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??