Misti(cal) Malnad Rain Ride

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Pix by arun

gyes had been on a trip of westran ghats and beaches around mangalore which i missed out. Trip planed by vicky of places being Bisle Ghat, Charmudi Ghat, Ulal and Someshwar beach. Had spent dat weekend in fraustration of not being able to go. Gyes put the pix in the forum which were really tempting. was really envying the gyes for the trip. Sanjay(rx135 with k&n) called up and said lets do the same trip the next weekend itself. me(cbz) with a fit of inspiration said lets doit as was free the weekend. Arun(Fiero) also joined for the trip even though he had a 4 day plan for the next week towards munnar. Some more gyes were in and out and finally it was me, sanjay and arun on the move with arun being the camera gye with his new kodak one.

To gain some time and to extend the trip till udupi, may be further, we decided to start on friday evening itself. 3 of us packed and carried the pack to the office itsleft to start directly from there in the evening. Used thick plastic covers one inside and one out side the back pack to water proff it. Tanked up. Had spare tubes for both the tyres, sanjay took the trouble of gettin a pair for me too.

odo-15769, trip-0, 6:50Pm 17th june,05
Statted from office to meet sanjay and arun at bhel. stuck my backpack wid net bunjee to the pillion seat and grabrail. had we started an hour before we could have gone through magadi savin us 20 KMs n had some also nice twisties. since it was dark hit the west of card road towards nelmangala. greeted by a lot of traffic. arun really weavin though the traffice. had cramster and reflectors on em makin his movement exadurated. as sanjay put it, was like plane in distress tryin to land. negotiatin the bad traffic reached nelmangala only by 8:20. have a round of tea.

15817, 51, 8:40 pm
we start from nelmangala to hassan. sanjay leadin the pack wid his nocturnally adapted bike wid the coil winded. ok time to whip the throttle and soon were takin of 90+ speeds. first 30 KMs was painful wid a lot of apposing traffic. last time doin this stretch startin at 10.30 pm was ok wid less of it. well all we need is a tail lamp which sanjay provided generously. reached kunigal and fueled up for 100 bux. tought of keepin the tank full since travellin at odd hours. then we got adjusted and started to rip doin good speeds of 100-110 where every possible. was thoughly enjoin the ride like last time hummin some songs to myself. as we reached chanrayapattana started drizzling. so now were in a hurry to reach kamat yatri nivas and think of options then. were expecting the kamat on the right side of the road and its no where to be found. some localites said its further away. may be the light rain made us to expect it too soon. yeah we found it alright further down. parked our bike by 10:50 PM and arderded some rotis and curry for dinner. arun tryin out night pix with his new camera. food always good at dis place. a light shower of rain hit while we have dinner. and dat got us lazy to wait for it get over. sanjay used the time to try out a new sparkplug wid platinum tip. tis gyes some 2 more all for experimenting.

15944, 176, 12:05 am sat the 18th
fueleled up for 200 bx. became a very light drizzle n we started towards sakleshpura with fear of gettin drenched. by the time we reached hassan deviation it started to rain. now we had choice to make, 4Kms to hassan and halt or continue till sakleshpura some 30 kms more. decided to carry on to save time and towards sakleshpura it is. some way further were stopped by cops for check. man was irritatin cos had the vallet wid license wrapped in two layers of polythene cover. and papers under the bikes seat. well they were courteous enough not insistin on removing the seat for the papers. they expressed shok of us doin night travel in rain. They promised up more rain as we headed to the coast. lost 10 mins there. some 8 KMs down the line sky opened up and we had no choice but to carry one wid shelter some 20 KMs away. i hate gettin wet n this was the longest 20 Kms i felt, counting every KM till we go near the place. man awsome wide twisties are there some 10 Kms to sakleshpura. but was wet for us wid rain. arun doin some spririted riding and leadin the pack. decided i was gonna rip the 10 Kms twisties back and forth first thing in the morning. finally reached sakki by 1.30 am. by dat time our inner hulls(read undies:D) were breached by water. a localite sujjested hotel akshita (i guess), sayin kannada film stars stay there when they come. well all we needed was a decent room. 450 rs for a day with extra bed. we like any thing to get dry. pretty good room. my jeans pant was dry enough thanks to a rain pant dat i bought the other day, but can's say same bout he shirt. our multilayerin plastic covers of the backpack worked and stuff were all dry in em. n so was aruns stuff inside the cramster n he did not even put a plactic cover in em. sanjay showin the imported punture sealent which got from somewhere. this do save a lot of trouble. but hope we don need to use dat ne way. was cold and were provided nice rugs n we retire for the night.

Day 2:
me alarm woke us up by 5.30, but still rainin outside we crash again. cajole ourselves up and get the morning formalites over with. no hot water no bath. used the wax polish dat sanjay brought for the helmet visor. it worked like charm later. check out and go for breakfast by 7:15 am. still rainin. by time tie our stuff to the bike and goin the restraunt next building our helmet visors have collected quite a some water droplets. on which arun fancies his camera. have break fast but rain still not abeting. waiters lettin us know of heavy rains in the bisle ghats we were about to go. got this sunken feelin now what. din wanna get wet. the whether looked dull givin no inspiration. sanjay and arun encourage me and ready to go when the rain let up a bit.

16012, 244, 8:30am
planned to halt next at udupi covering some beaches along mangalore. we start for bisle. Had to go towards mangalore and we used a printout of the directions dat vicky had given to find this place. heads towards mlr. wow man awsome twisties but what a waste its wet, had to take them at 60-70 where could have done a leanin 90. kinda cursin myself not joining the previous batch who ate all the twistes dry. every curve givin a sigh breath out. after about 5 Kms from sakki took a left turn for huttur circle. now the road wasant good but what diff was wet any way. started to litely drizzle. Sun playin pranks wid us with throwing sunlight in small sessions now and then. saw a golf course like place beside of road and pix session starts here. remember the first batch picing there. now arun gettin click happy with some sunlightlet. moved on only to find a spot with first view of the mist afar. again some pic session and move on. at one point left our bikes on the road and did a small trek on some hillocks. din use camera to keep it dry. now drizzle getin heavier, n den what rain started pouring bad, our new set of undies wet in no time, the rain pant too gave up under heavy rain and we could not ride any more and luckily found a abandned shop for shelter from rain. we were almost wet by the time. showering continued. and time stood still. well actaully watch had gone kaput. hehehe. wid no signs of stoppin, all the while feelin bad and cursing myself bout the timing and having missed out the dry previous batch. gyes asking me wether i went into depression or wat. arun more dan willin to carryon but not us. sanjay wouldnt let arun have his siggi with concern for the enironment. we wait wait for hour and half till the rain to stop. we last all the time advantage and the planned udupi looked farfetched. feelin a waste of money and time but carried on. But little did we know of the surprice gift in store for us. the heavy down pour had brought a lot of mist down the ghats. n in no time were riding throught the mist. wohave what a place instantle cheered up and felt all the trouble worth it. saw a big crab movin donw the road. gutsy crab must say cos it was ready to fight off our bikes waving its claws. with mist gettin thicker by the time. felt elated. passed by a town huttur. lucky people stay in such prestine place. on the way stop for some pix and some passin villege children pretty exited bout us crazy gyes. aruns films them too. we carry on only to find more of it. pix at couple place woule have been breath takin with visibility drastically reduced. arun pretty exited forgot he got a cam and rode on while me and sanjay sokin it. was a lake by the road hardly visible due to the mist. terrible felt the need of arun cam. some places visibility reduced to 20-30 feet. there he waits for us after some time. then decide to ride together. enjoin every bit of the ride with plenty of stop for pix. Reached the bisle view point where we were supposed to get the view of many distant malnad mountains like "kumara parvatha" etc but all we could see is fog. rmbr the gyes takin pix here of the mountain range but all we could see was as if the plat form was flyin in thin air. our timing was toooo good. had we not waited for the rain to stop would not have seen the mist. cant get this expeirance for what ever we pay. just when about to start rain again. this time we decideded to carry on. lost sense of time cos watch stopped. it was a bit warm and was actaully fun riding in the rain. towards subramanya we went. and the ride was like through a forest. badly felt the need for a water proff camera. wid every turn giving a new pic opertunity. mist reduced as we got to the lower levels, and at one point the view hit us. we stopped our bikes and jumpin with joy and givin eachother hi-fi's for makin it there at dat time. the view of mist rolin down on distant hill. after some gala time we start and so does rain. saw to gyes goin on a unicorn. reached subramanya for lunch. went into a hotel full wet and drippin all over and had lunch like dat only.

16088, 320, 2:35 Pm
start to mangalore after lunch and rains again. it was like a pattern we followed. when no rain we do all the stuff like pix and lunch and schedule ridin with rain. we din take the puttor road as we had enough of bad wet roads so headed for the NH. arun stopped us under a railway track bridge. we climbed up to find the ever extending straight tracks. he said the railway track trek from donigal to subramany ends here. take a lot of pix and we carry on towards NH for mls. aaah finally some dry tormac and whipped the throttle and makin justice for the twisties. reached the NH and mlr is the next stop we thought. rippin this is wat we do. over took a speedin car to show i am bettor but not for long as the sky opened up again and the dry roads were taken from us in an instant and the car gye had the last laugh pasin ahead. it was hardly 5 mins dat we got to ride dry twisties. tought of riding wet till mlr but stopped at a tea shop for arun fearing not coverin his camera properly. pourin more heavyli out there, once in shelter din feel like goin out again. spend a hour there thinkin what to do lookin at the map. the tea stall gye informed us of heavy rains of 14 cms in mlr and dat some areas were flooded and ppl were not allowed on the beach. arun wanted to try it any way but sanjay n me reluctant cos it was already 4.15 we do reach by 6.30 and hardly get to see any thin. so decided to break for the day nearby. tea stall gye suggjested hotel aditya and also informed with glowin eyes dat kannada film actors stay there. it was 20 kms towards mlr and went for it. what a shame nice curves takin at 60s could have easily done it at 90s. reach the hotel book a 4bed room wid TV for 300 bux. good bargain. mlr was just 50 kms from there, but wid rains 20-30 KMs suddenly seems so big distance. get into dry cloths. feet wet in shoes for 6-7 hours now. spend the rest of the day lazyly. sanjay n me chattin about the latest motogp event. sanjay explaining to me dat rossi took the lead 3 laps before his usual one lap cos the honda bikes would win out agains yamaha in straight line drags. so rossi din wanna give the slip stream advantage to sete in the last lap and distanced himslef. gettin news of very heavyrains nearer to the coast. arun went to a near by mittu da dhabha for nonveg food. sanjay and me not wanting to risk the dry ness hogged oily neerdosa at the restrauant itself. some heavy showers between. arun manages to come back dry sneakin between the shovers. and we crash.

day 3:

again woke up be greeted by rain. have break fast there of some crappy idlis and pack some idlis and chutney just in case we needed and some choclets. sure the cramster packs up a lots of things.

16149, 381, 8.10 am
start to darmastala. we head back the same way some 20 Kms to get a deviation to the left. drizzling all the da way. on the way saw a tempo collided to a truck just some time before. The tempo driver all bloody and unconsious on the wheel. ppl tryin to free him by using levers to wring out the mangled door. an ambulance arrived just then. we carried on and took the left for dharmastala. hmm too bad wet twisties again. n started to pur tooo. theres goes another set of undies. we stop at a petrol bunk to fuel up n waited a bit for rain to leggo. go on the darmsthala wid some light sun shine, saw a maruthi swift rollin down prolly doin runnin. hehe. the twisties makin me think to do the same route once again post mansoon for dry roads. stopped for a pic session just before enterin charmudi ghats, over a small bridge wid a rivulet below. saw a mangoose hop by. pix of charmudi ghat which also promised us misty ride.

16214, 446, 10:00 am
entring to charmudi ghat now. n its rains again. now were takin breaks when rain stopped. do many stop overs for pix arun riskin his cam gettin wet. as we went higher its mist time again. we wanted more and here it is. found a nice place at a hair pin which had a wall on the outer edge. climbed over it find some flat spot. remebered ashwin's tent would be good there. can spend whole day there wid the valley view. some times jumped and some times danced which we decent people normally wont do on the roads. such was the effect. now pretty much used to riding wet. climbed up the ghats wid total down pour. My front disk break lost its bite dramatically and had to squeez hard to get any effect. stil tought it was due to the bike takin rain the whole night. passed by a temple atop the ghats and wid rain abetin and again the mis rolin donw covered the whole mountain range. rain had give many water falls on the side of the roads. a family in come in a car for some pix. so did we. same again rains by the time we start and dis time torrential rains. was lovin every bit of the ride. most of the veiws only in our memories now which cant be share. if only i had bettor vocabulary to express it. arun found a path goin some where and wanted to explore it. ok there we go, it was narrow winding, climbing road leadin to a forest office guest hours. wohave nice place to stay if we could book it. they provided food for those who stayed there. with rain lashing out so waited there what bettor time to eat the idlis. we hogged on em and they tasted so much bettor dan the morning. hehehe. rain followed by mist covered the path where we came from with nothing visible. was like as if the whole guest house was floatin in cloudes. was afraid to take pic standin near the bike for the fear of being blown away by the wind. fearin how to go back wid all the wind and rain. hehe it was like pattern, rain would bring mist, which again will be removed when it rains and this brings more of it. could see column of water droplets breakin down the mist. what bettor place for the pix. just then a group arived there on a tavera all dry. hehe it was like watchin tv for them as i read some where. but we were feelin every bit of it. had to move on to reach blr by 7. get out of the ghats in rain and just after we stop at a T junction. we remembered the place where all 3 of us were also in the trip to kudremukh, came to same place and takin the other turn for kuremukh. were then wonderin where would this road go, now we know its charmudi ghat. hehe. head for moodigere again rueing on wet twisties with rain playin hide an seek.

16249, 481, 2.15 pm
moodigere it is and head towards hassan. now the roads open up a bit and so does the wether lettin off. picked up speed ok here it comes dry tarmac ad whip throttle to max. this road was the same dat we took in the night for kemmangundi. straight wide road and but wid lot of cross winds blowing and we loosing balance. wid sanjay strugglin and takin it a bit easy. hah for once he accepted a disadvantage of yamaha rx of being light weitht and give not nice feelings wid cross winds. even though happy to rip and it felt like i was rippin after ages, it was very uncomfortable as the wind at dat speed dryin our cloths, which meant it was suckin heat from our bodies and also we were empty stomach. some how gaspin for composure. also the front disk not ok even when the bike is dry. now its gone bad. wats this last trip the back break fail and this time the front one. was very coutsious from then on. stopped for a pic session. some 20 kms away from hassan. now arun wanted to try my bike and took the oppertunity to snatch yamaha of sanjay wid him lettin me wid a condition of ot ridin fast. which i observed for 2 whole minutes:D. now sanjay was on aruns fiero. man how cannot one go fast on a rx 135. it felt real light bike and would lean too much wid a lil shift of weight. the luggage on the bike include sanjays backpack a big tool kit which includes puntare repair kit too. guess it was half the weight of the vehicle kinda affecting the balance for novice me. but was real fun riding it left behind the other two and rippin past and man it gain speed effortless le and givin me G force effects. amazing torque (compared to cbz) din need to gear down from 4th at places where i went till 3rd gear from 5th. the pick up and sound were amazing. can very confidently over take vehicles. now arun pretty much spirited by riding ma cbz was rippin too and was all praise for the handlin of the vehicle. he was think of goin for cbz but me unsuccessfully tryin to convince him to go for zma instead since he travells a lot. guess he's made up his mind for a p180 now. sanjay whippin the fiero and shoked at the state of the breaks. we reach hassan and head for kamat yatri nivas for lunch. now i was strugglin in the traffic wid the rx in the touch and go traffic, light vehicle plus the heave baggage affectin my balance. weed out the traffic and rip to kamat. this rx would touch 110 effortlessly hardly any vibrations. reached kamat at 4:30 pm. lunch time. even we ripped 40 kms still felt missin cos we din ride our own bikes, the other two expressed the same since we are used to our vehicles so much.

16353, 585, 5.15
leave for bangalore and thought of rippin bad for daylight saving but dat was not to be. Sanjay's rear wheel had taken a nail and was flat. bit frausted he was. the only chance of rippin to was eluded. found a punture shop near by so din wanna experiment his punture sealent and loose time. its 5.45 by the time we started. wanted to fuel up and arun said dat he would now be doin only 80s so we let him carry on and we do catch up wid him. fuel up and me and sanjay rip to max makin every use of left over day light. me very coutious cos the front break loosing bite. even after 30 Kms we find no arun and wonderin did we miss him. we doin 105-110 how could we miss a gye doin 80s who left just 5 mins before us. we carry on some 5 KMs and there he was gettin shutter happy with his cam. he did some spirited riding himself too. hehe. take a break and its dark by now. now arun decided to follow a good goin qualis and me followin sanjay, he rides pretty well in night wid his powerfull headlamp. doin very good speed around hundred. we take a break in between and see arun kooly passed by followin the qualis. me and sanjay go past again man this route is takin more traffic every time we come.

16480, 712, 8.30
we reach nelamangal and wait for arun. took quite some time to come. cos he stopped for some siggi break nearby thinkin nelamangala was still far. have a round of tea settle accounts and left for home. congratuled eachother for such a fantastic ride

16523, 755, 10:00
home sweet home, err... home dry home hehe.

wohave one expriance of a life time got much more dan we expected and the price we paid by gettin wet and no rip was nothing compared to the mistical experiance. My writing or the pix wont even give the 5% of the bounty we had, its just the 3 of us who go it and cherish it.
As sanjay put it "It was an EXPERIANCE to be experianced."

Kemmangundi-Malayangiri Trip

Ride along the hills


Some water crossing


VDOs by keerthi

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Pix by keerti and praveenS

Bangalore gyes being bitten by the spontanity bug, ashwin suddenly came up with a preponed kemmangundi plan on wednesday. Though kemmangundi was suggested by PraveenS for the next week. Gyes ready to go at the drop of the hat, many jumped in. I was unsure cos of some work and silently followed the thread. Did of wid the work by friday morning and i was in for the ride. Ride was supposed to start by 6.30 friday evening. Since my night riding is a nightmare for my parents let em know dat we leaving by 3 noon. But den rain gods had other ideas and got generous on bangalore wid a thunder storm puttin a doubt in every bodies mind. Got calls from home bout the bad weather and was demanded to come back. Said i was on my way no rains there and we do take it easy and calmed their nerves. Time 6.30 and rain still unrelenting. Hottie,santosh,aadi and neil dropped out cos of weather. Looked like a sane choice then. But rest of us with insanity part of the personality were contemplating when to go and decided a meetin point as mayohall. Took me 8 O clock to get through the slushy rainy trafficy roads. PraveenS, Ashwin,Sai already there. Then after some years keerthi dropped by and after an epock vicky showed up. Damn blr traffic. 9 is the time and the rain done as said in the forcast. Santosh came to see us off. Could see the eagerness in him to join but sanity had taken over his mind and bid good gye. was still undecided, but encouraged by lack of rain called up home dat i was in chickmangalur and was free to go. Went to ashwins friends place to collect a TENT, still not clear as to where and when to use it. Packed Idlis to have on the way and the Ride was on.

Gyes:
Sai - p150 cl
Praveen S - p180 dtsi v2
vicky - p180 dtsi
ashwin - p 180 dtsi
keerthi - ZMA
me - CBZ

Friday 27th may

All tanked the steads to the brim and off towards nelmangala-hassan route. Sai's cramster takin loads of our stock. Time 10.30 we started. Reached nelmangala and went towards hassan. Nice nice road. keerthi takin the lead and were doin good speeds of 80 - 90. This was the first time to start of with a night ride fresh and fit. Was actually enjoing the ride. It rained there some hours back and the road was dryin us. 11's the time and for dinner we stop. keerthi found a place with a lamp post and water tank near by. Started to hog on the idlis we carried. Slurrrp idlis and chutny never tasted so goood. Trucks and busess whizzing past near by on the road. It was actually scary to feel the vibrations of the big vehicles make when they rip at 80-90 coupled with the aeiry sound effect of them at night. Busses tryin to over take each other would swirl side to side with sharp turns. Thought r we goin to ride wid these monsters. It was the first ride for PraveenS and what a way to start, a 600 KMs+ trip startin at night. I was even scared to go as near as sangam on my first ride. 11.45 hogging acomplished and time to move on. Weather pretty chill after the thunder storm. Then we get on to our narmal speed lead by keerthi, which was faster dat the trucks and busses and it was not at all scary as i thought. cooly goin past them. Then the lead decided to follow a spirited bus. not long before we cought with one. though bit slower than us, but we do get a guide to pearce the darkness. The volvo bus was doin good speeds and was even touching 105-110 at times. The lead kept some gap from it. Was really enjoin the night ride was goin on very smooth. The bus was speedin over all other vehicles and we were following it ohh wat a rush. He lead us till kamat yatri nivas in the entrace of hassan. Its compound was full of busses and people havin a break in the night journey. Then we show up six nuts on the steads roarin. They were starin n givin us way, and guess they were expectin us take out swords and machine guns and start shooting at people. at least dats what the bikers do in desi movies. Time around 1.30 am. Had a lazy cup of coffee. no way in the reatoraunt. got our cups to the parkin area sat down near our bikes. Gyes took some flashless pix to reveal the black truth. Started towards chickmangalur and this time din need and guide bus as were accustomed widda light. again keerthi leadin. did good speeds. and on some straight sections did some speed runs maxin out. At one instance aswin took off from the tail and zipped past every one. OK i got a tail lamp now and whipped the throttle to chase him. Reached hassan around 2.10 or so and took the road to chicmangalur. This was narrow and with smooth tarmack interlaced wid uneven strecths in between. Again did some good speeds only to break hard as parts of the road were under construction. Took a butt break on the way and had the pepsi we carried. With the moon light on it was bliss. Started off and took it a bit easy then on. enjoyin every bit of the ride. Reached chickmangalur by 3.30 am. Vicky's cousines had booked a room for us. a big room with 6 beds. what else would we want. every body retired for the day after some TV glaring.

Day 2: Sat 28th may

Got wakey wakey at 7.30. had plenty of time and gyes took easy and got ready by 8.30. Itenary was to climp Malayagiri(hottie's suggestion) and then head towards kemmangundi for hebbe falls. Had break fast. saw a kopla modded bikes twin exahusts and stuff. was surpriced to find them in such a small town. for which vicky said that regular auto events are held in chick mangalur and those are not new and people come from all over india. well have to watch em once. The view gettin the greener side as we moved towards malayangiri. Roads nothing much to talk about. Nice curves spoiled by a lot of gravel and broken roads. Doin 60-70s and less. Took many pix stop. Roads are actually carved on the side of the hills. reach the top of the Malayangiri hill as far as the bikes could go. After some photo session, vicky lead our bikes to an un-motarable trail on the side of a hill which had just enough space of a bikes length. with a steep incline above and below. one slip and the bikes would go tumbling down. One could walk on the incline but too steap for bikes. hung out for quite some time. We still had to climb up a whole lot of stairs for the summit temple. within seconds the mist covered the whole of the summit. it was 11 in the morning. it was nice day we picked for such an outing climate cloudy dull but no rains. Mobile signals goin on and off. must be the passin clouds. Reached the summit temple. The floor inside the temple was cold and welcome. Sat some time soakin the beauty of the view. Threw some stones at a lightning conductor. Time to head for kemmangundi. this road was pothetic but the view on either side was breath takin. Smooth mountains curves covered with light grean grass. IT was like Windows XP theme wall paper. gyes took some vedios and lots of pix. one
whole hill side was coverd with tree dat looked like match sticks. cos it had only top canapy and nothin but the main stem below. Special tree to give shade for coffee plantation. Were really tempted to pitch the tent there itself. Well literally cos ashwin brought a 6 man tent along wid him. Moved on the pothetic road. Every place we went it had rained previously and dried up. had to cross some paddels with 6 inches of water on the road. Reached kemman gundi around 3 noon. People giving surprising looks staring at our canvoy. Keerthi and vicky went in search of room and luckily managed to find us a room. well it was like a small separete house with 2 room and 2 bath rooms. we took it happily. dumped our things and had a lazy lunch. still had hebbe falls in the itenary for the day and were loosing day light. was 5 when we started for the falls. it wrost ever 10 KMs ride in my life. was gravel and stone strewen path not road exactly. with steep inclines. bikes a swaying and sliding erraticall doin all kinds of dance. after some time realised goin a bit faster gives more control but risk also increases. PraveenS had a spill cos of it which bent his handle bar a bit, but he was ok but a minor scratch on his palm. On the way we saw many people standing in circle. must be some company's team building activity. guess we disturbed their peace as every one was facing us. we continued to decend and parked our bikes. We still had to trek half a kilometer to the falls. well this was nothin compared the the trek we had to do for meen mutti falls in wayanad trip. Had to cross some streams on slippery rocks. it was a loosin battle to save our shoes from gettin wet. Finally reached the towering falls. n all our tiredness vanished. water droplets were sprayed all over the place. Free A/C. stayed there quite a while. PraveenS managed to feed a kopla leaches with his blood. Time 6.45 and have to do some daylight saving atleast to reach our bikes. was my first expriance to walk in a jungle kinda trail in the dark. By the time we got to our bikes it was dark. And the same way back. since this time it was climb it was much easier. back wheel slides din scare dat much but was still all over the road err... path or what ever. On the way back the same group had put a bon fire got drunk and dancing around the fire. gyes thought to join them. but they were too many and din know what kinda people so we carried on. I took the lead for some time cos gettin distracted by the indicators on on all the bikes as insisted by vicky for fun. Got to our *house* went for dinner after some rest. The waiter gye surpriced that we manged a visit to the falls startin at 5 o clock. Lazy dinner timer. Gyes dropped the plan to booze and preffered to sleep early. Dats after some chitchat,jokes and bike talk.

Day 3: sun 29th may
Again my phones alarm did not effect on the gyes except Praveen. he wanted to catch the pix of the sunrise and i went along with him. boy was it cold cos i was in ma pajamas and Tshirt n missed jacket dearly. But dissappointed to find no mist or fog at the place which was one of our attraction to that place. went with praveen on his bike to the summit and took some pictures of his there wid the surise. were back to find gyes still lying int he cozy beds. No hot water - no bath. "Zero point" is next but breakfast first. was a maze to get the restraunt cos the rooms/houses built on the hill slope and with stairs and paths goin criss-cross all over. Tummy's full and we head to words the Z point on the dirt trail. Crazy vicky lead us though a narray ledge of aroudn 3 feet width on our bikes!!! with a wall on one side and deep vally on the other side with nothin to hold us. lucky it widened a bit at the end of the bikable trail.(no bikable normally) parked our bikes. Sai jumped on a tree which was protruding horizontally out of the wall over handing the deep valley and had a 90 degree turn growth upwords. Vicky and me also went for it but leggo not finding the landing spot below. but sai got his priced pic. Well now began a memorable trek on the side of the hills. one feet wide trail up and down with nothin to hold on. The whether with the best of its form. bout half an hour of feastin our eyes on the trial we reach the Z point. Missed camaras dat could get panaromic shots. Vicky all the while cribbin and cursing himself for not bringing his SLR cam fearing rains. OK finally we open the tentu. it was a big 4 man tent all neatly packed in a small bag. Ashwin the expert tenter on the job guiding others. Had to do some R&D as for where each foldable stick went. was on top a rocky hill and now way the tent could be nailed on the groud and also with a lot of winds meant one of us to be in it any point of time lest i would fly of. Some how the gyes felt i would not be right anchor for the tent i weight 49Kilos u see.. Just sat there aborbing the environment and pix were shot with imagination. Peed out on the edge, etc etc. Then a came a family, who enquire was dat our bikes and surpriced to knwo we came on it all the way from bangalore. vicky also told we were in the tent the whole night there. hehehe they bought it tooo. heheh. OK 11 am time to go. Keerthi and praveen had to be home by 4 noon. half way back spotted a trail leading to another steep hill. cajoled keerthi and praveen go there also as not sure when we can come there again. barely half way on the steep climb we gave up the idea as it was goin for ever and we would loose a kopla hours there. But the summit would have been fun with a lonly tree on the edge. Get back to our bikes. was an exercise to turn our bike in the narrow ledge. and head back the same narrow path me using all of my brain for concentration. we vacate the room and keerty manages to checkout on dot 12 noon. a minute later we had to shell out one more days rent. Lazy snak break and 1.30 by the time we leave for bangalore. still no threat of rain. now the roads were gettin bettor. Whipped the throttle to max on the smooth roads. keerty enjoying his Zma to max moving from lead to drag and drag to lead at will. while the rest of us fully crouched to get a extra few kms on the speedo. Fueled up on the way. The pump gyes exclaimed "so this is CBZ". huh dunno whether he had even heard of ZMA. inviting road again rippin to max wid me fully crouched and legs on the rear foot pegs. At a small town in slow speed realized i got no rear breaks.!!! was scary imagnining what if i had to break when rippin at 100. gyes were ahead of me and now way i could lettem know of it. sai was trailing and stopped along wid me for inspection of the break. the lever attached to wheels axel had loosened up. could not thighten it cos had only one spanner of dat size. went to cycly shop near by who tighten the breaks to increase the play but to no use. sujjested to hit the next town 10 KMS away wid mechs. Me accompanied by sai was goin slow at 70-80 and missing some awsome wide curves cos did not over take a bus. Finaly get to a mech who removed the liver from the axel and put it back in a different angle n voila it was as good as new. did kopla tini-vini stikds to test. got back to the gyes only to know vicky had spill, tailgatin ashwin and ashwin breaked for a hump. no loss but the right RVM. lots of time lost. carry on till tiptur for a butt break at 3.30. Crossed arise kere and took some pix just before near tumkur. Started to rain just leaving tumkur bypass. every one got into rain gear and decided to ride it out. me exited will do some rain riding. doin good speeds in rain. half an hour and rain is gone by the time we enter the tumkur-blr toll gate. voted not to break at kamat's. Again rip time it was in the 4 lane highway. lot of cross winds and by bikes speedo wont cross 112. keertin makin the best use touchin 137 on his ZMA's speedo. At the blr side of the adrenelin pumpin ride and time to settle accounts and some final pix. Reached home by 7.30 with the trip meter around 650Kms.

Not much riding unlike the previous trip to kudremuk-kasargodd but was more of a holiday and spending quality time with nature. A relaxed

ride. OK when is the next speed run??