, but sadly the centre did not have any that they were studying (they are striclty against captivity). There were some students living in the centre, so if any body is interested, take a prior permission, contact them and they misght take you to trek in 'real' jungle.





The dense forest and narrow trail suddenly clears up and then as suddenly closes again.




View from somewhere I don't remember..





The white protion is dense fog coming our way











The only good section of the route..

















The place was so windy that in one careless moment I almost slipped off the hill. There is slippery moss all around and there is no fence around the hill.

On the way back, below is the road at 4 in the evening...




Discalimer: This is a 6 year old 9 mp digicam, I am a bad photographer and somehow the images have come off worse then they seem to be on my computer screen..

Re: A little bit of Karnataka

Images are still far better than some taken with a 16MP camera I've seen. Loved your log.

Re: A little bit of Karnataka

Hey thanks a ton man..

Kudremukh and Hanuman Gundi

Kudremukh is basically a trekking place and you need forest department's permission if you are planning to camp overnight. Nevertheless this place offers breathtaking routes for motorcycles. There is a small peaceful mining township there and the whole area has the laziness typical of a small easygoing town.

It is ideal for one of those days you just want to wander on your motorcycle with no particular aim when you just want to lazily ride your motorcycle taking in the sights.. There are dense forests and clear green cover in their midst, rivers and waterfall. Just a place you want to sit and relax and enjoy a can of coke, or a beer if you are camping overnight.




Google map showed a huge water body.. well at least there was empty space





You can see dense forest in the background. That is how Kudremukh is, the hills are covered with grass rather than trees even though they are located in dense forests. I don't know the reason for this. Makes for a good trekking experience though.





Riding buddy..









This is Hanuman gundi. Skip this place. We reached within 15 minutes of it opening and the place was already crowded. There are two pools, the one behind me is difficult to reach and a bit dangerous, the other pool was so full of people that we decided not to go. There are lots of stairs you have to climb down to reach the falls, then climb up of course. Just not worth the effort, many more spectacular falls in the region.

Re: A little bit of Karnataka

Pics are awesome.

Re: A little bit of Karnataka

This little bit of Karnataka is very good...

Re: A little bit of Karnataka

Once again, very good pics.

Re: A little bit of Karnataka

Beautiful pics mate.. Keep them coming..
The second pic.. "Facebook Narcissism", couldn't have put it better..

Re: A little bit of Karnataka

:thumbup:

Sent from my GT-I8262 using xBhp Connect mobile app

Re: A little bit of Karnataka

Chikmagalur

This was without doubt the best trip I had in the college. We went just after the rains and that is the best season to visit the place. We made the mistake of staying in the hotel as the home stays on internet were quite expensive. But if you go there you will surely find multitude of cheaper stays in the middle of nature.

Covering whole of Chikamaglur in a day is easy, you get tourist maps everywhere and all the places are more or less a single road, small detours and you can cover the whole of the place.

We also visited some other places on the way, starting with Sringeri:





The Sringeri temples












A friend who rode pillion with me, I forgot the name of this waterfall but it very near Sringeri, visit in the morning and the place will not be crowded. Really good place to splash in the natural pool. Must visit if you want to bathe in the pool.





This coffee shop on the way to Chikmagalur from Manipal just says Coffee Shop Badra stop. Good coffee and awesome home made rum chocolates.





Now Chikmagalur..





The roads were really good for the most part, we rode over 250 kms on the hills. That's 250 kms of twisties in a day. For whole of the day we were riding high up in the mountains with dozens of waterfalls, coffee farms and deep jungle all around. Add thick cloud cover (at times difficult to see 20 feet ahead) to that and you have a day well spent.






The same friend at Mullayangiri peak, the highest point in Karnataka.




A normal view throughout the ride

















Random pool high up in the mountains, we found couple of these pools. It was strange, I had never before seen ponds at such high altitude.








The tourist map takes you through Bhadra wildlife sanctuary for 20 kms. It is amusing how the road deteriorates right at the start of the sanctuary (there are different rules to make roads in sanctuaries due to disturbance to wildlife). Smack at the barrier the bad roads start, quickly turning in to no roads.

And mind you below is not the worst section of the road. The motorcycle performed beautifully and the pillion never had to get down from the bike. The Ninja just can't do that with stock tyres..





This is at Belur some 35 kms from Chikmagalur, couple of beautiful temples at that place. The stone work is awe inspiring..








Picked off the below image from Google images. I saw this place in some other thread as well. This place is a MUST visit. Had one of the best coffees of my life here and undoubtedly the best omelettes. This place is called Coffe Barn. Also vist Sapricorn burgers on the way to coffee museum, again amazing burgers especially the oriental burger..