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."