Re: ZMR,DUKE.Bangalore-Mullayanagiri-Jog-Gokarna-Goa.

Travelogue Approved

Re: ZMR,DUKE.Bangalore-Mullayanagiri-Jog-Gokarna-Goa.

now start pouring in

Re: ZMR,DUKE.Bangalore-Mullayanagiri-Jog-Gokarna-Goa.

I was regularly searching for a goa trip from past few weeks. Thanks bro. Would like to know about the road conditions. Waiting for the rest.

Re: ZMR,DUKE.Bangalore-Mullayanagiri-Jog-Gokarna-Goa.

Nice start. Waiting for the rest.

Re: ZMR,DUKE.Bangalore-Mullayanagiri-Jog-Gokarna-Goa.

Jog had more water when I had visited in july. Wonder what happened.
Anyway, waiting for the log and more pics

Re: ZMR,DUKE.Bangalore-Mullayanagiri-Jog-Gokarna-Goa.

You guys met each other on the way to Bisle Ghat uneventually and now making it to explore western ghats both of eventually. Amazing biker brotherhood. Nice rid and pics. waiting for the rest of the log.

Re: ZMR,DUKE.Bangalore-Mullayanagiri-Jog-Gokarna-Goa.

Thanks for the comments, I will be starting with the log soon. Unfortunately, typing is pretty painful right now (since my right hand is still not fully funtional). Will start the full description of this log very soon. Sorry for the delay

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This is one thing xbhp has taught me for sure.

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Thanks Monk Sir for such a quick approval.

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Sure, will do

Re: ZMR,DUKE.Bangalore-Mullayanagiri-Jog-Gokarna-Goa.

Sorry for the extreme delay from my part, I thought it would be better if I started this trip-log once I am alright. So, without further delay, let's start the journey with a phrase
Leh dekha, Sikkim dekha, Kanyakumari dekha, Gujrat dekha BUT
Monsoon mein western ghat nahi dekha, toh kya dekha !! !
Please understand this is not a phrase to mock these famous destinations, it's just a phrase both of us came up with in our Bisle trip. I have been to most of the places mentioned above, but believe me there is something abput western ghats during monsoon that none of the above match up to. Of course there are personal preferences but I tend to be more inclined towards dense forests, damp soil, leeches, week long rain, less or no tourists, absolute silence, and of course complete darkness. Being from Jharkhand has its effect you see.
So, here goes -
Day 1 : Chikamagalur-Mullyangiri-Tarikere-Shimoga-Sagar-Jog Falls
Sorry for the extreme delay from my part, I thought it would be better if I started this trip-log once I am alright. So, without further delay, let's start the journey with a phrase -
Leh dekha, Sikkim dekha, Kanyakumari dekha, Gujrat dekha BUT
Monsoon mein Western Ghats nahi dekha, toh kya dekha !! !
Please understand this is not a phrase to mock these famous destinations, it's just a phrase both of us came up with in our Bisle trip. I have been to most of the places mentioned above, but believe me there is something about Western Ghats during monsoon that none of the above match up to. Of course there are personal preferences but I tend to be more inclined towards dense forests, damp soil, leeches, weeklong rainfall, less or no tourists, absolute silence, and of course no electricity. Being from Jharkhand has its effect you see.
So, here goes -
Day 1 : Chikamagalur-Mullyangiri-Tarikere-Shimoga-Sagar-Jog Falls



We had decided to leave early this time, around 3:00 A.M. Idea was to reach Chikamagalur early morning and have a nice cup of coffee with garma-garam idlis. I had already messaged Sid about the things he needed to bring along with him, this being his first long ride. I woke up on time (rarely happens !), all the essentials were already packed the night before so I was done with packing in just 10 minutes. A note here for people travelling during heavy monsoon - inspite of having a proper rain cover for your respective saddle bags and tank bags, have a primary layer of waterproofing because no matter how hard you try, water will seep in. I consulted experienced riders ( @saquib, @suvrajit Ganguly @Divya bhai) before I started, and used a sheet of tarpaulin to cover the entire saddle bag properly leaving space for the buckles. On top of that I placed the standard issue rain-cover provided from NH4 motorheads. I skipped my tank bag this time as I thought my Cramster Hippo would suffice. Packing done, I went down and prepared the bike and did some initial checks to ensure everything was in pristine condition. Surprisingly, the thing I thought was the easiest, ended up taking most time of packing, I struggled to keep the flag firmly placed. At last, I used the spare RVM slot(Which I suppose only ZMR has) and taped the flag firmly. This hard work paid off in the end as the flag was still there in it's place even after the accident, my fairing was broken, but the flag remained intact. Finally, after 10 minutes of packing, 40 minutes of freshening up anf 15 minutes to place the flag firmly, I was ready to leave.


Next stop was Nice road-Bannerghata road junction where Sid was waiting for me. I stopped at electronic city fly-over to let the excitement sink-in, there were a few cars parked there, mostly college students. They shouted from other side of the road - Happy Independence Day !! !
The horizon was staring at me, next three days will be all about open highways, forest and beaches, I winked at the open sky and said - Happy Independence Day indeed !! !



Next up, I met Sid and we rode till Neelamangala toll gate for our chai. We rode non-stop till hassan, sun was shining and Duke needed petrol. we stopped at a toll gate near hassan and decided to have breakfast there. There was a small shop nearby, we asked for idli, shopkeeper said - hath nimisha, Sir(10 minutes sir), we had tea but after 15 minutes, food was still not ready. We decided to have tea and bun instead. around 30 minutes of stop here.


We crossed Chikamagalur and my tab was helping us navigate through traffic really well. I was searching for a place called 'town canteen', unable to locate it, we went straight to Mullyangiri. This was a destination I had always wanted to come to, I've heard a lot about this place. To sum up the experience I had at this place I would say it was disappointing. Being a holiday, this place was crowded to an extent of giving M.G road a run for its money (Bangalore guys, you know what I mean) . The place was full of irresponsible riders, shouting and howling all along along with passing comments on ladies. What was surprising that family around that area were not responding as if it's a norm there. Anyway, we parked our bikes and started the climb up to the peak


The wind speed was like a typohoon, we saw many people stopping along the way and returning back as the wind was so harsh. And yes, the cold - I, being pretty fat, generaly withstand cold pretty well, but this one took me by surprise. The temperature difference between Chikamagalur and this place was vast. While returning back, I wore my helmet as the wing gushing through my ears was causing pain !

After the descent, we saw a group of people sorrounding our bikes, most of them were the hooligans we had overtaken on our way up. They dissapeared in a jiffy when we sat on our bikes. a group of them stayed back, they were looking at us and their bikes were Bangalore registered. One of them came up to me and asked if I am from xbhp, proudly I said yes and we had a good, healthy discussion on importance of safety gear and things to keep in mind while going for a long trip on a 2-wheeler. We informed them that we had plans of moving to Kudremukh from there. Immediately, the suggestion of not going there cropped up, one of them was a local from that area and said that there is some kind of conflict going on there and forest is closed for visitors. I discussed with Sid and we decided to cancel the plan and move to Kodachadri instead where we would meet up with @phanikar's group.


We, came back and stopped at a tea stall and Sid suggested to skip Kudramukh and Kodachadri altogether and move directly to Jog falls. He was worried that he might not be able to make the climb of Kodachadri in such tough conditions. We had a chat with the tea-stall uncle and he too suggested to skip Kudremukh. Meanwhile, we got along well with him discussing about the fuss that is created in such a serene place by irresponsible rowdies, I said I was pretty dissapointed to come this far and see all this. He suggested a different route and asked us to go for a quick round trip of 20kms and suggested that we would get nice photographs there and it's free of tourists.
It's one of the things I love about Karnataka, in fact India as a whole, once you strike a chord with the dhaba guy or tea-stall waale bhaiya, they suggest you places and give you tips that no amount of experience or Google search can give you.



Boy, oh boy, was he right, this small detour turned out to be highlight of our trip so far.


After clicking a few pictures, we went back to the same shop and had tea again. I thanked him for his valuable suggestion. I called up @phanikar form here and confirmed that we wont be joining him and his group, he gave us valuable input on the routes to take and things to be careful about on the way, we wished each other and started our next leg towards Jog falls.





The route from Mullyangiri to Tarikere was awsesome, the weather kept changing moods - Bright sunlight,clods hovering on top,heavy rain, light dizzle, we encountered everything within those few kilometers. An absolute delight for a biker. The curves were icng on the cake to say the least. Just before Tarikere, we decided to stop and prepare for heavy rainfall ahead, and we were right. from there on till Shimoga, it was raining cats and dogs.




By now, we were hungry and it was around 2:00 p.m. We crossed Shimoga and had to take a little detour becuase some bridge construction was going on near that area. After getting rid of heavy traffic in Shimoga, we made a run towards Sagar. The sun had shimmered soen a bit and rain had stopped, there was a beautiful strech of highway just before Sagar, time to stop and take some snaps


After this, with our rain gears still on, we started our last leg of the day, towards Jog falls, I have a strict policy of not riding at night in unknown territory unless there is a group of atleast 5 riders. I wanted to reach there before dark and Sid agreed. We saw two ninjas MH registration coming back with helment mounts. As the custom goes, thumbs up were exchanged and we carried on. We had one more halt at the famous bridge that comes just before Jog falls. We stopped there and once I had my camera and I looked at the setting through my view finder, one thing struck me. Oh! I am in middle earth and this is a shot from LOTR !! ! I was delighted, a bit of fog, evening lighting, water, rocks, trees, the sound of water gushing through rocks, what more can a human being ask for. The pictures truly don't do justice to what I witnessed there. Once again, it was proved beyond doubt that it's not the destination, rather the journey that counts





We reached Jog falls, it was raining, Sid got on to searching for rooms and the area was too crowded by its standards. I took a small walk till the viewpoint, it was almost dark, but the water of the fall was shining, giving it a strange mysterious look. I could not take my camera out, Sid came searching for me and said - Beta, fas gaye, Rajnikant aaya hua hai idhar, uske fans aur crew waale bhare hai idhar,rooms yen illa magaa (Translation - We are screwed man, it seems Rajnikant is here for a shoot and beacuse of that most of the rooms around jog and Sagar are taken up either by his crew or his fans). The search for stay started from here on, we tried to avoid agents as much as we could but finally succumbed to one, the price quoted was 600. He guided to a nearby establishment, but when we saw the room, we ended up laughing aloud, it was small,smelly and no ceiling fan. On top of that he said this is the good room !! ! not the 600rs one, this was for a 1000 bucks. I saluted his audacity and said goodbye immediately. This led to an argument was the guy was now demanding 200 just for guiding us to this place. We obviosly did not pay him a penny and Sid suggested something which we all need to learn in timed like these. We spotted a tea-stall nearby, ordered for tea and got into conversation with the owner. He smiled after hearing the price quoted but at the same time warned us that prices are really high right now, he pointed towards one of the houses nearby and said the owner is nice and we can directly talk to him without worrying about agents. We saw the room, it was not nice par se but the owner seemed really nice and understood our requirement as riders, we finally decided to stay (for 1000 which was still very steep price), and were off to a nearby hotel for a delicious dinner. The legacy lived on - while changing there was a lot of blood near my ankle and a dead leech, I must have crushed it unknowingly !!. I checked the saddle bag for current state of our garments and was relieved to that not a single drop had seeped in. Left my shoe under the fan with newpaper (a trick I learned from earlier trip logs) and we were off to sleep in no time.
END of day one.. .

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Internet speed is really slow at my place, so I could manage only one good size photograph, others have been highly compressed (from sizes of 8-10 mb range to around 600kb-800kb range).

Re: ZMR,DUKE.Bangalore-Mullayanagiri-Jog-Gokarna-Goa.

Nice.
I was in the same area on the same dates

Re: ZMR,DUKE.Bangalore-Mullayanagiri-Jog-Gokarna-Goa.

Which bike ??

Re: ZMR,DUKE.Bangalore-Mullayanagiri-Jog-Gokarna-Goa.

Red Avenger

Re: ZMR,DUKE.Bangalore-Mullayanagiri-Jog-Gokarna-Goa.

Nice t'log. Enjoyed the pics and the narration.

Re: ZMR,DUKE.Bangalore-Mullayanagiri-Jog-Gokarna-Goa.

Superb

Sent from my GT-I8262 using xBhp Connect mobile app

Re: ZMR,DUKE.Bangalore-Mullayanagiri-Jog-Gokarna-Goa.

Awesome narration bro! Cool! Pics look good!