Thread moved to touring section.

Thanks everyone !!! It pumps me up to write a detailed trip log by midnight tonight

@vinfreak: The route got changed due to some maintenance work going on at my friend's home, so wanted to post-pone going to Kasargod... As everyone else suggested, we thought of making it to Kudremukh & other places and tatz how it all started and ended with a much higher note

Western Ghats - a set on FlickrFlickr: Pranesh ---- Born with a Bike :-)'s stuff tagged with charmudi

Kudremukh is such a lovely place. Seems the greenery has increased more now than 6 months ago. The roads are inviting me, feel like going again there and have a nice ride.

Need to say the pics are lovely?? Of course.

Thanks a lot Ravi... Since the place had rains, greenery could be seen everywhere ... Bliss to the eyes, and trust me, the pics doesn't do any justice to the actual place @ all... See if you can make it during post-monsoon, that'd be the best time to visit these places...

@ All: Will post day 2 trip log by end of day today...

@ Pranesh: Again some nice set of pics..i just loved the place for its greenery and quality of the roads ...

Nice Pics there ... Go Green !!

Pranesh, the place was greener when we visited, and it is more greener now. I decided on the 'same road' that I am gonna come after the monsoons to this place. I am waiting for that time to come.

You are right, the pics do not do the full justification to the real beauty of this place. You definitely need to have a wide angle of 18 mm to 24mm to capture the landscapes there. But, good to see your pics.

Awesome pics there Pranesh! Lovely ride and rides Waiting for the rest!

Trip Log for Day 2:

@ All, Thanks a lot for the complements... As promised (though a bit late ), here goes the trip log of day 2...

Day 2 Trip Log:

Since we didn’t had any sleep the previous night, we were dead tired and had a nice sleep… Had kept my alarm at 5:00 AM, plan was to leave at the earliest so that we can cover Kudremukh during morning hours…Could hear the sound of rain , so extended the sleep by an hour and reluctantly got up @ 6:00 AM to kick start day 2 … Since we had a nice sleep, all the tiredness of previous day had gone & it was such a great feeling… Could feel the air a bit cold due to the rain and everything was just too good… Got ready and were ready to leave by 7:30 AM or so, paid respects to Sri Annapoorneshwari and off we went…. Target to reach Chickmagalur by end of the day, which was by no means was a tough task, decided to take as many photo breaks as we want …

Had breakfast at Kalasa and Biju checked his fuel level, and gestured that he wants to fill in again , this time around he filled for about Rs. 300 or so, my fuel indicator was showing a little less than FULL & when I doubly checked by opening the fuel I was pretty convinced that I don’t need it till we get back The roads were just too good and we started moving towards Kudremukh with twists & turns… It was nice, pleasant, breezy, perfect conditions for biking … All of a sudden we spot Tea Estates on the left side… We stop immediately and climb on top of it for photo session, posing like super models … I remember seeing the same set of pics in Praful’s / Prajwal’s gallery, this place is very prominent & it opens up suddenly, no wonder everyone stops here … In fact during my previous trip in Dec 2005, I stopped at the same point for our photo-session & it was flash-back of everything… When we were taking pics, we could hear sound of water, and sensed there should be some water body in the vicinity and thought of exploring it & ventured into a small lane on the other side of the Tea plantation & what did we find??? Surprise !!! A small stream with a wooden hanging bridge built by the locals… Just took the pics and didn’t attempt to play any spoil-sport by damaging it in anyway… It looked very basic bridge to reach the other side…





We were about to start and suddenly I smelt petrol, was wondering where its coming from and suddenly I see it leaking from the lid of RE Just see in the above pic, how the RE was parked on the side-stand, this guy had just filled up fuel and some of it has already leaked… Its hardly giving him 30 / ltr and on top of it, leakage problem, felt bad for him and off we go

On the way, saw beautiful road that led to one of the estate, an interesting temple at a height, a traditional house, a hut in the mid of the field… Found them good subjects for my photography… Locals were already staring at us as if we are some kind of aliens with our lids, protective gear etc… Probably they wouldn’t have seen anyone in that attire during their entire life-time… We could feel the curiosity in their eyes and they were inching closer , before they’d come to us & ask for mileage of this bike, we set off from there





Now, that we had enough of starters, it was time to taste the main course… In this case, it was Kudremukh… It was sharp 9:00 AM when we reached the check-post and we had time till 10:30 to cover 42 kms to the other check-post… Was very much required to maintain the pace (@ 60 kmph ) and also to cover all the photo check-points @ Kudremukh… The first stop we made was on the bridge, was taking the pics and all of a sudden, Biju suggests “Doooooooood, this place is awesome, why not we go there and take some snaps , I was shell-shocked at his suggestion and immediately scrapped saying it’ll take us lotta time… But this fella was v.reluctant and convinced me (or rather confused me) that it won’t take more than 20 mins to go there, take pics and come back… I was giving a serious thought and was busy with my camera, in the meanwhile, he went to check the feasibility of the route & in next 2 mins I find him off-roading on that monster on the pebbles near the water body… Took his pics and I also joined him , then came a thought in my mind… Even if we’re late by an hour, they might penalize Rs. 100 per hour, damn don’t want to far yet so close (Or probably the other way round )… Full credit goes to Biju for being adamant, else wouldn’t have made to this place…

Spot Biju in the next couple of pics




Attaining Nirvana @ Kudremukh


We both took some pics and left that place in next 20 mins or so… Since we’d spent reasonably good time near the water body, it became more than a necessity to cover rest of the distance with bare minimum stops… The roads were just too good / inviting and it was a bliss to drive with absolutely no bad patch throughout the entire stretch , but that didn’t tempt us from crossing 60 kmph … In between took some pics while riding and at one point, it’s a straight stretch and the only thing you can see ahead of you is a big mountain and as it was as if watching some kinda 3D movie, tried to capture it on lens, but I’d say the pic is not even 0.01% of the actual place…

Watch Out !!! Mountain Ahead:


Curvy Roads:


Came across a small stream while crossing a bridge, since the water was too less didn’t spend any time there and moved ahead… This falls will looks stunning during the rainy season…

When we were proceeding further we suddenly saw a small trekkable route on the right side and we hit the breaks to explore the track…. Wow !!! It was an off-roading track and there was a few tyre marks already, we went in there, took some pics, the view from there was just too good and we were approaching the deadline and off we went…



We had very less time to cover the distance and I decided to cruise and reach the check-post early, hand-over both our receipts and inform the officials that he’s coming behind…. Probably for the first time during this trip that I revved hard and on a couple of occasions, hit the 3-digit mark… Must say, Uni’s got a great control at corners and amazing stability… Could test the road-grip to the limits and within no time, reached the check-post and informed the same to the guards… Waited for 5 mins, then could see Biju coming and his excitement was pretty much evident on his face … The first thing he uttered was “Dude, let’s make it to this place again during monsoons” & I willfully agreed…

It was somewhat humid and we had a couple of tender coconuts and started a conversation with the locals about the route we should be taking… Since we were planning to reach Hebri & then to Agumbe, we were asked to take a right turn after going 1 km… Straight route would have taken us to Karkala… The short-cut would save about 5 kms or so, but the most important thing was that the short-cut would take us through the country-side… The road was narrow (single road), but it cut through paddy, banana, coconut, arecanut fields, cut through many small bridges and we were going at a leisure pace as we knew we’d plenty of time at our disposal

Came across a small village, from here left turn would have taken us to Hebri and straight would have taken to Agumbe… We went straight and after going some distance, we spotted a small river on the left-side, since we’d been driving continuously for quite some time, we decided to rest for a while… The water was really cold and it was so refreshing to freshen up… We could see school of fishes in the river and took some pics… The water was quite clean and had we had time we could have got into water





Proceeded towards Agumbe, and in no time we reached to the top… One of the difference between Agumbe & other ghat sections of Karanataka is that Agumbe is very steep and the whole distance from foot of the hill till the sun-set is less than 10 kms or so, whereas other ghats are not so steep and they go on for a good distance… Wish we could have come to this place during sun-set time, but we’d reached this place at almost 12:30 or so…

Agumbe from the foot of the hill:


Hair-Pin Bend:
Could see heavy vehicles having hell of a time to make it to the top…



From Agumbe, Chickmagalur is about 135 kms or so with amazing roads… The route which we took was via Balehonnur, Aldur and should say this stretch was equally good… One more opportunity to test the road-grip of my bike to the limits… There were innumerable zig-zag curves and it was such an amazing experience to drive through that route… In terms of driving during this trip, I’d rate it only second to Kudremukh stretch… I was constantly cursing myself for not having a camera mount onto my bike … Since RE had almost clocked around 1200 kms on its odo, Biju was able to increase the speeds to 70 kmph or so and it was great fun…

Stopped at once place to rest and the place was so clean that we couldn’t resist ourself from lying on the ground and rest for a while


After covering some distance, we came across a very old bridge on the left-side… Am quite sure, this should been a very old bridge, was more like a classic stuff…



Proceeded further towards Chickmagalur and reached there by around 3:30 PM… Since we’d reached early we were contemplating whether to call it a day or take the risk of going to Kemmangundi without prior reservation… Tried to call up the guest house, nobody picked , since we hadn’t had our lunch, we decided to have heavy evening snacks… After conversing with the hotel manager we gotta know that many people have come due to long weekend and it wouldn’t be a good idea to go there without any reservations… He suggested us a few lodges on the bus stand road and without any problem, we got it pretty easily for Rs. 450/- Since there wasn’t much of driving that day, we were not so tired, had a cold-water shower and it was very refreshing… Got in touch with the locals to get all the details about next day’s trip to Bababudanagiri / Kemmangundi… They suggested us to make to B.B.Giri first and then to Kemmanagundi & also gotta know that the drive till Kemmangundi is very bad and might take more than 2 hours to cover 40 odd kms … The whole thought about bad roads was scary … Had dinner in the nearby hotel and called the day…

Day 2 had been extremely satisfying with drive through Tea Estates, Kudremukh, country roads, Agumbe, drive through ghats / coffee estates near Aldur…

*P.S: Biju's still looking for Red Bull, to his luck, we found this on the route, though its not a red bull, but a brown cow , I know it’s a big PJ , please haveit with a pinch of salt



Hope you’ve enjoyed the trip log till now !!! Will post Day 3 logs through B.B.Giri, Kemmangundi will be posted at the earliest…. If Day 2 was more about the drive, Day 3 was more about landscaping, photography etc… and not to mention really bad roads @ Kemmangundi and scary story about man-eating leopards

Stay tuned !!!

Cheers,
Pranesh

Man eating leopards...where? I wanna go there too

Nice log and a beautiful set of pics! Kudremukh stretch looks like it was pretty empty. I too was very tempted to go down that bridge where you had gone, but lack of time coupled with me riding solo meant I had just carry on ...Next time!

Sirjee...plz lemme know too..after seeing all the pics...i too want to visit the place...can't resist more..

I will start saving for it right away...

Sakkat trip log and Bombat pics Pranesh.
Really loved it...
Waitng for day3 and man eating leapord

Have done this Few months back.....
Team Bikers: Mullayangiri Biking and Camping

The last & final day trip log...

@ All, I had this drafted long time and completely forgot to post it, sorry for that ... Here goes the trip log of the last & final day of the trip…

Day 3:
It started @ 5 AM on a Sunday morning and we decided to leave the hotel by 5:30 AM or so… Saddle-bags are just great when you’re driving, and probably the worse thing to carry around… Took only the camera / tripod and off we went towards Kadur… Suddenly Biju checks his fuel level and says “Doooooood, with close to a 100 kms to drive both ways, don’t think my bull will make it without a refill”. The last thing we wanted to do is to drag it all the way back… No taking chances when it comes to empty tank for a BULL… It kinda delayed our by about 15 minutes hunting for a decent fuel station… This time around Biju fills worth Rs. 350 and I fill for only Rs. 200 … The roads were inviting and really good till we make it to the left deviation which leads to Kemmangundi / Bababudanagiri / Mullainagiri (Straight road would have taken to Kadur)…

The road started getting bumpy from here on and it was becoming difficult to maintain the speeds , there was a left deviation which would have lead to Mullaiyanagiri, heard it from few of the friends who made it recently that the road to M.Giri is really bad … Came across a couple of small villages… Its so amazing to see these people fully content with whatever little they have , whereas we city-dwellers complain for every small thing… Came across the route-map wherein we’d to take a right turn to reach B.B.Giri and road further would have taken to K.Gundi… Our first photo-stop was that of Sun-rise and it was good to see Sun-rise with clear sky after a long long time … (Most of the ventures to Nandi Hills were disappointing due to clouds )



After moving for a certain distance we finally reach B.BGiri… It’s so heartening to see this place being littered everywhere around, thanks to hell lotta ppl who make it in lorries, jeeps and every transport available meant for mass transfer… Didn’t stop anywhere as we feared people asking mileage of the BULL , since mine was also a limited edition bike, everyone were giving a long / continuous stare at us … After driving for a couple of kms we reached the view point, my previous visit to this place was back in July 2006 and the place was awesome during then, but this it was good but not much greenery… The cliff reminded me of the end-of-the-world of Lord’s Must Be Crazy…. Spent sometime taking pics and off we went, then came across another off-roading route and we took our steeds to the top and the view was just too good…







Its been almost 8 AM and we decided to make move fast as we had a big litmus paper test to pass { Road to K.Gundi}… As we proceeded further, the quality of the roads started getting deteriorated … The more we went ahead the more bad the roads would get … There are quite a few water springs one might encounter on the way and we stopped at only such spring… The water was so refreshingly tasty, that it would kill all our exhaustion and we’d get charged up again…



There are so many view-points where one can park the bike safely and enjoy the view of the landscape, the greenery was very refreshing to the eyes … The only time Biju could move ahead of me was when the road was v.v.bumpy… He was quite ahead of me and by the time I reached this point, he was conversing with a man who was in his early 40’s or so… He happened to be native of Raichur but was working in one of the estate for the past 18 years or so… He told us about the life in the wild, estate, away from civilization, advantages, disadvantages basically almost about everything we wanted to know … I was busy taking the pics and Biju was doing the questionnaire… He wanted a lift till K.Gundi and Biju readily accepted to give a ride on his BULL… He also had the same question which everyone else had (Yes, you guessed it right , the mileage of his bike )…



It’s only during this journey that he told about the scary stories of man-eating leopards which has till date killed 3 men traveling on that route… As per him, it’d be camouflage itself on some branch of the tree and would hop on only if one’s on bike and he stops, he suggested us to honk horn all the while and not to stop near the trees… As per him, one of the forest ranger was killed in a similar fashion, wherein he stopped his bike mid-way to make some observations during evening hours … They’d hunt on humans only if they become very desperate and don’t find anything to eat… He also mentioned about other wildlife that exists in that region and also that no one would venture out after sun-set… Not sure to what extent his story is true, but he was hell-scared when narrating these set of events and it was clearly visible in his eyes… It might be his own story just to make us drive faster till K.Gundi so that he could save up sometime without photo-shoot stops, but his expressions didn’t look fake in anyway, didn’t feel its worth to ignore his words … The last stretch till K.Gundi was probably the worse thing to drive during our entire trip and by the time we reached K.Gundi it was almost 10 AM… Parked the bikes and was a bit confused what to do next ??? We decided to make it to Hebbe Falls first and if time permits we’ll make it to Z-Point, Sun-Set point etc… Since we hadn’t had anything to eat since morning, decided to have something, the only thing that was available was Bread-Omlette and that’s something I can’t have, so settled with Biscuits… That’s when a couple of guys approached us and suggested to take the bikes, he gave every possible reason as to why we should go by bikes and not by jeep which was kinda strange to us… His version was that the jeep charge flat Rs. 700/- per trip and since we’re only 2 of us, its difficult to get a group and also that it wont have flexibility of time etc… They offered that they’ll render the services as guide wherein they’ll take us on our bikes to Hebbe Falls, curiously we asked the charges, shocked to see the reply as Rs. 300/- only … Since Biju’s bike was new, we didn’t want to risk engine revving harder… So dropped the idea and luckily, there was a family of 4 ppl who were looking for more ppl to join their group, we joined them and we made it to Hebbe Falls… It was a very bumpy ride all the way till the Khoday’s Estate, it’s somewhat risky, but definitely not worth the hype it gets… If a rider is skilled and he drives cautiously, he can easily make it without falling …

Khoday’s Estate:


Hebbe Falls:


Spent sometime at the Falls, took some pics and we returned back to the K.Gundi where we parked our bikes… It was almost 1:30 PM and we had to reach Bangalore by the end of the day, which looked somewhat difficult, given the condition of K.Gundi stretch till B.B.Giri was v.bad …



Didn’t waste much time and we started off, stopped only at a couple of places for the photo-shoot [At some places, we couldn’t go beyond 20 kmph ]

Just when we touched the Chickmagalur – Kadur state highway, it started raining like crazy, since we’d gone with only our camera without any rain gear, it was kinda scary, so made sure that we reach our hotel really fast… Luckily for us, we didn’t get drenched much and the cam was pretty safe… Reached Chickmagalur by around 4 or so , had our lunch & checked out really fast from the hotel and we left for Bangalore via Belur – Hassan – Kunigal – Nelamangala… The Chickmagalur – Hassan route was a bliss and the ride was awesome!!! Life’s started getting tougher once we crossed Channaray Patna… Thanks to the construction work that was going on this stretch, it was very risky to drive at night for a 2-wheeler… Stopped for dinner at one of the hotels after Kunigal… Reached home at around 10:30 AM or so… It was such a great feeling having reached home after such a tiring journey… Overall around 1000 kms covered in about 3 days, with almost half of the journey in ghats , wish to do this route one more time during the monsoon when this place is much more green