My Escapades

Savandura Ride 'O' Trek

2009-09-24T23:36:00.000+05:30

Arun called me along for a small trek to Savandurga rock near bangalore. Been to this place many times but never went up the rock. Its a steep climb on the rock face to the summit. Taking the wrong path could get one stuck on the steep rock face not knowing hot to go up or down. Cos if you loose a foot hold there is nothing to break the fall and would roll down all the way. Many have lost their lives here. There is a dilapidated fort up there built by KempeGowda. It was his home for a few years to escape arrest from the British. Due to its steepness, its very difficult to attack from below. The only way to defeat the ppl in the fort was to surround the rock for at least three months and wait for the people above to run out of food. But the kings had their ways. As for recent stories, this is a fav place for couples and there have been a few murders.

There are basically two rocks Karigudd and Biligudda. We are going only to Biligudda which ppl go. Very few ppl know the route to climb the Karigudda. As its not just a one piece rock, its getting broken down by elements and there are lot of craveses plants growth to go through. All the above info given by the guide Raja who we hired. The way up is pretty simple but we need a guide help us out to avoid very steep paths and at some place let us know where to step. Some patches which look very dry are the parts which slip more. Arun is very interested to do this trek and encourages me to come along. Gives me his super flexible and sticky rock climbing shoes, cos i am not much into trekking and was apprehensive about climbing sheer rock face! where as he managed with normal sports shoes which he had quite some tough time! He has also brought us lunch. It had been raining all night and still was drizzling as we started in the morning. Arun tells that even if there is a break of half hour int he rain its possible to climb the rock. Thus went there to see whats the situation. Things looked encouraging as we got there. Called on Raja the guide. Dumped all our riding gear in his house and of we go to the trek.

My Big Escapade - Destination Unknown...

2009-04-03T19:34:00.069+05:30

Been on a big ride of 175 days and 25508 KMs.

The track has been...
BigEscapade at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail: Geotagging Community

Summery:

As i sit at the southern tip of India, naively imitating Swamy Vivekananda, a mix of emotions rush to my mind. Sense of achievement, euphoria, disbelief and despair. Despair cos its all going to end soon. Thrilled at playing back my entire journey so for, in my mind. The places i have been, the people i have met, the experiences i have gained. All this feeling the cool breeze from the Indian Ocean i am staring at. Been more then 170 days on the move, living a nomadic travelers life on my Karizma. Across India, Bhutan and Nepal. It all sums up to one thing that i was happy at that moment.

On the way to beach in Kanyakumari, visited the museum on Swamy Vivekananda. His great journey across India was depicted there. He was short of money to pay for the boat man to take him to the now Vivekananda rock. He jumped into the strong waters and swam across to the rock. Spent quite some time there contemplating his journey so far. I felt right to do that myself too. Though i did not swim across to the rock, it was nonetheless great introspecting my travel so far.

It all began with suggestion and encouragement from my friend. Who recognized that i had not many bondages or commitments. Had my own share of disillusionment of this world due to some events. I could go on a big escapade away from my regular life. In what bettor way then riding away on my Karizma, which i love to do. Felt just right and din know what else to do other than this, in life at that point of time. My friend also gave me an high level itinerary.

The general far fetched idea being an all India ride, did some planning with my friends, though i was mostly passive on the route. Initially it was supposed to be a clock wise ride around India. Since i was not sure of how long i would last on the road and how long things would permit me, we decided it would be counter clock wise. So that i could ride out places i had not visited first. East coast, Bhutan, North East, Nepal, Ladakh and West coast was the basic itinerary. It was all wish full thinking at that time. The only fail safe being if something unfortunate happens, dump the bike at a transporter and fly home.

My friend helped me out with lot of ideas for the journey including the idea of geting custom fabricated panniers made. Took like 2 weeks to get that done in parts with four different parties. Shopped a lot, GPS phone for tracking and Laptop for logging among other things. In a months time i was ready to hit the road.

The day i was to start, had a small walk with my dad who had to let me go being unconvinced. The first thing i felt pushing the bike of the stand was, boy has it become monster with all the load. Did give me scares. My friend came to see me off and i started riding out of Bangalore crossing the city in the peak traffic. Soon i was riding away on the Kolar NH with Destination Unknown. With no idea of how long i will be able to continue on the trip. Its was Vijayvada for the day as i wanted to go out of my normal touring radius. Thus i was moving towards the east coast. Visiting places which i had only heard of. Vishakapattanam was quite a place especially on the beach road and made for a good day's halt with a lot of places to check out. Continued upwards on the east coast, stayed and visited places like Bhuvaneshwar, Puri, Konark and Chilika Lake. The sun temple at Konark was fascinating relic though a bit explicit in carvings. An evening on the Puri's beach was like a bliss. Crossing a couple of states i was still able to communicate in local language which helped me a lot. Telugu is my mother tongue and i could speak a some bengali which meant am kind of at home all through the east coast as for a language is concerned. Got off the NH 5 and settled in for a night at Digha, a coastel town, with cement beach! Had a nice ride on the very hard flat beach on my Karizma, before heading for Koltata. Took an off beat route crossing the Hoogli river by a ferry. Interior west bengal is thickly populated and its always dodging the traffic on my overgrown bike. Make it to Kolkata the City of Joy in 12 days. My father comes around for a visit and its couple of days break there. Here on the journey ahead had lot of uncertainty as lot less people travel around here on motorcycles. It was a gamble riding to Sunderbans and even had to sail over to an island on a small boat meant for people, along with my bike. Luckily found a place to park my bike and had couple of nights stay at Sajnekhali Wild life resort. Well no luck with a tiger spotting on a whole day's boat ride, but for couple of trails of day old pug marks.

So far so good and Bhutan was next on the itinerary. Hopping over Siliguri, Entered the Royal kingdom of Bhutan, and put up at PheountSholing. Its a border town along with an Indian town Jaigon. The two towns separated by a wall could not be any different. Felt the sense of freedom and security walking around in night, where i was always on the alert on the east coast India. Could get sim cards for 20 Rs and immediately activated on the go! Permits was time consuming and also needed a call from Indian embassy to get things going. Ride ahead on my first international road trip to explore the Himalayan country. Had couple of days of holdup due to a landslide, before reaching Thimpu. It was so very developed and felt like i was in a European town. Very nice and polite people around here but i guess there are always exceptions as my phone got mugged here of all the places. Statistics makes no sense i guess. Well have to move on. Rode around the Paro airport, the only one in Bhutan, to visit Takshakt Geomba also known as Tiger's nest, Perched on the side of a sheer cliff face. East of Thimpu i could see not much development. It was just miles and miles of winding mountain roads and a small towns on the way. Could ride for hours and still be in the same geographical area. But whose complaining as those were beautiful riding days on the mesmorising country side of Bhutan. The Himalayan mountains were on the greener side with highest pass around 3700 meters and any higher would need trekking. Loved taking breaks and gazing at the valleys and mountain ranges. After 10 days and 1400 Kms traveling in Bhutan, I exited at the Samdrup Jongkhar town bordering Assam state of India.

All of a sudden a sense of insecurity grips me. Such a transformation coming from the safe haven of Bhutan. Most had advised me against traveling North East India but for my co conspirators of this trip. Added to that there was serial bomb blasts a couple of days before i reached Guwahati. Had seen only a couple of triplogs on net of people traveling this region on motorcycles and cycles. I was in contact with them and they were kind enough to guide me around over phone. I would be lying if i said i wasn't scared. Riding towards Guwahati, keep seeing these boards by Military, advising against terrorism. Lucky that a friend of mine from collages days was from here and i put up at his parent's place. This was comforting and i could think straight. Visiting Arunachal Pradesh was first on the cards but the permits were not available for couple of days. Thus i moved down to Meghalaya and stayed in Cherrapunjee for a night, riding over the ridge of a picturesque valley. It was a bit funny cos i had wore all my rain gear when i entered the second most wettest place in the world and it was bone dry! What do you know it does not rain for four months here! Its surprising how in this modern age of Internet many things we learn by going to actual places. The places and villages and people felt really strange and the only way i can express is that it felt strange. Lot of places to visit around there, including a long hard trek to check out the amazing living root bridges. Back to Shilong for a couple of days rest and permits for states of Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal.

From there on i am supposed to be riding in troubled areas as i move in to Tripura. Never thought i would be riding in these states. People not really vella and i had meal for like 5 rupees. There were even military escorted convoys to get to Agartala the capital of Tripura. Some how i was allowed with out the convoy. Guessed the trouble makers would not be interested in a single bike. Was hosted by an police Inspector in Agaratala for lunch. Nothing like a home cooked meal to energize. Stayed near Neer Mahal, the lake palace for a night. Its first rains of the season as in head east to Mizoram. My idea of riding through an interior route to Aizwal, the capital, got foiled by rain. Had to stay at

Mizoram border town khanmun's guest house, nestled in forest kind of place. Had to back track and take the horrid route via Silchar. Entering the hilly state, the difference between the neighbouring state of Tripura was very evident. For a change i see lots and lots of Karizmas and many new bikes there. Aizwal was perched on steep hills with hardly any buildings and households on flat ground. The rear of these structures were supported by couple of stories high stilts. Spent a nice evening there with a local bullet group who came to visit me. Had a chance to visit a lake inside burma. But that would have been a three day trip with bad roads and rains. Mizoram was very safe and there are no sign of trouble. But next up was Manipur, where there are atleast 30 active militant groups even now. Most people advised me to avoid Manipur. Took confidence from cyclists who had toured manipur and went ahead. Again rain was spoil sport here as i attempted to ride to Imphal via the Natorious NH 150 also know as Tipaimukh Highway. But the attempt was enough to give me shivers riding into deep narrow forest road. Any way came back to Aizwal and took the Silchar route to Manipur. Heavy military presence in this state. Lot of soldiers patrolling the highways. Was even hosted by a Assam Rifals camp for a night. Was lucky enough to have a glimpse at how soldiers in action live. The Major, my host also gave me a good insight of the state of affairs in the troubled state. Made it to Imphal the capital the next day. Guess that is the only city in the state. Kohima was next up and i was out of Manipur with no trouble at all but for heavy rains. Sad that such a beautiful hilly state is in turmoil. Not yet breathing easy as i just entered Nagaland. Again contrary to all i have heard about this state, it was a peaceful ride and stay actually.

Exited Nagaland from Dimapur and headed straight to Kaziranga National park. Spotted lot of One Horned Rhinos on a fantastic early morning elephant ride. It was time to head north into Arunachal Pradesh. Since monsoons were approaching fast i decided to skip exploring eastern Arunachal as rains are supposed to be deadly around here. So Tavang was the only place i felt feasible. Got permits in Tezpur and soon i was crossing over the Misty Sela pass to reach Tavang. Thanks to suggestion of my friends and a veteran motorcyclist's article in 60kph.com , i went straight to DC office and then to Mountain Brigade to secure the permit to Visit Bum La, a disputed border mountain pass between India and China. The next day was luckily of clear weather and gave a window to attempting the pass. Had to get clearance by 3-4 check posts before i could proceed. It was tough, especially a some meters of incline on rounded stones. But it was rewarding atop Bum La. Was hosted well by the Sikh Regiment stationed there at the Border personnel meeting hut. Then it was kind of escape for Arunachal as i had to ride out terrible rains to get back to Assam. Looks like my North East leg is over and i head to Sikkim after a couple of day's rest in Guvahati.

Reaching Gangtok, i was suddenly in a tourist region. Looks like 'dangerous' part of the trip is over and from then on it was in safe touristy places. Well i could breath a sigh relief. Loved Sikkim and a couple of days of party at Gangtok was great to unwind with out worries of safety. With some hard work at getting permits, visited Nathu La, the trade border pass between India and China. Felt great to be there. It was time to head north and the rest of the Sikkim ride was mindbogglingly beautiful. Plenty of waterfalls around. ChungTong is a point of Y fork and i had a awesome rides to Zero point and Gurdongmor lake on either side of the fork. The bright blue Lake being at an altitude of 17000 feet. First time i get the taste of riding wide open high altitude places of himalayas. The development in north sikkim was hardly any thing compared to south. Had troubles with basic needs of phone coverage and petrol. Had to barrow some as well. Couple of landslides and fuel shortage made sure that i would spend a night at police check post in the middle of no where. But loved every moment of all this. Spent a day at Pelling gazing over the Majestic Kanchanjunga mountain range. Then ride out of Sikkim into Darjeeling to experience the famous toy train.

Before i realized i was out of country again, this time i entered Nepal via Pashupathi nagar border town. There was some political turmoil in Nepal just a week back and i was advised not to get there. But contrary to news on TV, things were peaceful here. Nepal is not all hilly as its got lot of plains south of Nepal with the Mahendra Raj Highway being life line. Crossed over the Kosi river and reached Kathmandu, which would be my base in Nepal for some time. It had been almost 3 months into my trip and my father came over to visit me. That was a great couple of days spent with him before he left to Bangalore, wishing me luck. It is crowded in Kathmandu. But the tourist area Thamel is quite a happening spot for chilling out. Do a couple of days ride to north of Nepal to the Kodari border town with China. It was full of activity at the border. A little south and rode more of the beautiful countryside till Jiri. The plains and hilly regions of Nepal are as different as they can be. Thought heading west but being encouraged by my friend, took a flight to Lukla. So that, with a couple of day's trek, could get a glimpse of Mt. Everest! There are no roads here so had to resort to flight and trek. Since i dont do trekking, was very skeptical in what i was getting myself into. After couple of hard days of trekking, was blessed with a clear day and there i spot the Mt Everest. Almost head back, but got tempted to go ahead till the Base camp, self motivating all the way. It was tough days, having to deal with AMS and long walks, but it was very very rewarding reaching the Everest base camp and Scaling Kala Patter to view Everest as closely as possible by non professional. Felt the sense of achievement and it was time to get back on the road heading west.

After the triumph there was a set back. A kid ran onto the road from behind a parked truck and got hit by my bike. Next two and half days were nerves uncertain days spent being a forced guest at a police station. Luckily the kid was ok to be discharged from the hospital and i was free after paying the hospital bills! That was an experience too. Made it to Pokhara and settled a the calm lakeside are around Pheva lake, a haven for tourists. Fantastic place to unwind and freak out. Before heading south to India, thought of taking couple of days ride to Muktinath, which turned out to be a very tough offroad ride for two days. Was awesome place to visit but the horrid paths and couple of bike spills took a toll on my health and lost it big time in Pokhara with stomach Infection. After 3 days of no improvement, trusting that riding would heal me started uncertainly towards India heading south. And i did get bettor!

Varanasi, one of the holiest places of Hinduism was the reason for detour away from Himalayas. It was the hottest temperatures i have ever ridden, touching 46 degrees. Spent a day at Varanasi having a boat ride looking at all the Ghats, visiting the Kashi Vishvanath temple and also witnessed the great Aarthi ceremony held everyday evening on the banks of Ganges. It as hot as hell and was time to get back to the hills of Uttaranchal and Uttarakhand. It was a few days of beautiful peaceful country side ride in these states and nice stay at Almora. Rode all the way to Badrinath. Had more places in mind to visit but it was all cloudy and misty in the hills and could not gaze on the mountain ranges. So it was time to move on.

Step by step i had rode through many legs of the journey and still found myself and the bike going strong. Yeah i had to deal with increasing backache. But i was still good to go. Stop over in Dehradun for a couple of days hosted by a very good senior Doctor, who was kind enough to drive me to Rikesh and Haridwar. It was time to get into my final leg of journey before heading home. This part was my dream from 4 years and yes it was Ladakh. Thought of riding the circuit clock wise so i would be gaining altitude slowly. Did not want to deal with AMS like i had to in Nepal.

It was unreal looking the 'Welcome to J&K' board as i rode into the state. Finally i was on my way to Ladakh. Crossing the Javahar tunnel, Kashmir valley welcomed me. Dal lake are in Srinagar was a fantastic place i spent a couple of days. The relaxing shikara boat rides are a thing to remember. Ride out to Gulmarg and found the place well deserved its name. The slopes covered in white with flowers.

With disturbance in Srinagar, moved on and stayed at Sonamarg in a Tent. The beautiful of Himalayas yet again apparent. Crossed the tough Zozi La which lifted me into Ladakh. Made it to Kargil and decided to ride out the Zanskar valley. First time in the trip i needed to carry extra fuel with me. This was a long detour with hardly any roads. The offroad path riddled with stream crossing were tough especially in the evenings. Being the peak of summer, the snow melt streams are quite heavy. Other than that, the Suru and Zanskaar valley were beautiful places to ride. Felt every thing the eye could see was mine as there was hardly any one for miles together. Got to gaze at Parkachik and Diran Durung Glaciers. Both of them came up as a surprise as i naively hadn't made any home work. Back tracked to Kargil and it was time to get Leh'd. Finally i am there in Leh crossing over a couple of passes and unworldly landscape. Took a couple of days rest as a breather.

Nobra valley ride for 3 days was very relaxing and pleasant, with weather blessing me with some sunlight. Scaled the Khardung La, officially world's highest motorable road. Finally i got to get my picture on with the board with my bike. Every day's ride in the himalayas has something different to offer. Checked out the Hunder sand dunes, panamic and on the return tried out Wari La. This was the less traveled path and isolated. It was just beautiful out there feeling the magnitude of the mountains. Had to some tricky obstacles to cross and made it at the end of the day and back to Leh. Since i had time in had, wanted to explore eastern Ladakh and sketched out a circuit. Very less first hand info available as few ride these regions some closed to foreign tourists. Stayed at the bank of the famous high altitude Pangong lake. Since i could not find any company gave a try and was successful in scaling Marsimek La, solo. Felt unreal to be there at the place i used to dream of. Continued east and rode along the LAC with China. It was mind blowing experience with all the isolation, wide open spaces till the eye could see. The uncertainty of path as i just had tire tracks to follow. The warm reception and hospitality of soldiers posted in these remote places was touching. Salutes to them for dedicating their lives so that we could have our way of life. Reached Hanle, one of the villages in eastern most Ladhak. With hardly any arrangements for tourists, had a home stay. Also had a tour of the Observatory there. Heading west towards Nyoma, the landscape was unbelievable with colorful mountains. The beautiful blue Tso Moriri was a bit hard to reach with some rough path, but in the end it was worth all the effort. Reached Leh with satisfaction and there was only one direction now. Its South.

Heading out of Leh was already in the direction of Home after months of wandering. Ladakh was not yet over as i had to cross many passes like Tanglang La, Baralach La and finally Rothan Pass before reaching Manali. Climbing down Rothang was very though with all the slush and bad weather. Made it to Delhi the next day. Pretty happy at having a relaxed tour of one month in J & K. Was hosted by a friend in Delhi, met many friends in Delhi. It was the hottest and most humid place in my entire trip! Ofcourse would not leave the capital without visiting India gate.

The ride down was through Rajasthan. Explored the city of Jodhpur before heading south into Maharastra. Swine flu was the headlines as i entered pune and again another news i found over hyped by media as i spent couple of days with my friends. Explored a bit of Maharashtra by visiting Mahabaleshwar, panchgani and Thoseghar. The western ghats as always was best to travel in monsoon. Then rolled into karnataka after 5 months. Relaxed a day at Goa and Bijapur with relatives. Kanyakumari was the target before i actually ride towards home. Caught the west coast from Mangalore and headed south. Was quite an adrenalin experience riding in the fast paced crowded highways of Kerala. Finally made it from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. Wanted to check out some ancient temples in Tamil Nadu, and with trip almost at end, faced break down of my bike. Lucky that i was near Trichy and was able to get the bike fixed there. Visited the Srirangam temple, and the Big temple at Tanjavur, before reaching Chennai.

Like all good things this trip had to come to an end and made it to Bangalore after almost 6 months on the move. My father relieved to see me back and congratulated me on the achievement.

My companion, the HeroHonda Karizma behaved flawlessly, till the only break down almost at the end of the trip. Braved all the rough terrains, distances, altitudes and weather extremities with me and ran for thousands of Kms just on oil changes. The maintenance was only replacement of consumables like disk pads and chain sprocket sets.

To give numbers, the trip was of 25,508 Kms spanning over 175 days and 3 countries. Which i never thought would be the case when i started out. Thanks to friends all over the country who helped me out with info and logistics, was able continue the trip comfortably.

We never really know what we are capable of till we actually give it a try. Now when i look back on those days every thing looks so unreal. I can still remember each day of the trip and will never forget i guess. In they end they are memories of life time.

Here are the Links to the Logs of the Days...

Red Hills and Bekal Fort

2009-01-27T13:52:00.001+05:30

CLICK HERE FOR MORE PIX

I was in for a three day ride. All the planners were not. So was not sure as to where and what. Its gonna be solo. Thought i might as well spin the bottle in the morning and pick a direction! Yeah right. Couldn't catch sleep thinking where to ride. So 1.15 am i took the Eicher map and Decided it would be B'lore-calicut via ooty day1, calicut-kundapura day2 and kundapura-kudremukha day3. Some plan but helped me catch sleep.

Out by 6 am. The whole day was supposed to be ride through with no places to visit. Took a break for coffee at shivalli CoffeeDay. Lot of bullets parked. All were head for the Rider Mania 09. Called Santoosh to see if the Bikenomads are nearby so that i could meet them on the way. They were on a ride to wayanad. Then next comes call for Prabul, who's heading up to ooty!. What a surprise. Then i thought would catchup with the group and ride together and split at Gundlepet with the guys and split with Prabul at ooty. Then i pick up pace to catchup with the group supposed to be riding slow! I reach Mysore still no sign of them. Then i gun towards Gundelpet. After Nanjungud called up Prabul only to know that the group was at Mysore bus stand restaurant for breakfast! So i over shot them. Then i thought i would as well carry on. All the while see many bullets heading to ooty. Stopped at Pug mark restaurant for breakfast. Called up Arun who said that the route i picked up was not very interesting. Could as well try ooty-sultanbatheri-kalpetta-mananthavadi-kannur. Just then Prabul calls up asking my wearabouts. He was planning to visit Red hills on the other side of ooty. Thought might as well join him never been there. So i wait for him. He showsup at the restaurant by 9.45am. Now got company. Then we ride together. We enter the bandipur wildlife sanctuary. Then a funny things happened. We saw a narrow road split to the right while all vehicles went left. We though y not explore it, only to find opposing vehicles staring at us and after a while it joined the main road. Only then we realized that we headed up a one way hehe. So much for being explorers. Then we carry on and see forest fire on the left in full blaze. At one point had ride through smog blowing out on the road and felt like furnace! We come to the masinagudi deviation and lot of cars parked waiting to get in. It seems a bus has entered the narrow road and has no clue what to do. Prabul and me sneak through the gap and we are free. And no traffic will enter for quite some time thanks to the bus. This was even bettor then the road till now, narrow and undulating. The environment in transition from green to brown currently being transient Golden. It was looking great around actually. Then we spot a walking trail going to the left of the road. With a grin we gestured each other to get on it. Now we offroad riding through the trees and reach a clearing. Take a break there for some pix. We then continued ahead which led to a village of sorts. Prabul want to try a different route getting back to the road very confident of his navigation skills. We took some walking tracks and soon enough i lost way and followed Prabul till we hit a dead end. Now we both were lost :D No use back tracking as it was all confusing riding between trees jumping faint walking tracks. But knew that the road was towards the mountains and sure enough Prabul found us the way out. Hurray good to be back on the tarmac. It was a nice lazy ride till Ooty climbing up the famous 36 hair pin bends. Now lot more bullets are seen thumping their way up. We get into a cute lil restaurant for food. Prabul gathers information on the Red hills route. It seems that the hills around that part are covered with redish sand and thus the name. It was quite cold and chilly around ooty and going to be more so as we ride up to the red hills.

This road was more scenic and lots of greenery around. We stopped quite some places for pix. The ambiance was awesome. Blue sky, greenery around, chilly air and bright warm sunshine. The roads got narrower and worse. We were looking for Redhills dam. But we found many lakes on the sides of the road in all shapes and sizes. was 4 pm before we realized. At one point there was a gentle grassy slope going down to the lake and yes we went offroad and followed left along the slope till we felt it was too steep and stopped. It was a mind blowing place with a ameaba shaped lake and hills again on the other side. Sun was staring down from the best view of the place and so not great pictures. Din feel like leaving the place. Then came this forest dept worker who asked us to leave as it was restricted area!. Well ignorance is bliss:D Then we continued and the road turned literally to offroad and sun setting fast. We wanted to stay in the red hills resort which we found by 5.30 pm. The view around the place was awesome and at 5k the place was too expensive and romantic for two guys to stay there hehe. But the resort owner was courteous enough to offer us tea and snax. We had a conversation about the place and heard that it drops to -3 -4 temp in night sometimes it seems!. Its now getting dark and have to ride back. One option was Parsan's valley which Arun suggested, but the locals there discouraged us saying that there is a crazy one horned bison there which gives two wheelers a chase. It was also getting dard and had to ride all to way to ooty to find us a place for the night. In ooty by 7 and took us like 1.5 hours to find a room. Accommodation is quite in demand there even in off season. Not to forget it was freezing cold around!. Its very difficult to find a bar and restaurant there. Its either one of them only. So ended up having em at the room itself. We chit chat and doze off not knowing where to head tomorrow.

Woke up at 7 am and too lazy to get out of the warm blanket. Wanted to settle in a beach resort and indulge in luxury for once. Kundapur sounded far considering we have to reach by 4 pm to make justice. Prabul who wanted to go to kodai decided to hit the coast with me. Was around 9 am when we got moving and 10 am we done with break fast. Now we get out of ooty towards Gudalur. Man o man mind blowing road it is now! smooth wide twisties. Was bad roads last time i was there. It was an amazing ride. With plenty of engaging opportunities on either side. First it was sneak in through the fence to get in a sheep farm. Well the whole bus loads of ppl snuk in ;) Never seen a sheep farm before, smooth hills and hills with just grass. Yes Windows xp theme like. Got back and we find a trail on the right. So more offroading we do till the dead end at the fence of another sheep farm. Funny lot of hills and land but no sheep! The sheep were sure there quite far and had to use max zoom to capture them. Quite peaceful open space. Get back to the awesome road. Then i realize that my bike's speedo cable has conked off! man that was a turn off. We realized we are making very slow progress and kannur before sun down seemed tough. Road from gudalur to sultanbhatery was narrow and rough and hoped things would improve after that place. Once we are into sultanbathery we catch the awesome road towards kalpetta, wide smooth twisties. It got too engaged with and gunned towards kalpetta when i get a call from Prabul calling me back. Sure enough we had to take a right deviation before kalpetta to hit Mananthawadi. The roads got bumpy and it was going on and on. Now the weak spot in my back started hurting. I followed Prabul whose throttle is fixed at 80 good or bad roads. My back pain was getting bad. My back is getting weak i guess and i am not getting any younger as well! We stopped for a lunch and i had a kerala style lunch at Mananthavadi, where i unwittingly ate too much. Then it was a pain full ride for me with full stomach getting into cramps and back muscle really hurting. We had to take a break. Its then i realized the environment around. Was actually nice ride under tree canopy! After the break rejuvenated i went ahead stopping intermittently for Prabul to catch up. The road was uniformly lil bumpy and kinda narrow 2lane twisties. Cos of the road surface could not ride motogp style and instead tried the motocross style:D I lent out side the bike leaving front break alone and banging on the rear break which skidded the rear tire and caught grip soon cos of the rough road. It was conscious effort though. Then on was actually enjoying the ride jamming the rear break at every curve where i could feel the rear wheel hop hop hop hop and catch grip. It was great fun and resulting adrenalin took care of my back i guess ;)

We hit nice tarmac and did quite good progress and it seems we can hit kannur by 5pm and sure enough we did. Waded briskly through the busy city in search of the Maskot beach resort and were pissed finding it. How can it be a beach resort when u have a wall and drop after it with lot of stone and water hitting them! Somebody gotta teach them the meaning of beach resort! One of the waiter said that there's one at Talasassy beach 20 kms south. We were thinking of luxurious beach resort all day so we decided to give it a go. We rode at quick pace on the smooth roads and get to Talasassay beach by 6pm. WOW wat a beach, was very shallow and there was 10s of vehicles having beach riding\driving sessions! Took a couple of rounds on the beach as i wanted to do beach riding from long time. Pix session and all. Skids on the sand etc. Ok tad crowded but would be good to get into the promised resort now. Saw hoarding for Palm shore beach resort. And were in for a shockker when we found it. It was just a 2 floored house with very basic amenities. Man how can they call it a resort! Guess it was us who were looking for goa style resort outside goa. Were really not so enchanted with the beach that we would stay there with all that humidity!. So we we went back to Kannur got into a comfy hotel which had Bar & Restraunt at the same place ;) That was it for the day.

Next day Prabul wanted to leave soon as he had to reach bangy early. But he over slept. 7 when we woke up and in quick time Prabul was ready to leave and bid him byes. Ok so it was a solo ride today. Thought i had lot of time and was 10 am when i got back on the saddle. My plan for the day was to visit Bekal fort, ride through the kanhangad-talakaveri road hit coorg and then Mysore Bangalore. Sounds simple. But saw a board saying kasargod 100 kms. Ohh man how could i get so lazy in the morning. But was in for a relief to know that bekal fort was near kanhangad which was around 65. Din really wanna ride much of the bad coastal roads after some distance from kannur. At Neleshwaram saw a board saying Turtle Hatchery. Cut the speed and took the narrow path. Road for a couple of KMs and hit the beach. It wasn't a tourist beach, but one with a fishermen's village. Found a net enclosure with Turtle hatchery written on it. And just one nest fenced and marked. I expected a lot more turtles. But i atleast found 1 lone baby turtle in a glass container inside the hatchery. Few clicks and i was on my way. Boy was it getting hot and humid and sweaty. Enter khanhangad by like 12 pm and ride to bekal fort entrance. Have a lot of walking to do and lot of luggage on the bike. So i requested at the near by bekal resorts receptionist to keep my stuff while was in the fort. Thanks to him all my luggage, riding gear safe reception room. Now i can jay walk in the fort It was blinding sunlight. Relived the moments from my last ride here 4 years back. Walked around the fort. Quite tiring none the less. But was worth it. My back ach showed up again. Man this is not good. After around 40 mins i had to head back before the resort guy goes for lunch. Was waiting for me to take my stuff. Was quite a chore strapping the luggage and wearing the gear in the blistering sun.

With all the visit done it towards home now. Called up guys asking for directions and got into the kanhangad bhagamandala road. Awesome twieties with banking. Remembered the ride 4 years back where we had just gone crazy here scraping pegs and shoes at ever corner here. But this time i take it lil easy. The roads started deteriorating. My avg speed was down to like 30 kmph! And yes the back ach worse than ever. The last time i had this pain was in spiti himalayas after ridng 5 days offroad. But now the pain is in after riding a lil on bumpy roads!. At this rate how will i ride ladakh. The narrow road goes into the forest and other wise which is supposed to be an enjoyable ride, but not so for me. The back ach getting really bad and that worries me lot. Felt like by riding days were over!. Finally nearing Bhagamandala the roads smoothen out and back happy to be relieved. Remembered Arun telling me about a Nalknad palace, and had to catch a deviation before bhagamandala. But i dont see it and get into the small town. One inquiry, i am supposed to leave the smooth road towards coorg and instead catch the bad road towards Napoklu. By this time din want any thing of bad roads. Stopped for the lunch. Before the end of it the curiosity got the bettor of me and decided to go to napoklu 20 kms from there! Sure enough was greeted with bad roads and back started crying. Going was slow and bumpy and started cursing the govt the ministers etc etc. Came to napaklu and entered through the T junction. Asked about the palace. I was told that it was 10 kms more to the right near Kakkabe with horrible roads and coorg is 25 kms to the left with reasonable good roads. I know what these ppl mean by good roads. By good roads they mean where they dont feel the bumps while going on a bus! but i was on a bike relatively new and hard shox. Reluctantly i ditched the palace idea went to the supposed to be good road. 3 kms into it Arun calls up asking if i found the palace and not to miss it being so near. Now din want all that effort to go vain and went back to napoklu towards kakkabe ready to ride out horrid path. But to my surprice it was butter smooth! Cant really trust these locals regarding the road condtions! Made it to kakkabe in no time and after some asking around found the Nalknad palace. Its basically big house built by Doddaveerarajendra in 1792 as a hide out from british. It was used by his son also who eventually was caught by British right at this place. The care taker Anand gave me a tour of the place and showed how vandals had spoiled much of the paintings. The palace has been restored to some extent. It had a small court room, many dark rooms meant just to hide in etc. Now happy to have made it here time to head back.

Learn that it is bettor of taking the road through virajpet instead of coorg as i had to back track. So virajpet it is and throttled to do some day light saving. The roads mostly good till virajpet. A spirited esteem guy kept overtaking me and was driving really great in that narrow road with amazing control. it was fun to follow him. He stopped at the next town. Later on the road got lil bumpy and narrow heading towards hunsur. It was dark alright, and as i entered the preyapatna hunsur road, it was boon from heaven. International styled two lane smooth road with reflectors and lane marking et all and vehicles zipping in either direction at break neck speed. SLURRP! time to join in the party. Adrenalin pumping ride zipping through the vehicles trying to overtake each other. Not to long after the road become 4 laned with divider! 50 kms to mysore still to go. With no disturbance either side of the road it was full throttle time till Mysore. Hit the Mysore ring road so as to avoid getting into the city, catch the Bangalore road for a quick paced ride through the Mysore Bangalore traffic. This road is quite fun with all the traffic to play with :D. Took a break at Shivalli CCD again. And guess what i had at CCD? Biriyani of all things! All the bulleters going back from rider mania had finished all the food at CCD!. Finally reached home by 11 pm.

Was approx 1000 km nice ride, but for the back ach. Have to do something about it but in the end it was a fun ride.

BR Hills & KRS Dam Backyard

2008-12-30T13:42:00.001+05:30

CLICK HERE FOR MORE PIX

Was not really in a party mood though I had 4 days holiday. But wanted a day's ride anyway. Wasted two days a rest due to hurting back. Damn that bowling machine at forum mall. Friday evening felt fit enough, with no other place coming to my mind thought of a ride through BR Hills and check out the KRS dam from the other side, where PraveenS had gone some time back.

Woke up at 5 am, and got ready lazily was out by 6. Hit the Mysore road and boy was it chilly. My hands in my not so thick gloves were freezing. Was unprepared for that cold temperature. Any way sun will bring out the warmth soon. Could not ride fast because of the cold and kept speed just around 100. Reached Shivalli MTR by seven for break fast and nothing like a hot cup of coffee in the winter morning, well at the CCD next door. Back on the road turned left at Maddur towards kollegal. Now on it’s a mix of good and bad roads and hope my back is fit enough to take it. Was becoming a nice ride through the country side. Crossed Malavalli and wondered y din I come through Kanakpura, which would have saved me some time. Anyway there’s lot of time. The unfinished roads/muddy stretches which I had seen last year still there! But thankfully it was over soon. Now thought of exploring few detours if the look interesting. Tried one but it led to a farm house soon. So turned back and had a butt break. Got rid of insulating rain jacket as the sun felt warm enough. Riding solo, have the luxury to stop as many times or as much time as I want. Not much of a speed fest. Guess ZMA relaxes one:) Reach kollegal and ask around for Yelandur. Take a couple of turns to get the right way out of city. Just out of city I see a sign board to BR Hills straight in not so good roads and the road going right towards Yelandur! But BR hills is where I want to go so take the small road. This road went through villages. Fields on either side in Golden color ready for harvest and farmers working in full flow gathering the produce. They laid the crops on the road so that passing vehicles would trample them and grains get separated from the straw. Passing through one of the villages, the road took a 90 degree turn. But there was a straight mud road and a prominent board saying Amekere(Tortoise Lake) 10 kms in kannada. Asked a tea shop guy near by about the lake and he was totally discouraging. Saying like "Saar, don’t go there, there is nothing, only mud road, forest and no people" well that only induced curiosity in me and a lil to his amusement I took the mud road and went in search of Amekere. In no time I was out of the village and riding on open space. Seemed strange with not much trees around too. I came across a canal and few more detours from the path. With lot of time thought of checking one of those. picked one at random and after a lil time riding on the undulating terrain I ended up in a dead end which opened up to a field! Actually the mud along a shallow hill was being used up for what ever purpose. Hardly any one around. After a couple of clicks I head back. catch the main path and went towards amekere, all the while getting away from civilization. Opens spaces with trees and mountains visible at a distance. Stop a couple of time to feel the quite openness. After around 5-6 kms came across a lone village house. Asked an young lad about the lake to which he confidently said 4kms ahead. Well ok and I ride ahead. Just after that there was godown kinda building to the left and almost immediately the path turned into a narrow gravel strewn rock path! And was now going along a small dried up canal. After a km or so found grass on the path with mud visible only on the tire tracks! and bushes around getting taller and the ambiance getting quieter. I even passed a dried up elephant dung. OK so this is elephant area. Atleast the dung was not fresh. After another KM the track went straight into bushes under trees. Now here I stopped and the whole place felt spooky. It was deafeningly quite and all I could here was the ringing in my ears (thanks to the knock on my head in my crash last month). By now my meter was down and got scared. And hastily turned back. Felt like a defeat but fear was over whelming. When I looked back on the path I came could not believe I rode this interior path for such distance, especially me not being much of an adventurous guy. Started riding back and felt bettor as the things opened up around. Reached the village house and breathed sigh relief. Asked the lad about the path, just then his father came running to me and said "The lad does not know anything, I would not have let u go ahead was I here. Its just a small lake and does not look good also. Its very dangerous ahead with all the animals around. We carry a weapon like this (pointing to a sickle in his hand) when going alone around here. Had and elephant come to you what would you have done?" ! with a gulp in the throat I asked him what other animals are around to which he said elephant, deer and tiger! Man! The stuff we do in ignorance. But wonder how come the lad who grew up there not aware of this and confidently told me to go ahead. Dunno whom to believe. May be the old guy 'PutBannapa' wanted to discourage outsiders. Never know. Any was they guided me to a short cut to reach the main road for which I had to ride along the canal which I had crossed earlier. This was a mud road as well and went on like for few kms before hitting the main road.

Now back on track I enter the BR hills forest reserve. Nice smooth narrow roads. Now I putter along slowly enjoying the ride. On a turn I saw a trail going into the forest guarded be two forest guards. Madhanna and Jhadaiyya wont let me pass through. Or even if allowed I doubt weather I would have gone in alone. Chat with them for some time, it seems they guard the post day and night taking turns and always carry a weapon with them. A rifle or a sickle to defend themselves from wild animals. Take a couple of poser pix with Jhadiyya's rifle. Ok ok it was not loaded :). Rode through and started the climb for BR hills temple. Went all the way but too many vehicles and I was in no mood to walk up. came back down a bit to a view point, where I could see the mountain range and forest. The suns up in full glory but not really hot in winter. Blinding the eye though. I don’t wear the goggles so that I can look at the colors naturally. Ride back a bit and take right towards K'Gudi. This goes into deeper forest and bushes right by the side of the road. At one point I saw a couple of dogs. But looked strangely Red. Wait min they must be foxes! Boy I have wild sighting. I pull out my cam in a hurry and they scampered away into the bushes just after focus and before click!. Prolly they got scared looking the pilot lights that were on my bike. I walked up a bit with the cam to see if they were around but they had vanished. Later I was enlightened by Arun that they were infact Dogs, but wild dogs 'Dhole'. These dogs roam in big packs or 30-40 and are quite some killers! It was all quite and i ride along slowly under the canopy. stop many times and kill the engine to feel the forest ambiance. This was my first solo ride in which I was not in a hurry and I stopped at will as much as I wanted keeping my own pace. That’s the advantage of solo riding. But had no company when I stopped. After some blissful riding reach the JLR. This JLR has quite a number of wild animal sightings on the safaris they conduct. I went near a tamed elephant and spent some time. Was already 2 O clock and din realize how time flew. Now I think I may short of time to get to KRS water side. Kinda still got three hours. Ride away from the resort stopping in between for pix. The road gets bad and bumpy. Guess the other side was good for the sake of the resort. Them I came up on a place where the either side of the road opened up. The grass on both the sides dry in golden color and the trees green. Was an amazing place. Spent some quite time there and took a few self photos with timer. But gotta move on. I was hungry by now. reached chamaraja nagar by 3.15. Called up PraveenS to ask directions for the KRS water back yard which he had visited some time back. After a lazy lunch started by 4.

Man now I gotta hurry. Wanted to get some place near water by 5 but looks like I am short of time now. Mysore some 56 kms. Thought I will make it in good time but the road was bit bumpy and my back started hurting a bit and so downed the pace. Numerous irritating road humps. Some how in my random thought I remembered Jim carry and wanted to try out one of his antics. When I saw a villager waiting for a bus, I would leave my handle bar and move my hands forward and backwards as if I was running. LOL. Should have seen the look on their faces, looking at a biker in full gear, goggles running while sitting on the bike:D. Boy did I amuse myself. After Nanjungud it was like mad traffic. Every car, truck, bus and tractor ripping at full capacity! Really wondered y all the easy going touring vehicles have to rip in this narrow 2 lane road!!. Was quite a challenge overtaking vehicles. It was almost 5 by the time I got to Mysore. I have to reach KRS 18 kms and the search for an unknown place all before sundown. Seemed like lost cause now. Just before entering the city saw a sign board for KRS to the left through the ring road. Gladly took and ride throttled to the full. This way avoided getting into the city. Covered some 20 kms in no time. While I was enquiring for KRS and at signal one guy suggested me a short cut instead of following the hoards of vehicles going to KRS. Thanks to him I save some time. Before reaching KRS, fueled up and asked the attendants about a place to go near the waters of KRS dam. It was a like a big conference and they told me about the place called Blue Lagoon, or KRS beach or what ever. But from the directions it was going to the left of the dam where as PraveenS had gone to the right. It was already 5.30 and decided to try out the new directions. Sure enough I found the left towards 'Ulwandi' town. Don’t rmbr the name properly. Asked one guy in the town and he showed me the way asked y would u go in this time?!! Now what was that? Any way after the town sure enough there was a mud road to the right. Took it and I could see faint glimpses of water and KRS Dam. After a couple of kms seemed to be going away and a final curve towards water. The sun was still holding up for me and I finally see the approach for the water. Just than an old man stopped me and demanded 50bux saying that I am entering his property! Paid him up and offroading to the water. Now this is right opposite shore to where PraveenS had gone. Here I am facing the dam from the other side and sun behind me. So can’t exactly see the sunset on the water from here but still an awesome place. The whole place just for me and guess there are thousands of ppl on the other side of the KRS dam. Managed to get there just in time and pull out my cam for some pix. It was amazing place with water on three sides and a dam wall on the other side of water, sunset colors. Could see the island named Blue Lagoon to which I could have gone had I come earlier. Any way this is great time out as well. The sun went down and lights started appearing on the dam wall. It was getting dark and not a soul in sight. Was almost dark before I pushed myself out of that place. Now wanted to get out of the unfamiliar territory in a hurry. But not before stopping in between for pic of the dam wall with lights. All the while I was here voices of an old couple bickering from a near by farm house. Move ahead through dark empty roads towards the main road.

Get back to the main road, and it’s the traffic jam time with hundreds of vehicles approaching KRS. I just about squeezed through from the left side through the bushes and sand. The opposing vehicles had occupied the entire left lane and I just about managed to paddle away. One of the qualis guy asked me what was the jam for? I got irritated and said it was cos of ppl like you who occupy the wrong lane that the jam started. He asked me again and I same the same again. Stupid fellow. As I get away the vehicle to the right are in stand still and hundreds of more vehicles approaching unrelentingly. Boy are they going to stay on the road for quite some time :D Damn Mandya district traffic management all they have to do is put a divider on the road! Any way took a deviation to Sringapatna instead of going to Mysore. It’s getting colder now. Reaching the 4 laner to Bangalore I stop to wear the extra jacket and now its rip time overtaking the vehicles. Lot of traffic on the highway. But its fun zipping through them. At on one particular tight right hand curve I was zipping between vehicles and after the curve saw the speedo to be at 95!. The new bike zma is amazing. Stop for coffee and sandwich at CCD and it’s a fun ride till Bangalore.

Reach home by 10 PM with 465 kms on the trip meter. This ride back from Mysore was unusually awesome and that’s when I realized that it was the first time on the zma. overtaking is just a breeze. All in all a nice day out.

On Auto Pilot?

2008-11-25T16:38:00.004+05:30

I wake up last Sunday morning with an aching body. WTH? both my thumbs paining. Ringing in my ears. I feel like I am drunk! I sit up and try to analyze the situation. I find my knee pad and shoes in my room instead of hall. Walking a bit wayward. I find 2 X 2 inch ghash on the kneed pad.

The cargo pant which seems to be neatly tucked into the cupboard has something to tell. Find it torn badly at the right knee.
Don't recollect taking this photo:

Did I have crash? but when I went to check my helmet and yeah, I did have a crash alright. But when? I don't seem to remember anything. The gloves torn at the outside of thumb costing me some skin. It failed me here cos the rest of gloves were well padded. Then I vaguely remember going for the Shivalli CCD for a coffee. But seemed like a distant memory. Still trying to get hold of things, go down to check out the state of ZMA. To my surprise I find its the CBZ that's banged up.

Don't know when I switched bikes. May be I had taken it for a small ride when it happened. What happened? when? nothings coming to my mind. Looks like I have come back on my own cos the bike was parked where I always do. Early morning though it was, went to the nearby hospital for some first aid, tetanus prick and xray for my hand. But things are still a bit hazy. A nurse cleans wounds on my thumbs and shoulder. Was she pretty? I don't remember now! I guess memory management was not fully operational at that time. Shoulder? yeah the 'small' sized riding jacket too is like big for me exposing my shoulder, I seem to have fallen belly down. The doc says I might have had a concussion and 'post traumatic amnesia' due to that. Must have taken a good knock on my head. And no fracture on my hands. I walk to the medical shop, and he says "How are you today sir?" Me:"What are you talking about?" Shopkeeper: "You had come yesterday evening for medicines. 3-4 times and seemed like ur mind of off!". OK! so I was walking around on my own after the crash. I successfully seem to have hidden this incident from my dad cos Not to get him worried. As all he said was "you were behaving strangely and going out of the house 3-4 times!". See the cellfone call register and find a couple of calls I made last evening and call up to enquire that. I forgotten couple of hours before the incident as well. A call I made in the previous day morning seemed like a distant memory. Over next couple of days I discover I have a fracture on my cheek bone. Nothing to be done for it. Each of the three docs who had a look at it pressed my right cheek bone and i hear a crackle! "Oh, dont worry about the sound" said each doc!. CT scan says brain's ok. And will be a few days before the ringing in my ears go and appetite returns. Keeping figures crossed! Doc advised not to ride/drive for a month! But guess I can manage riding around if not bike trips for few weeks.

Moral of the story:
Be ATGATT. (All the gear all the time)
Wear knee pad to save ur knee.
Wear knee pad outside to save ur favorite cargo pant!

Why is this here? Cos it was an escapade from myself!

Waterfalls, Forests & Beaches Ride

2008-10-17T11:43:00.001+05:30

CLICK HERE FOR MORE PIX

Arun invited me for his last bike trip as a bachelor. It was like 17 months since I had been on a multiday bike trip. Looked like things are working out and I agreed to join him. Plan? Well knowing Arun I don’t need to worry about the plan. Sathodi & Magod falls near Yellapur and then Gokarna from there for a lazy relaxed.

The route we took:

We were to start by Wednesday evening thanks to the generous 4 day weekend. I packed my stuff in a back pack and thought to secure it with net. Just a back pack? Well its been so long that I went out that I had now clue as to stuff I needa carry except the basic stuff. So left the cramsters. Took it to Arun’s place in the morning and it was tough riding with the back pack having its own mind. Got worried as how will manage for 4 days and offroadings. In office chat discussing with Arun realized I needed some more stuff and so we went home to get my cramster saddlebag and tankbag. Man that was such a good thing. No worries of the luggage flying off. Out of office by 7 and some how the situations made sure that we leave post dinner by 9.30 pm.

We take the nice road and break at Nelamangala for a cup of tea. We have to stop there for a cup of tea. Its compulsory ;) Initially we thought to make it till Haveri and dump ourselves. Taking is pretty easy pace. It was awesome on the 4/6 laner at night. More so for me with no limitations on time for the day. I could ride all night with a grin. Some sections after Tumkur had these reflectors on each lane! With my HID glowing ever more of em and bright, it was unreal and felt like being in a computer game. More so on the wide curves with four lines of these to guide. Then on it was high paced ride maxing out the ZMA. Man the bike’s awesome :). After an uneventful fast paced ride till chitradurga, it was the dreaded stretches under construction till haveri. This is the famous bad stretch of the Iron Butt attempts between Bangalore and pune. It’s well past 1 am and we have to deal with bad roads now. Though Arun was pretty unhappy with the road, I was all in the ride. Enjoying this as well. Plus it’s keeping us awake. My bikes HID coming in very handy. Suddenly I see things blurred, helmet getting coated and then we realize it’s the fog. The head lights of other vehicles looked like giant blobs of light. Just then we found a dhaba with no other customers and ppl ready to cook for us. It had typical dhaba cots too. Roti, dhal, anda burji and omelete for the food. They took their own time while we caught some breath lying on the cot. The food was just too good coupled with the environment, cold, foggy. It was nice experience. We carry on dealing with the surprises on the road taking breaks at will. Post 4 am we started looking for a place to shack up and as we passed towns some how we din feel like staying there. This not being a regular tourist route, pretty devoid of decent amenities. By 5 am we crossed Haveri. We were supposed to take a left at haveri but since the roads got bettor we gunned past the turn for 20 kms before realizing. Then we stopped for a tea at a dhaba and decided what to do. We consulted the map and found a interior road going to yellapur via Mundgod and locals confirmed it. So bit we thought. Went ahead on the beautifully 4 laner and after Toll plaza at Shiggoan, we found a turn to the left none the less. We took it just at the day was breaking. Yellapur some 60-70 kms. We wanted to make it quick and rest.

But we were in for a surprise. As the day breaked, the remote countryside came to life and we needed to stop and embrace the dawn. The early morning colors looked amazing every where. Cameras could not capture the real colors. Every setting bringing out a different colored hue in the pic. None the less it was refreshing for us especially after the tiring night ride covering all the horrendous roads just before. Started moving but we were made to stop n number of places for clicking opportunities. This stretch was soon becoming a highlight of our trip. To our surplice we even found a Tibetan Refugee camp! This road virtually not being taken by tourists, the people were surprised to find two big, black loaded bikes. Quite a big settlement with many lamas. Felt out of place and thought it was not polite to take pix of them so vacated the place soon. But not before taking couple of pix of the monastery from afar. The roads toggling between good and bad. We found no vehicles with more than two wheels. Rather no other vehicles at all. Passed through villages where ppl going on with their morning chores at their own slow pace. Had to dodge livestock of cattle, buffalos and goats many times. At one point the road just ended! Wat the Heck?!! Just then a villager pops out of the side of the road with his cycle saying this is the way. Well there was this small metal bridge we were supposed to take! It was strong alright. Actually a bridge was broken and the small metal bridge was made instead. Had some one taken this road by car they had to go back all the way till NH! Reach yellapur by 8.30 am and settle in the only decent accommodation in the town. Hotel Sambhram. Freshen up have breakfast. Thought we would check out magod falls before a couple of hours of rest. And also thought y not steal half hour nap before that.

Half hour became 4 hours and we woke up by 2.30 pm :D. Pushed the magod falls visit to next morning. Had lunch and started for Sathodi falls by 4pm. With all the luggage dumped in the room we with just the tank bag. Looked dry so did not carry the rain gear. 28 kms it’s supposed to be. Took the deviation and entered in to the narrow roads. Stoping few times to click. And then there was the threat of rain. And I din wanna get wet. We secure our electronics in plastic and put em in the tank bag. And it started raining. Man! But in just no time rain let off. The terrain got undulating we were climbing down and could feel the pressure difference in the ear! Get to the point were its 9 kms of offroading. Well who does not like offroading. There were quite some ppl to visit the falls and all of them were returning while it was just us going towards the falls. The trail followed the lake and at the opening Arun said lets get down to the water level. I asked from where? He said from here.! This guy knows where he is going. Some how I also manage to following getting down on the tricky almost vertical gravel face taking help of plants. Spent some time near the water. With nobody around but us. Get back to the bikes as it was 5 already and reach the end of the trail. We have to hike for like half a km to see the falls and few ppl there were left were trickling out. Was almost 6 by the time we got the first view of the falls. It was majestic with all the splendor and glory with post monsoon waters. I try to get some good shots. The last part of the path to get near the falls was pretty tricky hops on the rocks. With enough crevasses to swallow one. Arun jumped on em in a nimble way and found himself a good view point to the falls. While me decided not to be so extravagant and crawled onto a stone with a good view of the falls. Took quite a few pictures with various settings. Then it was falls gazing till it was getting dark. I coax Arun that we get of the stones in the day light. Which we do. It was scary crossing many places and soon Arun found out that I would not make a good trekking partner ;). We get to walk the path in moon light. It was amazing walking through thick growth of vegetation in the dark. Arun tell me is experiences in child hood where he at young age went to hike in the forest with his dad in the night. Well that’s where he gets his courage for these stuff. We get to bikes and for the ride back. Arun stopped at point where it opens up to the lake with a cement platform. We stop there and spend quite some time. Chatting, clicking and feeling the eiary loneliness in the forest with not other human for quite some distance. Sure it was spooky for me but Arun was here alone at that time the last time he had come! It was awesome watching the clear sky with stars, moon light reflecting of the lake. But faint enough to cheat the camera of a view. By 8.45 we start back and I take the lead. Ride out the offroads and HID coming to good use. On dinner while discussing we thought we could give palolem beach in goa a go as well. Crash out for the day catching up sleep of the previous day.

Get up by six am and we ride towards Magod falls 18 kms away. Nearing the point it was annoy piece of road work with lot of gravel making the bikes move side way. When we get there looks like we beat all the tourists early in the morning. So the neatly maintained view point complex was just for us. Had tea the care takers place and get to the view point. The falls is quite below from the view point and was missing a leg! I mean when I visited the falls a couple of years back in peak monsoon the fall had lot of brown water and an additional channel of waterfalls. It was nice gazing at the fall early in the morning. When we were coming back we see this adrenalin loaded youths playing on the park equipment meant for kids, with all their might. Felt like they were on steroids and were no less active than monkeys! Wish I had taken a video. Was wondering what was wrong with them. Then we came to know the reason. These ppl were budget travelers stuffed in a couple of TempoTrax all night with less space and they were blowing out the frustration. LOL. Not mocking at them but the situation felt really funny. Get to the room freshen up, pack, have food and time to leave by 12 PM. I notice quite few scratch on the tank cos of the tank bag. I improvise and put a banyan under it and it prevented more damage for the rest of the trip. If only I had thought of it in the beginning of the trip :(. Any way we were supposed to get to Supa via dandali, an interior road Arun wanted to try. After the cream road from Yellapur we find a deviation to the left on enquiring we found out that it goes through anshi national park and thought giving dandeli a skip. This off beaten path should be more interesting. We were stopped and the forest guards and asked. The guy himself did not know that we can go to dandeli through that road as well :D. But his partner enlightened him and we were in. It was narrow road through greenery. And suddenly we endup in a settlement of employees of Power plant. The small sleep town was amazing neat with wide double roads! It was quite extravagant. Any way get on to the path and roads not promising. Well we did leave the soft tarmac for a reason. Its going to bumpy all the way. All the way getting away main roads. At one point in a small settlement we find a fork and both going to anshi town but the one on the left had something to see. People were clear there but we took it any way. We were riding in the Dandeli-Anshi national park now. Ever few meters there were small cement boards with pictures of different animals with a request to save the species. Man have they tried to market the area!. The path seems to be worse this side compared to the other road of the fork. Then we were surprised by place of tourist visit. ‘Syntheri Rocks’ it seems. 2 kms of dirt track was indicated and ok we will take it. We were surprised to see quite a few tourists there. It involved quite some climb on the steps to view the rock formation, which we felt was not worth the effort and time after we saw it. It was hot and humid as well. Continue our quest for anshi town. The roads really deteriorating. But atleast it was evenly uneven. As in no potholes and stuff and the path was evenly bad. Trusting our Michelin tires we gunned the track which seemed to be going on for ever. Even it passed the path which was wet due to rain but we were spared of it. But the ride through the forest growth on either side made up for it. As we neared Anshi town the roads got really horrible. Finally in the town and enquired the distance from Karwar and the road condition. It’s supposed to be nice roads after couple of KMs and its 50 to karwar.

I told Arun about 50 kms but not about the good road to give him a surprise: D. On hearing I could see him gearing up for another 50 kms of crap roads: D. Like the guy in the town said, smooth wide twisties opened up for us. Yeeehaaa. Lets role now. First time on twisties on my ZMA and revved the engine hitting 110 too in bursts between the curves. Just wat we wanted to blow the bad road frustration. We even got on to a short cut by passing karwar and were ripping to goa. But still guess it was too late to make to palolem beach by sunset time. Entering goa were welcomed by a jam caused due to an accident in the narrow road highway. Squeezed through it and Arun suggested a road off the highway to the left. Since we are late any way we could avoid some traffic atleast. After some distance we were blown way. An unnamed beach devoid of people except a family of 3. And just in the time of sunset. This was freaking awesome timing. We got of the road and pushed through the sand to get on the beach and parked the poser bikes on the sand. It was euphoric environment. Cool breeze, sun going down golden colors on the sky and hardly any ppl on the whole beach which was only for us. Just then rain drops played spoil sport. :( We scrambled to save our electronics and I got into rain suit while optimistic Arun was ready to get drenched if needed. The rain did let off but any way we have to start now. Since this was off the high way we had to ask around a lot before we could find our way to palolem beach. It was bustling with hep crowed typical Goan style. Enquired for a room and hoped for one against all odds at a resort near the beach. No surprises in not finding one. We did try some more resorts a lil of the beach but no luck. Man that was a turn off, Arun asked if we should head to gakarna, but I was not in state of riding any more. Had not had proper food the whole day. Then he suggested only option to stay was the Canokona some 12 kms away from the beach. It was a crappy place with safety concerns. It was hot and humid horrible place to stay. I always end in such place after hard days riding. Arun lifted my spirits saying it would be bettor when we get to the beach. We lightened and went to too up to the beach. I was feeling sick as well. Found ourselves a table facing the beach and order some food. And what else Drink as well :D Arun wouldn’t have, so it was me alone. I save drinking for these occasions. Beach is where I like it. So after 17 months I order Smirnoff Vodaka. Some food in and I feel the energy. Some vodka in and I feel the happiness ;) Well it was good times for sure. I take some long exposure shots. And while showing a pic to Arun drop the cam lens first on the sand. Quite some sand between the rollers went in to roughen the movements of the lens. Can’t help it. Had 4 large and where I never had so much. Emptied the table and for a stroll on the beach. It was fun and frolic till late in the night. Playing with the camera taking weird long exposure shots, befriend a dog which friendly with drunk guys I guess, found a jellyfish on the beach. I wanted to stay there for the whole night but we had to get back don we. Get to the crappy place coax the owners to put bikes under the stairs before the locking the gates and crash for the day.

Wake up to a commotion outside. Lots of noise. And I have this huge headache. Yes I was having a hangover first time for me. Guess I had a lot last night. Stomach also acting funny. Drank lots of water and came back to senses. Wanted to get out of that forsaken place. Couldn’t not even find simple food around. Small stuffy hotels only. Dirty place. What contrast from the prev night’s cool luxury? Get packing we leave by 11 under hot sun. What a relief when we got on the move. Now it’s straight to Gokarna. An uneventful ride till gokarna stopping for a few clicks in between. The cam's lens wont get in unless assisted, thanks to the sand :( hope it works atleast till the end of the trip. One good road sandwiching a bad stretch. We fill the bikes tanks to brim with cheap petrol in goa, before crossing over to Karnataka. 50 bux an ltr! Turn right to the deviation by around 1.30pm. Ride a few kms till the gokarna town entrance and then realized what if there are no rooms in Seebird resort. Wanted a comfy place badly, else dunno wat to do next. Arun calls up the resort and there are rooms. Awesome. Not long before we are there. And get into comfy spacious cool room. Freshen up and rest for a while. We even get food delivered to the room itself. Nice full cores meal is what I wanted. Relaxed till 4.30 pm and then went to Om beach two up my bike. No riding gear, just the valuables. I insisted for a pic at a curve overlooking gokarna beach. Cos I had a similar pic of me from 4 years back. At that time also I had come to gokarna on my first multiday trip on my new bike with around 5k on the odo!. First time visiting gokarna after the tar road was made and man quite a ppl at the place. Arun really fancied a Honda XR750 parked at the Namasthe hotels parking lot. Namasthe hotel is bustling with people. It used to be laid back before the road to this place was made. We walk along the beach clicking at will. Arun wanted to find us a nice place on the rocks on the other side of Om beach to see the sunset. It’s almost sunset by the time we get to the rocks. And soon we find a nice place to spend the evening. I experiment a lot with the cam taking pix under the changing lighting conditions. Must say photography is hard work! Soon I am done with the cam and settle for the evening. It was awesome gazing at the vast openness of the see with the changing colors of the sky. And after sun down we could still see the land/water scape around thanks to the moon lit night. Occasionally we could see the mountain top glow with the lights of vehicles moving to and fro Om beach. We stayed put there till 8.30 and time to move back. Now my powerful LED torch came in handy to find our way back through the rocks to the beach. Then something hit my knee. I freaked out and pointed the torch and found this huge 4 inch frog. Prolly he was stunned as well and lay still on the ground. Me and Arun take like 20 pix with various combinations with flash, without etc before he got fed up and hopped away. Funny frog: D. Back at the resort some nice food and you know what ;) Since I did not want a hangover next day, like a good boy I settled for a quarter of RUM. :rolleyes: Even went for a small bike ride! Well yeah I know risky, I was riding at like 5-10kmph but still exhilarating none the less hehe. After the rest of the food I wanted to take a wanted to take a walk outside the resort but by that time the gates were locked :(. I sat in the drive way staring at the moon for some time. Want to be in the open when high. But mosquitoes forced me inside. Ok funs over and ZZZZzzzzZZZ.

Day breaks for my by 7 am after a comfortable sleep at a nice place. Arun wants to rest more. But since I was up wanted to check out trail which went towards kudle beach. So I went alone. Again no riding gear and just the cam. Thinking its just near by and no big deal. It was nice riding early in the morning. Then I find the trail to the right and it’s not so simple. It’s a heavily gravel strewn path and turns out to be tough offroading session between thick growth on either side. And I did not have any gear on. It was going on and on and did not want to turn back either. Still not comfy with ZMA on offroads as I am on the CBZ. Guess I need to get used to this bike more. I finally reach a point where one gets down to Kudle beach. The path ends here. Well its make your own road from here. I remember looking this plateau like place from the previous day from the main road. So I ride up the gentle slope of grass land till I reach the edge. Park my bike and its clicking time. It was amazing up there high up with sea on three sides. Did a small walk there with cold early morning see breeze. Too good. But have to get back home the same day so negotiate the offroad session carefully determined not to take a fall. Get back to resort for breakfast. Got pampered at this place. Any thing will be served any time. With nothing but a boring ride back we slackened and started as late as 2.30PM! Ohh man its going to be late night before we reach home. Arun wants to change the engine oil and luckily found a mech that to on Sunday. He was right hardly 500 ml left! With the oil change we were good to head home. Crossing Honnavar, Arun suggested to checking out an abandoned road. We went in and it opened up to a lake with some stuff in the middle of the road. So it sure is abandoned alright. But what do you know, some freaking activates went on there I guess. Some sick people had skinned two lizards! Threw the head and discarded the limbs. Bad smell in the area as well. We got back on the main road thought of checking out jog. But once on the bridge we saw less water and lot of ppl. Arun did not want to be in mist of so many ppl. So we din go in to view the falls. Not much water any wah. One more awesome twistes session till sagar. Then we deiced that we would have stop for food after the bad stretches are over. Reached Shivmoga by 7 and took almost an hour over the bad roads to get past kadur. I almost lost it once when I happened ride on two successive deep potholes albeit at low speeds. Dunno when they will repair this important highway!. We are getting tired now. How we wished that we had started early. Stop for dinner and spend some time at a dhaba. The person seems to recognize Arun. And many other places ppl recognize him cos that’s how much he has traveled around Karnataka :). Will fuel for self in we start by 9 pm and it’s a fast paced ride on reasonably good roads and good light to aid. Make it to home 1.10am.

Was a very relaxed easy going 1358 kms trip. We had so much rest in the trip that we felt like it was actually many small trips hehe. We were spared of rain almost whole trip. We weren’t really in a mood for adventure and things worked out just fine. And last to say, ZMA was awesome.

Kodachadri Solo - One day run

2008-09-17T19:18:00.009+05:30

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Finally I get a whole day off. Can leave early morning and come back late in the night. But just a day no more. Thought I will just do a lazy ride around BR hills and checked up with the guys. But no favorable responses. Arun said he might join if I start a bit late. But I wanted to utilize the whole day. That’s when Vicky unraveled his plan to ride upto kodachadri and beyond. Suggested me to join em making a run for it. I knew this was a tough ask. With the conditions here, we had, atleast I had never come back home the same day with 300+ kms remaining post 4pm. It was to be my longest solo ride as well. If at all, I had to do it with very less breaks and ride at good pace. Din really think about it much. Over the next day I couldn’t really come up with any other place that would be nice for a whole day! Still much undecided din make any preparations for the ride. Wasn’t decided till just the night before. Filled up the tank just in case. Called up Nidhi and he was leaving with his noob friend and take it easy as they had time. Thought might as well join em and ride till wat ever possible and get back. Could not sleep properly. Was tensed. Almost had a heart burn. Was imagining myself crashing every where! Yeah I was scared. I was thinking like a commuter. 16 months of commuting can do that I guess! And finally I can have a ride here. But what ever, I did not want to giveup on the ride. I was in a fix. Finally compromise prevailed. Said to myself that I will take it easy and turn back if I felt it’s getting tight. Plus I have ZMA this time. Depends on the mood on the alarm. Lightened up, then I went to my happy place and dozed of.

4.40 The James Bond theme music wakes me up. Well it’s the alarm on my fone! Am I going? Don’t think just leave! Din even call Nidhi as I had no time if I want to see koda. Get up brush my teeth wash my face no bath. Got ready in a jiffy. Rain suit and gaiters already in the bag and in the last min dumped clutch and f'brake levers in the bag. What else do I need? Don’t think just leave. Was out by 5.10. Went to the atm looted some cash and now what ? Don’t think just leave. It’s towards shivmoga I guessed since questioning was not allowed. Started at 5.25 am. Went to Kanakpura road to catch up with the NICE road. From there all the way to a lil before Nelamangala on 4 laner. The cleaned up wiser goes dirty in no time. Thanks to the insects that do jay flying on highways. These insects are crazy. Get to tumkur highway just at day break. Stop a few kms before the Toll to catch some warmth from a cup of hot coffee. 40 mins and 40kms not a very desirable speed. Yup long way to go. Got mineral water bottle. Gulped a bit cleaned the visor with it and since I did not want to carry more weight. Spilled some there. Then this Coffee vender stares me with the 'Rich daddy's spoilt kid splurging money' look. But hey he did not have spare water! Removed my rain jacket thinking sun's gonna be up and I don’t need it. Big mistake. It was cold alright and my Mesh jacket not really helping. Get to the toll and whip the throttle. Gotta make it fast else I might endup turning back from Shivmoga or worse from the base of Kodachadri! 100-110-120 always on the speedo. But it’s cold. I had no food. The discomfort is creeping up. Should I stop to wear back the rain jacket? Sun may be up any time and don’t think just move. With just 150 kms my lower back starts hurting. WTH! How am I gonna ride all the way? My bag had just rainsuit and gaiters. Tad weighty but not enough to buckle my back so soon. Lifted back pack in one hand and aaah the relief. Yeah it’s the cold, no food + moderate load on back = one hurting back. Should i turn back? Don’t think just move! Heck how on earth could in not stuff in bungee net. I got truck loads of em at home. Y din I get the Tank bag? To lazy to hunt it from its hole and put stuff in it and it might scratch my new bike's tank! Wat crap. Really missed the bunjees. Even thought of searching for one in the next village! Yeah right. In all this commotion forgot to enjoy the ride. It’s supposed to be fun. My first long ride on my new ZMA. It had achieved dream bike status in all these years of ogling at its type. Why am I doing this? Wasn’t the warm bed at home much bettor? Missed a winter morning hot shower too! Enough I just had to stop. Found a neat looking empty stretch. Jumped of the bike and cool down or rather heat up. To distract myself pulled out my new toy. The cam. I got a real cam this time. Spent a few mins with it. Sun's coming up. Atleast something’s going my way. I miss bunjees. Back to saddle. Wanted to have food directly at Shivmoga. Din wanna stop for food before cos it would be discouraging progress. And whip the throttle to max. After some time i see a lone biker ahead on a Bullet traveling at his pace. No time to socialize here. He prolly was riding at 70-80 with all the time in the world and zip past at 120. I felt instant adrenalin rush. Wat was that? Was it because there was fellow biker on the same road? Or the kiddish satisfaction that I am faster than him? Or is it the realization of the pace I was riding? What ever it was, was quite a shot in the arm. Hey I gotta take all I get here. Then on it actually started getting bettor. Coming from riding the CBZ, 7.5k rpms on the ZMA seems like 5k on CBZ. Thought will give it a try riding at 80-90. Did try but failed. Forgot the speedo and just rode at the comfortable speed. It’s important to ride the speed that keeps u occupied. Any thing less ....well... Ok enough of self justification. And just move on. Cross a railway track and I knew its bad roads now. But surprise its new roads this section. Getting nearer to shivmoga near Terikeri smooth road was giving way to odd pot holes. Well I wanted some thing interesting to ride right. Needed to bang on one pothole to teach myself to slow down. Smooth roads are behind. I adapt and the roads get only worse. It gets on to offroads. All this with Breakfast... err.. I mean shivmoga just a few KMs away. As it gets nearer the roads get worse. The roads deceptive got better nearing the town and throttled. But there was this one last pothole how could i miss that. Banged it so hard that front forks bottomed up and thought the mags might have even bent! How did i manage to do that? it was a specially pothole spread to the entire width of the road and it was of the same colour of the road. But i luckyly managed to hit the worst part of it :D Finally I am in shivmoga. Catch the by-pass stop at the first road side small eatery at 9.45 am.

That’s 300 kms in 4hrs 20 mins. Ok now I gotta give myself a break. I am almost on schedule. Tad over. I needa fill up myself to brim. Idly wada and Buns. Buns? Never seen it before. Looked bulky so ordered it. It was sugary, mass'y and Wheaty. Perfect compact organic fuel for self in this situation. Like more food goes in, in less time! Let myself of the hook and leisured with a hot cup of coffee. It’s all gonna be slow ride from here in the forest reserves and mountains. Call up Dad. I am in Mysore with 3 other guys! Din wanna get him paranoiac especially after getting the advice "u traveled 140kms in quick time, ride slow it’s been long since us rode"! Hey wat he doesn’t know don’t hurt him:D. You gotta do what you gotta do. Call up Nidhi. They still at tumkur. Might as well book rooms for them at k'top. Call up Vicky. He says "Yaawn! got up just now, howz the weather? You carry on will catch up at k'top!". Call up Arun. He says He says "good that u went; some work landed couldn’t accompany you even if u had waited." There, I just got relieved of the guilt of not waiting for a friend to ride along. It’s almost an hour now 10.45. Enough food must have digested to give energy. Gottu do something about the bag. Improvised and tied shoulder straps to the extension hole on the right side foot peg bracket. It’s falling short on the other side. When else will the saree guard come in handy. Good that I did not remove it yet. Now the bag in secured on the bike. From now on it’s going to be fight for seat space between me and my bag! But atleast it’s off my back. Fuel up and I here this noise in chain. Yup the chain is damn tight. Needs oil and adjustment. Just at the dead end of by pass to where I was supposed to take a right. I see Hero Honda show room. WOW. Just as I went in. It was flurry of activates. They don’t get too many ZMAs there I suppose. My bike gets pampered. Clutch adjusted. Chain lubed. Cleaned with cloth. He even opened the front sprocket casing to lube! With half the workers supervising one another to get it done properly. wow. Offered service but I had not time. Wats the charge? No charge! Please sir its ok it seems. Was even advised me of a short cut that would same me 20-30 kms. That is taking a left from EInooru to Hosanagara instead of from Anandapuram. So nice of them. Heck its 11.15.

Its bright and sunny may be I won’t see rain this time. Reach Einooru and I see a Board saying kodachadri 92 kms to the left. I wasn’t really enlightened about a secret shortcut, was I? The roads here on are narrow and trees on either side. Some times even got to ride under the canopy with sunshine escaping between the leaves. Had to watch out for blinders with road not wide enough to maneuver around the opposing traffic. Some straight narrow stretches where I could even manage 120! Really enjoying the ride now. Cross HosaNagara. Saw a truck collided with wall of a narrow bridge. But there is space to pass. Too many ppl around. Din wanna invite stares pulling out the cam there. Terrain gets undulating now with threat of rain drops. It still seems bright in the direction I needa go so throttle on. After crossing nagara only dark skies lay ahead. So stopped to wear the Rains suit just when the rain drops got heavier. Cam in a leather waist pouch. The rainsuit pant over it and then the jacket over it. Should be safe enough for the cam. And barely few hundred meters and heavens opened up generously. Rain riding from now on. Is that what you got? I am ready :D. Though the rain is hindering my progress its fun too. It 12.45 and I am still not at the base of kodachadri. Couple of times i thought may be I over shot the deviation. But it was still ahead. After taking a couple of deviations at the main road reach the base of kodachadri by 1.15pm.

I knew its going to be wet but hoped it least it won’t be raining on the climb. And my prayers were answered. Rains stop a bit. Based on my last trips memory. I have to cross some initial sections with soft slush. After that though the terrain is rocky it won’t be slippery. Or so I thought. Crossed a few sections. But they still coming on. Was reminding myself. The bike has to carry you. you cannot carry the bike. I had to take proper lines not to slip. Even had to dodge 4wd jeeps. Seems lot more of them this year. Boy is this place getting popular. The inclines with slippery slush, these guys relay on momentum and can’t stop if they want to! Heard honking once. I thought a jeep's coming from below and thought will climb up the incline before it comes. But half way through it’s the jeep coming from above appears from a curve. He gets surprised and its bit hard for him to stop. Hardly any place for the bike to go aside some how manage to cross over but not before having to listen to the rants of the driver. As in, why do you come here in bike, we can’t stop mid way like this, jeep will tumble. When you hear the horn u should stop!" ok so that’s the protocol. When the driver is approaching tight sections he honks. The first to honk gets the right of way while the other has to keep away from the narrow stretch. The path now is like in W shape. I have to be in one of those tracks. Hope I don’t run into another jeep in more precarious stretches. I could see slush quite up the climb! Later I came to know that they are in their slow road building process and have put the first layer that is red mud from the nearby mountain itself! Pherrrrfect. Now there is slush all the way unlike last time. But thankfully Michelin tires don’t let me down. Infact I just had one wheelspin when I took the wrong line. Pass man jeeps again. Got the stares as in "May u r great getting the bike here, Hero! What r u trying to prove?, U R Nutz, Is it possible?" etc etc. Stop at the plain area enroute for some clicks. It’s Misty all around. By now I am getting really hungry and rains picking up too. Finally near Inspection Bungalow by 2.30 pm. I am cutting it tight here. Yes like I said to my self last night, when it gets tight I will turn back. hmmm... 3pm was my dead line and thought or pushing it to 3.30. It begins to pour again. I went near the IB to see if I can book room for Nidhi but it too crowded I suppose. Lots and lots of people there. No one seems to have any idea of where to get food! Get one guy to take picture of me in the rain. Then asks me did you bike climb up? His friend: how did it get here if it did not climb? Not the first time to get that reaction. Then I take my bike below near the temple. Head to the priests home and sure enough there is lunch. Nothing like a cold rice and sambhar in this cold rainy weather! After I had food I asked why they don’t heat food stuff. Comes the reply "Could have asked before only know!" yeah! Why did I not think of it before? But atleast I got a hot cup of coffee. I am happy now:D Check out the office for room but just not possible too many ppl. Its 3PM and still have to visit k'top on foot. Decided to trek up till where ever I can till 15 mins and then come down. Tired, heavy tummy and steep climb with riding gear under the rainsuit and an oversize shoe gaiter is hard stuff you know. It’s still misty every where. I can hardly see 30 feet ahead forget the distant mountains. I looked really funny among the people there carrying the helmet around! Used a plastic cover to protect the cam and click in between rain drops. Time to turn back and not before posing for a couple of pix.

Get down is even harder on the knee. Man depletion of glucose reserves just before a ride home. Get to the priests house for another cup of coffee. Put my head on the table and had a powerful power nap for 5 mins. I so wanted to stay back but have to leave. And I start by 3.35 pm. I needed to take very less breaks and make good time. Still unsure if I would reach home the same day. Now that I am crossing the deadline. Just as I near my bike the mist clears up a bit and I could see the green mountains a bit. Could not help but play with the cam. Hop on my bike and after the first turn I saw a guy on discover approaching. Asked me How far to the top!! My big biker ego melted! And what I saw the next turn humbled me ever more. 4 guys, 2 each on a CD100 and a splendor climbed up all the way. The guys were exited about their accomplishment and their faces were beaming. But hey, they were well built ppl who could literally carry their light bikes, unlike me with a bulky bike and lot of way to Bangalore ;). I knew decent would be harder as I would be deprived of front brake. Was saying to myself "you have no front brakes". After some distance I come to spot where there are bikable track on the hillocks beside the road. I don’t have much time so check out the smaller hillock opposite to the one I tried last time. It was fun alright. Quite windy and mist/fog/clouds floating around. I could spend hours there but had to leave soon. May be some other time with more time.

Heavens opened up again just when I was about to start and now the fun begins. Yet to cover the long decent. Thought of taking the least slippery path at the center. Can use the flowing rain water as guide! Jeeps begin to approach 1 by 1. This time I also honk when I am in narrow place. If I heard the honks, get of the path and stay put till they pass. Once again say rocks are much bettor then slush. It felt like never ending. Just when I was prematurely celebrating that I did not have fall, the rear wheel slips and I drop the bike. Luckily I was in a V trench when it happened could the lift the bike. In a hurry to get my foot over it, I scratch the tank both sides! Wat crap, no scratches from the drop though! Dunno y I din swing my leg from the back of the bike. May be I couldn’t it was on a decent and I was already tired. With my muscles all loose have a couple of scares before getting off the off-road stretch. Phew! But we are not home yet. Its 5Pm and 400 kms to go and its raining. Am already 1 hour behind schedule. Nidhi calls up that we could meet up at Hosanagara for a chat. They seem to have halted for the day there. With rains constant company it was slow progress. But the enjoying the pull when I whip ZMA's throttle. Lot of acceleration and decelerations. Feel as though somebody spoiled the roads after I left in the morning! Did not remember so my irregularities on the road in the morning. After a couple of call update I am in HosaNagar with Nidhi. He invites me to stay over for the day but I have leave though. Its just 6pm. And shivmoga was all I could think. The road seems to be blocked for big vehicles cos of the truck crash in the morning. There was heavy equipment next to the truck to stabilize it. I had to duck under the heavy chain with the help of people to cross the narrow possibility and roll on the shatterd glass. Man i hope it does not cause a punture. As i pass through the various towns on the road, the dogs on the road instead of scampering off the road they got startled and froze in the tracks and i had to break hard to avoid hitting! this happened like 4-5 times. I guess dogs in this part the world unlike bangalore are not used to bikes approaching so fast! Still raining. Y oh Y? Even the HID lights not effective to the full extent cos of the wet roads. I was in a state of fun, hurry, frustration all at the same time. Get myself to shivmoga by 7PM. After loosing some time finally track down the bypass road and stop for fueling up. Clean my visor and it looks like a dry run from here. There I get a call from Arun and I update him. Suggests me to follow something to avoid hitting the odd pot hole. Call up Dad and tell just leaving Mysore!

Remember the bad roads just before shivmoga? Its not gonna be fun without some rains is it? It’s not good my visor gets dirty in no time. Rain lets go but had done enough to dirty by visor and I had emptied water that was in the bag. I was getting hungry now. I knew if I don’t have food then I may feel sleepy. But did not want to waste precious mins. If only I could fill my tummy as quickly as my bike's:D. Even after the offroad sections i was searching for the 120kmph roads. Which i seemed to manage in day time at the same place. Compared to morning this is where I as accelerating and decelerating frequently. The response was awesome while over taking and all. The approaching truckies dip their light troubled by my HID expecting my reciprocal. Some even switched off! But why should I? I am the one traveling at 80+ and that guys traveling at 40-50kmph has 400 Watts of light. It’s unfair. I knew that would get than angry and they would blast all lights just when I am about to cross them.

9.40pm at Arsikere. Found just wat I wanted an eatery beside the road that would save me time. Bakery it was. By now my back, knee, butt started hurting. Have a cake and couple of buns. Clean the visor and the head light with water. This was a 20 mins break to balances my senses. The roads are reasonably good now on. I wait for an escort. The escort vehicle has to be faster then me without an escort. Was maintaining good pace above 90. And no car overtakes me to latch on. I close in on a Pajaro and that guys thinks I am giving a chase and starts to rip at 100 110. Now that’s wat I call an escort and start following him at a distance. I even switch off the HID to normal halogen so as not to irritate my helper in the RVM. It was fun following the pickup at 100-110 on wide curves. After a few KMs he realized that I was using him and slowed down! Ok thanks for nothing! Over took him and back to hid. Man i need a High beam HID. Only low beam can be surprising at times. The night ride sure was fun with ZMA power. All the time my reaching home getting delayed by more minutes. Thanks to the food I had taken I am not feeling sleepy but the necks hurting bad. With center lane painting I could ride at a bettor pace above 100. I am at Tumkur by 11 pm. Not the cozy four laner yet. I have to cross the tumkur by pass. This was one annoying stretch with odd potholes and the timing of me approaching one was coinciding with an opposite vehicle blinding me. I almost last it ones. Finally at the toll booth of the 4 laner. I had to take a break. Vicky calls me up and says good man u will be in home in an hour. Call up dad that we are leaving in maddur now!

Buckle up and cross the toll section in a jiffy and get off the highway to the NICE road till Mysore road. As I was nearing home Vicky calls up, "Man you dad called up". Since I was 10 mins late to update. He seemed to have unwitting told dad about my day out. Man I am busted big time. Just that din want his disapproval. 12.45 In the parking lot of my flat complex. I put the center stand and was euphoric moment due to a personal achievement. Couldn’t believe I did it.
That’s 813kms in 19.5 hours which included the tough offroad sessions. Went home all dirty and with no much talk, straight to bed with a tired and satisfied self. Ofcourse I was too tired to even to sleep. Was broken all over. Took a couple of days for the bodily pain to relieve. But sweet pain you see.

PS: did I get busted? Well next day I just told that since Vicky dropped out we were teasing him with our extravagant plan :D

PPS: I you have managed to read till here, Do spare a comment :)

First Lil ride on ZMA!

2008-07-22T16:29:00.004+05:30

Yes. I got myself a new bike. The ZMA.

Both my horses ;)

Kinda done with the runin/breakin what ever and was craving for a ride on my new bike. Had a few hours on Sunday noon which i make use of. Had cloud cover when i left home but was sunny all the way. Not exactly the kinda time and weather for a ride. But din think much of it any way. Arun had told me about an interior route from Kanakpura to Anchetty. Just headed off that way starting 12.30 pm. Was checking on mileage so din put much fuel! Good ride till kanakpura and I am liking this new bike more and more. Effortless 100+ speeds. Quite a contrast from the CBZ. Very low vibrations, low engine sound. Was feeling like as if i am riding in neutral! Cross kanakpura go towards the fork for anchetty and my reserve starts blinking. I almost thought to turn back as it was not a good idea to get into interior areas without fuel. But i was told there's a fuel bunk in the direction i am going. Well back on the plan. Fuel up and hit the narrow roads. The roads have been relayed many times and are lil higher at the edges. It was turning out to be a balancing act when crossing over an opposing vehicle.

Now kinda getting away from civilization. Crossing many villages in between. Don’t find any open spaces and its undulating on small mountains. This is not the main road and not used by regular traffic except the village folks. I did not estimate properly and now looks like it will be some 40-50 kms of this road.

Speeds reduced. I kinda have to learn to ride this heavy bike as well. As i get into deeper villages i get stared at like an URO by the laid back village people. Some times the road completely disappears into the villages and it was like riding in narrow allies of a village with huts close by. Only to find the road again after the village. Scenery not really impressive. I was going in and out of villages. It was hot and desperately wanted cloud cover. I could see clouds in all directions but for the big hole right above may head making me sweat it out. Had to be careful as to whom to ask directions from. Cos they will ask for lift and if you do not oblige then u will be stared at till u disappear. Should ask from the person coming from opposite direction preferably if he has his own cycle or is dragging some livestock! The thing is that I used to get disoriented as to whether its the same road and was asking to reassure myself. People do behave strangely though :D. For example at only place when i wanted to ask for direction saw a couple of men squatting by the side of the road engrossed in discussion and it took me like a couple of minutes to gather their attention. Then suddenly one guy ran towards my bike asking for a lift! i Quickly throttled out of their:D and could say he was angry and was staring at me standing in the the middle of the road. Din really want to be of service for the next 25 kms that on my first ride on new bike and riding after so much time! Though the road has good tarmac, its of not good quality and still bumpy. May be i should also set the suspension one level softer as my horizontally challenged frame not putting enough pressure on the shox;). Now i sense i will be late for the chore at home. And I cant go any quicker. Just get along stopping a couple of times for pix. Nearing Anchetty the ambiance improves.

I start going up and down the small mountains kinda like small passes :D. Villages become rare and gets isolated and kinda becomes forest road.

The Roads improve very much and gets wider. I increase my speed and it was awesome riding through the thick green growth on either side of the roads.

It gets bettor and bettor as i near Anchetty. I even see sign boards mentioning elephant crossing! Finally get to anchetty. Wish i had to time to go to Hogennekkal. But i have to turn back towards Denkani kotta. Anchetty had some Mohamadian festival and lot of crowd there. As i move out of the village, the normally isolated roads now have some traffic due to festival there. But the roads are much bettor then last time. Wider smoother and twistier!.

Din really gorge on them as i was still not pushing the bike. Cross Denkanikotta and its normal 2 lane road till hosur. I get on to higher RPMs. Still varying the rpms levels. 100 effort less, 110 easy, 120 not a hard work either. Did even touch 128 on the speedo. Sure have ridden zma before but not for so long and its quite a welcome change from my cbz. Its really easy on my body as well. I hardly feel tired. Get to Hosur and its four lane till bangalore. Very easy to maintain 100+ plus speeds and but there is alway need for more;). Get back to home by 4.30 with 180 kms ride. And i even hit the 1000 mark on this bike.

Hope i get to ride more.

A lil ride up the hill

2008-06-28T22:37:00.000+05:30

CLICK HERE FOR MORE PIX
Pix by me and Arun.

I am still grounded!. By self or circumstances or what ever. But do feel like getting away for a few hours. 4pm Arun calls for the ride up the Granite Hill which we had done 2 years back. Was a nice lil adventures ride owing to some tough offroading. But its also raining this time. Doubtful of whether would be able to actually try it out, but still wanted to see if we could ;). A lil after I started from home rain drops or doing their bit. I stop to wear the Rain gear and I get a call from Arun "Its blasting rain here man! Let’s do it some other time. Or come over will have drive in car." Well with nothing bettor to do went towards his home. I get royally drenched just after. Okok it was just my shoes as I had my rain gear on. With wet soggy shoes and sox was thinking what to do. Get a call again by Arun "Rain's stopped coming by bike, will give it a try". Ohh ok looks like we have a ride on ;)

As we approach the deviation with the rain threat continuously on, The familiar feeling of not making it back grips me :D. Yeah it had been months/years since I last time I experienced it. After running around interior village roads a bit, we finally make it to the beginning of the Offroading. Looks a bit dry, no rain so let’s give it a try we thought. We wait at the end of the road for the dump truck to climb its way up. We could feel the stares from the ppl who were waiting there for public transportation, as to what are these guys up to. After some time we get on the rock face in the general path the truck had gone. Actually there is temple which ppl come to visit. As we pass the temple to go up the Granite quarry behind, we see some very old stone scaffoldings at the base of the temple steps, which were meant for shops in ancient times. There was even a lonely 'Agora – A stone platform around a huge tree' where village ppl can hang out. There was even an un-maintained temple pool 'kalyaani'. Awesome place away from the hustle n bustle of the city. We get around this area and follow a mud road and finally reach the base of the quarry hill. Its the point of no return;) it looks dry so we are doing it.

Ride on path literally chiseled on the rock face of the hill. It had some steep sections with slope'y rock face gravel and mud. Quite some tough sections to climb. We even pass through a section where the rock face was scraped layer by layer for harvesting stone for construction purpose. It would be tricky if it gets wet. I take few pix stopping many times while Arun rushes to the top. Since we were already late as much as 6pm!. Finally I come up to a very steep section which had to the taken at one go. I had also taken a fall there the last time while climbing down or rather I had dropped my bike. I took the wrong side, slowed down and lost momentum and the engine dies. The path was full of sand and gravel and struggling to get some traction. Thanks for some rocks I din slide all the way down. I had to pull and push on the 50 degree incline to free myself and some how made it to the top with wheel spinning. Phew stopped some time to catch my breath. That was hard work. The Michelin tires rocks :). Reach the top and Arun has parked there, while I explore the quarry hill a lil bit and park my bike near Arun's.

The wind is catching up and Rains getting real. Perched high up the hill top we could literally see the rain advancing towards us. Though it was light, I soon to get under the shelter of my helmet. As soon we were under the drops. After braving quite some wind we decided to get back to safety saving what little of day light is left. Now I take the lead and negotiate the path slowly and steadily and Arun takes it more cautiously as he did not want to drop his bike and break some plastic. I pass the steep section with out a hitch as there was some traction in the sand thanks to the light rain. Carefully negotiated the path until we come on the path on the rock face slanting perpendicular to our path. Now its wet and there's gravel too. Slowly cross the 200 meters of it only to find a 20 feet of tricky rock face to cross. Take it slow with rear wheel skidding all the way. I am through. Yuppeee. Then I get off and hold Arun's bike just in case, as I had experienced how slippery it was. He cleared too.

We make it back to the village hang out place under little light by 7 PM. The temple is closed by now and hardly any ppl around. We park our bikes near the Kalyaani and sit the steps. Quite, Calm, Fresh air and we got to chatting. Bikes, travel, life and philosophy what else. Touched spirituality, Universe, evaluation and what not!. The awesome ambiance and time flew and it was 9PM by the time we realized it!. By the now the sky was clear enough to show star constellations and there was bit of star light as well.

N we have to ride back don we ? ;) A nice get away. My body a lil sore with man handling the bike (or bike handling? !) but it was worth it.

Galibore: Mutthathi Forest again

2008-05-08T11:35:00.001+05:30

A ride after a long time. Not yet really in a mindset of touring but just wanted to get away for a few hours. The enthusiastic bunch at xbhp led by john, planed a ride muttatti forest. N i decided to tag along just the previous night. Its always a nice place and the offroading in the forest is exiting. Just showed up the meeting place and unexpectedly it was quite a big turnout. Only Santosh and Harsh were familiar faces while met the rest of the cheerful guys for the first time. Rode in formation reminding me of wayanad almost 3 years back.

Took a break along the deserted road.

Ride through the forest.

Just at the deviation to the jeep trail we find a ditch dug out to prevent ppl from entering the forest. It seems to be offlimits to civilians now. Quite disappointed. A conference as to wat to do now.

Guys scout the area and finally Harsh finds us bikable path across the ditch.

One by one bikes enter the forbidden land. And so does the GSR and R1.

Ofcourse it needed helping hand.
Let the offroading begin.

Its as exiting as the last time riding through the forest.

Its first time for many guys and they take time crossing over the hurdles.

We take a break near the waters and while away some quality time.

Then as the day gets heavier and gets hotter we move on to ride out the rest of the trail.

Santosh and I pull away from the pack for some speed dash. Most of the guys running on stock zappers on their new bikes take it a bit cautiously while as always michelins did a good job for us.

Some fluids to beat the heat. That was quite tough on all of us, but exiting none the less.

Ride out back in almost a formation and we all split at Family mart.

Since it was a ride for me after a long which also involved heavy offroading in that soring heat, i got busted all over and slept like a log for 3 hours before i could come to senses. And finally updating here as it was quite an Escapade.

6 Sixes!

2007-10-06T12:01:00.003+05:30

After Yuvraj's 6 sixes its my turn ;). Though odo is running in slow motion these days.
3 years and 3 months to roll as much.

Along River Kaveri

2007-09-30T12:32:00.001+05:30

CLICK HERE FOR MORE PIX

4 day weekend and looks like I can sneak out a day’s ride. Thought of checkin out the Shivasamadrum and couple of other places nearby. GanganChukki falls, Barachukki falls both of the same river Kaveri and then Talkad. Asked keerthi for directions of his ride he did last year. Started lat by 10 am for the 'can be called trip' after 5 months of commuting.

Usual kanakapura road it is and good roads end a lil after k'pura towards Malavalli. Then on its offroading on roads under constructions and I was in for unwelcome dust bath. It was sunny hot. Good that I got a mesh jacket just the previous day. Looked like not a nice way to make a come back as I was hoping for smooth and rain riding. Took left from malavalli and its a bigger road under construction. Now I started cursing! Din wanna turn back so just carried on and after some 40 kms of bad roads, the roads improve and now its smooth ride.

Not long before I reach ShivanaSamudra Project entrance. Get to gagan chukki falls. There was lot of water gushing by post monsoon unlike last time when I visited it. Try some mobile photography. Sun unrelenting. Quite a crowd there. After a few clicks and cucumber I leave to check out the falls from the other side. On the way back saw a road go to the right and was a board saying off-limits to civilians. But dunno y I got tempted and went in for some distance. A couple of clicks and just when I was got out of the roads, a govt car was entering and honked at me. Lucky that I got out a second before else may be I would have been stopped for questioning!

Get back to the maddur-kollegal road and after few kms sure I found a road going behind a big tree as told by keerthi. After a few Kms came to a fork where one led to Gaganchukki falls while the other lead to Barachukki falls. First went to Gagan chukki again to view it from just above the falls. Asked for cucumber again and the old lady asked whether it was for me or the monkeys!! I surely din find it edible and donated it monkeys any way!

Hop on the bike towards Barachukki falls some 6-7 kms from there. It was another huge falls and again like gaganchukki needed panoramic shots to get the whole falls. I could see colombo boats far below taking the revelers near to the falls, but din feel like hiring 1 alone. After posing for a pic I move towards Talakad. Another place to visit along the banks of river Kaveri. On the way back to malavalli I surely find a left turn after the narrow long bridge I cross again. Talkad it says some 25 kms. Big deal I thought. Its 2 already n I thought of having some grub at Talkad. But the road turns horrid from now on. Very bumpy and repeatedly my backpack gets dislodged from the nets. The old nets not reliable any more and I keep close eye on it in the RVM for the fear of it falling off!. Pass through green fields beside the road till my eyes could see. Some reprieve from the bad roads.

Take another left and towards Talakad. This place has a famous temple. Not religiously inclined I head straight to the river. Its already 3.15 I am hungry and tired. Get to the banks. Lot of the holidayers reveling in the shallow water of kaveri. After some survey I pic a spot under a tree to rest a while. Empty the food packets in my bag watching the ppl have fun. Spend more than an hour there. 4.30 I start back home. I remember keerthi mentioning bettor roads through another interior road through villages. Enquired for the same and ditched the horrid main road. The roads were bettor and after capturing few pix of sunset I decide to head to maddur to catch the 4 laner instead of kanakpura. Though lil longer but proper roads all the way.

Get to Maddur by 7 pm and some rip session now to blow the bad road blues. Its getting cold and the mesh jacket not helping. Also have small rain session. Din feel like stopping at the eating joins enroute alone and headed straight to home. At the end it was a nice ride after 5 months.

Still I Ride!

2007-08-28T11:16:00.000+05:30

Still I Ride sometimes some place.

ManchinBele - A lake Nearby

2007-07-11T10:49:00.001+05:30

Manchinbele lake so near to bangalore city is quite an escape. Hardly 30 kms and we are in midst of nature devoid of commercialization at least as of now. Been there n number of times and thats the place i went on my first ride with my bike as well. Its always peaceful there but may not lost long with a proper road coming up and can soon become a picnic spot and loose its charm. Vicky this time joins me as well, frustrated of not having a big ride for quite some time. All the while cribbing why arnt there places around bangalore to ride out nearby like in pune. He knows all the distant places to visit and but is unaware of places near to home hehe.

Now a proper road is under construction but previously had to endure some real bad roads and when u start think why the hell did i come here, just then u take and right turn and the view just hits you. The lake below and the mountains around it. It instantly feels all worth it. We offroad a detour to get to the edge of the water. Spend some quality time there and i try to improve my mobile photography skills.

This lake has a dam as well. Generally off limits to people but some money can get you past ;)

Well too small a ride to blog again but thats all the riding i have been doing off late and can as well save it hoping for good times on the road ahead.

HesaraGatta - A Sneak Out

2007-06-24T10:35:00.001+05:30

With my bleak riding opportunities offlate, felt like making a couple of hours useful last sunday. Always wanted to check out hesaragatta lake and the supposedly seeming barren isolated area around. Well it was too near and could have been there any time u see ;) Called up Santoosh for directions. He, a regular to that place, gave me enough landmarks right down to the road humps, that i din needa ask ppl for any directions :)

I could basically see only the lake bed instead of the lake. Summer!

Went ahead on those empty roads. And finally came up to the place i had seen in pix. Not really as remote and isolated as it seems but still makes for good photo shoots ;)

The last pic was the TajKutira resort. Good that they dont charge for taking a pic. Well it was just a two digit ride (95kms). But still an escapade ;)

Dhanushkodi Awesome Kumarakom Awesome

2007-05-08T13:52:00.001+05:30

CLICK HERE FOR MORE PIX

After the cross country ride I thought no ride will be good enough. But there is still lot of life out there. Rides to do. Places to see.

Arun plans a ride for interiors of TN State, ancient historic temples and then going to rameshwaram. This is to visit dhanushkodi, the city in ruins, after the 1966 cyclone which destroyed it. N near by a place called sangama, which is the tip of this, narrow elongated piece of land and is the starting point of Rama's bridge to srilanka, popularly known as Adams bridge. Y? ok lets not get into that ;). Then on the plan is to get to kumarkom, backwaters in kerala state n some ride through valparia forest to top it. It kinda seemed not possible for me to join with all the work on the bike's engine and electrical system pending. But tried hard to make it to the ride.

Delayed work on bike, and office commitments made sure that I can only start 1.5 days after arun leaves for the ride. He suggests me to rendezvous with him in Rameshwaram and continue together. Sure will miss some parts but with 4 days up for grabs, gotta take what ya get.

Day 1: Bangalore->Salem->Madurai->Rameshwaram

Since my bike was up and ready by Friday night, I can start only by 28th morning. That too with a guilty mind, as I could not change the engine oil and tire. But I was eager to ride out with xenon light now on the bike. Get rolling by 4.30 am armed with the Eicher map and my 61k kms old bike. It’s going to be my longest solo ride and pretty exited about the ride as well. Let there be light. That’s an awesome throw of light from the xenon lamp and cant believe its from my bike which previously ran at candle light. I slowly break the run-in after the bore/piston change and when I get challenged by another bike its break-in now ;). Day breaks as I near krishnagiri and I see some flicker in the headlight. It frequents and lo light is gone. Electrical is system behaving unreliable again. That’s very disappointing right at the start of the ride. Really frustrated to be on one more ride without lights. Kinda think of heading back. A few kms after krishnagiri I am stopped by cops and they ask NOC straight away without even asking for the regular Dl,Rc book etc. They knew very well that I would not have it as its not required by the low if we go to different state for a few days. But they threatened to book a case on me n all and were goin on and on in tamil. Me totally helpless not knowing the language decided to pay up the 200 bux. Well put it this way kinda entry fees to see TN :D. Reach selam at around 7.10 am covering 190kms and stop for break fast at A1 plaza. Then realize I had actually give the cop a 500 rupee note!! damn the same color notes grr.. That’s one lucky cop. Call up arun to update my status. It seems there is no night rides in the schedule for next two days and can as well continue. Now the rest of the ride I have to manage in day light.

Have a lazy break fast and check out the map. It seems rameshwaram is 175 kms from madurai compared 70 km what we thought. I gotta buckle up now ride in good time to reach rameshwaram early as we had plans of covering dhanushkodi the same day. But its not goin to be easy. The route being the lifeline of TN State, is full of traffic and lot of towns. I hardly get a chance to ride full throttle. Sprinkled with 4 laners just to keep me goin. Ppl cross the road all the time. I get inside dindigul though there was a bypass. Take some time to get to highway. It took me like 4 hours to do the 200 kms till madurai. Another half hour to cross the city. Again as if the heat and n all was not enough I miss the bypass and get into the city. It was one hot ride and hardly any free roads. After some 25 kms from madurai, I finally see empty stretches and crouch and ride full throttle. I see strange trees including palm trees. Many places I feel like stopping for a pic but I gotta make good time to rameshwaram. Had told arun not to wait for me beyond 3pm. By 2.30 I was at the Bamban bridge connecting the main land to rameshwaram. It was an awesome sight. The view looked like a painting. The Sea in light blue/green color under the sunshine and the small boats sailing. Could have spent an hour there. But with a few quick clicks I moved to Hotel tamil nadu looking out for arun. It seems I have reached their first and book a room for us and have lazy lunch waiting for arun. He shows up at 4.30 quite tired by the heavy offroading sessions earlier in the day.

Its kinda late, but we still give it a go to Dhanushkodi. There is tarmac for some 15 kms and rest of 4-5 kms was offroading on sand and slush as the road was destroyed in 1966 cyclone. It was fun riding till there and let the offroading begin. To start of there is some 300-400 meter of ride on the sand along the track made by the tempos and jeeps ferrying ppl. Then on its on soft wet sand and slush. Its so humid that even with cold breeze and sun going down we feeling sweaty. The tracks laid by the tempos and jeeps are the only way to know which way to go. By 6 pm we still have lot of distance to cover and recon it’s not doable today. So we take a left turn towards the water and ride the bikes till the slush is too soft. The environment was euphoric. Could see all the colors in the sky with the sun setting. There was this big cloud that looked like nuclear explosion mushroom. Words can’t do justice. We stay there till sun down and lights fade. All the riding in the heat felt worth it. Now its dark and to my fears my lights are gone. Have a tough time turning around arun's bike, which we had taken quite some distance into soft slush. I thought with the days riding battery would have been full and will have lights by evening. But it was not to be. With the help of arun's light and navigational skills we find our way back to settlement where the road to rameshwaram begins. Have tough time getting our bike through the sand. Park our bikes have fluids and sit on the beach facing the sea breeze. We hardly see any tourists around other than the local ppl there. Could see thunder and lightning afar towards dhanushkodi but same time could even see stars above us. Feeling sweaty even facing heavy sea breeze. Only when a bus approached the area, by its lights, we could see gust of vapor blowing from the sea. That explains all the humidity around. At around 8 a cops show up and said no ppl and private vehicles allowed in the area after 6pm and we have to leave. Hmm.. that explains lack of other tourists. Some times ignorance is such a bliss :D. I tailgate arun till we get to rameshwaram. Have a rum session before crashing for the day.

Day 2: Rameshwaram->Dhanushkodi->Rameshwaram->Madurai

Woke up at 5.30 in the hopes of catching sunrise in the open area where we saw sunset the previous day. But we get lazy and leave a bit late. We find a view of the sea on the left side of the road and sun is about to rise and we stop there to witness it. It was an amazing experience looking at the sun come up the wide expanse of calm water. By the time we are done with it, I see my rear tire has taken a flat. So much for adventure riding. Unwillingly I ride my bike back to the hotel. Now we go two up on arun's bike. We pass the point where we stopped the previous day, and continued following the tracks. There were often confusing tracks going in many directions. N we had to pick one and hope it goes the right way. I got down many places to cross sand. Then we ride on soft slush. Some places black with decayed algae. We would be in trouble if the leave the track and it would be very slippery outside. Slowly we get to the ruined city of dhanushkodi. As expected the houses and a church lay in tatters. Not much of the city we could see cos most of it was swept away in 1966 cyclone. Of the church and houses left could the briks exposed and eroded. Kinda haunting. But surprisingly a few ppl have made the ruins their home. An elderly man in orange drape invites us to his house. He also lets us have a mouth full of fresh water from a well. Wow sea water on both sides of the land and there is fresh water under the ground!. We get into his house, with arun expecting to know a lot about the place and the history. The old man was more interested in talking about the local politics. It seems his house is a passport office as well. As ppl going to srilanka have to get a impression of the seal he has. After spending quite some time there, we buy some shells as souvenirs. We start to the place called 'sangama' which is the tip of the Indian land mass towards srilanka and also the beginning of Rama's bridge.

It was peak summer’s hot day but luckily we had lot of wind and intermittent cloud cover helping us take a sigh relief every now and then. Arun doing the hard task of ferrying both of us on his bike on the unstable ground. It was awesome going there with hardly any ppl around. I missed my bike so much. We used to catch the old pieces of road every now and then. We were now making our way through puddles of salt water. Then there was this big hut and a guy who looked like a tourist waved at me. I waved back. Then he and his friend came running to us and stopped us. It turns out they were nave personal and it was a navy check post :D. We were told that bike not allowed any further and we have carry on by foot now. Now it’s trekking all the way some 1.5 kms to sangama. We could see the sea on both the side and we headed to the place where we could see it all three sides. One side it was pounding steep bank and the other side it was shallow calm seas, with the wind blowing in one direction from south to north. The water was light blue/greenish and color changing with sun and cloud color. Tiring as it was, pretty exiting as well. Though we had plans to hit kumarkom the same day, we din wanna hurry and took our own time at the place. Wading through the sand we got to the tip of the Indian land mass. Really felt euphoric. We were like 30 kms from srilanka just one swim across :P. We see ppl visiting the place in jeeps and tempos. But they had to go back with in half hour or so. But since we came on our bike we had the luxury to spend as much time as we wanted. We now walk back on the calmer side of the sea. Here it was very shallow and waves hardly higher than 3 inches. What do you think we did? Dove into the water. The sea water is the clearest I have seen in my life. Have a gala time over there. At around 1.30 unwillingly we decide to head back. Get to arun's bike back in town by 3 pm. I get my puncture fixed. Even check out the rameshwaram temple in a hurry. No time to take bath from the 21 fresh water well in the temple complex. Try to fix the lights talking to the electrician on fone. There seemed to be a loose contact and can see the lights turn on now. Too early to be happy that its all fine. We take a couple of hours nap from the tired hot day.

We start to kumarakom by as late as 7pm. Arun all set and in enthu to ride the night till kumarkom. My light was working but with in a few minutes it flickers and its out. Not again. Second ride me having trouble with lighting. Now I ride behind arun with only my indicators on. Really get upset as it killed the fun of night riding. Some consolation was that, I have put reflective stickers on my bike and am at least visible to oncoming headlights. I was not sure of continuing with the trip now. Cos any change in the schedule will need night riding n I don’t have lights. By the time we get to a town some 25 kms from madurai I feel some wobbles. We stop for dinner. I check the tires, which seem to be ok. Guess it was me who was wobbling. Feeling too sleepy as well and dont want to ride ahead and that too in stealth mode. N I din wanna mess up arun's plan of one month, so suggested arun to carry on and I stopped at madurai for the night. 660 bux for single ac room, which did not have temperature control. Well anything for a nap away from the heat. By now not sure what I wanna do next day.

Day 3: Madurai->Theni->Thekedi->Kottayam->Kumarakom

Get up 6 am and first thing I want to do is to have some decent food. I was feeling very week from previous days trek and no proper food. I din even have enough energy to climb up to my room. Now thinking of options. I know I could ride once I get on my bike. Din really want to do the frustrating madurai-salem stretch. Took out my eicher map to see any other route in the direction arun went. Cos I had two whole days and wats the point hurrying home and wasting 1 day. Thought of doing some route that I could manage in 2 days and get some rest in the mean time as well. Kodai seems to be and option some 100 kms from madurai. Crossing madurai I catch the road to theni. This unlike the highway was with less traffic and was scenic. Pretty happy with my decision I ride on taking couple of pictures. I get to theni by 9 am and see the deviation to kodai, which may be some 35 kms from there. By now having proper food in the morning I was feeling bettor and was enjoying the ride so din wanna stop so soon. Check out the eicher map. Munnar 80 kms from there, thekedi 70 kms. Considering I got the whole day before stopping could check out thekedi as well and get to munnar. Still undecided I carried and in a few kilometers I see the deviation to munnar and simply head to thekedi. Ok I am goin to thekedi, felt energized about going to a new place and the trip is still alive. May be I am talking too much into it here, but it was first time I was riding by the map, making route decisions on the go. Now the planes are done and time for the twisties. Having a gala time cornering. As I go higher down goes the temperature. Good that I din give up and head back to bangy. With this excitement I thought y not give kumarakom a go. Sure I am miss a boat ride and be it touch and go, there is nothing bettor I got to do getting home early. I get to thekedi and decide to hit kumarakom any way, which is 100 kms more. Even if I get to chamarajnagar the next day by sun down it should be ok. Call up arun to inform that me joining them. Arun and pradeep were about leave for a 5 hour boat ride and may be I can catch a small boat ride post noon. Ok I am gonna do the whole trip now. With time in had I thought of checking our the thekedi lake. Could at least see it if not go on a boat ride there. There were lot of hoarding about wild life crossing n all but really doubt any of them showing up so much tourist traffic.

Have a tummy fillup near the lake and start to kumarakom by 11.30. Put some talcum powder to the sunburns I had on my neck and back. Yes its one hot ride. 100 kms to go. Its all twisties and arun said it would take four hours. The roads were twisty smooth and awesome. kerala roads always are. Pass by some tea estates and rubber plantations. As I get down the altitude so gains the heat. It’s back to sweaty sweaty ride. Here I discovered a cooling technique. Once you have collected enough sweat in the jacket just pull the jacket and shirt outward from the neck, and voila you have instant cooling system. Of course this works only when on the move :P. Once the sweat is dry you let the jacket go to collect some more sweat. If in a hurry you could stop in the sun for couple of minutes to intensify the sweat gathering process and ride and feel the cool. :D I am in kottayam by 2pm. After hundreds of enquiries I find the road to kumarkom. Now I start passing small bridges built over the backwaters. Finally I see it. I ride by the backwaters some time just see a board of Shine tourist home. Yup thats where the guys were staying and surely find their bikes in the parking lot. Guys are not back yet. Get in, bargain a room for freshening up and get to a restruant to have lunch while I wait for the guys. They show up after some time, happy about the 5 hour boat ride and tired cos of the heat as well. They suggest having a speed boat ride for the evening.

After trying n number of places, we could manage a ride from the Taj residency. Its already 6 and we could have speed boat ride only for half hour as its the fishermen's turn past 6.30 pm. Start off from a narrow weedy canalet and into an open canal. See houseboats of different sizes and different levels of luxury. Even saw a plasma TV on one!!. Once we get to the open expanse of wembanaad lake the driver gasses it. Its rip and scream time. He twists and turns the boat much to our exitement. We circle around slow moving group of boats and give teasing screams :D. We want to catch the sunset from the lake but the boatman is in a hurry to get back. Arun suggests him leave us at the jetty on the other side of the taj campus. This was really awesome place to catch the sunset. It was soothing to sit on the jetty and watch on the sun go down the horizon other side of the lake. Just then our peace is disturbed by a boat of taj, ferrying back the hotel residents from a ride which included traditional music play by ppl!!. dunno if ppl were genuinely interested in the music or it was another service give by taj that had to be utilized by the money paying customers :D. But every one leaves the place and gets into their room. Arun laughing at these ppl, that they pay so much to stay there and when they can have the pleasure of watching the sunset and darkness approach near their room they prefer to get in and watch TV!!. By 8 we decide to start back. Now we have to cross the taj campus. It was very beautifully done with theme of kerala of yesteryears. It was a pleasure to walk in. Wondering if we are actually trespassing the campus. But wait we did actually use 1 of their service and paid for it tooo! Get out and its time to dinner with some beer. Settle in a restaurant by the backwaters. N we have thunderstorm for few minutes. It blows a hole in the hotels tile roof. Arun and pradeep get drenched while coming to the hotel. Every thing calms down and the small storm cools the temperature and we have dinner in the open by the backwaters.

Day 4: Kumarakom->Ernakulam->Trisur->Coimbatur->Mysore->Bangalore

Looking at the map we thought bangy was like 650 kms even by the NH route suggested by pradeep. Arun and pradeep were to ride according to the plan through valparai forests and then hit the NH. While i got to reach bangy by daylight start early riding the NH. Have breakfast in Vaikum at 8 am. Appam is in the menu. Simple food is wat I wanted with my tummy misbehaving and me still burping out the beer I had last night!. From now on ride on pretty much continuously except pic stops here and there. Crossing ernakulam its boring highways with lots of traffic. Once I cross Trisur, it turns out to the bettor with lot of greenery and light twisties as well. Not boring at all. I get to Coimbature by 12. It can be like 5.5 hours from here to bangy well in time. Wait a min I had done only 220 kms from morning and comby - bangy is 330. So its 550 not 650 kms. Though generally distance does not matter it saved me a good couple of hours of daylight. It was one frustrating experience to cross coimbature city in high of the noon. Takes me half an hour. Then on its pretty much full throttle ride. Get these irritating stares by the ppl going by. Guess they are not used to see a biker crouching and ripping :D. In sathyamangalam by 3.00. Now on I seem to be getting a lot tired and getting aches in ma back, shoulders, knees and of course my butt ;). I take frequent stops to stretch myself. Felt I was loosing concentration as got into uncomfortable situations in couple of curves. Hot summer trip really getting on to me. Most of the ride I had to do in day time cos of lights against planned night ride. Not to forget few stops for clicking sathyamangalam ghats. Hoped to find food in chamarajnagar but e'thing is closed for Labor Day. By now I am coming undone and have to make it to Mysore somehow. Even the minor bumps in the road feeling like shock waves. I am in Mysore by 4.30 and stop at kamats for some grub. Really tired by now and wanna hit the sack then and there. Still burping out the beer. Damn I hate beer. Have food and decided to brave it home in a go. Then on it’s a rip ride to bangy. A merc was the only challenger but soon got bogged down among the lot of traffic of ppl getting back to bangy. Though lot of traffic I make it to bangy in 1.5 hours by 6.30 in daylight. Home by 7 and bed sweet bed it is. Once satisfying nap I must say.

That was an awesome ride. Got sun burnt, tanned and heavily dehydrated but in the end loved every part of the ride. Though I missed almost a third of arun's plan still happy with what I got. 1653 says the trip meter. This ride is kinda special as 1450 kms of it I rode solo that too in unknown areas. A first time thingy for me. Thanks arun for the awesome plan.

Cross Country Ride - Greens to Browns to Whites

2007-04-01T10:58:00.001+05:30

Got to hold Sand & Snow in the same trip :)

CrossCountry? Well almost, baring a few hundred KMs north and south of the map. 2 Guys, 2 bikes, 8 states, 9 days, 4300 kms. Barren lands of Rann, Thar desert sand dunes, Rains, Himalayan Snow peaks and high altitude trekking all in 1 trip.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE PIX FROM MY FONE CAM

CLICK HERE FOR FOR PIX FROM VICKY'S SLR
Click here for a Write up on the trip by Vicky

Ashvin has a go at Kutch and unfortunately couldn’t make it. But this inspires Vicky to ride all the way from bangy. Vicky puts it up with me and we have a ride on our hand. I suggest IBA Saddle sore attempt along with it :D. Started with bangy-kutch-bangy plan. He wants to go now but I have a track day at Kari. He sets the plan to start 16th evening. He gets hold of the India map and suggests if we can take 1 more day we can check out Jaisalmer Rajasthan. Well wats the point in coming to office for 1 day, let’s take 1 more day so we get 9 days I say. Now Vicky plots on a kettta(bad) plan going way up till manali!. Builds out a master plan working his way through to every available map. Why ride bike the whole way can aswell continue and get ourselves back by air and train. Boy do we have a big ride here that’s starts with a 1700km day. We hardly publicize the plan as it seemed outrageous and tight. But that kept our interests on.

Though I was skeptical of taking on such a physical abuse, the thought of crossing states and riding to far distant lands, checking out desert dunes and snow peaks all in the same ride was too tempting to be logical. As suggested by Vicky, got myself cramsters, got the bike coil winded to support a 100 watt bulb (not much use cos the stupid faring lens design). Vicky gives me his hella lamp to go along with it. Felt short of time and kinda felt that exams are approaching!!. Realize too late that the disk pads and chain set may not last the whole trip. With short of time I carry with them with the hope I would just make it.

Day 0: Odo:56650 Trip:0
16th come to office all packed to scuttle out by noon. But Vicky is held up more than expected. Arun sees me off from office wishing us luck. I get to shell petrol bunk and Santoosh comes to be a witness for our not to be Saddle sore attempt. Its 5 pm by the time we start. Vicky looses enthu for the SS attempt as we could not start by 2pm and have to do the worst stretch between davangere and hubli in the dark. I still wanted to give it go. Vicky also wants to try it out and we speed towards to tumkur highway. I am slow. Dunno if it’s the cramsters, or the tires or the wind whatever, I am moving 10-15 kmph less than wat I usually do. 90 being luxury. Loose Vicky many times only to find him waiting.

Day 1:
Reach hubli by 12.30 am with hopes of SS attempt not looking good. Get casual on the food and loose more time. Let’s keep the SS attempt for next time. I kinda feel like I failed in exams :D Couple of red bull breaks. We have thick fog on the roads after hubli, thick enough to slow us down. Then I loose Vicky. Dunno y the bike's behaving like that. At one point the bike was stuck at 70 with full throttle. Waste time of looking for fuel in dead of night with 300 kms range not particularly help full. Even the center stand is misaligned. Vicky is in pune by 7 am and we want to take break for few hours. I take it more casually taking pix from my new toy the fone cam. The Approach to pune was simply awesome. The awesome curves, bridges, tunnels etc. Was confused weather to rip the roads or stop and take pix. Did a bit of both and was in pune by 9 am. Ashvin and PraveenS join us in our few hours break. It happens that the chain is damn tight with no play at all. Get it fixed and also the center stand. May be that was the reason for the bikes unruly behavior last night. I take a bit of rest at PraveenS's place while Vicky at ashvin's place. Have a lazy lunch and we start off by 3.15 pm. It’s very hot around. But the roads out of pune as much fun as the roads approaching it. We are in panvel by 5.15 crossing the khandala ghat with trip meter 941. Wow that’s my highest in 24 hours ever. Hope it counts though it’s got a few hours rest inbetween. I loose my goggles here as I rode off keeping it on the cramster starting of from a break :(. This is where the torcher begins. Have to get to Ahmadabad highway crossing thane but for this we have to go through mumbra. One horrible stretch going through ultra crowded narrow town. Real frustrating ride out of the mumbra area and I take a wrong turn and enter Mumbai and get stuck in traffic jam. Loose half hour by the time I get back to Vicky. But we are not off the hook yet. 8.15 by the time we get on to open highway. Ride for 3 hours and stop for dinner.

Day 2:
The lazy dinner break stretches to the next day. We find the food very delicious and the waiters very polite and courteous, even though it was a small hotel. Very unlike in other states. Disappointed that we are still not in Ahmadabad. Have to ride through the second night in trot to catch up with the schedule which got messed up on day 1. Now its not gonna be ne easy as the Vicky’s tire had a puncture and not surprisingly found a puncture shop nearby. I guiltily sneak out a 20 min sleep on the ledge while Vicky is working on getting the puncture fixed. We get on the road and that’s a lot of truck traffic in this route who can change lanes quite fast ne time. But all of them follow traffic rules as in letting faster vehicles overtake from the right be it even our bikes. Couple of more Red bull breaks. Me thinking all the time how nice had we reach abad earlier so that we could have been sleeping now :). 4.45 am we get to bharuch 150 kms short of abad and Vicky cant ride ne more. Trip 1359. We shack up on a highway motel. It was quite nice and comfy and crash for a few hours. 12.30 We start moving after having some grub. We have some rest but still no lettof by the trucks. As Hitanshu has said its mayhem of trucks in this road. The roads have become bumpy with continues truck movement. It’s like have to dodge trucks on and on for hours. Reach a'bad by 2.30 very tired and get into a nice AC hotel for a long lunch. It seems we would get to Rann of Kutch at just sun down and can’t go ahead. So we decide stop at a small town called 'pathidi' for the night so that we could check out rann and move out in the morning. Gujarat roads are simply awesome. Not long before we get to the town of virangam. Damn wat is that place, very dusty and dirty and horrible. Looking at the approach roads I thought it does lead to a big city compared to KA standards. Vicky says pathidi also similar small town. There goes my hope of resting for the night in nice comfy hotel!!. The interior road from virangam to pathidi in late evening was fun to ride. We felt euphoric. Though nothing special around to describe, but we were exited cos it looked completely different to the country side we are used to in KA. Get to Pathidi by sun down with trip meter 1610. A small dusty town as I feared. This town has got the only guest house kinda stuffed deep inside the meandering crowded streets. The room nothing to say about, but that we were lucky to have a fan at least. Vicky befriends the young witty caretaker Manis. Have dinner. Gujarat hotel food is simply awesome be it a highway hotels or small dusty town restaraunts. Too good food. Then we chat with Manis and his friend for some time. Will have to get whatever rest possible in that room kind of holdup. Get calls from friends asking intriguing questions like "wat the **** are you guys still doing in pathidi ?"

Day 3:
As usual get lazy on getting up. Heady towards Kharakoda which is on the edge of Little Rann. Had we reach morvi the previous day as per schedule we could have attempted the great Rann crossing which also included risk of get lost. But Vicky says lil Rann is enough to get the taste of it. It seems the salt cultivating season has just opened and there is continuous traffic of truck in and out of rann. The path is only visible as the depression caused by the truck movements. We get in like 10 kms which was enough to take us away from ne significant land marks and could see the mostly the horizon. The ground dry and cracked open for miles in every direction. And we get click happy. Vicky wants to shoot a few Wild Assess locally known as ‘khachhar’ that live around Rann. Not long before he finds a local who would escort us to the edge of the Rann where we spotted 4 Wild assess. Vicky is happy that he caught the only large animal that lives around rann. The local pleads for ne memento as remembrance for visit to his home. Vicky gives his sunscreen cream, to the overjoyed local. We try some speed dash, vids and also jump on small salt water canal'et. After a couple of hours play its time to get back on our journey. Wats the fun in entering rann if u don’t loose your way and that’s wat I did. Thanks to the confusing truck movements in different paths. Manage to get to Vicky waiting outside. Vicky shows of the pix to the intrigued Manis. Manis also takes us to a place in the town where we could see nesting storks and trots. Offers to take us to the wetlands nearby to spot flamingos, but we don’t have time and we skip it.

Have lunch and start as late as 1.30 pm with trip meter 1653. My center stand is off again. Finally fix it, but is has scraped of a lil rubber of the side of the tire. Vicky uses the map which Ashvin gave us in pune, to find the route to jaisalmer and consults a local to find a shorter route which is not even on the map. Gujarat roads awesome as ever are a pleasure to ride. We even spot colorful wild peacocks by the side of the roads. Which only run away by the time Vicky could get his SLR's focus on them. Stop n number times for the pix. Really enjoying the ride in the lands we never rode before. By 6 pm we come across the Gujarath/Rajastan border. Feel the excitement, yet another state we gonna set foot for the first time. More so for Vicky as had never gone so north on the map in his life. Being coaxed by Vicky, I click pix on my expensive fone while on the move. I simply love the tank bag which is coming in so handy. I could keep the fone in one of the pockets and pull it out for a pic on the move. Click the last possible glimpses of the day before sundown. We stop for a sunset pic and find decorated horse being ridden by the owner. We wanted to take some pix sitting on it. Vicky goes in first. But the horse not happy with ne 1 other than the owner riding it shuffles here and there and has go on unsuspecting Vicky with a kick on his lower stomach. He drops to the ground in pain. It takes some time for him to recover. Talk about challenges in riding!. That must have hurt real bad. Helplessly nothing much i could do but offer water. After some rest he feels like he can ride now. It’s dark now and let there by light. But no lights, my bike's complete AC system has failed. Nothing is working. Man not on this trip!. Only the auxiliary lamp is running with DC which is not bright enough. Now Vicky with his ultra bright luminator head lights is the eyes for both of us. Super smooth rajasthani roads and hardly ne traffic, means I can ride parallel to Vicky riding by his bikes light. This works well, though Vicky has to ride slower now and limited to 100-110 kmph :D. Get to Barmer by 9 pm but not before a supposed race with a car. Fueling up at the barmer the lads from the car come to us and say that was amazing riding on the highway and they had never seen ne thing like that. They said like we over took their car when they were doin 125kmph!!. Funny my 5kmph error Speedo never crossed 110 :D I change the blown fuse but its no use. Electrical system is still dead. Do the same tandem riding and get to Jaiselmer covering the 150 kms in 2 hours by 11 pm. Vicky finds a hotel as soon as we enter the town and get straight into the room. Have food and crash out for the day.

Day 4:
This day is a roam around jaiselmer day. Mentally get ready for a hot sunny day, but for our pleasant surprise Jaiselmer in Rajasthan is not hot!. Its temp is much comfy compared to Bangalore. Looks like we are there at the right time. Our first place to see the Jaiselmer fort near to our hotel. Vicky selects a guide from n number of ppl that approach us. The old yet energetic guide shows us around the living fort where the 3000 ppl actually live in the fort. It was fun roaming around in the narrow streets inside the fort. The whole fort is made of yellow sand stone and so are most of the buildings outside the fort. A view of the city from atop the fort has all houses made from the same yellow stand stones. Then we hook up the same guide to show us around the jaiselmer. We visit many places like, Gadisar Lake, Patva haveli. Have a rajasthani lunch and head to khurdala ghost town as suggested by Ashvin. Was a nice place and the desert road was fun to ride. Rajasthan is simply much greater than my expectations. After the ruins it time to visit the Sam sand dunes. First time in life am I gonna see and feel sand dunes. That’s 40 kms from city. The moment we get there, we are assaulted by competing camel rider who want us to pick their camel for a ride. They don’t even give us few mins to see the sand dunes. One guy whose camel's name is 'Michael Jackson', himself decides that if am gonna ride on a camel then it would be his. But Vicky more unlucky as 8-10 ppl pull him around to grab him for their camel. The guide in the fear of getting beaten up absconds. We soon feel like to head back. But a cop show up and clears the mob and puts us onto a camel. Finally some peace. This camel’s name is 'ShahRukh Khan' it seems!!. Have to learn the balancing act to stay on the camel when ever it gets up of sits. It was fun on the dunes. We even test rode the camel, though it seemed to listen more to the commands coming out from the owner’s mouth. Stay there till sun down. It was amazing. The cool breeze all the time. Get to the parking only to find the cribbing guide waiting for us, who had came out of hiding. Ride back to the town. We realize we are still behind schedule by 1 day and wanted to make it to Amritsar by 4 pm the next day to catch up on the gate closing ceremony at the waga border. And even contemplate on starting then and ride through the night to get the Amritsar and catch up with the original schedule. But were too tired for that and decide to start of very early morning.

Day 5:
Our scheduled departure or 3.30 am materialized at 6.00 am with trip meter 2243. We needa ride hard to make it to waga border by 4 pm to catch the ceremony. Day breaks riding through Rajasthan and we hafta to stop for a few pix. Then it should be nonstop ride. But a few kms more we needa stop again. Awesome Rajasthan roads and amazing vistas around not letting us ride long. Not long before we Vicky spots some sand dunes a lil off the road. 1 more stop and we offroad near to the dunes and play around. Glad that we din ride the night else we would have missed all this. We get on to the road and only to stop again not long after. The ride through Rajasthan is turning out to be the highlight or our trip. Thought Rajasthan would be very bland and nothing much to see around. Couldn’t be more wrong. Long straight roads, very lil traffic, eyes could catch stuff quite far from either side of the road. Reaching Amritsar early evening seems farfetched. Having a gala time on the empty highways. At one point Vicky says he is running out of the fuel. I so wanted to lend fuel to his 700 kms range machine, where the fuel for meant for my 300 km range bike: D but a fuel bunk was found soon. alas! :D. We are in Bikaner by 11 am avging less then 50kmph thanks to our n number of pic stops. Don’t find Bikaner as nice as jaiselmer and head towards to Amritsar. The sand on either side of the road turns yellowish compared to reddish tone before Bikaner. The vistas mind blowing none the less. Forcing us to stop ever more number of times. Really liked the arrow straight empty long highways which we hardly see riding down south. Since this route is close to Pakistani border, we see quite some military activity as regards to parking of trucks tanks, and military vehicles moving on the highway. We stop at a place which was like mini base, with bunkers and tanks hidden under camouflaged covering. Obviously were denied the opportunity for clicking ne pix. We hardly have ne food saving time :D

At around 5 pm we take a right turn towards Punjab state, riding to a town named Abhor. With in a few kms the scenery changes drastically as we get away from the desert. It’s now green on either side and could even see the threat of rain. It was disappointing a bit. A green drape on either side of the road after a ride in the desert should seem very welcome, but for me at least it was like coming back to my own territory after and outlandish ride. Cos it all seemed like Home. As we entered Punjab we are stopped by the cops for a routine checkup. These cops were very friendly and on knowing our journey offered us and few grapes and chatted with us for some time. We even had a pix session. Bid adieu and started riding, after getting directions from the cops. Punjab welcomes us with a dust storm. Signs of rains ahead. Though Vicky is exited at the possibilities of riding in rain, I am no mood to get wet. The roads turn bad, the road discipline non existent, and continuous crowded towns. Soon I stop Vicky as I need to water proof myself and my luggage. We stop at a fuel bunk just as it started raining. The fuel bunk owner a very nice person offered us tea and even went out in rain to get the milk. How ever the roads, what ever the road discipline the ppl of Punjab are very friendly and helpful. I fuel up again 1 of the thousands of times I do on the trip cos of the short range. Every time I get the same questions as where we come from and we get increasingly surprised reactions as we get away and away from home. Its dark now and even the DC lights fail. The battery is completely dead. Feel like my bike is falling apart. To my hard luck Vicky’s tail lamp too fuses. Now I gotta run 200 kames in dark, rains, bad roads without lights. Tandem riding like previous night not helping as the roads were pathetic and Vicky needed to swerve to avoid potholes. We improvise and I ride ahead. His head light is so powerful that I get sufficient light riding 20 feet ahead of him. Much brighter than my stock light before :D. This stretch taking a toll on me and I could say it was the worst session in my entire biking life!!. Was not any easier to Vicky as he had to take care of both of us with his head light. At the end of the bad stretch I drop my bike while taking u turn and burn my leg on the silencer in the process. Ride on none the less and get to Amritsar by 11 pm with trip meter 3093 covering around 850 kms for the day and shack up in a nice hotel near golden temple. We not gonna sleep so soon are we? Have dinner and get inside the 24 hour open famous Golden temple for Vicky’s night photography. It was damn cold and had to walk bear foot on the chilled marble. It was amazing to be in the temple complex. So peaceful. It was nice to be at place which I has only heard and seen in on TV. Crash out late for the day.

Day 6:
We have to get to manali today. As usual get up late. We visit Golden temple again in the day time. Spend quite some time there. Even get into the sanctum sanctuary. Even though thousands of ppl visit each day the whole temple complex is kept very clean. We buy the kirpan(traditional Panjabi knife) as a souvenir. Back in the room by 12 pm. But feel coming so close we have to check out waga border ne way ceremony or not. It’s a 40 km ride from Amritsar. But first we see the Jalianwala bag where thousands of ppl lost life during freedom struggle. We start towards waga border dodging the highly crowded Amritsar city traffic. Road discipline non existent. Then we get on to the highway leading to the border. As expected we were not allowed past the first gate. It was possible only after 5 O clock. Though tempted to stay back we had to move one, else we would not catch up the schedule. We were supposed to have done this a day ago. Take a few pix and have photo shoot at a milestone near by. Well it said "Lahore 23 kms!". Start of from Waga border by almost 2 pm. Next stop was to be Pathankot. But the horrible Punjab roads and traffic continue. It was a taxing 2.5 hours till we get to pathankot and stop for lunch at 4.30 pm. Trip meter 3295. After a lazy lunch we get on to the task of get the lights in my bike to work. We semi dismantle my bike much to the curiosity of the onlookers. The call with the electrician did not help much. Finally Vicky found a line which got power directly from alternator and connected it to the hella lamp. Voila Let there be light. But it’s almost 8 pm now. Takes some more time gets things fixed and packed and we start by 8.45 pm. But the traffic and roads not gonna let us so easily. Still have 300 kms to cover to manali. Now my chain is slipping from sprockets. Almost at the end of its life. We dodge through the traffic and get on the mandi highway. Now we get some peace and traffic eases out and roads improve. As we get to the foot of Himalayas at 10.30 pm we break for dinner. But also tighten the chains of our bikes ourselves using the tools of a car mech near by.

Day 7:
The dinner again stretches for the next day. Looks like we gonna have one more night ride. The temperature is falling rapidly. We pack ourselves with all the winter gear we brought along. My light shines every brighter as all the power from the alternator is going only to the 1 light. N there ends my front disk pads and it metal metal scraping the rest of the trip :(. Its all twisties from now reducing our avg speeds. All the time wishing we would have done it by day time and feared that we missed lot of scenic vistas. We take n number of breaks to get our senses back. Even though we were cold and tired it was actually fun riding in those twisties close by. We get lost in mandi and take quite some to get back on to manali highway. Its slow progress and it’s almost 6 am by the time we are in manali. Trip meter 3601. Now wats the point of looking for room when its day already. Have omelet and noodles basking under the early morning sun, by the edge of the road and a river below. We directly head to rothang pass. This is Vicky’s first visit to snowy peaks and to feel the snow. We are stopped by cops at Solan saying that it was too risky for two wheelers ahead cos of black ice and Glacier (he meant avalanche actually :D). We stop there park our bikes, hire some warm coats and boots and hike up the rothang a bit. Vicky is not as happy with the snow as he thought he would be. He is missing trees. But I liked it ne way. Was fun walking on the snow and gazing at the snow filled rothang. After another round of noodles we start back to kullu to check out bijalinath temple as suggested by Hitanshu. While I come down quickly and wait for Vicky, he deviates to Solan valley to check out skiing activities. By the time I get there, there seems to be a huge traffic jam on the narrow road and I am advised not to enter. Vicky is stuck in the jam and it will be an hour and half by the times he gets out of it. Damn tired and ready to sleep ne where I could rest my head on.

We get back to manali looking for a hotel where we could park our bikes, finding none we ride out till kulu to find one. It seems the path the bijalinath is risky as it’s unstable due to heave rains recently. Manali and kulu hot under bright sunshine, which had forecast of heavy rains for that time!!. Though Vicky was disappointed, me too happy not having to get wet :D. After lazy lunch we head to ghiyagi town, in the himachal mountains as suggested by Hitanshu, who is constantly keeping track of our movements and helping us in stay and route possibilities. It’s to be an 80 kms ride before we rest after our 30 hours on the move. Just after we take a deviation to banjer after auit, it’s the familiar himachal hill riding to me, where we would be riding on narrow roads with wall on the 1 side and abbeys on the other. Finally Vicky likes something on the Himalayas. We make frequent stops for pix in the fading daylight. Soon we are riding in the dark. We are continuously on the climb and can hardly ride about 30s. The kms take longer to cover. Since it’s completely hilly, we don’t get a clue of a live town till we are actually are in it. We ask directions for the next town and the moment we are out of the town we feel like we are lost. Even get a bit panicky not know whether we are on the right track. Finally we get to Shring Vatica guest house by 8.45 pm. Trip meter 3721. This guest house was a welcome retreat after of 30 hour run. Had cozy wooden room promising a nice view in the day. Have nice dinner cooked by Mrs pammi. Send out of daily SMS update to friends. Then we learn that cos of late snow fall this year the Jalori pass near by is still not open. It under the snow of 12-15 feet. That blows our hopes of getting to narkanda on the other side through interior routes. Tired and confused at wat to do we crash out for the day under bed thick Razais.

Day 8:
The cozy place made sure we do get up pretty late. The view from the room din turn out to be of spectacular valley but still was green. We have a lazy break fast of sandwich and thupka. Mrs pammi also taking her own time in cooking for us. They concerned that we try to cross jalori riding on the unstable snow and suggests us against it. Now it’s too late to take the longer route through mandi-simla-narkanda. We thought we will check out pass road as far as we could go and check out of the guest house. With time now in hand we stop for quite a few pic sessions on of climb up to the pass. Not long before we found snow on either side of the road and soon we are stopped by the 3 feet high snow on the road ahead. We can ride no further. Quite disappointed that we could go no further no clue as to how to utilize the day. After a few pix we head back to town called 'Sujha' which is at a height of 8000 + feet. Thinking of wat to do with a hot cup of tea. Now Vicky strikes the plan of doing to high altitude trekking to jalori pass. He orders, pleads, requests to send some 1 along with us. Finally the shop keeper calls a boy from near by town to guide us. This is amit who is enthusiastic to take us around his play area(the pass). We decide to stay at the tourist room of the shopkeeper which had nice view of the mountains just outside the room. Its almost 3.15 by the time we start and getting to the top of the pass seems unlikely. But we try it ne way. Hop on our bikes till we could get to the unrideble path. Take some pix and start of trek on the snow armed with sticks for support. It’s like there is a path way made by ppl crossing the pass and the snow is pressed down. If we step out side the path our legs would sink into the snow. Walking on snow is hard work and actually feels sweaty inside our layers of winter gear even though it’s freezing around. We make slow progress taking our own time getting click happy. It was awesome walking on the snow path with long trees like deodhar etc, and also mist showing intermittently. Vicky is in love with Himalayas now. As we get higher we walk on thicker layers of snow. At places the snow had bulged out of the road area and ppl had walked on it. There was risk of snow slipping and we could tumble into the valley. 4.30 And we are still short of a Km from the pass. Amit the guide now suggests its bettor head back as we need to get back in day light. As it would be very tough get back in dark. With only the satisfaction that we had trekked at least as high as 10000 feet we turn back. We rest for some time. Now we realize how cold it is around. It seems a bit easy while climbing down but we sink our foot in the snow more number of times. Getting our shoes wet in the process. We play catch the snow on the way to get pix of us diving to get hold of the snow ball. We roll snow balls of the edge to see it gather more snow and become a big disk before falling over. Weather deteriots and we get lot of mist and wind. Its 6.30 by the time we get back to our bikes and it start to rain. Cold ok or Rain ok, but cold and Rain together a big no no. we hurry back to the shop and just escape the rain. We are not going ne where now. So settle next to the shop where fire was put for soaking heat. Hot tea, noodle, fag and booze (no me though ! ok jast a lil :D). We stay there till 10 pm in the night. With the Shop keeper GopiChand giving us company and keeping the fire burning. It was fun soaking heat from the fire with sub-zero temperature around. Vicky couldn’t have enough of it. Crash out for the day with promise to start early tomm for Delhi. Hardly 20 kms we rode that day.

Day 9:
Again get lazy on waking up sleeping under the cozy thick razais. But we don’t packup after we get up, but rather go photographing the view just outside the room. We just can’t seem to have enough of it. There was snow around the place. We had the shopkeeper’s two fluffy dogs to give us company. Finally its 10.30 am by the time we start for Delhi. We take it easy going down the himachal hill to mandi taking pix every now and then. Get to Mandi highway by 11.30. All good things come to an end. Its time now to get ourselves and bike home and be in office the next morning. But first we needa get to Delhi. Vicky wants to make a nonstop ride to Delhi, while I take it a bit easy snapping pix. The twisties which I enjoyed to the max last time did it now so fun now, with improper tier setup and worn out front disk pads. As I near Chandigarh I hear the chain slipping from the sprocket. What now?!?! In a small town the mech says the sprocket is done for and won’t last another 100 kames. I go in look for sprocket in the next town, when another mech tightens the chain to max and say not to worry and it will reach Delhi. I hope so! I get to Chandigarh by 4.30 trip meter 4006. Just crossed 4k kms. Call up Arun who suggest to pack the bike from Chandigarh itself but I need a search the packer first and Vicky has gone ahead too. So I too rip to Delhi. I am near amabala by 6.15 and get a call from Vicky he is waiting 50 kms short of Delhi. He is 150 kms ahead of me. Now as I gear up the night ride, I see the light now working again. That was scary. When I opened up the doom, found a connector loose. phew! Put it back on and we have the light. Now on it’s a straight ride on the grand trunk road zipping past the almost the continuous traffic. Cajole my bike to take me till Delhi. Praying that the chain sprocket sets lasts just a few more 10s of kms. Finally in Delhi by 9.30 pm with the trip meter 4258.

Catch up with Vicky in mehpalpur after zipping through Delhi streets. He has already arranged to ship our bikes to bangy through Leo packers. Suggested by Hitanshu. With bike handed over have a dinner and crash out hoping to get up early to catch the morning flight to bangy.

Yes that was the adventure we had. That’s the longest trip I done so far. Bikes gave no trouble except minor chinks in my bike. Thanks Vicky for carrying out the ride plan with me, though I feel I have been a drag with not keeping the bike up to the mark for this ride. Thanks Hitanshu constantly being in touch with us and helping us out in our route and accommodation and packer suggestions and our gooba friends who were constantly in touch with us encouraging us get on with the trip.

Even after a couple of days now, when I get up in the morning I feel like hurrying up and getting on the bike to catch up with the schedule :D

Kari Track day - Solo ride to Coimbatur

2007-03-07T11:21:00.001+05:30

Above pix by Freya

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CLICK HERE FOR ON TRACK PIX BY DUTTA

RTMC organizes a track day on March 3-4 and Abhi puts up an invitation at BN. I wanted to make it to this event badly as I had missed quite a few track days. None of the buddies seemed to head for the track. I decide to do it solo. Though the other bikers planned to transport the bikes in truck and get there by cars, the ride through satyamangalam was too tempting to leggo. So I planned to ride down to coimbi. Had to get new pair of shoes for my stead. Had to get it checked. The concerned friendly assistant of the mech wanted to fix a perfectly working front break and spoils it in the process!! Oh no, not before track :( But the service done, bike feels good. Bad time to have changed the tires as I put a different front tire and had to get used to it too, which behaved less than expected. Couple of visits to get knee and elbow guards din do ne good. Will have to do with the skating ones I have. Even had to manage a couple of visit to my dentist as a tooth had given way. Things goin wrong but the ride must go on. :)

Though initially planned to stay at chamarajnagar and have an early morning ride through satthy forest, would not be able to make it to the track by 9 so I left for coimbi on Friday 3.15 pm. Abhi and guys were going through hosur, longer and faster route for cars. The decision an hour late. It was a race to do as much daylight saving as possible. Wanted to make it to sathy in day light, not only to avoid riding in forest and ghats in dark but also to feast on vista. I seem to be getting some vibration above 100 that irks me a bit and slows me down. I make it to Mysore almost close to 5. That's slow. Wading through the evening rush I cross the city and catch the Nangungud road. Past nanjungud few patches of bad roads slow me down. At least its fresh road till chamaraj nagar. But it's got irritating speed bumps every now and then. I feel power loss in the bike may be dust in the carb or something. Tune it a bit rich and carry on. Its almost 6.30 in chamarajnagar and I fuel up. Looks like cant avoid night riding now. Its forest area after chamarajnagar. I ride as fast as I can in the fading light stop couple of times to take few pix. I knew am gonna miss the best parts of the vistas in the dark. When I zipped through a curve, I realized that I just passed an elephant with in 10 feet! That was shocking cos i had know idea i would be riding in such forest areas where u could see elephants by the road!!. It was munching its way by the side of the narrow road. Din have guts to stop and take a pic. Also short of time to plan strategies to take the pic as I had heard of elephants charging when ppl stopped to take pix. N I being solo carried on. It's dark now with very minimal traffic. I get anxious as I hardly do ne solo rides. Every truck I pass gives me confidence that ne thing goes wrong there would be ppl coming whom I can approach. Stock cbz light not helping much. It does improve the night vision capabilities :D. Hit the ghats taking my own time not in any hurry. Then I reach sathy in 1 piece by 7.45. Almost continuous ride and I feel like a vegetable. 70 more kms to coimbi(kovai) and its all normal roads with quite some traffic. Negotiating all the traffic reached coimbi by 8.45. That's 330 kms in 5.5 hours kinda ok considering half was night ride in ghats n all. I call up abhi for the place to shack up only to find they are still in hosur!!. It seems the truck were sized as the driver din have correct papers and the cops thought those were stolen bikes!. But they were out of it and were on their way. I get to the place where the guys have booked rooms and stay with Sunder. A very nice guy who is into freelance photography and had come to shoot the event. Have dinner, share our experiences and crash out for the day.

Its track day today :) Kari Speedway some 25 kms from coimbatur. The track is of 2.1 kms. Sunder lends me his knee, elbow and shin guards which were meant for hockey. The guys came pretty late and as expected late to rise. I meet quite a few ppl. I have seen prashanth in my campus before n I find him there too. Its small world. :) Then we move on to the track and things moves slowly. The unloading of bikes, briefing, and taking over the track. It went outside the track to remove my bikes center stand and crash guard and left it at the mech to collect it the next day. 12 noon before we can get on to the track. Then on its a gala time on the track. But was quite a humbling experience. Thanks to a couple of bullets I wasn't the last guy. But this does not mean no bullets were ahead of me. I never thought bullets could scorch the tracks like that. Guys peg scrapping their bullets and hard to catch on my sporty CBZ. Other than we first timers rest were quite at home on the track and were passing me left and right. I tried all the body positioning antics. But its more about the lines and the speed u enter the curve that matters. Cos I saw another CBZ guy sitting inline with the bike all the time and was moving quite quick. Last time I hit the tracks I din no my proficiency cos there were hardly ne Indian bikes to compare. This was a different story with most similarly powered bikes. So different from the ghats I am used to where one could ride twisties continuously above 6-7k RPMs and 70-80-90 speeds. But here u gotta slam the break and take the tight curves slowly and pickup again. Theoretically my bike had advantage with the bigger than stock tires for gripping and mods that has compensated for the tires and bettor. But I seemed to have been lost over there. The mess up in front break (previously I could slam only the front at 100 +! not now) and the new tire setup not helping either. Then on I ditched the comparison thingy and just wanted to enjoy the track with what ever best I could do. Now it was actually fun :D. Later the RDs entered the track and boy were they fast lapping quite a few bikes. Then there was prashant's Flying Flea heavily modded bullet which was taking on RDs !! it easily did 140 +. At the end of the day I had done 60 laps. I took adarsh along as pillion to ride till the hotel. In the conversation I found that it was the same adarsh whose Himalayan solo ride blog I had read. Again its a small world after all.

Next day I wanted to start early to bangy after lunch and hoped to reach chamaraj nagar in day light. I put in quite a few sessions not wasting time. I improved my timings from 1.42+ a lap to 1.36 by the end of the day. Even managed 119 on the straights. Could see the clear advantage of my bike when ever I lined up with another CBZ and go past it on the straights but by the next time I get to the straights the other CBZs are half way through the straights :)) and carving the corners. Abhi, poncho, killer, prashanth to name a few. Post lunch I couldn't resist going in for another couple of sessions. With still will to ride on the track, I decided to call it a day. Bid byes to the guys and started home by 3.45. The mech threw a tantrum about no time to fix the stand and crash guard back. Some how got it done and get to hotel room to pack up things. Fixing back the mirror with out the correct spanner takes quite some time. Fueling and cash withdrawal made sure that I will start as late a 5.15 pm!!. I decided to almost do a nonstop ride back. 6.30 by the time I make it to sathyamangalam. Awesome road none the less, and enjoying every bit of it. Hit the ghats in twilight. Take the last possible few pix in fading light. And its mostly night ride back home. Thought the progress got very slow with the lights not helping much. There was this occasional traffic keeping me away from lonely anxious feeling. All the while thinking what could I have done to ride bettor at the track. N how I wanted to turn around and go to the track and nail each and every corner :D. I am in Mysore by 9 pm. Its pay back time. I whip the throttle to the max and devour every vehicle in site. With no vehicles in sight it got boring but the moment I see a group of vehicles far ahead I say to myself "MEEEAT SLURRRRP!!" though I am a veggie hehe. Do the fun thing going past them. Though a few SUVs and cars challenged they would soon get lost behind lumbering trucks. I make it to bangy quick time by 10.30. That's a 125km run in 1.5 hours. At home by 10.45. Wow its again 5.5 hours for the 345 kms this time mostly in dark!.

That was 1 hellave party that weekend. N wanna hit the track again. 1043 the trip meter says. That includes around 135 laps both days put together. Too much u may say, but its comes to 270 kms in 4.5 hours and that's what we tourers do, ride around all day averaging 60kmph. :)

BR Hills n Jungle safari on foot!

2007-02-02T13:13:00.001+05:30

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Pix by varun

Nothing concrete planned for the 3 day vacation and ended up deciding on a lazy ride to BR Hills. Started late on Friday noon 3 with vicky, nidhi, varun and me. Plan of the stay at a friend's friend's form house in the BRHills sanctuary area. A hard post-lunch full throttle rip in the mysore road till maddur. My star gave good company to the p180s. Was bettor off than the stock p150, the same bike previously took on mine pretty well. I say it again the mods are working ;). Then we take a deviation to kollegal from maddur and our progress slows down. We now on pass through the interiors with narrow and bad roads. Have lazy snack break at a town, and then on it was 1 horrible dust ride. The roads still in work with only mud layer on. We pass through many villages and going by the stares of the people it seemed like hardly ne outsiders come by there. Even speed of 30-40 was to much for their perception and got yelled at a few times!!.

After a not so pleasurable dust bath, we catch some new stretch of road and whip the throttle only to be stopped at a forest check post. There is a check post here?! it seems entry is restricted post 6 pm and we were late by an hour. The guard is adamant in not letting us through especially on 2 wheels sighting reasons such as possible attack from wild elephants and an order he has received, not to let 2 wheelers post 6 pm. Vicky who has talked his way through n number of check posts and guards has finally met his match today :)) Here’s the conversation in kannada between vicky and old forest guard (translated):

Vicky: saaar naak jana iddivy joteli hogtivi
( sir we are four guys, we go together)
guard: neev 50 gaaadi bandru 2 wheelers not allowed
(even if there are 50 bikes, 2 wheelers not allowed)

vicky: saar bare 18 kms ashte allva
( sir its just 18 kms right )
guard: 2 kms aaadru bidolla
( wont let through even if its just 2 kms!)

vicky: saar bangalore inda bandiddive
( sir we have come all the way from bangalore)
guard: neev delhi inda bandridru bidolla
( even if u have come from delhi i will not let through)

vicky: saar tumba kashta pattu bandiddive
( sir we have come here taking lot of trouble)
guard: nanagoskara kashta pattrenri?
( did u take trouble for my sake hah? )

vicky: saar nodi saaar, bere daari yenaadru (bribe)
(sir please see if there is some other way (bribe))
guard : WHAT IS YOU MEAN? U r are educated ppl, ond sare helidare artha aagolva?
( WHAT IS YOU MEAN? U r are educated ppl, cant u understand if I say ones? )

vicky: saare bere daari toorsi
( please show some other way)
guard: YEN TORISLI REEE, HELI YEN TORISLI
( WHAT SHOULD I SHOW I SAY, WHAT SHOULD I SHOW? )

vicky: saaar karune torsi bidi
( sir show pity and let us go)
guard: avella gotilla wapas hogi
( nothing doin u have to turn back!!)

etc etc etc :D

It seems higher officials were on the prowl that day and the guards were so, very strict, else a 20 bux would have got us through it seems ;) Spending an hour and half did not yield ne result and had to turn back. We decided to stay at yelandur, a small town with the only lodge, which is actually a make shift hostel!!. Take it ne way as all we needed for was to lie down till 5 am. Head to the only hotel open. Guys have beer and I have cola and packed snacks. Couldn’t even have a spoon of that horrible food if it could be called that. Sleep of for the night was the plan but I hardly catch a minutes sleep.

5 am woke up others, who were pre-determined not to waste even 1 min after 6 am. Some pay back hah? Collect ourselves and hit the check post by 5.55 am. There was also a car waiting. It was still dark n the old guard ordered us to go with the car and would let us all together. After the entry and gates were open, we sped away. duh ha! like we would follow a car doin 40 kmph!. Finally I make it to BR hills which seemed so elusive to me. This normally being days ride, we had plenty of time and stopped n number of places early morning in the forest road. Finally we were looking at something we came for. A few kms in we actually see a big village inside the sanctuary. Then what was all the fuss about not letting us in the prev night where there is whole civilization in it. Ne way it was a pleasure to ride through early in the morning. Din feel like going to the temple at BR hill top and turned back to catch the deviation to k'gudi.

Now on the road gets narrow and forest around denser, and the ride turning out be an absolute treat. Make it to k'gudi taken our own time. We expected a temple but ran into Jungle lodges & resort instead. With nothing much to do and still 1 more day in hand, walk leisurely through the campus. The tented accommodation was exactly the same as it was in kabini that i had visited last weekend. A pregnant elephant was being treated for injuries inflicted by an angry male elephant in mast. That was a sorry sight and the wild life authorities trying their best to save the animal. It seems the resort serves food only for the residents and we have to move on hungry.

Think of having break fast a chamaraj nagar and ride nonstop. Though the route warranted plenty of nature gazing pit stops, our hungry selves moved on and reached the town. We mentally prepared for horrible roads till nanjungud, but all to our delight, the entire strech is now freshly laid. Wow make good use of it full throttle and reach nanjungud like say 12 noon. N then the big question is what now? We never seem to have so much time in hand in trips and were actually feeling uneasy about it :D. Nidhi suggested visiting his gramps and off we go. We get invited to their form house and spend some time there resting and a sumptuous home cooked food is just what we needed and pretty happy to eat our way through the plates.

Then by 3 pm we decide to check out the bandipur wild life safari and possible hit ooty later. Get to the bandipur reserve and book our tickets. As we wait a villager chats with us and says 1 can hardly spot ne wild animals in the safari, he could take us to a place where we can spot many. Now this is the boost vicky needed who instantly cheers up. He feels a trip isn’t done unless we do some thing out of the ordinary ;). Uses his marketing skills to dispose of the tickets and off we go with the villager. Park our bikes at the village and leave our baggage at a house. Nidhi says "village ppl are simple and trust worthy and its ok!". Then we follow the villager, now our guide to where he promises to show us wild animals.

We walk for couple of kms and only then do we get close to bushes. By now nidhi and varun get the feel that we are being taken for a ride. Make little of the warning given by the guide as to not to make sound of twigs breaking under our foot or talk. Then we are brought to our senses as we spotted a herd of wild elephants just a few hundred feet from us. Sure I have seen wild elephants before but not in their territory and we were on foot! He takes us closer and closer and were asked to do so keeping as quite as possible. Finally going across small valley we see the ellis straight ahead at some 300 feet. There were some 4-5 babies too in the heard of 15-20. The guide says that since the wind is towards us the ellis couldn’t sense us, else we do have been in trouble by now. He coughed and this caused an elli to trumpet. All the baby ellis ran to their mothers and they stood motionless to observe.

It was time for us to scuttle out from there. Then on he took us on a tiger trail where we saw a limb of dear from a tiger hunt. We recon it was fresh cos it was not decomposed yet. By this time nidhi and me had meter down and just wanted to get out of there soon. Saying it was scary is an understatement. But vicky and the guide were coaxing us to carry on. Now we get into thick bushes and no way of finding our way without the guide. He says a tiger has passed by recently and show its fesses too. Cross a hill and reach the edge of the forest only to be relieved. It was dark by now and we had walked around 5-6 kms with 3 kms in forest on a foot safari. N we thought it would be just another lazy ride.

It was fun though. Get our bikes and we are too tired to think of ooty. We decide to head back and plan to stay at Mysore. Have snack break at Pugmark restaurant just outside bandipur forest range. Mysore it is by 10 pm. Then we disperse as we each had a friend at Mysore to give us shelter and picked our own time to get to bangy the next day.

Another awesome trip of 650 kms.

New Year's Party at GOA

2007-01-08T04:45:00.001+05:30

Last sunset of 2006.
Pix by Vicky and Ashvin.

New Year's at Goa was 1 of my wishes from even before my biking days. Having missed it narrowly last year and was hopeful of it this year and the eternal GOA buff Vicky was into goa since long. So a vacation at goa was planned. With many ppl in and out, it was finally me, vicky, nidhi and ashvin from pune were in for the party along with vicky's friend vijay who plans to come by bus.

Lot of confusion as to whether to go by bike or car. We were pretty much aware of the risks of not getting a shelter in goa with peak tourism season now. A car could be used as make shift shelter if we don get rooms. With 1 day to go vicky who had been lobbying a car ride, realized the boringness of it and calls up to say "car not happening dude, bike please :D". Though sanity had taken over my mind and had agreed for car, I still wanted it to be on our bikes and so be it :D. Another bike ride it is. Rooms? Will think of it when we get there :D

29th Dec 2006,

6 am at Maruthi mandir was the meeting point and as I was about to leave my house, vicky calls up and says he's already there!!. Man is he in a hurry to goa :D. I am late this time. Make it there to find nidhi standing in Tee n short!!. He's not coming due to parental pressure. Fuel up and leave bangy by 7 am. Still chilly in the morning we were hoping for the sun to come up soon but, we only find the 4 laner to tumkur with full of mist!!. My bike's tuning not good with a failed attempt at jetting. It’s now become so sensitive to tuning and weather. I keep doing trial and error with the tuning and it’s only by the end of the trip that I kinda get it to ok types.

But even with the bad tuning the p180 had no where to run. There was no trouble to keepup with the p180 goin in full flow. Even saw a 123 on the speedo. Though 125 is the record on my speedo but i wasnt riding then ;). We ride almost continuously to get to shimoga at 11 am for a brunch and start by 12. At least the boring straight roads are over now. But my bike is still struggling with bad tuning and kinda kills the fun on the curves. The stretch from shivmoga to sagar has got many sections with the road covered with shadow of the tree canopy. Some how we never seem to stop at these kinda places in ne of our trips. We gorge on the different kinds of twisties and make it to Goa border by 5 pm. Crossing margoa we stop for a break and this is where Vicky looses it. "We have been riding for the whole day but where the hell is Goan beach ?!?!" We carry on slowly from here. But traffic drives us nuts. We do payback with our own mad ride in goan traffic and reach calungut beach by 7 pm. My BSNL phone stops working even though its got roaming and lot of balance left. Its gonna be like this till we are in goa, so frustrating. 1 of the bolts holding the exhaust to the bore seems to have fallen off and worse the stud it self has fallen off from the bore. Cant put new bolt either. Was getting this air loss sound from there and I tighten the 1 bolt left. It seems to stop the noise. I just hope it holds for the rest of the trip. Cos the only way to fix it is to remove the bore, take it to leth and get it re threaded with new stud!!. Ne way optimistically carry on.

Resourceful Vicky finds us a place to shack up alright :). It’s a pre-historic structure for 2k per day for four. That’s the Goan rates and we take it. Its just 2 mins walk from the beach. Unbelievable!! That we could find such a place at New Year’s. It was so near to beach that we had to trudge our bike in beach sand some 20 meters to get to the room hehe. Ashvin and vijay to come the next day. From now for a couple of days we do the biking blasphemy of riding around with chappals, Tee and Bermuda :D. After all were just riding a couple of KMs slowly in the traffic and we wore much more than most of the ppl riding around there :)). Calungut beach has direct access and every one goes to the same beach. Its like a regular tourist beach. But Baga beach a couple of KMs to the inside which requires own vehicle to get to, is where the party is happening. Can find young crowd mostly there. And Baga beach is where we hang out the most of the time. We have a dinner at Italian restaurant. Though Vicky enjoys the Italian cuisine, I never seem to like Italian food and eat very lil. Let the drinking begin :D. Here I start my half yearly drinking ritual in goa. Its funny i never taste alcohol between ne where, but have it only here. Its the ambiance that matters too :D.

Then we get to the beach, and its one big party floor. Kool music blaring in all the shacks, lot of hep crowd, dancing and partying. On the other side it was the calm sea with moon shining in full glory with a wide streak of moon light reflection on the sea. The view was soothing. Then I wanted to kill 1 more of my curiosity, and tried smoking for the first time. Must say its fun but I never seem to get it right. Of the 2 cigs I finished I seem to have gotten only a couple of puffs right!!. But ended up with burning sensation in lungs really horrible thing it is. Then I quit smoking as soon as I started :P. Some time there I really liked was being lil drunk, lil high due to cig, relaxing on the beach with calm sea, with moon light reflection, cold breeze, with music, lights, and party in the back ground. That was bliss. Felt free. Really enjoyed those moments.

Get to our room and crash.

30th Dec 2006,

Having already caught my sinus cold the previous day, I woke up to a sore throat, headache and body pain!!. Wat a holiday? Take some medicine and doze off and wake up by 12 feeling bettor and all ready to party ;). It was really strange great feeling. No riding, for a couple of days, no time constraints, just laze around in the most happening place in India. Walking along the beach with shacks, beds and umbrellas, and quite a visual treat looking at the best of desi damsels :D.

Took beer bottles and were walking on the beach having it. :D No one to judge and sab chaltha hai. Some guilty pleasures LOL. The last times we roamed on this beach we were like lugging our full baggage and even our helmet. Really enjoy every moment of it. We settle in a beach restaurant while we wait for ashvin. Vijay it seems has missed his bus and is coming the next day. Vodka is ordered even before our sandwich ;). Then ashvin comes along. Loud cheers as we greet each other. Me meeting him like almost an year since he moved out of bangy. He has a gulp at vodka even before he gets seated :)). Two's company and Three's a crowd. kool we got our own crazy crowd now :D.

Nothing much we do but laze around, get into water play in the sea. Stay around the beach till sunset.

Then we go towards vagetar beach, and check out some happening places there. Ashvin and me get ourselves hats and it seems to be an eye catching attire;) . An open/pub come disco-theque we get in. Not before thorough checkup of our stuff and the guards mistake the guys’ tripod for rifles :)). Get in and it had a trance environment with black light every where and ppl wearing weird dress that has some stuff that glows in the dark. Loud music, and it looked like most were stoned with dope ;). Then we check out primrose, but nothing much happening there. Vicky gets fascinated by the weird glowing paintings on the walls of the indoor trance disco-theque and tries out his photography.

Also find a Chinese restaurant with name as 'Two can chew' !! lol.

Think of getting back to Baga beach, but that becomes on hard task, with the narrow roads utterly jammed. Partying crowd throw all traffic rules to the drain and we try to squeeze through every possible nook and cranny to get ourselves out of there. We check out the sat night flea market on the edge of a lake. We not much of shoppers, but the guys with cams find photographic opportunities try to capture the colorful market and its reflection on the water.

Get near baga and try to have some food, which ends up in an argument with restaurant giving bad service. Witness a brawl and fist fight between the pub security, and drunken guy and his girl. It was funny :D. Then wat get to our room late and crash.

31st Dec 2006,

Wake up past 11.30 am!! The room’s got TV, fridge but no hot water!. Now that’s some logic. Its goa n ppl need fridge to keep drinks, party late sleep late and get up late and its hot by that time so who needs hot water LOL. Ne way Its the party day that we have been dreaming all our lives. !! err.. Okie that’s a stretch.;) Vijay finally makes it and joins us. We start of with a boat ride from calangut to baga beach.

It was a fun ride, as we near baga, we find ourselves amidst all kinds of water sports going on like, jet skies, banana tug ride, para sailing etc.

Get down at baga and this time surely wanna get into water and play with the half surf boards!! dunno wat they are called. But not before our lazy selves get some food. Italian restaurant it is again n I don’t eat much. We get into Zanzi shack, the most happening beach shack in baga and lucky enough to get ourselves a table to.

Now Vicky is happy, and says "We are not moving from here till next year ;)" Then Ashvin quotes "Lets take turns going too the ATM" LOL. Its party time, with awesome music and vodka on the table. Guys and gals getting on the table and dance.

Me and Ashvin really wanna try out the *half surf board*. But find only 1. Ashvin takes it first while I try to look for another 1 but no luck at it. Then it’s my turn. Its not easy says Ashvin. Hell yeah it’s tough to balance on it. It takes a lot of physical effort to handle it against the waves. But I got it right a few times and jumped on it at the right time when the wave came in and I was carried some 30-40 feet on the board all the way to shore till I hit the shore sand. WOW that’s fun. But its gonna cost me now. This much physical effort is gonna get me cramps all over. Though I had hint of it, I got carried away played too much. Get to the shack shower and by the time I get into dry cloths I am done. Cramps all over and I am immobilized for some half hour and I just sit on a chair unable even to get into the shack. Now this is turning out to be 1 wrong time to loose my health. Not only the cramps, I catch cold, stomach had gone for toss already, now I got this head ache and fever too. Damn!!. The funny thing happens. I signal Vijay to get me water and he mistakes the sign and shows me the tiny vodka bottlet. LOL. Vicky fetches me water to drink alright. And tell them to carry on and I will join em in some time. It’s kinda routine for me. Finally I can move, all tired and get in the shack and settle in the chair.

I am so damn tired that I catch sleep. Where? In a beach shack with loud music blaring and ppl dancing all over shouting n all!!. It seems some ppl were even bowing to me, like how on earth can a guy sleep in such an environment!! LOL. Very funny haha. Finally wake up by 7 PM and have fun in the environment for some time. Party is going on in full steam. But slowly see young crowd being replaced by non regulars there. It’s New Years Eve and e'1 drops in there this day. It’s getting too cold n my jacket's in the room. I need it very badly. So tell the guys that I go get it and will join em. I am completely tired and we got no bikes this time. Decide to walk to calungut beach all the way. It was nice walking along the beach. With great effort I get to the room. N I feel like I can sleep for eternity now. But it’s New Years Eve for heaven's sake and this is wat we came for. I set alarm for 9.30 pm and slept. Snoozed till 10 and just when I was finally getting out of the room the guys show up who had also walked all the way.

It seems the partying began too early and guys got real tired and e1 gets flat. 11.15 By the time we cajole ourselves to get out. After some brain storming on different approaches to baga we take our bikes and get to baga just minutes before 12. Park our bike and dodge the crowd to the beach just in time, and its fire works all around. Fireworks along the whole beach. It was awesome experience.

The beach was crowded to the full and not much place to stand. We great each other 'Happy new year 2007'. Ashvin climbs up a heap of beach shack beds to place his tripod and get his shots. Stay there for quite some time. And soon head to have dinner. N we thought we gonna party till 3-4 am. Not a chance. Room and snore it is.

1st Jan 2007

E1 up by 9.30 and time to head home. Me aching all over feel like I am in no position to ride all the way. Totally drained of energy. No way I am gonna get ne transportation in the peak season and I can’t imagine spending couple of days there. Feel home sick due to bad health and by now e1 pissed off with the over crowded place. Have some thing light and we leave. Bid bye to Ashvin at the deviation. Vijay now rides pillion with Vicky. All I want now it get in KA border and have a heavy south Indian meal.!! Really dunno how am gonna ride all the way. I even put some electrol in a liter water bottle get energy. Already feel the cramps in my hands till we ride to panjim. Have idlis at Kamat's and ride around panjim city a bit. It’s an awesome city. Very less traffic, laid back kool roads clean places, does not look like a typical Indian city.

3pm by the time we leave panjim. Some time into the ride I start feeling bettor and get comfortable. BIKING CURES!!. Now I know I can ride all the way though not fully fit. Twisties is just wat is required and the fun begins. We even find some cars racing on the curves, we follow carefully. But they still were slower than us, kinda the wait for the right time to pass and so we do. It gets dark now with Honnavar still some 80 kms to go. Now I ride by Vicky’s headlight. Riding as a team we pass every vehicle and get to honnavar by 8 pm. Tired !! Is 1 word e1 voices. In KA finally, I hog on south Indian spicy thali much to my satisfaction :D. Now wat to do? Halt are proceed?. Its only gonna get very cold. We had previously thought of stopping at gokarna and to join Arun and gang for the rest of the ride but, we were so tired that just wanted to back to bangy, me more so.

We vote to go ahead at least till sagar. Pack ourselves with extra layers. Nice curvy night ride in store. Then we get on to NH209 and some more fun for the day. We still maintain 60-70-80 in the narrow twisties comfortably. Passing every vehicle that comes in our way. Vicky an expert by now for leaden in dark. We get to sharavati valley view point. Its dark but its full moon day and we could see the whole valley in bright moon light. We could see the road too. Just for fun I took off with headlight off and ride in the moon light. It was fun could easily find the road even in tight twisties, though only the pot holes were tough to avoid. Ok its too slow, headlights on and let the ripping begin. Then some this white Scorpio, who wants to get ahead, though he gains on straights, was slowing down at the curves and that’s when we used to pass him. He he, he must be scratching his head not being able to get ahead of us. :D Get to sagar by 10 and leggo the Scorpio. Yeah he do be sitting all warm inside with the heater and can race all the way to bangy. But we feeling pretty cold and tired decide to call it a day at sagar.

Find a very nice hotel/lodge outside sagar, with big rooms and cheap (comparatively ;) ) much welcomed. We take a 4 bed room for the three or us :D. Lil food and well earned slumber on the nice comfy beds.

2nd Jan 2007

Wake up lazily by 9.30 and all we got now is some normal ride to bangy early and rest. Or so I thought. Just after terikeri Vicky gets off the main road takes a right and stops. Me : "wat ra?", Vicky with a grin on his face : "Kemmangundi". Me instantly nods agreeing. Yeah y not? We got the whole day, now how can we waste ne part of the day at home ? :D. Plus it felt something missing in this ride, not going around good vistas and lot of crowd too. Off we go towards kemmangundi. Beautiful scenic narrow roads through interior villages. A welcome detour. It was a lazy ride now looking around. Nearing kemmangundi the road worsens. WTH how come the roads got so bad. The next 80 kms is like offroading through Himalayas all the way to chickmanglur!!. The roads are now in real bad shape. But the stunning vista around compensates for it. Get to kemmangundi but don’t get in as hebbe falls or Z point will cost us a day. Vicky suggests mulliangiri. Vijay not used to riding so much by now is real unnerved and wants to get home soon. Well we din think the roads to be so bad.

From the there to mulliangiri is one awesome stretch to ride, mesmerizing views all around. Almost nil traffic and wide landscape all around. Enjoying every moment of it. Reach the last motorable point of mulliangiri and stay there for quite some time. Din feel like climbing upto the summit due to lack of time. But it was fun spending time up there under the cozy winter sun. Get to chickmanglur by 4, now on its boring straight roads till bangy. 1 last daylight full throttle rip session till Hassan. I stop and Vicky goes ahead. Then I see my goggles on the road which Vijay seems to have dropped. Wat a coincidence for it fall right where I had stopped!!. In Hassan by 5 and have some lunch.

Now its fast night ride. Easily maintain 100-105 and we decide to avoid going to nelamangala and get stuck in mad traffic all the way to south bangy. Instead we take a right 7 kms past kunigal towards magadi, through we could cover some 50 kms without traffic plus we do get one more twisty section ;). Though the distance is same it would save us almost half hour plus as there is no traffic. This stretch had half the road blocked at some places as they were dug up. We see a single truck coming out of a curve and normally pass it only to find our side of the road blocked !!. We both narrowly avoid it getting to the right lane just as the truck passed!!. Damn.

Finally in bangy with by 10.30 pm. Bid byes and our faces lit up after having a wild party and at home by 11 pm. 1487 kms on my trip meter.
Wat a vacation. Too good. If only I had not lost my health but cant have every thing :).

Night Safari

2006-12-18T07:54:00.001+05:30

Pix by Arun

Click here for a writeup on the trip by Arun

4 O clock sat evening get calls from vicky and arun for night safari in muttanga wild life sancturay and are waiting for me and i myself din know that i was in the ride!!. Ok we are in neway and me all eager to see wat my bike can do with the perf mods(cam lift:ZMAcam, K&N filter and head porting). Had just done with the runin. 6.30PM by the time me and arun start off towards mysore. Vicky had left a couple of hours earlier as he needed complete his runin of his ported bike too!!. Slowly open the throttle and check out how the bike behaves at higher RPMs and all to a delight find out its a completely different bike. new sound and new power band and it was just kicking in at 7k RPMs and discovered good high end torque which wasnt there before. me all happy with the stuff and it was worth the wait of its multiple surgeries last couple of weeks. It was a fun ride till mysore. Arun particularly impressed with the Honda accord and wanted to see it perform. On slightest intimidation by goin past it, the driver's ego was hurt much to put on a show for us. He left some gap and zoom passed us doin 105+ goin at prolly 150+ as if we were standing. only to catch up later when it got entangled between trucks. N later on we became ego threat to that and n a balenoa whome we finally managed to leave behind by the time we reached mysore. By the time we reach mysore my bike was ready to rip.

In mysore it is for dinner. Vicky having completed his bikes runin was out with this draggin with RXs :)) and entices us to check out the mean machines. We pretty happy with our adrenelin rush with the cars, turned down the offer which turned out to be a loss as we realised later that could have got a chance to ride an RD350!!. We start towards gundelpet as lazily as 10.30 pm. Well it was supposed to be a night safari and the night had just begun. We me kinda trance with the new awesome bike behaviour and vicky pretty happy with the his ported bike and arun's fav environment to ride, let the throttles loose and it turned out to be an adrenelin pumping co-operative race!!. Me race with the biggies did i say that? oooh yeah. The mods had done wonders on my bike and its power band opened up after 7 k RPMs and the loads or high end torque meant that i do catch soon with the biggies on their slightest breaking for ne reason and even go past them when they are locked in full throttle. They do catch up go ahead for sure but dare they use breaks. :P Ohh i got a new bike now :D. All this exitement i forgot a small detail here. I never ride fast in the dark leading cos Well hello i got a stock CBZ lamp here, as hitanshu says which is nothing but a high speed mombatti !!. Was bumped to it the hard way, just as i went past the two bikes a truck ahead coming out of a wide curve suddenly raised the beam and blinded me and all i notice was that the road to the left unduly widened. With nothing but intution simply sweared left so did arun seeing me and realised just after that i was heading straight for the dugup path for future divider!!. Damn no reflectors or ne warning!! but thats not an excuse and went back to my place to be the drag for the rest of the ride. And this time keep to the tail of the 180 and zma was ever so easy. :D Realised that my bike is not good for drags, will loose out on open highways but is custom modded for riding 2 lane roads where we ride the most. The power curve is not leniar ne more and have to build up the RPM correctly after 5.5k RPMs else all i would get is a loude houl of the K&N filter. But once at 7k the pull is too good.

Stop at gundelpet for tea all pretty exited about the session. Thank vicky for suggesting the mods to my bike :). Now on we decide to take it slowly as we do be entering the Muttanga wild life sancturary. Pretty cold by now i put on the extra layers i had taken along and a nice ride through the forest road. Then wats a safari without a wild animal!! and we spotted the first elephant by the side of the road. went ahead without distrubing it. Saw a few vehicles parked n when we go ahead we realise theres an elephant close to the road as we start to go ahead vicky breaks and we have a pile up at 5kmph speeds:D yes there one more elephant other side. Confused which way to go, guys decided to make a run for it but not before give a teasing screme at the elephants :D. The road nothing much to talk about and we cleared the sancturay spotting a few more wild elephants by the road. Take a break at the check post as we could get to warm ourself with the fire wood lit by the guards. Start of the kalpetta with vicky complaining about loss of power. Nice twistes well utilised and stop at wayanad. Vicky's bike not behaving properly seemed to go out of control on the curves and after some R&D found out the rear tire had lot some air not visible to the eye. Well now i get to actually use the foot pump i carry and pull it out of wraps as i had never used tough i carried it in n Number of trips. Especially since kerala towns are like ghost town in the night with very very less ppl to help around. The pump seems to be working and vicky makes a dash to kalpetta hoping to reach it before further air loss. Now he to getting the full taste or his moded bike by now. We make it to kalpetta and but not before gorging on the awsome twisties:). Being a season, room not available ne where. Funny incident here, a couple guys wanted to let us know of a hotel and told to look for 'aeirategiri' we like wat and we again got 'aeirategiri' and we even started enquire with the same pronounciation and later found out it was 'Harithagiri' LOL. Needa learn kerala accent.:) With no luck we had to check in to a 3 start hotel. Tad expensive but a nice rest after the night safari.

Day 2:

Late to bed and late to rise :). Arun wants to rest summore, so me n vicky wanted to check out the pookot lake and lakkidi view point some 20 kms from the place. It was a rush with both the bikes K&N filter and the roar from the bikes was good. Oh well its twisties we are talking about. Both set to try out our modded bikes in broad day light and it again kinda becomes a race and it was amazing to find my bike go ahead of the ported p180 which was locked full throttle. High rev throttle response too good and i had lesser gear shift to do this time. I rarely needed 3rd gear and many could manage in 4th!!. where i previously needed to frantically shift 5-4-3-4-5 at every curve. Simply Wowsome.
Get to pookot lake. lookes like a well comercialised lake and nothing like we havent seen before at KA. Now we knew y arun wasnt even slightly interested :). Coming this far we even go the check out the lakkidi view point where the westran ghats ends and the kerala plains start. Calicut so near kinda tempted to go but not possible that day. We had back gorging on the twisties SLURRRP!. Break fast and Meen mutti falls it is. This will be the third time for me and we straight away go to the Thomas's place and park our bikes.

Me and vicky with the newly born calf!

Thomas arun's friend and guide literally :D. But he cant guide us today to the falls as there is a prayer at his home. We having gone there before, decide to find our own way. and The familiar 1.5 kms trek n steep dectent to the falls begins. No pix here though. After a heavy work out for 45 mins getting down some near verticale path we here the falls and not long before we get to see it. Its all worth it. Spend some quality time staring at the falls and remembering the last times we been here.

Time to go back and some how find climbing up less slipper on the dry silt tough a lot streneous. Get up for a welcome round of butter milk. Get to back to kalpetta riding through the miandering streets of among the tea estates to kalpetta. Sleepy town folks watch the 2 modded bikes rip and growl and stare at us till we disappear.

Have a very late lunch and by the time we start its 6.30 pm and we get only lazy as we move on. Get to the dhabha at the entry of the check post and spend over an hour discussing bikes, trips etc etc like we got all the time in the world. 8.30 pm ok time to move now. looking forward to an exiting ride back like yday. Night safari again the second time. but this time no luck with ne elephants and since pretty early in the night have to face quite a bit of opposing lights. Now i stay between the to bikes. And we get to gundelpet only to find fore opposing traffice. Such a contrast to the last night's ride. and to top it seems like its raining. Wat rain in december ?!?! damn i hate that now. I have to get wet wearing all the winter gear!! and this strech always seems to be very irritating especially when riding back. Few stops at an attempt to keep ourself dry. yeah have done quite some rain riding this season but its enough for heavens sake!!. Lots of opposing lights and rain, no lane painting. phew not a way to end the ride stay around vicky and looking ahead by his head lamp and arun forming the drag we reach mysore all by 11 pm. Arun wants to carry and while mine n vicky's situation compromised at homes and we cant do night riding now. We decide to stay at our respective cosins's homes for the night and ride back together next day.

Well morning it is and vicky wants to stay back for a couple of days and i start hoping to reach office early. And damn i see the clouds again. wat the hell. y me y me ?? :D. N bike not behaving so well. feel loss of power. stop a few times n check the oil level to be fine. And once the skies are clear the bike runs fine now!! wat is happening is it like the humidity is affecting it as i felt the same powerloss the prev night around rains. Hmmm... there must be some corelation. Get home after a nice ride. This was a spontanious ride, like, we got nothing bettor to do in town so lets ride out :). A welcome reprive after running lean season in rides ;) with bike not in good health. All 680 kms of it was fun with my new bike :)

Its a DNF!! - CamShaft WearOut

2006-11-27T00:10:00.001+05:30

The two most toughest things to do for an early morning winter ride is, getting out of the bed and getting out of the shower!!.

Braving both, i got there 5 mins late with Rajesh and Amol already there bang on time 5 AM. BR Hills is in the itinerary for the day. We Ride through the early morning twilight time, and just when i was fully pushing my bike i here some noise. I kinda knew immediately it was to do something with the cam!!. But quite optimistically stopped the bike and inspected the crash guard to see if its broken some where and giving out the noise. But nothing.

Then i crank the engine and there u go !! loud metal hitting noise from the engine. Yeah i am done far :( already 50 kms into the ride and will have to ride it like that only all the way back. Rajesh and Amol not knowing kannada and basically not knowing where to go choose to turn back with me. On n number of requests to carry on, they escorted me riding at 40-50 all the way back. Just a light break fast to spice up things.

Wat i fear most is not the cost or effort but the need to runin again :((

Galibore: Offroading through the forest

2006-10-24T13:59:00.001+05:30

CLICK HERE FOR MORE PIX

Long divali vacation and nothing was happening. At least a days ride was needed. Sunil struck the plan for a ride to Galibore area along caveri fishing camp from Muttathi to sangam and Santosh invited me over. Cool the weekend was saved from boredom.

5 am @ metro was the meeting point. Start together by 5.15. Din have any idea of the place but wanted to ride any where. Nice early morning ride. After so long cos many prev trips started of in the night and got up late. Stop couple of times for pix. Sunil offered a ride on the comet and i gladly took it. wow my first ride on a comet:) Once started it felt so easy, it never gave the hint of its weight. The feel of power was too good. But unfortunately the mech had spoiled the tuning of the 2 carbs and n i gave it back to the owner soon. He had to go through the whole tuning process in trail and error. After a refreshing ride till kanakpura catch on quick break fast.

Some narrow twisties and offroad forest ride in store says Sunil. wow n i thought it was gonna be a lazy ride!!. Head towards malavalli and take the deviation to Muttati. Now things get bettor, the early morning cool, narrow roads piercing the sea of trees with no other traffic. How did i miss this route all this time? Twisties undulating and often surprising us with sudden curves which almost threw us off the road. Get some straights and santosh wants to try out Christ!! Got his feet on the seat and up on the feet. Just 1 step behind of letting go the handle bar!! may be next time. Din know how KMs passed and with all the sarine beauty around. Get to muttathi only to be sent back to catch our planed trail which we missed. We head back a bit and see an opening goin into the forest but it kinda looked like a natural canal for rain water which was dry now. The path was full of stone and boulders. Enthusiastic santosh made a run for it and just after sunil spotted the hidden road sign pointing the trail. But santosh was off the wrong way and no amount honking reached him. Well it was humaric and we just waited for him to come back. He shows up after some time announcing theres no way ahead :D. How could i let him alone have all the fun. So i too take my bike some distance and back.:D

We get on to the Galibore trail and some serious offroading was on. Interlaced with the thick layers of sand at some places. This trail follows close by the river and not long before we found an bikable path to the river. Awesome place to visit in the morning with nobody else than us. From now on we keep seeing fresh and stale elephant dung!! Explore a bit around make unsuccessful attempt to keep the shoes dry while jumping across a stream. Time to move on. Sunil struggling on sandy patches cos his comet shod fully street tires and one point he was heading straight for a tree as his bike wasn't steering in the sand. But he maneged to get off the path spare the tree :D. With lots of time in hand we were exploring every small and big detour from the path.

Took a steep one and parked our bikes on the edge of the bank under the thick canopy of the forest trees. Some snacks and Sunil wanted to find some birds to shoot and he could find none. Prolly we disturbed them. Then we think of doin some small trek on foot. We leave our bikes and bags there as nobody if at all could see them. Sunil narrates his experience when he had come here previously and camped on a hill nearby for the night and how they were chased in the dark to the village. Freaky!!. That was supposed to a dangerous place with elephants and leopards around. He even brought a big knife along. We think of strategies if an elephant shows up like run zigzag, climb up something. Santosh identifies some trees to climb in case :D. After some distance we spot some monkeys on the canopy so decided to head back to the bikes not wanting them to do monkey business on our bikes with the all the food in the bags attracting them. Hop on the bikes and get up the steep trail up to the main path. Found one more opening with quite some space which would serve for a good camping spot for a large group. It was soothing sitting by the edge of the river under the tree and the sun shine bright on the river.

As the day got heavier Guys wanted some water play but the water there seemed deep so we back tracked a bit till we could find one more accessible path to the river with a stone bank. Now getting there was quite tough goin across many boulders. Bet no other bikes would have gone till there. This was to make sure that the bikes would be visible while we rest. Sunil quite at home at these places and knew where to expect wat and surly he found us a spot where we could get into the water safely. Now here santosh gets to parenting wielding a big stick and makes sure the 2 of us do not stray away from wat he demarcated as a safe area. Literally i mean :)). After some time in the water its lunch time. and we open up our bags and have cakes and idlis etc. So wat else does one want after a tiring ride, bath and food? Yes a nap !! settled under the thick canopy by the bank and Santhosh and Sunil happily dozed off to glory. Just when i was about to sleep i remember Sunil mentioning about leopards and i spring up to save myself from an imaginary leopard pouncing on me :D. Stay awake most of the time playing the self appointed watch. That was some nice quality time spent. Who says good things in life are expensive. But all good things come to end and we had to start back.

We collect ourselves and jump into the task of getting our bikes back up the path. Sunil finding it hard to maneuver his heavy bike with street tires. while mine and santosh's bike shod with michelins button tires feel quite at home and we make it up. We decide to continue on sangam and as the trail improves that way. En route we get to the Kaveri fishing camp. The attendants din even let us to see around the place not wanting to disturb the families in there. Its quite an expensive retreat with 1650 Rupees per person per day. But how different would it be then the place we been ofcourse it would have some comforts extra. Sunil plans to bring his family there. We move on towards sangam. He finally spots a bird and captures it in his cam. He's got a pretty good eye to spot things:) Now the trail improves and i try some speed dash and i even touch 75 kmph on nothing but sand and gravel:D. It was getting uncomfortably hot and made it to sangam. We din even care to check out the place as it would only be crowded. Now we make a bee line to home except for couple of stops for some fluids. At home by 5 pm for a satisfied nap :)

Just 200 kms for on the ride but was one awesome trip with quite many nice places seen at right time. The roaming around under thick canopy of trees was simply amazing. Thanks sunil for making the plan and santosh for inviting me:)

Kodachadri beacons - Offroad adventure

2006-09-22T13:25:00.001+05:30

Some VDOs of the ride:

While trekking to the top, blowing fog

At the top of a hillock getting blown away by the wind

CLICK HERE FOR MORE PIX
Pix by vicky

After the Goa ride in full rain, we thought to lay low for some time. But within three weeks the itch showed and we needed a ride. Vicky put up kodachadri as destination for the last monsoon ride for the year. Kodachadri needs 10KMs of tough offroad climb where only four wheel drive jeeps ply. It would be raining too now. The challenge is tempting. Raghu and varun showed interest but with inevitable reasons couldn't make it. So just the 2 of us n i caught this dreaded sinus cold too. But the ride must go on :D.

Day 0:
Friday evening all ready to head out directly from office. Vicky's boss made sure that he would start 2 hours late. 9PM by the time we meet up at Shell bunk. Give each other a HiFi and start towards nelamangal. Go past it and have dinners at kamats before tumkur. Get lazy on the dinner and loose an hour there. Shimogga was our halting point. Then on the night ride was turning out to be good. We just cruise along 90s. KS state highways are generally with low traffic. We ride close by and it was fun taking the curves both riding parallel. See the odometer munching KMs fast but knew soon, as the night goes deep it would start running in slow motion (our perception that is). Take a lazy tea break at arsikere at 1 am. 100 more kms to to. Once u go 150 kms west its all wet and we get into our derby rain suits. Though we dont catch rain on the way. get to shimogga at 3 am and catch some rest. Thats a good 3 hours behind schedule. ZzZzZ.

Day 1:
Late to bed and late to rise. Get ourselves moving by 9 am. Take a deviation of the road towards kollur. On the way we see white uniform clad kids in a rural school performing their Saturday morning physical training drill. Vicky wants to shoot em. Now this gets the kids giggling and start getting anxious to look good in the pic hehe. 1 of the kids even braves the teachers and come running to vicky to say thanks for taking the pic. :) We derby boys put on our derby suits as rain will give us company. Then this elderly man comes to me on a cycle and says he's the head master of the school. "Good morning to you sir" i say, and pretty surprised by us coming all the way from bangy on bike, invites us for some snacks and tea. We politely decline with a thanks and move one. All of a sudden we see a small moss covered fort to the left!!. Never knew about a fort in that area and nothing was mention near it too. We also see the door close as we stop by. Wats so secretive cos all we saw was legal warning!!. Carry on through the lush greens on either side of the road. Get many bridges along. It was all soothing ride but i was a bit tense as i heard about the climb from the guys from last time and its also raining happily and its gonna be wet there. Get to the deviation and vicky shows this evil grin on his face... Well i just hope my michelin holds up. Now on the path and it soon shows up it color and fears realised:D, its all wet and slushy. trying it ne way and the adventure begins. The terrain was getting worse by the meter and we riding mostly bouncing. But the surrounding was getting bettor, with the mist and rain intermittent. We got hair pin bend climbs. There was traffic too. the awestruck jeepers who have not seen ne crazy guys coming their on a bike. It was tough for those jeeps to maneuver around our bikes. It was all getting rocky and surprisingly not much slippery. Though i could see vicky on his piralli struggle a bit, my michelins held on pretty well. As we get higher, it got misty and we take n number breaks to grasp it. was cold n windy and was like we were in another dimension. the terrain was not even 10 % as bad here compared to my trip to himalayas. But the excitement was great. Get to some small plane enroute and boy was it windy and blowing fresh gust of fog from below. We were just not able to face the direction of the wind. We move on and visibility reduced drastically and we see nothing of the majestic mountain range and its gonna be like that till we get down.

After taking around 3 hours to do all the 10 kms we are the inspection bungalow area.
we dump our luggage at the house of the temple's priest. N we end up in the same small room kinda thing where guys had stayed last time. We rest for a while. Theres no electricity no nothing. Its got pretty chilly by now. We are treated to hot sumptuous meal there. We kinda thought to make Udupi as the stay for the night but we still got a trek to the kodachadri peak top. Theres just an inspection bungalow and 3-4 houses at the top and there are some tourists too who have all come on jeeps. N by now we were the grape wine among the locals, of some 2 crazy guys braving on the bikes till there. We start of trek with just over an hours day light left and hardly 10 feet we can see. We still go ahead though we knew nothing much we could see cos of the fog and vickys photographic desire seems to be fading. But then we are in for a different experience than we planed for. Along we met a few techies coming down from the trek. Have a chat. It’s like if u r in a remote part of karnataka and come across young ppl speaking English, then they gotta be software engineers from bangalore. hehe. Boy these guys have nothing bettor to do :p. We go ahead tricky paths lay ahead. at the top, when we were passing a mound, we could see the ahead getting blasted by the wind and the fog. WOW it was out of the world experience. Get to the summit and there's this small temple. Vicky fancies some photography front he shelter but not before taking on a few leeches. Spend some time there and we have to get back. kinda worried not find our way if its gets dark, but we make it down for the shack just in time. Wow that was good. But now too late to climb down and we decide to stay there for the night in the small excuse for a room with no electricity, no beds too. We get a lamp and few mats and rugs to make do with. We just bike chat till we get sleep and vicky sees these couple of leaches on the mat. eeeks, kinda get the feeling they are every where. Try to get the room else where no good. Just sleep tight hoping they don't get into our ears :D.

Day 2:
As usual get up late and we think we left the place by 8 am. But we are not done with kodachadri yet. Comparatively less fog today and we get blessed with awesome views every now and then. 1 of the local wonders y did we come in 2 bikes when both could have come in 1 bike!! gosh when will ppl stop looking at bikes as just a mode of transportation to carry 2 ppl. We start our lazy climb down through the mesmerising terrain :D. Stop n number of times for pix and all. En route we get interviewed by surprised trekkers. Who take pix of us, kinda felt like we were putting on a act for em. Then they request us to take one of them down and help them find their bus!! duh haa, like we were on a mission to provide 2 wheeled taxi service in remote parts hehe. But we assured then that we would look out for their bus instead. Now we get off the path and on to the hills with light green grass. One of my child hood dreams come true. Kinda wanted go the place with the light green grass like in cartoons. N this was as close it it could get.:) Then i show a steep jeep track going up to a hillock and before i could think whether to, vicky was already on it. i take some of his pix and soon i too join him. It was really ultimate up there. Quite windy, and we could see the cloud of fog approaching from the valley engulfing all the mountains hitting the base of our hill and shooting up and blast us with the gust of fog. This was pretty close to flying through the clouds. Nothing we could see and in a few minutes every thing is clear. the same thing repeats again. Munch on some snacks and din feel like getting down from there at all. The wind blows of my helmet and it lands face first and breaks the visor. oooh not good, luckily its not disintegrated and thought of taping it some place. Some ppl goin in the jeep below stop just to look at us on top of the hill take our pics and go hehe:D. But wat goes up has to come down. This trip is simply one of the best. Now we make it down hill through that treacherous path taking our own time. Found slippery patch and n bike does a 180 before falling hehe. pic it up and by the time we reach the base the trekkers on foot have reached there long back. n they thought we do be fast on our bikes :D. Time's still 12 and boy are we doin good time.

We start towards udupi as vicky wants to do some evening photography at malpe beach. Some distance ride was an absolute treat with mist and rain and waterfalls by the road every now and then. Tape my visor in a town much to my reprieve. Approaching the coast it gets warm n a bit humid. On a dry patch we try to get our selves some lean pix, but by the time my turn is over, vicky's SLR lens gets foggy inside. not good, we leave with a very dissopointed vicky with his cam. After some nice ride, we get to the coastal highway and malpe beach it is. Time 2.30 n pic ma fone update home n wat hell, the time's 5 pm. Wow, ma watch was malfunctioning and we thought we were making good time all day hehe. The fog in the lens has cleared and vicky is happy. Have a grub, dump our luggage in the hotel and walk along the beach to a less crowded place. Vicky fancies his photography of the dusky beach. Gets dark and time to go. We think of sakleshpur and then call it a day. Get to a nice hotel and naively waste time and its 10 pm by the time we leave. 180 kms to cover and thought of goin through mangalore and how bad could 30 kms of spoiled shiradi ghats compared to kodachadri!!!. Big mistake. Udupi to mangalore road it self was in shambles and painfully reducing our pace and tired us pretty quickly, i almost lost my bag as the bungees came off. Jeez y do they call this national highway?!?! but that was not all. We thought of carrying on without looking at the time. Roads from mangalore too spoiled at some places but we knew it was not done yet. Then small distance of good roads just to raise our spirits and lo the climb of the ghats begin. Oh daaamn oh daaaamn, It cannot be called a road in the remotest sense. Its totally obliterated by the vagaries of nature. With disgruntled truckers and bus drivers not giving and damn at us and to make to interesting we go rains to now too ohh goodie :D. All this on our tired self past mid night!!. We weavie side to side between slow moving monsters to find the next bikable patch. Kinda go the higher edge of the curve where we could find 6 inches of intact road and we were doing the balancing act. A slip could be risk with uneven slushy slippery terrain either side. I loose vicky as i got stuck between trucks and he not to be seen for some time, n i slow down as much as my poor light allows. N there is no 1 around its dark, and just to scare myself more, stopped a moment, killed the engine just to feel the eerie darkness :D. Spooky it was and i start again to find concerned vicky waiting for me in some distance. Then we move along together and Get to sakleshpur and look at the fone. damn its 4 am. Phew both tired to the core and next day making to the office out of question now. We shack up at vicky's relative place with no alarms. Phew.

Day 3:
Get up at 8.30 and i get breakfast. Call up office about my unavailability that day :D. Vickys wants to be there for a couple of days and i make a move to bangy. Some 220 kms. Though i think of checkin out some other place on the way, was too tired for it and thought of making it non stop to home. Riding dry and in the sun for a change :). Maintaining good pace i get to kunigal 150 kms in 110 mins and hit reserve. Blah so much for my non stop ride. Fuel up and next stop home at 2.30 pm. Well earned rest in the offing :D Boy wat a ride simply loved it all 948 Kms of it. Was an offroading over dose in the later parts but in the end it was an experience i wouldn't want otherwise.

RainTrip: W'Ghats, KA Coast n Goa

2006-08-22T22:14:00.001+05:30

Video of Doodh Sagar Falls up close.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE PIX
Pix by vicky and varun

Click for a write up by varun

An independence day ride from 12th to 16th Aug through western ghats and coastal karnataka. Dood sagar falls and stay in palelam beach in GOA all in midst of heavy rains most of the time.

4 day weekend up for grabs but no plan cooking up ne where.

Friday evening call up varun:
me: kya plan hai?
varun: kuch nahi kahi jana hai kya?
me: kaha pata nahi, subha chalte hai. ayega?
varun: chalo char din ka chutti hai .

Get home pack the stuff and check the weather forecast. It seems the entire western coast right from Goa to kanyakumari is in for thunderstorms for the next 4-5 days!!!. hmmm not good. But thinking how bad thunderstorms would compared to spending the next 4 days at home :D. Prolly would have done a days ride somewhere if solo but now got varun for company. This being his second ride other munnar a few months back whose even more clueless than me as to where to go. Now where to go? Murudeshwar beach riding :D hits me. Been wanting to do it after hearing about from many guys. Not being much of a planner consent Arun as to route through the Western ghats to the coast. Who bombards me with quite a few alternatives n we pic one which haven't done before. Chickmangalur n via balehonnur it is passing through sringeri. I take a printout of part of KA Map and ready for the ride.

Day 1:
Bangy->Hassan->belur->chickmangalur->balehonnur->shringeri->agumbe->manipal->Udupi stay.

Meet up varun at his place at 5.30 help him tie stuff. Then we decide to take it easy as we got plenty of time and bout the uncertainty of the ride being 2,3 or 4 day one depending the mood and circumstances n the weather. We decide to keep in close visual contact through our headlights. 6.15 by the time we start and not long before we leave bangy we are made to wear our rain suite. This is just the beginning. Nice roads and we ride full throttle. My bike not willing to go past 95 unless i crouch. Though i see 117 on the speedo some stretches. But still varun p150 v2 is too fast for me. 9.30 reach kamat yatri nivas. 10.15 out of there and varun p150 seems to be in thirsty moods gulping fuel to give as less as 20 kmpl!!!. Move towards chickmangular. Beautiful road and we make good use of it. Nearing the deviation to Belur temple, why not take a peak. Done this route many times and just pass it. with time in had we get to the temple. Spend some time roaming and clicking around in the magnificaint anciant temple. 12.30 reach chickmanglur and ask direction for modegere and fuel up. Arun calls us to check up on our progress and advice on the route ahead. Now here begins the narrow roads of the Western ghats and so does the rain. Lush green either side of the road. Road getting bad at stretches with slush. But none the less we enjoy the ride with rain not letting us alone too long a time. Take n number of breaks grasp the ambiance. Varun pretty exited about the path we taking saying it beyond his imagination. Nearing modegere i see a deviation goin right and carry on. But wait a minute, i checked up the map and we got to take the deviation to balehonnur. Ohh cool Now i ride by the map :). Get a nice section of twisties and would have been fun if dry. It gets dense on either side of the road much to our pleasure. Think of lunch at sringeri. some 30 kms from sringeri, we spot Badra coffee stop to the right. N wow neat looking stop maintained by Badra estates. Its like a 5Start Tea stall with roof for the tables and kitchen made of hay. Couldnt stop ourselves but for an omelet and coffee with drizzling around. Its a welcome break passing this route.

Reach sringery by 3 and after some tough time finding parking for the bikes we find that temple opens at 5 only. But could go in the sanctuary none the less. We Check out yet another ancient temple which also has got a river goin by. Now for the lunch we are guided to a Home made meals mess. N yummy hot spicy meals in the cold weather all just for 15 bux. The day is turning out to be quite good. We gulp to our content. Couple of guys at the next table chat with us regarding our travel. They turn out to be part of the group of guys touring on the yamaha RXZs and 135s. Die hard Yamaha fans they seemed. After stuffing with sumptuous meal a cozy bed was longed for. But we plan to hit the coast that day. Now we start towards agumbe. Rain now seeming normal always with us. The rain suit doin well keepin us dry. As we approach agumbe we are presented with mist. Varun pretty exited about the mist being his first experience. Reach the agumbe sunset view point. But we would be lucky to see the other end of the stand let alone get to see sun setting in the Arabian sea thanks to the mist:D. Arun calls and suggests staying at agumbe guest house for the day. We back track only to find it booked. would have made a nice stay with that kinda weather. Get back to the view point climb down the agumbe ghat. With the rain water streams common now every now and then. It looks like the layers of the road have been surgically removed place nearby!!. Get down the agumbe ghat and even though tummys full couldn't stop but having Neer dosa at small hotel famous for it. Decide to stay in Udupi for the day and darkness seems to be catching up with us. we run through the narrow roads while getting dark and its not even seven yet. Its dark by the time we reach Manipal. Wow thats a mini hot lookin city looked pretty developed and its not even seven yet. Udupi 6KMs more and get into the crowded city regret not staying at manipal. Find a nice room and its not even seven yet. Hmmm... wait a minute my watch has stopped and its almost 8.30pm LOL. Unpack at the room and have a lazy dinner at Hotels neat restaurant. Some 400 kms on the trip meter.

Day 2: Udupi->malpe->murudeshwar->margav->panjim->calungut->ponda->Molem->DoodSagar resort.

Alarm at 5 n after several times snooze, we up n running by 7.30. Murudeshwar beach riding was made the plan for the n day think of later ons reaching there:) We first check out Malpe beach which happens to be the first place i saw a beach in my life when i was kid n had come with my parents n sister. Incidentally this was the first beach varun had seen hehe. with rain giving us constant company we start towards murudeshwar some 150 kms. The big highway littered with pot holes cos of the rains. Stop en rout for break fast at he hotel where i had stopped couple of years back on my first trip. Hmmm... many nostalgic moments for me. We have 'kadubu' which is basically a big lump of rice cake covered in leaves and moulded in big tumblers. We enjoy it though varun find it hard to finish it. Then we pass maravanthe beach with sea and on one side of the highway and river on the other side and do not meet. Just then get a call from Vicky about his and sanjay's being on the way to Goa. Doodh sagar water falls is the plan. Ashwin and praveen are also coming from pune. well wat do we have here.. looks like the ride is just gearing up. Think of doin murudehswar quick time and make a final decision. On reaching there its totally unlike our assumption. Hugely crowded cos of the holidays and beach riding?!?! where is the beach ?? the water level up the shore and sea pretty violent. it seems this time of the year the beach is totally under water. Then wat we exclaim Go GO GOAAAAA.:D Some pix and we are out of there. With 200 kms to go its 1 pm as we start and are blessed with no rains and roads also bit dried up. Now we gear up and i warn varun about the dangerous traffic of these places and not long before it is demonstrated with fender bender trucks pushing us of the road as they take up our lane too for over taking. Reaching Ankola feel its bettor to get the chain tightened which rightly was needed. The local mech quite impressed with learning that we came all the way from bangy, wanted to do the oiling for free hehe. we paid him alright. Pass karwar and now we got some twisties dry and take it with lust. wat thunderstorm? hehe. As we stop of break the skies open up in vengeance. But we don't stop but carry on cautiously. We see some cars parked to let the storm pass. But it was too much fun all dry inside the duck back rain suit to stop and so was varun. With heavy showers intermittent we reach margav by 4. Now try to call vicky whose phone is not reachable and so is sanjay,praveen and ashwin's phones. We were at fork as doodh sagar is supposed to be near molem and calangot beach near panaji. not able to reach the guys, we decide to head to calangot beach via panaji.

Have a good rip session in awesome undulating goan roads and reach calangut beach by 5.15 Just walk around the beach and rest for some time. That was pleasure after a hard days ride sitting on the beach with wind in the hair and let the wet feet of the shoes to dry :) But not long after theres a commotion at the beach and ppl rush to the sea. 4-5 ppl are swept away by the current in to sea and are gradually getting dragged out into the sea. No life guards around!! Its no swimming time with Red flag on the beach but ppl never listen. A couple of localites risk their lives to save two while one of the victim is lucky enough to be swept back on to some shallow part the beach and is too tired to walk on his own. Could still see 1 or 2 guys struggling afar in the sea with every body nothing but helpless spectators in front of the violent sea.:( Feel pretty depressed about it.

we get to another part of the beach settle at a beach hut for some food. We had no lunch yet. Couldn't actually see the sun set with so much clouds around. Night sets in and we relax a bit. Thinking of staying at panaji or some place. Couple of rounds of omelet and coke. storm shows up and we rush in to the shack. The music is turned on and the shack turns into disco pub. The Shak attendent also gets us a room near to the beach and says theres gonna be party till late. Hmmm we else do we want. And settle in. Just then vicky makes contact and they are waiting for us at molem and a guide has been hired for the trek tomorrow. He said he would call us again. Guide? trek? now where in molem? We really get tempted to stay back and also we have heavy down pours once in a while goin on. But we knew vicky will be up for something interesting with 2 more days time in our hands we decide to ditch the beach and head to Dood sagar resort in molem. But its 8.45 pm and 70 Kms to go. Its daunting especially leaving such a lively cozy place. But we are goin ne way.:) With drizzling goin on. we had towards ponda. Catch up a deviation to ponda. Varun first night riding it is and i take up the lead and keep a close eye on the mirror for him the road seems good with lane painting and if it like this then no probs doin good speeds of 70-80s. Pretty straight road for some time and suddenly there a S curve!! take it none the less. Wet roads and the surface not reflecting and add to that my dumb headlamp. We catch on quite some confusing deviations and now the lane painting to is gone and not much traffic its gettin scary find our way. Some center reflectors and catch speed only to end suddenly i slow down only to find the reflectors path leading to a dug up path meant for future divider!! so much for guide reflectors. Occasional vehicles giving us brief reprieve from finding our next stretch of road and some rain too thrown in. Me attentively lookin at every sign board. Now why all did we leave the shack :D hehe. Finally we make it to doodh sagar resort which seemed like eternally far. Get us a room and meet up with vicky and sanjay at the restaurant waiting for us. Vicky running in his bike all the way accompanied by sanjay. All happy to see each other. Ashwin and praveen have gone back as they had their official bus back mid next day and cant make to the Doodh sagar falls with us. Its the 4 of us now. Have dinner and settle and we needa get up early tomm and no snooze too.

Day 3: DoodSagar->palalum beach

Sanjay gets us wakey wakey by 5.30. Out of the rooms by 6 and How could the rain not give us company. But ma rain suit doin wonders keep even my jeans dry even after 2 days riding in rain. But other not so lucky get their inner hulls breached pretty quick :D. Varuns plastic pants gettin continuously torn. Though plastic suits do a good job they are unreliable. Get to a tea stall where our guide waits for us. Have hot tea with buns. n the we start n not long before we get of the road and find ourselves riding on a small track!! Get to the active railway track and now we ride next to it. Got space just enough to squeeze our bikes. with pile of stones for the track almost 4 feet high and the other side undulating with highs and lows with thick growth of greens. Leech warning is issued. Really enjoying the stuff. A lazy time pass ride turned into an adventures one. We now need to cross a make shift bridge of logs with stones placed in the gaps and a stream goin below. Slowly one by one the bikes cross, n me took it a bit fast and zhukh!!! the front wheel slips in the gap between to logs and stops at the fork. No way i can pull it out myself and Guys work hard to pull it out. phew i maight have ridden himalayas but this in no easy stuff. Riding by the track goes on for some 5 kms. Actually in mansoons the road leading to the doodhsagar falls blocked by river water and this was the only way we could get to the falls. Btw it was a trekking trail that we were biking on :D. After some foto sessions. the guide says we gotta get to the other side of the track to join the bigger path. No we are not goin over the track but rather under it!!. This was tunnel under the track to let the water flow. There was 1+ foot of fast flowing stream to start with, nothing but uneven stones under it. Now this is getting hairy. Nothing life threatening but would be real pailful process in case of bike givin up. But all in josh cross it one by one. Sanjay's RXs ehaust completely under water and throttles on to keep the water out of it. The michelins on my bike making it easy for me was never so happy with it :). Vicky's bikes chain comes out of the sprocket. he fixes it and we bike up to the main path which is the actual path during non monsoons. Well no turning back now gotta do it again. This was a nice ride in the forest on the slush. Loving every bit of it. the Trail goes up and down and we Cross some 3 streams on the bikes until we come up on one a bit deep for our bike and doesn't make sense risking it with the solonal station just 500 meter ahead. we park our bikes and make a human chain to cross the fast flowing stream. Now we walk up a bit to get to solonal station. The falls is 4 KMs from here and we needa walk on the track or where ever along it for the distance. Reminds me of my unsuccessful trek attempt on the abandendned sakleshpur track. But at least we need not cross ne slippery bridges here. Soon realize trekking is not my cup of tea but 8 KMs i can do :D. Cant walk sure footed on the slippery unstable stones below adding up to the toll. But it was fun walking along the track with dense growth either side. Vicky goes click happy but its a big process for him protecting his SLR from rain cos of packing it into multiple layers of gear. We cross 5-6 tunnels with one as long as 100 meters. With water seeping even side. Hoping that a train doesn't pass at this time and we walk in the center with now much visibility around. Then see it the majestic Doodh sagar falls rightly named. Stay there for some time gaping at the view. We see a bridge under the falls and track goes on that bridge too. We need to trek further to get to the bridge to get up close with the falls. Vicky stays back for while as he wants some quality pix without disturbance. Reach the bridge and boy was it huge and we get to the platform almost under it for an amazing feeling.

Now time to go back. Though feel quite exhausted i can make it alright. mid was sanjay frantically waves to get of the track. Yup theres a big goods train on the way. We get down to let the train pass. It was some experience standing 3-4 feet away from the moving train. A big one of 50+ cars needing 2 engines on either ends and center as well. Vicky explains if these trains had to stop mid way for ne reason, then they have to go down all the way and then gain momentum and attempt the climb again!!. do the 4 km trek back passing through the tunnels. Get to our bikes and ride bike thought the forest. We find the part of the path was blocked by a fallen tree. Hmmm that wasn't there while coming!!! eeeks. Now we gotta do the stream tunnel crossing again this time against the current and takes some effort. at the other end we need to climb up some 10 feet over slippery gradient. I see varun struggling with is zapper. Next my turn with one whip to the throttle am propelled all the way up. Wow Michelin doin really good. Get to the main road. Take a group pic last time in middle of a railway crossing :D as sanjay plans to leave immediately cos he needs to be in bangy the same day. We get our chains tighthned and ma chain tightened to the max. Hmmm... hope it stays good till we reach bangy. No chain cover causing a premature wear of it. By the time we reach the resort sanjay is packing stuff on his bike and we bid him bye. Have round of omelets while deciding to reach honnavar for the day. Loose some time there and decide to have lunch at palelum beach. After some nice twisties section in rain We see the Goa intercontinantal resort board and vicky remembers that praveen is still there. There we go and coax him out to come with us for he got bus at 10 pm and plenty of time there. Get to the beach which is very calm and relaxing. Settle in the beach shack. Giving in to the temptation we decide to stay there for the night as we still got one more day to get home. Margarita for ya :D Me and praveen generally don drink but wat the hell we are in GOA :D. Spend a nice evening there chatting and walkin on the beach. Shack to looks pretty colorful in the night. time to drop praveen for his bus. Bad timing cos one of the downpours was in due and he gets all drenched!!. Hehe he must be cursing like hell. Ne way we drop him off at bus stop not before he slips into something dry :). Its already 10 pm and the streets get deserted and we kinda lost the way to the beach. Its spooky with nobody on the road with nothing but narrow roads leading to no where!! Good that we were 2 guys finally manage to get to the shack with varun waiting for us. We got the room too by now. 1 more cocktail we try Honolulu ;) Varun show us a trick of rolling the neck around to see if we on a high. It was fun hehe. when ever it pours the attends roll down a plastic curtain and pull it us as the skies clear. slowly every one leaves n its just us. Vicky tries some night photography with his slr and tripod n all. Stay till 2 am on the beach whiling away the time. Get a call from sanjay. He's reached home just then. 650 KMs solo in 12 hours int that kinda weather. phew!! Ignorance is bliss :D Get to our rooms with 5.30 for alarm.

Day 4: Palalum -> yellapur -> mugud falls -> joke falls -> shivmogga

Up and running by 6 am. Pack up and start in the rain. to home? yeah but not before some beach riding at vagadu beach near by. Yes finally i get to do. It was fun riding on the beach with waves pounding near by and skies literally opened up accompanied by wind. :D enough of challenging nature and we head back. Village ppl just staring at us in disbelief lookin at us go in that rain. As suggested by shrinidhi, we decide to take the yellapur->jog route instead of the regular honnavar one. Get to karwar by 8 am for break fast. Passing ankola we take the left deviation for hubli. Roads are pretty good to start with. Vicky is runing in at 80 and n i try to catch up with a Scorpio hehe. The roads turn bad now. Damn beautiful wide curves spoiled by lack of maintenance. Its like fine gravel on all the curves and feels like floating on the road hehe. good that only back wheel was dancing. We miss vicky at a deviation and get to yellapur and call him. He's 2 kms behind at the deviation for Magod falls and calls us there. we back track and find out falls is 15 kms and thats gonna add 30 kms to the day n one hour i suppose. But he insists its worth it. We go there and another rip on the wet roads. i slow down to let a jeep pass as i wanted to wait for varun to catchup. Zukhh Thuddad. I am down. was hardly at 40s and all i did was get to the edge of the road. Well there was lots of algea on that part of the road. The ppl from the jeep help my bike up. just a small wound on the knee but tore ma 1.5k rains suits pant!!. As usual the dummy airscoop gone and there goes my 8th crash guard:D Varun show up and as he approachs me he too slips on the algea. damn!!. 4-5 bike go down every day at that spot say the a local!! Carry on to now to some off roading to meet vicky and get to the falls. N after the events all we get is mist and the falls only audible. 10 mins we wait and mist clears a bit briefly and wow is the falls huge falling hundreds of feet. But this ones all brown. Gets mist again. vicky wants to wait for a clear shot true to a good photographic buff. Some how cajole him to move on. Get to yellapur. a round of tea and sprocket change for vickys bike. Jog still 100 KMs. Now on we take the interior routes and get to ride on all kinds strechs, broken gravel strewn.Freshly laid roads, etc. Varun takin it all pretty good for a second timer. Some stretches had this texture that was so confidence inspiring that we were ripping and leaning as 80+. I managed to shoe scrape while vicky even peg scraped all in the rains :D Its not as dump as it sounds the surface was like that. Loving every bit of the trip now. :D Get to a town some 30 kms to jog and its 3 PM. stop for some grub. Reach bangy for the day seems doubtful now. Ponder do we needa see jog? but its monsoon how can we miss it. Reach the main road and its full of traffic with jeeps full of gyes waving the national flag. Independence day it is. me and varun take detour for the second jog view and vicky misses it and head for the regular view point. It was jampacked with vehicles and no place to park the bikes. After some time i find a cars space on the foot path and rush to it exited only to Zukh THUDD again hehe. Algea again ;) Varun half way in manages to stay upright lookin at me. Some ppl come to help my bike up and they to take a slip n fall hehe. it was funny. But they still help and i thank them. Boy was the jog scary. It was like a mini naigara from its side view. It looks so different from the regular view point. well actually i thought it was another falls all together hehe. Vickys fone not reachable!! now how are we goin to find him in this cround. just then he calls from some body else fone. Very resourcefull gye. His fone wet n out. varun and me get to the jogs main view and another traffic jam entroute. 4 days holidays and lot of ppl wanna see jog. its in papers that 400 buss loads of ppl are visiting each day!! A bus has trailed off the road and there crane lifting it. It was chaos. By the virtue of being on bikes sneak through every gap available and get it. Vicky calls from another fone and we reunite. Happy to see jog in its full glory, with so much water that all 4 branches could have merged. Its also heard that the full water has been released for the sake of holidayers.

Ok funs over time to go but its already 6. will we reach bangy 380 kms? lets not talk about it;) Move towards sagar and varun front tyre looses some presure. We get it checked at sagar and no puncture. Looks like some night riding in store. 7pm we start with shivamoga 70 kms. Rains still not abetting. Not a very pleasure experience withe road not at all reflecting as its wet. Varun really struggling with oncoming ligts not really used with the idea of taking tail lamp for referance in that situations. our speeds drop to 30-40s. Add some light rain to that. I try to follow some mini buses but varun cant keepup so i slow down do the leadin. quite understandable with these things completely new for him. I still remember how horriefied i was in my first ride coming from kanakapura in the dark. with the stock CBZ lamp not the best of that situation, it gets pretty scary trying hard to find the next few feet of road ahead which has no lane painting. Oncoming lights badly disorianting. Now only aim is to reach shivmogga some how. As we approach shivmogga roads dry up and blessed with center lane painting and we get to our regular 90s and 100s. In shivmogga by 9. Find vicky by the edge of the road changed into a complete set of dry cloths hehe. no more rain he informs. Unanimously decide its enough for today. vicky finds us a big room. Munch on some not so nice food and crash for the day.

Day 5: shivmogga -> bangy ;)

Up and running by 5 am and welcomed with the bad strech between shivmogga and arasikere. Vickys runnin done its hard to keep him in view hehe. Full throttle time it is again. Turning out to be a very pleasent morning ride. Welcome sunshine, dry roads dry cloths hehe its too good. Get to nelamangala by 10. Not the right time to enter bangalore it takes us agonizing 1.10 hours to get to basvangudy and we stop at a cross road where each of u needs to split in 3 directions :). Just looking at each other grinning ear to ear pretty happy and satisfied with the ride :D. Congradulate and thank each other for the out of the world ride.

Home by 11.30 am. Not much tired by the 280 kms morning ride get to office by 1.30.

1654 says my trip meter. 1000+ kms in complete rain. We were riding some places where even cars had stopped to let the storm pass :D Not one place did we stop for the rain however generous it got, we just moved out of it. Truly awesome experience.

Atleast a 1000 ppl must have gustured at as lettin us know that our headlights are on.!! PPl do take extraordinary trouble to let us know about it :D. They run to the edge of the road to tell us, other ppl riding try to gesture us and loosing their balance in the process. On coming vehicles toggle their headlights. ppl from other vehichles stick out their hands for the same!! But i guess not many of the ppl care for the wastage of power from the national grid!!.

Duck Back Derby worth every rupee of the 1.5k, torrential rains out side, dry n cozy inside :D well almost. Even after 4 days of riding in rains my jeans was only a wee bit damp which could dry off in 30 mins. Shirt totally dry except for some part in front where some water seeped through the zipper. Derby with a light water resistant jacket under it will get one ready for ne amount of showers. Really enjoyed rain riding all dry inside :D

Superb trip experience to be remembered for life and hence the detail in the log to get as much memory as possible. Thanks Vicky for showing us quite some places. Did not know ne thing about the forth coming events on Friday night, n was a completely spontaneous ride. Still grinning :D

Sunday ride to Hogenikal

2006-08-09T21:35:00.001+05:30

Following write up by Srikeerthi:

It was not a very enthusiastic response that I got from friends when I asked them if they were interested for a days ride to Hogenekkal. Only four were in for the ride. But the surprise was when I saw only Praveen in the morning. Other two were out due to some reasons beyond my knowledge. Anyway we were just two people who were gonna ride to Hogenekkal. We started by around 6:45 in the morning through the relatively less crowded Bangalore's IT corridor.

Instead of taking the usual easy route through the highway we decided to take the interior route. This would be a shorter route with more scenic views but we had to be prepared for bad roads too. This route would reduce the distance to the falls to just 125kms from the 180kms through the highway.

Luckily for us most of this route had been freshly laid, so but for the uneven bumps in the road, most of the journey saw us going through decent roads. The route through the villages to me was any day better than the boring straight roads. In places we had good roads comparable to the Golden Quad roads with some nice curves thrown in as bonus . We stopped just about 10kms before Hogenekkal for a break at a nice place that gave us a neat view of the valleys and the river in the distance.

After some snacks and Red bull (yeah red bull gives u wiiiiings, demo in the photo gallery ) we headed to Hogenekkal falls. We reached there soon enough and went coracle hunting (actually they'll hunt u down). We met Rajkumar (not the cinema person ) who would take us around the falls for the next couple of hours. We went around the lush waterfalls (thanks to the monsoons) enjoying the countless falls all over the place. Thanks to my ipod and speakers we had a musical coracle ride much to the envy of other tourists . After a few rounding sessions (rounding = how locals refer to the spinning coracle ) we were back on the banks of the river.

Well it was still 1'O clock in the afternoon and we were in no mood to head back to Bangalore so soon. So after some hunting around the river we found a secluded spot where there were no tourists to disturb. Just spent an hour lazing around there and having some more snacks. We also spotted a wild boar nearby which ran away after Praveen scared it away .

After spending enough time there we came back to the roads. It was a lazy ride back and we stopped a couple of places on the way back. All in all a simple lazy Sunday ride to Hogenekkal falls. Some of you might be interested in the route taken to the place (there are >4 ways to get to Hogenekkal ) here are the route details.

Route:

Onward:
Bangalore (Silk board circle) -> Anekal -> Thali -> Denkanikottah -> Anchetty -> Hogenekkal
Distance: 125kms
Return:
Hogenekkal -> Anchetty -> Denkanikottah -> Hosur -> Bangalore
Distance: 125kms

The second route has better roads than the first one and you would not miss a lot of scenery either. To get the correct turn when going from Bangalore you need to enter Hosur and take a right turn just before entering the main city of Hosur. There is a big board indicating the turn to Rayakottah and go to Denkanikottah.

The photos are available at:

http://www.jeetenge.com/imagevue
Select "Bike Rides 2006" and "Trip Hogenekkal" from the menu on top.

Lazy Kalpetta ride

2006-07-04T12:13:00.001+05:30

Play of Nature, enroute MeenMutti falls

CLICK HERE FOR MORE PIX

Arun invites me for a lazy ride to kalpetta on sat morning. we start by 1.30 rip to mysore. Heavy cross winds made it a very fraustrating ride till mysore. Its all drizzling wet ride from then on.

We go to gopal swamy betta almost 6 in the evening. And the weather up there was out of this world. The fun begins. The mist and wind so strong that it was making our bikes fall and almost blew our helmets off the hill. Couldnt go up cos of ppl coming donw reprimanding us go down asap. Cos it was elephant area we were on 2 wheels. Funny the moment we come down a few meters the weather is all calm there. There was a huge cloud passing the summit of the hill which gave all the effects. Then its a rain ride in the dark through matunga wild life sanctuary and stay at kalpetta.

Sunday woke up lazily and went to the meen mutti falls through the meandering wet roads through the tea estates. The michelins doin a pretty good job on wet roads. Awsome weather. The local Thomas, pretty suprised at our wish to go to the falls in rain. Even Thomas had not gone there since a month. But arun was pretty enthuziastic and convinsed me for it ;). It was all misty and slipper. The trek was very streneous on the steep terrain with slippery rocks and slush. but it was all worth it once we saw the falls in its tyrenos glory. It was amazing the force of the falls throwing of droplets hundreds of feet. Even though we were about 50 feet away from the water, the splashing was so much that we could hardly open our eyes to look at the falls. Took our time grasping the environment. N a scary trek back up and made it without a fall.

Then we had delicious kerala special meals all for just 25 bux. We take some rest at the room. 4.30 by the time we start back to bangy. A lazy evening ride though Matunga wild life sanctuary. The treat of the trip, saw a heard of around dozen wild elephants with calves just 100 feet away from us on the other side of the pond. That was awsome never seen so many wild elephant together. We again have a couple of elephant sightings just at the edge of the road. Have plenty of breaks. We stop under towering bamboo shoots. They make this loud noice when they rub against eachother. Feels like tree is about to collapse. Frogs every where calling out in full swing. Kinda scary if alone. hehe.

Then a frasutrating ride till mysore in the raining 2 lane road. Then on a adrenelin pumping ride from bangalore to mysore on the 4 lane highway reaching bangalore by 11.45 devoring every vehicle in sight. All in a weekend and one more weekend effeciantly utilized doin some 650KMs. The timing was too good. It was also fun cos i was all nice and warm inside my water proff clothing and raining every where.

Himalayas I ride - Spiti Valley

2006-06-14T16:40:00.001+05:30

16 guys on 14 bikes try the 1700 KMs Spiti valley route of Delhi->Simla->Spiti->Manali->Delhi. But its just 2 of us when we entered back to delhi.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE PIX
Pix by keerthi and sunny

Had visited the Swiss Alps so far but not the Himalayas so near to home. A ride there was in the to-do list. A plan came up at xbhp for HX3 - Himalayan Explorers 3rd, covering the beautiful Spiti Valley from 3rd to 7th June. Well it was among the Delhi folks so din think of it much. But as it turned out PraveenS was joining in from pune and ashish was joining from Hyderabad and keerthi and Santosh were in from Bangalore. Now I got company so I jumped into the caravan as well.

Finally am gonna ride on Himalayas. As bunny says Delhi 40 degrees, HX3 0 degrees. But its a sudden decision made just 6 days before trip just like many other trips we decide just out of the blue. I got all the winter gear experienced with my stint in Swiss winter. Applied for leave, booked the ticket in waiting list. Bought some stuff in a hurry. Before we knew it we were on the move on 31 may. Pack our bikes and stuff it in the parcel van of the train but our tickets still in waiting list. Santosh suggests taking a plane. But me and keerthi put up a brave face and drag him to the general compartment. 10 mins in we knew we could not do the 2000 km journey here. It was so crowded, ppl climbing up on the luggage rack keeping their foot wear on the fan. N its gonna get very hot nearing Delhi. Just minutes before the train leave keerthi through his friend arranges for flight tickets for the next day over phone. We hop out and train leaves.

Our bikes are gone and no turning back now. Get a room and fly to Delhi the next day and put up at keerthi's place. Whoa its 35 degrees in Delhi evening midnight. Next day collect out bikes from the train with lot of corrupt hassles. Bunny and ashish get up fuel for the bikes as they were made empty for transportation. We head to KRP where I and Santosh get brand new Michelin tires hours before the trip. A 4" rear and 3" at front. Fat tire and the chain cover has to go. Bikes getting new shoes we are ready for the trip. :)

Day 1:

Wake up at 3 and keerthi, Santosh n me leave keerthi's place by 4 and zoom through the empty streets of Delhi to meet the rest of the gang waiting for us. A warm round of introduction and the gang was:

1)bunny punia - Delhi - karizma
2)vikhyat - Delhi - karizma
3)puneet - Delhi -eliminator
4)dhairya - Delhi - p180
5)kulpreet - Delhi - unicorn
6)torquemaster - Delhi - p180
7)sunny - Delhi - karizma
8) Gurpreet - Delhi - karizma
9)rahul - Delhi - pillion
10)raghav - Delhi - pillion
11)harsh - Delhi - karizma
12) Santosh - blore - p180
13)keerthi - blore - zma
14)ashish - hyd - ybx
15)Praveen Shirali - pune - p150
16)ME - blore - cbz

Meet many gyes whom i knew only virtually. Very friendly gyes give a warm welcome for us visitors.

N puneeth says "Lets ROCK", engines start roaring and off we go to the Grand trunk Road. Speed freaks unleashed, but ma bike showing signs of the heavy tires, not as peppy as before, top end reduced. Guess I started regretting the decision to go far fatter tires but little did I foresee the benefits. Nearing ambala, PraveenS's borrowed bike had a flat tire. This was the beginning of events in the trip. A worn out tire and had to replaced. While the gang waits for us at a dabha, me, Santosh, keerthi n Praveen stay back to get the flat fixed. Loss of precious time here. The nights halt at joery was being threatened. We join the gang at the dabha and continue towards Chandigarh. Akshay comes around to meet us enroute. While Gurpreet performs the 1 km long standing wheelie. That was cool. Again get going towards simla. End of plains and we got twisties to climb to simla. SLURRP!!! Awesome roads, but hafta take a break now. N bunny announces for the sake of we first timers "Gyes, we are on Himalayas". Wow finally we start, well Himalayas is not all snow every where hehe. Now this is were I realize the potential of my new set of tires. Awesome feedback from the bike hitting the curves. Its much bettor than the stock tires. So much bettor that on a particular curve took it a bit fast and hit the front break in the lean and it still held. WOW Well we are on a roll and started challenging the bigger machines :D. Though din wanna strain my bike couldn’t control my self and the curves are well utilised at Speedo of 80-90 :D. Not long after harsh catches gravel and get off the road and hits the wall hard. Ooh that was pain full, his gear saved him but had taken a small hole on his leg. His bike's front damaged. Shamik and yojesh on their trip to Chal come by on one of their regular Himalayan rides. It was nice to meet them. Now we hire a car to carry harsh and the pillions till simla. Its not all fun and the ugly part of the passion exposed. Bunny and puneeth stay back to arrange for the bike to be sent back. Get to simla for medical attention. All this we lost time and had to stay in simla. Had pictured a lot about simla, hearing about in movies etc, but its one horrible place located on the hills. Highly undulating and thick population. There is no space to even park a bike. Got pretty frustrated with group split ups etc due to the never ending traffic. Just wanted to get out of the city. Every body had to skip lunch and takes us good 5 hours before we find rooms. N that too going down on steep paths and 2 bikes take a fall and kulpreets bikes liver breaks. phew in the room cramped and cold. Santosh not feeling well by now. We go for a dinner and the 5 mins walk turned into a good 30 walk. Damn lots of energy wasted considering wat we had in store. But it was nice to look at simla in night the whole city lit on the slopes of the hills. Have a meeting not let down the spirit and still complete the trip. Hard decisions made. Santosh and vikhyat decide to head back to Delhi due to health reasons, harsh due to his accident. The days events and the tiredness of all made the axe fall on young rahul and raghav, where none were willing to carry pillions now looking at the demanding ride ahead both on the rider as well as the bikes. It surely was a good decision considering wat we went through later on the trip. Then we crash. Made just around 350 kms that day.

Day 2:
Up and running early in the morning by 11.30 AM!! Well that’s usual, bid bye to santosh,vikhyat,harsh,raghav and rahul. Its 10 gyes and 10 bikes now. Tried to lean the air-fuel mixture as we were planning to hit high altitude that day. But it was too early n bike was hardly moving so tuned it back. Out of simla and Peo seems to be the destination for the day some 250 kms. Throttles let loose but my bike struggling from the altitude. Slowly slip down in the speedster’s hierarchy:D Roads get narrower, broken at places giving us sufficient hint of wats coming. Have brunch at a dhabha over looking a valley. That was a nice reprieve. Next butt break would be at good view point overlooking the majestic Sutlej River. Sutlej heard it long time back when I schools and now finally see it. The magnitude of the mountains becoming greater. Now we climb down towards Rampur to level of Sutlej River and so gains the temperature. Small nice section of twisties but after a curve just realized that i was feet away from the edge of the road, where the river has caused landslides that has eaten part of the road. Encounter many sections where edges of the road have fallen into the river. Now its gonna be climb again and the roads now get narrower and riding on the edge begins. With roads carved on the mountain sides. Take quite a few breaks for fotosessions. Pass a point where the road was literally scraped out on the rock face of the mountains. Its like the ground, one side of the wall and the roof all a single entity with roof being 20 to 30 feet. That was awesome place. Cross the stretch and group split up with comparatively slow movers goin ahead to gain ground. Me stuck with the ZMAs thinking I am fast. Our way is blocked by a land slide just hours before we came there!! It is being cleared by a bulldozer. It’s all offroading till PEO. Bad time to be caught slower with ZMAs zipping and me trying hard to catch up. It’s like I got phobia for offroading and its coming on and the edge of the road gets higher and higher. Its dark too now. Catch up with the group waiting for us and some more riding up and down and we reach Recong PEO by 9 in the night. Gyes find us rooms. In a comic event I fall in the room and PraveenS falls on me with his kneepad hitting my left knuckles hard. Hmmm.. Looks like no fractures but it was hurting bad. Pain relief spray and some hot water treatment in store. Have dinner all of us together at cold roof top hotel exhausting the supplies of wat the hotel had:). Crash for the day under bed thick cozy razais.

Day 3:

Once again the promise of early wake up broken by everybody;). Plus the morning chill din let gyes get out of their cozy beds. My hand looks OK now, thought for some time the previous night the trip was all over for me. Get our bikes checked, parathas and omelets for break fast and the riders start by 11.30. That’s a good 5 hours of day light lost. Kaza is made the destination of the day. As we get away from the town the real color of the terrain shows up. Bringing up my edjophobia, I ride as close as possible to the wall while one by one riders pass by. I thought at least the eliminator most unsuited bike for the terrain was slower but not long when puneeth to passes me. Well I rode at my speed. The views getting bettor and bettor. But we cannot ride looking around as lil distraction u find urself going to the wall or the edge. Its like u stop, anchor legs and then look around and move on. No body would know if some one falls of the road. That’s the magnitude of the place around. Even though I was slowly getting desensitized about offroading, more tricky paths lay ahead. Like steep climb down with loose mud and gravel. Make it down to find Ashish's clutch liver broke in a scrambling gone bad. His bike can’t move now. An hour goes with keerthi the official handy man or rather gadget man pulls out epoxy bond and tries to fix it. but 2 hours of setting time is wat we don’t have. Now puneeth volunteers to takes ashish back to PEO some 30 KMs and get the spare. 30 kms which is usually a 20mins affair for us is now and hour thanks to the terrain. Praveens,bunny,kulpreet and dhairya get ahead so that they can arrange for room while we get the stuff fixed. Now that’s a couple of hours now at the bridge and gushing river below. With lot of dust threatening throat infection. Meet up Salil and Dikshit who were on one of their regular hill riding. Gyes so very experienced around the place even have gear to camp just bout ne where. Have a chat and they continue. Gyes get under the bridge nearer to water to perch. 2 hours later our heroes return with the spares and now we can move. Now the running up and down the face of the mountains with no sense of direction continues.

Have a couple of check posts who note down our details. We found out the lead gyes were there 3 hours before us. Come around an army base n find a lot of soldiers on the drill. Continuing we get down to the river level before the 'ka Zigs'. That was one other astonishing place with a bridge over the river taking us to road made on the side of the rock with over hanging. Was like riding in a tunnel with one wall open. Gyes with cam get busy while me slow mover carry one giving out oooohs and aaaaahs. Now start the climb to the 'ka zigs' basically longs loops of road going up the mountain. Its freshly laid road for this section. The hairpin bends are spread out like a KM each. Every time I stop I see the gyes go above. Could not see the road cos of the angle. I go up and there I see them again. Finally reach a point where the road would turn away. This was an awesome spot. with a steep incline on once side straightened with down flowing ruble, extending till it could disorient my eye, while I could see all the road and bends below on the other side and the river below and the mountain on the other side again reaching for the skies. All making us feel ever punier. A bike seen below would take 20 minutes to reach the top. I see keerthi about to stop a loop below. Honk at him and gesture him to come up. It takes 5 minutes for him to come to me. Some foto session no. but his expensive cam is also not big enough to capture the whole ambiance. Even a 360 degree panorama would not give the true picture. Just have to go there and feel it. Kinda jumping with joy. Find sunny and puneeth taking their share couple of loops below but they could not here us. Time to move on.

After some time find ahsish, gurpreeth along with salil and dikshith who had gone to ribba. Yeah we missed it. Its getting dark now and the road to nako is blocked and we needa take malink instead which is a 30 km detour!! Sunny and puneeth show up and its 6 already and 70 more KMs for a place of rest. We do sum more climbing the air gets thinner. Temperature drops rapidly. Put on some extra layers. At a point the bike was not even moving in 1st gear. I and keerthi tune our bikes a bit leaning the mixture to make up for the less air. now at least the bikes could move in 2nd gear. Its really surprising how the air pressure and oxygen content reduces exponentially as we go up. Just before dark we start the decent. Hoping to reach Tabo as soon as possible. This point got real scary with the path getting badder and dark in the inhospitable place and destination so far. But found comfort with number of ppl around. Had taken a lead alone to gain some time and I stopped to see the lights coming down afar. That was nice to watch. We must have missed quite some visual treat riding in the dark. Get to a check post to enter our details and we come to know that we are just 70 kms from Chinese border.!! Gyes tempted to have a look at the next day but were told it was off limits. Get to a small settling 20 KMs from taboo where we call home for update and have a lazy dinner. The curious locals ask us our purpose of taking all the trouble of coming there all the way on bikes. When we said it was looking around the mountains. They say like they are fed up of the mountains around all their life and we crazy ppl living in nice cities come there for no reason. Dal roti!! What ever for our tired group. Find out that the first bus of the season has come there from manali just the previous day and the roads have opened. That was encouraging reducing the threat of black ice. 10.30 We start and some more offroading and we come across an arch of what suited a monastery kinda thing. Get in to the complex see not a soul around. Get out to see if its further but we seem to be going out of town. Send in scouts to locate the first batches bike and they are found at the monastery shelter. Just pushed the door and the huge door opened up with darkness inside get in and nudge it and it too opens up into a DOOM game type of place. Kinda spooky in the night we play the bhooth bhoot game hehe. Finally the care taker comes around and gives us rooms. We meet up the gyes having a nice slumber we make it so tired. A round of meeting. We are 24 hours behind schedule. Some gyes had flights and trains and wanto to make it back to Delhi by 7th ne way while keerthi, sunny, gurpreet n I having some days to spare decide to take it easy. Find the bed in the room pretty cozy but its quite dusty not helping me. Struggle to catch sleep.

Day 4:
Early leavers start by 6.30 am bidding farewell. We the four of us along with salil and dikshith take it easy. Roam around the monastery and a late breakfast. First time I hear the lamas pray. Found quite some kids already devoting their life for the holy rituals. The 2 gyes move on and 11.30 by the time we start. Keeping gramphu as our target for the day. Keerthi gets ahead and I stop at a fork for the gyes to catch up and find gurpreeth riding slower than usual. Comes to me n says "meri trip kharab ho gayi yaaar!!" well the bike right bracket had broken and it had taken the silencer along with it. Kinda looked like his bike was breaking apart. Pass through schiling just after and enquire to see if it could be welded. Try to remove the stuff and later the ppl say can’t be welded. We din feel like risking carrying on with the bike in that condition on that kinda terrain. Found a pickup could be arranged at kaza to carry the bike to Chandigarh. Gurpreeth pillions sunny and we head towards kaza some 25 kms ahead, which was looking already far. If this was not enough sunny bike takes a flat tire!! As we meet up salil and dikshith. Phew looks like some event needa be there each day. I am also struck with my sinus throat infection bad timing. We use salils electric pump but the puncture is big. Now he has to ride it out with it till kaza. So near and yet so far. Slowly reach kaza and find keerthi waiting at a fuel bunk for us from 3 hours. He had also made it to kibber and back by then!!. Now this is the supposed to be the worlds highest fuel bunk and the only one till 120 KMs till manila. Needa tank up but the powers gone, though it up later the ancient pump is not working. Some time there to get the fuel, while the gyes arrange fore Gurpreets transportation and sunny gets his tires fixed. And by the time we have lunch its 5. No plans to stay there. salil and dikshith with time in hands move to camp in kibber. While we decided to make to losar ne way for the day some 50 kms away. Gurpreeth stays back to come in the pickup. While the three of us start to losar. Look for some medicine but the place aint got even a medical shop. Now my bike starts refusing to start. Finally pushed in the incline and geared to force start. Again some riding on the face of mountains climbing up and down and make it to the plane above. Light fading and the temperature drop rapidly. Feels like its going down a degree every minute. With decent tar road we try a speed dash and full throttle in 5th gear our bikes are doing just 60!!. Well the place is around 10000 feet + of altitude. Its like a road ahead never ending and huge mountains afar on either side. Would have made a good butt break had we come earlier. But don have that luxury now. N there is threat to rain tooo. Ohh please no rain in that cold temperature. But we were spared of rain me ok with enough warm cloths on but he keerthi and sunny feel the cold bite hard. Finally make it to losar by 7. Find that the early starters had passed the place by 11 in the morning. Guess they would have made it to manali as planed. Which we thought would not happen. Get a cozy 3 bed room with razai as thick as the bed!. Pretty cold around prolly near 0 and I have caught cold in full swing. Though the medicine is keeping it abet, but I forgot nasal drops and its going to be hard night. Have soup and dinner at the house come inn. But nose blocked and damn hardly an hour's sleep for me the whole night.

Day 5:
Wake up the gyes by 6.30. The water freezing so din even feel like brushing the teeth. A little play and the hands would get painfully numb for some time. The water was dat khold. Finally we get water in small bucket. Just enough for us to brush and wash our face. Have parathas again for breakfast and this time start. Chandigarh is the plan for the day. This is the worst terrain stretch of the trip. With literally stones strewn all the way. I pack up well and also put the monkey cap inside the helmet. N we start towards kunzum pass. That some 19 kms from losar. We find a local to coming along on his fiero FX. He tries to stick around as not wanting to ride alone on the no mans land of 60 Kms when he could find some crazy gyes giving company. As we near kunzum pass we see more snow around the surrounding mountains and getting to find some by the side of the road. Get to kunzum pass in an hour. Well our target speed was 20 kmph ne way. Was pretty cold but to hell with it, wanted to feel the ambiance so took out ma cap. Was awesome place and a great sense of accomplishment at least for me enduring so much physically. This would be the highest point of our trip at 4555 meters or 15200 feet altitude. Snow covered mountains every where. With the big scale of things around the sense of freedom is immense. Foto session now. The local who caught up with us suggests us to make a circle around the local temple near by. That is supposed to be done by every one traveling that route and would give good luck!!. The road worsens as expected. Along with gravel we now needa deal with the slush created by the melting snow on the side of the road. My back starting to hurt and stomach mussel cramp dunno for wat reason. The terrain really not helping. But a stop and a look around would make all the trouble so lame. We find a detour to Chandratal a lake on the high mountains. Bad roads none the less, do a big stream crossing and emerging out as winner not getting the shoes wet. 10 kms in find a lot of slush ahead. Me in josh go ahead to cross it. But it only gets deeper and soon my bike is down till the swing arm level and I am stuck. Could help go forward and the slush looked like it was for quite some distance and we din have that kinda time. Sunny and keerthi help me turn around me bike and get out and all of us wetting our shoes in the process. Couldn’t leave the bikes and go as it had our baggage. Disappointedly turned back with keerthi quite pissed of for missing it. Get to the stream and this time step into the water while crossing. Feet getting cold now. Sunny says not need to change sox as we gonna find more streams to cross.

Get to the main road and we descend. The road dries up as we go down with snow disappearing. Well we expected some riding on the snow but looks this time of the year is not for that. But the path becomes more and more unforgiving. Bouncing us bad. For some distance we have to move along side the river bed and this part was with huge pebbles. We could recognize the path ahead only by noticing some stones to by pressed down by the vehicles. hehe. Now I getting pissed increase my speed for a change. I seem to be going right at the very stones I want to avoid. Its like front wheel hits and get thrown off a feet and then my back wheel hits the same stone and throws the back wheel to the side a couple of feet hehe. But I manage not to take a fall and continue finally come near gramphu and we have our lunch there. Its like just a temporary tent. We see some greenery and flowers now, signs of getting back to familiar land scope. Thought its pretty cold there the locals roam around with normal cloths while we are in thick layers hehe. I feel terrible pain in my ears. It was the cold that I had in high altitude and the stuff got accumulated and as going down now the air pressure pressing on my ears. Takes some half hour to equalize with the help of some sneezing ;). There is this cute Tibetan kid of the dhaba gye who gladly obliges for few snaps of him. We start again around 1.30 and its supposed to be road after some kilometers. Start the climb to Rothang. The whole view picks on a different structure now with greenery below and white snow above with quite a few place snow hanging by the side of the road with melting water flowing on the road and kinda like water falls of the road other side. Encounter quite a few of them and succeeded in not getting the shows wet. Finally we make to some road kinda path. We were nearing rothang. The zigzag climb up. At a turn I see a board saying "Leh 568 kms". That was cruelly teasing, when I find myself all battered. err... guess for next time. But do feel bad for heading back coming all the way but not going all the way. Guess will be back some day with bettor preparation and bettor machine some day. Had just jumped into this trip in the last moment ne way. We find more vehicles plying as we climb to the Rothang pass which is the second highest pass of the trip towering at 13100 feet. Yes we are getting back to civilization and when we make it to the top kinda get disappointed to see the place over crowded. This is a family outing spot unlike the offbeat place we came from. But there is snow around. There skiing going on along with Snowmobile ride, horse ride and the strangest thing was like a snow cart being pushed by ppl and while sum sit on it for a ride. Hehe dunno what happiness they derived from it. We get a slight snow fall now that should improve the feel of Himalayas :) We play with snow, pix again and we have to move. Now this is going to be a rapid decent to manali some 8000 feet in 50 kames. It’s going to be good roads from now on but still dangerous as the roads are still narrow with now protection from fall. We use our new improved offroading skills in over slow moving vehicles. Habituated in moving close to the wall I get to the wrong side and find myself going for an oncoming car hehe. Frantic breaking and clear it. Ok we hafta ride in traffic now unlike the past few days. The view of the mountains begin to fade. That’s adieu from the mountains for some time I guess. N my ears start hurting bad again. I gotta stop and equalize the pressure in my nose again. I have to do is couple of times. Damn it was painful. It gets warmer as we read the base and find keerthi at manali deviation waiting for me. Sunny is not reachable and thought to be in kulu as by our previous discussion. With the bike in lesser altitude gains its form and rip time it is. Reach kulu by 4.30 and get a call from sunny waiting for at manali. Phew one more communication failure and now me and keerthi wait at the river bank some time and head to dabha and wait. 8 by the time sunny meets us. And he found gurpreeth on the way who was ecstatic about his experience with the ride in the pickup :D. We decide to halt for the day at mandi. My bike hits reserve. wats that full tank of fuel gone in just 200 kms, lots of fuel went unburnt at the high altitudes. Fuel up and mandi it is, tired to the bones and feel sleepy on the winding roads too. Damn should have done it in day times missing out the awesome S bends as I gotta depend on tail lamps thanks to me stock head lamp. Looking forward for a bed in mandi we move only to be stopped by sunny and preeth. Gears have problem now some 20 kms from mandi. Gurpreeth used some tool and unorthodox skill to get it fixed and we make it to mandi by 11. I find my nasal drops tooo. A nice dinner and hit bed while gurpreeth leaves for Chandigarh on a night bus to catch-up with his bike. ZZZZ

Day 6:
Took our time in getting up after all how long would it take to cover 450 KMs ? :D Sunny's bike needa be serviced. Called up Harish whom sunny had befriended the previous day, to show us around the place. Sunny's bike given at HH service while I get my bike's chain tightened. But the gye got generous with the oil and put enough to damp once side of my tire. Damn we got some twiesties to do now and oil on the tire not good. Did some burnouts on the mud :D. Get back to hotel for break fast and then get back to take sunny's bike. I used the unused catering gloves to smear mud over my rear tire as to remove the oil at the edges. Well looked stupid but was good thing as we had some 80 KMs of awesome twisties to do. We pack up and Tank up towards Delhi it is. Now the bike is in its elements, brand new Michelins and downhill so no torque complaints. Well its time for some desi moto GP. I feeling cheated of the left curves due to possible reminiscent of the oil, take rights curves more heartfully to make up. The new tires giving tremendous feed back and encouraged me to push to the limits. The Road best of curves I have ridden so far. Wide 180 degrees curves which we could take at 90+. Now could ride with bigger machines, the Sunny's disadvantaged karizma with a bald tires sliding and gear box doubts and keerthi struck by sanity all of a sudden to reach home safely(wonder where it was previous days when riding on the edge:D), but couldn’t stop myself. Some competition between us and at one curve all three of us were leaning on a curve inches from each other motogp ishtyle :D what a rush. I go past the gyes and remember on particular straight before curve, where sunny catches up with me n at the curve hadda slow down cos of his tires and I doing late breaking and over took him on the outside in 90 degree curve leaning inches from each other. Really loving those Michelins now and let my self loose and soon let the ZMAs behind and took on the roads like there was no tomorrow. Guess an onboard cam would have scared me later. Getting thrown on to the S curves ever now and then. After the best twisty ride of my life I reach the planes approaching Chandigarh. Not long after the ZMAs zip past. No catching up here. Now the heat beginning to weigh on us. I see the ZMAs and Sunny's bikes gearbox again gives way. Take rest for some time and Sunnys decides no more chances; the bike has to go now in a pickup too. Now that’s the third bike of the trip which needed a pickup. The mech suggesting there’s lot of place in the pickup, so could as well put the other to bikes and ride out. Well that’s the last thing we could do now hehe. Din feel the need to explain the mech of our crazy hobby. Now I and keerthi ride close. Bypass Chandigarh and now its 200 kms of 4 lane Grant Trunk Road till Delhi. Full throttle time it is now but I could see only 110 on the Speedo with couching; the Michelins stole 5 kms of top end in return for superb handling. Some trade off have to live with it. Devouring all the cages in the way. Then comes the Innova and Honda city marginally faster then us slowly go past us only to get stuck behind lumbering trucks and we making escape zipping in between. The girls in the innove seems impressed as they constantly check as to where we were :D LOL. No choice to give way in wide open roads and any truck I would rip away zipping in-between. There was a formation for quite some time. Keerthi leading, innova behind him, then the Honda city and used it fro slip streaming and now could see 120 on the Speedo. The formation breaks and I find this santro competing with me, only find his lil daughter getting exited as he over takes me haha. A small break for fluids and we reach Delhi by 9. Bye to keerthi and head to central Delhi to stay at santosh's room. Damn Delhi is on horrible place, the traffic, the heat, and the dust not a very pleasurable ending of my fantastic ride of 1600 KMs+. Finally meet up with Santosh at 10.30. Dinner ride summery and Dreaming it is.

Well that was the best trip I had. Challenging mentally, physically to the limits. Bad time to have coincided with my sinus cold but I made it. Funs all over now and still hafta get back to Bangy. Next day we dare to go out in that sweltering Delhi heat feels like the air goes in and sucks all the energy out!!. Get to Sunnys house, the head quarters of XBHP. Look at the pix of the trip and vids. Collect the chain covers from KRP in the evening and room it is. Just want to get back to home. Finally to get our bikes shipped, get it packed at the railway station only to know they not going to accept the bikes that day. Keerthi arranges for the bikes to be carried in a private parcel boogie along with our train. And now we gotta push fuel emptied bikes more than a KM for loading. Damn guess that was the hardest thing my muscularly challenged self did in that trip!!. Manage to pierce my key through the packing material and ride out a lil with the fuel in the carb. Finally bike in the van and this time they gonna stuff a lot of goods on top of our bike!!. No choice but to hope for minimal damage.

A boring 2 day journey in the AC train and some effort to get our bikes out free. The only damage being the tanks paint bruised all over :( due to the goods stuffed on top of it. Reach home for a Hero's welcome along with taunts of being crazy and stupid hehe. I Show of the mini Buddhist Turn Wheel I bought at the thabo monastery as a souvenir. Well that’s the wildest thing a person could do according to the folks at home. Unheard of stuff in the entire family history. Hehe

For the next 4-5 nights I keep riding Himalayas in dreams. Such is the effect. A bettor plan and preparation could have seen me all the way to leh prolly but there is always next time. But nothing to take away from the trip. I lost sense of time, distance and money spent and other stats I keep in trips. Awesome is the word from vocabulary challenged me. An experience that will keep the hangover for quite some time.

A Ride n 1/2: Granite Mntn n GSHill-Ooty

2006-05-22T19:30:00.001+05:30

One more weekend well utilised. Saturday a small ride to a Granite hill with arun and keerthi some 30 KMs from home. Sunday endurance kinda run to GopalSwamy hill and ooty all in a day with keerthi and santosh.

Saturday evening we were up the Granite Mountain for the sunset. Amazing view from top all so near to home. Thanks for arun discovering it. But it takes some 10 KMs offroading through mud, slush, dust, stones gravel, steap climp n all to earn it. But once on top its all worth it.

Was all dark by the time we climb down. Not a sunset at full glory due to clouds but of good enough. The view of small village lights spread across was nice. Ma bike took a fall while goin donw. Lessen don use front break decending a steap gravel strewn rock face:D. Pretty tough for me got cramps in the hands;) Plan for next day already hatched by keerthi there. GopalSwamy hill and Ooty it is. He wanted a long ride looking at he bleak biking opportunities in country cos he likely to go on a long stint to malasia.

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Peace, salvation ..... what ever it was :D but felt real good being there. :)

Woke up at 3.45 am thinkin whether to go or not. Sure wanna bust ma A$$ with an endurance kinda ride but ma hands sore cos of the prev day's offroading with keerthi and arun. 20 mins thinkin and call keerthi up saying may not be joining.!!

me: up and running?
keerthi: up but running in 10 mins, will be there 15 mins.
me: ok will come there by that time.

did i say yes?? i did and am on a roll. felt energised instantly. no thinking just do!!:D was out of the house in 30 mins. find lone keerthi at family mart at 5.10. no sign of santosh whose mobile no good and was supposed to be there by 5. We leave lookin at the heavy schedule.

Mysore highway good dood nice rip. santosh calls from a booth and he's comining in. joins us shortly and make a dash to mysore with breakfastbreak at mtr. in mysore by 8.00 and off to nanjungood and at gopal swamy detor by 9.30. with a sea of livestock. the All red keerthi pearces cows,bulls etc honking n we follow. find the detor for Hydroxide's Perfect lake!! get there to find a car n some gyes occupying the spot and so we offroad along the perimeter of the lake to find us a thambu gaading spot:D, could see $hit on the path, no bull$hit infact elephant $hit:D. found a place and side stands donw on the edge of the lake and the motographers go click happy. not heat here, gentl cool winds beating the sun. 11 time to start towards gopalswamy hill.

me goin there third time and it all looks completely different this time too. find some gyes on bikes, dunno if they were bikers cos pillions were not wearing helmet. pic stops and at the summit 11.30. sun pretty high but cold winds was welcome reprieve from bangy heat. went inside the temple with a big congregation waiting for the blessings. but the priest was giving a lot of gyan and was going on and on. felt the need for space and went out and sat in a shade lookat the mejestic mountain range while i wait for the gyes to come out. that was soothing.

gyes out and a short trek plan is made by keerthi and we do some. was awsome walking along the light green grass made by the first rains of the year. take a small break under a tree and find ourselves as perverts disturbing many a milliped matings:D continue to the next hill and cross some ruins and ancient wall. have a stone just enough for the tree of us. dump stuff and chillax. with constant coool breeze and cloud cover coming intermitantly. could have spent the whole day sleeping on the stone(disclaimer: all 3 of us are straight, no pervertial interpretations:D). 1pm and being scoured by santosh to beat it we head to the road. with still ooty in the itenarary and all royally hungry. trek back to find elephant dung even there!! and get to the temple. rinsed our faces with the cool borewell water.

make it the paws restranunt for lunch. fond memories here, where last time there it was with the big group of 15 strong. buffe it is for 100 bux. who cares just fill the plates please:D, me in 2 minds to continue for risking attending a friend's wedding and santosh not in an endurance mood, but keerthi all in enthu to continue looking at his bleak riding opportunities in future;). n ma jacket zipper goes kaput. time to innovate wear it the zipper back and belts off the pant and on the jacket. smart ehh!! pretty dumb looking:D. wat the hell come so far and lets do it, coerse santosh into it too;) now keerthi is running at the risk of getting beaten up by santosh:D

damn!! ate too much and now on pretty bumpy roads well desinged to throug u off the seat regularly. but got to move on and get in to the bandipur sanctuary beautiful roads. weather as perfect as it can be. just tailer made for riding. nice curves. deers, monkeys and peacocks show up briefly every now and then. cross the sanctuary with the tamilnadu cops interrogate our whereabouts. ooty 35 kms to go. now comes the mother off all climbs i did. last time a come donw this ghat. but din look as steap that time while goin down:D. me struggling between 2nd and 3rd gear. 2nd taking the tacho to 8-9k RMS and 3rd with full throttle does only 4.5 rpm and bullockcarting up. :mad: each of those 35 hair pin bend being a challange which is quite narrow and vehicles comeing opposite. finally up and pykara lake it is by 4.20. all the way from ooty infested with the worst possible roads and nasty two wheelers driving like crazy(but not fast :D). if only they lay proper road will make for realy good curves.:( 325 Kms says keerthi's sigma and only 300 more to go;)

knew gonna be pretty late by the time we get back. walk for the lake spend some 15 mins there. now we gotta head home. a round of masala tea and back on the bumpy road till ooty. now roll donw the steap road. pretty challenging but enjoing none the less. another flying run in the sanctuary. we where hardly doin tripple the speed limit:D its dark by the time we hit gundle pet. and now its the dance with the opposing lights. found the zma taillamp were attractive:D. in mysore by 8.30. atleast its 4 lanes now. estimating 11.30 to home.

first time riding this road will the the lanes well painted fresh. Rip time it is. the traffic and the darkness really making the ride fun on the other wise boring road on my underpowered bike. we watch the vehicles zips past us in reverse direction. :D dinner at MTR. and similar rip to bangy. byes and home by 11.30.

one awsome ride after so long time(one month it is:D). enjoyed every bit of it. all 625 KMs of it in 18.5 hours. new stuff i did? leaning like crasy on the worst possible bumpy ooty roads:D

Coorg-Thadiandmol Peak Brekking!!

2006-04-19T20:52:00.002+05:30

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another weekend another ride, to coorg it was to beat the heat of bangy.

keerthi all raring to for the ride and santhosh along with him. inspite of work at office to be done at the weekend decided to break free. ma bike badly in need of service started making funny noises, is it the connecting rod again. changed the engine oil. made it the mech and he kinda fixes it needed timing chain adjustment and 12.30 by the time i say i am in. ashok and shindhi in and vicky joins finally.

we are off though pretty late by 4 in the evening, well din have any long distance plan just a relaxed ride for 3 days. my bike not all comfy revving this time but still gave it a rip a nice ride on the hassan highway. kinda racing with ashok vicky and nidhi, approaching kamats i here some sounds again, damn its the tappets going loud. the mech fixed the timing chain and spoils the tappets. am 150 kms from home and its getting dark, not wanting to take the risk of break down alone going back continue with the guys. damn wats with ma bike? kinda killed the fun a bit. take a deviation to khushalnagar and the road gets bad from now on and on for 70-80 kms, butts starts complaining and rain is threatening too. 10 kms to khushal nagar freshly laid twisties, but wet due to drizzle. now we got mist. it was awesome experience with he lights spreading every where due the the thick mist and couldn't find our way properly. vicky and ashok get ahead, we 4 stop to feel it. and its KHOOOLD welcome reprieve from the hot weather at bangy. gyes exited, keerthi pulls out his speakers with beaty music and we do the jinga(extream exitement) dance :D on the road. 15 mins and it starts pouring, hmmm... now we gonna get wet for the 10 kms from the place. we reach the coorg and take shelter in a petrol pump and loo no rooms but vicky managed to find us a shack in a house. well cozy place with 12 beds for the six of us. have a dinner and crash pretty late with the 'Thadiandmol' peaks trek's in the next days itinerary. Its a Six km trek to the summit and could spot Arabian Sea on a clear day.

Cozy beds and late before we got up and pack our bags and head for break fast in the town. Thadiandmol peak some 35 KMs from coorg, road not much to talk about but it was fun riding slow in the narrows road in a formation. make it the entrance by 9 and see few vehicles parked there, but we ain't gonna stop there are we, hit the trekking trail on our bikes. trekkers surprised to see us on bikes. a KM or 2 later its now even more steeper and rough section to climb. But guys had 'Brekking' plan for the day. (Biking on a trekking trail :D). This is where ashok stops his bike cos its an low slung cruiser and cant take the path. i too leave ma bike there, not wanting stressing the engine already tappets audible rather loud. but the the rest of em brek on. me and ashok take on the foot and catch up with the gyes. now the heat bearing down on us. was an awesome trail to trek often needing to go through thick canopies above and streams in between. damn would have been fun with the bike. the trail narrowing to 1 feet some place and the gyes still carry. finally we catch up the guys who perched their bike here there and planning to carry on foot now. was one big effort to turn all the bike the other direction on the narrow path.passeres by trekkers really amazed and dumbstruck to find us on the bikes till there. after a short trek we find the path open up a bit and santhosh,vicky and keerthi go back to get the bikes. long trek now with sun in full glory, but the cool breeze keeps us going. we finally come to non bikable path even for these guys and wait for em show up. there they come and still 4 KMs of trek to the summit looking really hard now. we start the steep ascent on the foot now. the whole place surrounded by green hills. not only did we not bring any water or food, we were also lugging our baggage out there.

we got up on a hill en route the main peak and kinda found it high enough;) sat and lazed round. we could see trekkers wearing light cloths and energizing drinks in their hands. shinidhi and vicky had to go bak the same day tooo. biking and trekking don mix hehe. after some foto session we turn back and getting donw was even harder and dam exhausted by the time we get to our bikes. head back to coorg for lunch. 3 KMs to the town and nice twisties:D , thought to hell with the tappets and revved my enjine and for a brief duration of fun leaning on the sharp curves as fast as i could go. in the town have long lazy lunch and now vikcy and shrinidi big bye and leave for bangy. me in dialma whether to go with them or stay for the next day but guys convinced me to stay as they were not going any further. found rooms and hit the bed. tired one and all wake up for the time of dinner. then what go have dinner and then go to the room and again sleep !!! yawn.

again wake up late. well that was the intention for a lazy trip to beat the office pressures for all of us. after breakfast we go to the Abbe falls and spend some time there. ashok very much interested in jumping in to the water but now us. after some foto shoot and bird watching:D we start to bangy. now the same 10 KMs of twisties we needa go and last bit of nice road, and let the bike loose and started cornering as much as could, keerthi big boy zips past me, but i sticky to his tail and take on the awesome curves. again peg scraped on a curve hehe:D does not last long, bad roads again. have lunch at khusalnagar. nice lunch for our hungry selves. little out of town and we could see the sky pretty dark in the direction we needa go. OKIE we have some rain ride in store. stop at a town to get some plastic sheet and stuff it through our bunjees to keep the bags dry. not long after the sky's opened up. 250 kms more to go. worse the roads under construction and some distance we had to go on shush. damn ma tyres are a bit bald, had to change em before rains but din expect rain mid summer!!!. me gettin bit scared cos the back wheel having a will of its own. many places a layer of flowing water on the path some times 1 feet deep.
finally reached the done up wide road but the rains only got heavier. now this is goin to be fun ride. inner hulls already breached by water. santhosh gets into a petrol pump and says no riding till the rain stops. but we cajole him to continue and its really pouring. the ppl at the pump calling us nuts to go in that rain, where trucks and four wheelers had stopped. we hit the roads again and rip in the rains. it was awsome riding in the rain at 90 + speeds. had to be pretty careful in early breaking and turning at those speeds. reach the bangy mysore road 4 lane road 6 pm. have a round or tea. more ride in the rain.

9 and in bangy after a nice ride. 667 kms of it.ashok complaining of body pain and fever previous day all refreshed with rain. did i mention had a lot of work at office ? went there Monday and came home Tuesday night, updating my personal record of 41 hours continues working at office!!!. price of the weekend ride? not at all would do it again next time too if i could trade ;)

Over took an R1 on the track!!! :D

2006-03-14T14:54:00.001+05:30

hehe OK OK, the R1 was doin a warmup lap alright. :))

Track day at Sriparambadur race track at chennai it was. started at around 4.30 am and went through old madras road with the possiblities of rain. most of the time tailing renu with his ultra bright light. day broke and our speed increased. but the best section in bangy chennai road with some curves was lost as it was wet. but not for renu, the bugger took one leaning turn at 80+ scary. damn the track may be wet too. but it was dry alright. again touched 122 on the speedo on a fairly straight road. before reaching the track at 12 to be welcomed by shrey.

with lot of expectations bout the road on the track, paid 300 bux for a session of 30 mins. n lots of stuff hadda be removed. rear view mirrors, crash guard, kicker. taped all the plastic parts. was wearing the knee and elbow pads that i has bought a few months back, without which they wouldnt allow on the track. poor renu couldnt cos of that.

now, of some 12 bikes goin round and round only 3 were desi ones, ma cbz,a pulsar and an modded 135. but the rest were SBKs. and yes were all goin around on the same track. it was awsome riding along with the SBKs. or rather seeing them go past ya again and again . n ofcource an R1 gye was doin a warm lap slowly and i over took him on a curve , of cource the same gye went past me couple of times before the end of the session. at one instance when i was about to touch 100 i feel a jolt and kinda handle bars slipped out of my hands, hehe it was a boom of a white BR 1000 RR zipping past me prolly doin 150 +. was bit shaken too hehe.

every curve was expectin a roar and kinda nerves not to come in the way of those biggies. but was awsome lookin at the SBKs goin in front leaning the same curve. bout the track was bit dissappointed cos was not gettin confidence to lean freely. guess may be i was expecting too much comparing to the ghats i have seen during munnar and goa trips. n the damn puncture wala cheated me by putting 40 psi onto the rear wheel thought i told him to put 28. Grrrrr. also felt the curves on the track are a bit hard cos they got no banking we are used to in the ghats. but couldnt the full profile of ma tyres this time 2 mm left on either side

well i rationalised too much and din goin for another session. wat dumb could have atleast gone for the sake of riding with the SBKs. , renu had to be home the same nite and in the spur of the moment i decided to turn back with him the same day to bangy. saw this bmw and R1 rip past us on the way back. this time heard the new madras road, throught k'giri was almost dun up and its 4 lane all the way. 9 and we at k'giri, and 90 kms more to cover.

saw heavy lightning up ahead. ok we have some heavy rains in store. but we thought big deal we have riden in rains before. but holy moly it was like a storm, literally buckets opened up from above and the heavy wind too, pushing our bikes was hard to controll our bikes even goin at 30-40s. n all this in dark and no cover ne where around and could do noting but carry on. had heard before the highway gets water logged and cut off in heavy rains. so din wanna wait for the rains to die and get stranded. hit some 1 feet deep water and realised only when in, out of it. and only to hit one more with atleast 2 feet deep water. damn hell, rapidly donw shifted to 1 gear and reved till we crossed it for some 50-60 feet. phew that was one experiance gaaaaa.

was all over in 20 mins, we crossed the rain. had lost one of my routs horn at the track cos the gye broke the clamp while removing ma crash guard and it was in ma bag and water had gone in the other one so no horns. reached home by 11 to a warm bed.

wow that was too much experiance for one day. did some 667 kms in 22 liters of fuel.
pros: over took an R1 :D, rode with SBKs.:)
cons: renu's p150v2 beat ma cbz on topend. :(

This is what renu had to say about it ---->>>>

It was a track day in MMSC that was held on the 11th and 12th of March 2006. Even though I knew the dates much before, I was not sure whether to go or not due to many restrictions with my parents. Started pleading for permission a week back for which I got an approval on friday. Now, it is a question whether to go alone or with my XBHP mates. Received a positive response from Shreyansh and Praveen KM. So, the plan was fixed to leave at 4:30AM on the 11th of March. Unfortunately Shreyansh's bike broke for which he had to come by car. So, the two confirmed now were Praveen KM and myself

As decided, we met at 4:30AM near Kadamba. Headed towards the nearest petrol bunk and filled the bellies of our bikes. So, the much awaited journey got a green signal from there.

Calm morning freshness mixed with morning dew and due to last night rains with pitch darkness restricted our speeds to 90kmph till we first stopped at Palamner check post for a cup of coffee and to wipe the insects off the visors.

Bad luck welcomed us saying the hotel has just started and we have to wait for some time. Not spending much time, we thought of having breakfast in the next hotel, we continued with our ride but Shreyansh and others who had left for the same event met us.

Spent few mins with them but we did not want to waste more time as the super smooth roads wanted us to burn them. So, we din't stop until we got a Reliance petrol bunk with restraunt. Praveen filled his belly as well as his bikes and I had fill only mine as my bike was drinking less litres of fuel compared to Praveen's bike.

Unknowingly we spent 45mins here until we realised that it is getting late for the track. Again we started but this time Praveen was in need of speed where he continued with 100 plus kmph where I stuck to 90kmph.

As I was riding slowly compared to Praveen, I stopped near this Sunflower farm to get this neat photo of my great bike.

From here, I started increasing the speed until we both met near this bridge in Ranipet.

We now made a mind to do non stop to Chennai but due to some problems with air pressure, Praveen had to stop his bike near the toll gate after which we started speeding ie a min of 115kmph and we reached our destination, MMSC.

We got our bikes ready but I was not allowed to ride on track due to some safty issues. Praveen rode on track and he got that piece of enjoyment where I was satisfied watching him ride. He used full profile of his tyre.

Here are few pictures:

Praveen spent some time on the track but as I wanted to meet Tectrac in Chennai, I headed towards Anna nagar. Posed many problems as a person misguided me with the address and due to traffic jam and lack of time, I came back to MMSC. We had brunch in a hotel nearby and headed towards Bangalore.

As we were getting late, we explored the full capabilities of our bikes. But, at the same time we were stopping for break.

Yes, they have come a long way but again, they are heading the roads showing their willingnes to burn more of the roads.

My bike saw a super duper sunset. Hope this will be the month's best wallpaper
We rode without break until it started raining heavily where we had to drink coffee. I don't know how but I was totally charged and we started burning the wet roads after drinking two cups of coffee.

Our last stop was in Krishnagiri.

But, real riding started from here as we faced a heavy downpour mixed with winds blowing in opposite direction. We had to use first gear at many places. I have ridden in heavy rains but this is the first ever time I experienced the worst conditions. Praveen was very experienced and he did not face much of problems riding in the rain. However, we reached Bangalore where I blew a flying kiss in the entrance.

The overall experience was very good but we did face some problems were the pedestrians, cyclists and lorry drivers did not have any sense of roads. For a rider, this is common as the main intension is the pleasure of riding.

"Running In" to Munnar-Valparai

2006-02-07T19:11:00.001+05:30

Guys posing for a pic, but its takin VDO by mistake :D

Santoosh filming one handed in munnar twisties!!

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Pix by santoosh, keerthi and vicky

Call it stupid or brave i did it. Started right from the mechs shop at night alone(ok only for sum part :D) on a 1000+ km trip after collecting my bike which had undergone a enjine over haul. Mech says first 500 kms at max 50 and max speed of 70 till i give it to him for service past 1000 kms.

Pretty tedios ride for me cos of the runin, spending long hours the bike without exitement cos of the slow speed(first n last day). Coming home all tired n a bit sad. Thought no mood for log on this ride. The exitement and great memories, am very much happy to have made it to the 4 day trip and all the things i got to experiance. Could not resist but to pen it donw. But the trip did not turn out to be clean one, cos ppl got hurt. Would have been awsome if not for those incidents.

Praveen S posts the plan for munnar in the long weekend due to republic day. n bikenomad Arun's pics of valparai forest road trigger even more exitement and the plan came up to both Valparai and munnar. Initailly 20 people in but in the end not many turned up.

2 weeks before the Planned trip to munnar ma bike's connecting rod goes loose and Timing chain and chain tensioner goes kaput. Office work pressure ensure dat i give the bike for sujery late which delayed the delivery till the planed evening of the ride on 25th jan. After lot of contemplation, trading extrahours and next weekend for a leave on friday, i start of from office all ready with the bag i packed in the morning itself. To the mech's shop get my bike and 8.15 pm i put the bag on the seat with bunjees. Call home dat i reached chamaraja nagar and we are in a hotel for the night :D. my parents being very histarical of me doin night riding. Inform the gyes dat i am finally in, who changed their route plan to accomadate even my tentative participation.

Day 0: 26th Jan 06
Spending the first night was the whole problem, where i do be running in at 45-50 for first 500 kms. told gyes to carry on i will catch up with them at mysore. Start of towards mysore road, and the low speed putting lot of doubt in my mind as to carry on. 9 pm get a message form keerthi that they are starting and would meet at kamats for dinnar. I fuel up 10 liters and there i start armed only with a foot pump, tubes and cables with know hint how to use them. Cross my office and odo meter running in slow motion. Get out of the town and riding slow all alone still not sure of continuing. With a lot of doubts i make it to kamats at 10 pm covering 40 kms. There arnt any bikes there!!! they have left. Again message em to meet at mysore. Have a light dinner and finally made up my mind to carry on come wat may, no way i am spending the hard earned leave at home. 10.20 just after the dinner i hear an enjine roar, then one more and one more and quite a few. Yup the gyes are here all of sanjay(barrowed fiero), keerthi(ZMA), vicky(p180 v1), raghu(unicorn), santhoosh(p150/p180 :D), varun(p150 v2) and rishi(ZMA). me instantly cheers up. as usual always late starting. varun and rishi on their first long ride baring a ride to nandi hills!!!. waste no time in finishing my tea and head alone to mysore while the gyes have thier dinnar.

Hummin songs to myself, pitying myself on such slow progress simply carry on in the dark. but the exitement of the ride keeps me goin. Calclulating the time by when these gyes would catch up with me. With relative speed of 50 kmph, guessed they would start by 11.15, they would need 40 mins to catch up with me. after agonizing hour in the cold take a lonly break and look for erratically swaying lights. here they did right at around 11.45 pm. Signaled them to carry on. now i got 95 kms on the odo move slowly. never missed a mp3 player so bad. to keep myself awake and some fun i started snaking in the wide road, twistes show up from no where :D. 12.30 am come near the mysore country club to find some blinking lights. 150 on the ode. now the guilt gettin on to me of slowing these gyes down. We move together till out ot mysore towards nanjangood and i let the gyes go. Only waiting for me yet again to deviate towards chamaraj nagar. Yup again waiting for me doin 50s. Decided i would start of early tomm and if i cant keepup i would turn back alone so as not to be a drag. Thanks to the horrible road we stick together and in chamaraj nagar by 2.30 am with 202 on the odo. Gyes find a lodge for the the night. vicky making use of the services of a mad gye to watch over our bikes for the night. I try to catchup some sleep still unsure of my continuel the next day.

Day 1:
Awake before the alarm goes off. Still got 300 kMs for initial runnin. By now the runin speed has been defined as - "PKMPH" hehe. Gyes still comfortable in thier beds. Do i go back or carry on? Discuss with sanjay bout the pros and cons, but still encouraging me to come along. Then check the map with the gyes and decide to start off ahead and meetup at coimbattur. 7.15 i start towards sathyamangalam 75 kms from there. Initailly bad roads. I see the fuel indicator still high, thought some problem cos 200 kms and should have been almost quarter tank. i fuel up and bit and only 4 liters fit. Wohav bike is now actually giving 40 + mileage first in its life time. Pass a few towns and enter the satya mangalam ghats, Get hints of the views we gonna see. stop a few places to obsorb the environment. This ghat kinda scary with often walls broken of at strategic curves. Like when u lean into the curve u see the abbys below. Clmbing donw used lot of breaks not to rev beyond 3.5k. while i was goin slow enjoying the views around in my lane at 40s and this tempo gye over takes a bus in the blind turn real fast. i had just enough space to save myself esle would have taken the shortest route down satya mangalam ghats. Roads particularly not in good shape even 40-50 speeds was a challange. Down the ghats is section of nice fast twisties. daaaaamn gonna misst. In sathy by 9.30. yikes thats 2+ hours for 75 kms. dats a lot of work. Find my self a hotel for breakfast. Have the safest thing - Idlis. Start off the combi by 10 am. Try all the positions to feel comfortable. pretty unevent full ride till combi by 11.30. more than four hours on the road with 120 kms only since morning. cursing not to have covered the runin before the ride. I stop for 10 mins and the gyes show up. Get the directions as pollachi and valparai. and i head towards pollachi. Pretty confusing place with not knowing the language. past 30 kms the gys wiz past me. Santosh to improve his trip average plans to runin with me till pollachi. Resource full gye carrying snaks and water packets in his viser and have em on the lazy move. He takes some pix of me Standing on the pegs and crouching at 40s :D. 12.30 in pollachi, and the gyes have split there. takes some time for the every one to come to the same hotel. Hotels with the same names the culprit.

Again have a early lunch before the gyes and i move towards valparai. Pass a dam forgot the name. Skip it to gain some time on the gyes. On e more section of ghats, with 40 hair pin "PEND"s. yup thats wat was written there hehe. see n number of warning signs bout the seat belts, tyre pressure etc etc. thought how bad is it. but it was silky smooth and hair pin apexs real wide. ohh no i am in runin. pretty steap climb considering i need not to rev beyond 4 k and also not to let the enjine knock. frantically shift to 3,4,5th gears. Got the do the whole route again. runin not doin justice to this road. Pretty worried the climb would hurt the enjine. after 26 bends its down hill now. Take a break to give rest to the enjine a long one at a nice view point. Me a cam less gye, the views just for me to remember. Could see the dam afar and the road carved on the mountains. Big trucks really struggling to climb up. Dats some noice pollution with the constant accelarator of the trucks. Call up raghu, the only other gye with BSNL connection. They are still at the bottom. I carry on to valparai and planned to go further. am at valparai with 460 on the trip meter at 4 pm. I have some snakes while i wait for the gyes. Damn i forgot these gyes had SLRs n all n how could they move fast in the picturesque ghats could have as well travelled with them catching up on thier breaks. Called up again to let em know i am starting, but asked not to as we were staying at valparai that night. Call up arun for directions for the next day. Loosing cool, i head back instead of waiting for em in the sleepy town. 10 mins and the gyes show up. Sanjay shows me the hallow headlamp cos he donated some glass to the road. he had taken fall on a curve with a pothole while enjaying the view around. Back in valparai and Book 4 rooms at Green Hill hotel.

After some rest the sun almost down while we still deciding where to go. Vicky very much enthuziastic to head into the forest and stay there for the night with a bon fire. But we decide to check out a temple on the hills passing through the tea estates. Now all of us go in aline in the narrow winding streets of the town and again make up a show. Refreshing the memories of wayanad trip last year with 14 bikes.
pass through the meandering a paths among the tea estates and reach the top. Keerthi is lost. santosh goes to fetch him and back. the view of the sky with the sun just donw was awsome. Rishi just motionless looking that side. Real dark now with no lights and we kid bout holding hands not to get lost. See a bon fire below. when the gyes take some pics with flash the fire is frantically put off ??? wat was that. Suprised to find a big neat temple above. Air now getting pretty cold. santhos using the flash of his cam to find us the next few steps. hehe. Finally on our bikes and to the town. Again find hard time to keep both rev and knowcing under control. Riding twisties new to me way at higher gears and breaks. Not meant for runin. Get to the hotel have dinner and crash.

Day 2:
With the initial faze of the runin done with the trip meter showing 488, now i can maintain 60-70+ and with keerthi forcasting a lot of twisties in the menu today i stick with the gyes for the day. Early in the morning check out the cold terrace for the tea estate hills view around. vicky and keerthi come with thier SLRs and tripod. these are not in a hurry!!. Santosh invites me for a ride in the estates while they play with their expensive gadgets. We get to the hills and take permisssion of the caretaker to get in to the private lands for pix. Feast of the early morning views. Santhosh gives his cam to me pillion, saying the memory card is empty. me lika kid with new toy go click happy at any thing and every thing. This was fun. The gyes does some wheelies and burn outs at the top hehe. and a lot more pix. 8 o clock and time to go back. Rip back to the hotel for break fast. 11 o clock by the time the lazy bones get ourselves ready. sanjay finding no glass makes do with a plastic cover on the doom asthetically fitted by the mech.

We head to sholayar dam. Nice view point again spend quit a few minites there. From now on the the 55 kms forest road ride, the main thing that we came for. The road gets real pothetetic and back breaking. but the jungly ambiance keeps our spirits high. Unlucky not to find any panthers like arun did 2 weeks back:( but we did fresh and stale elephant dung every now and then. stop mid way to cause some noice pollution. have some snacks we carried, keerthi pullos out his seakers and blares songs. Jangle main mangal. Spend quite some time there chatting. start towards Athirapally falls. if only the roads were good so that we could slowly ride looking around the jungle but instead had to concentrate more on the broken road. the roads improve past few kilometers. nice narrow twisties with 60-70 speeds, every one goin in full steam. Dearly miss my revs. still some gravel on the curves and we consiously did small slides in the curves hehe, wee bit motocrossish. The ride feels pretty scary thinking about it now. Stop for a break at a bridge with water flowing below, varun runs down to the water and rest follow him down. Vicky was takin pix from above when a buss rushed on to the narray bridge and din mind stoppin for him. he had to climb on the delicate railings to avoid being hit. damn the reckless drivers. 3.30 pm by the time we near athirapalli falls, and the road changes characther instantly it was like black and white turning into colour. the road smooth that felt like gettin donw and licking it :D. but sad 60-70 no good for this road, signaled raghu to carry on and have fun me gotto to the runin shamefull on that road. Narrow curvasious with the lane painiting and all. vicky and rishi get far ahead while the rest of go the check ou the falls. now lunch and the small walk feels like a trek. Stare at the mejestic falls some pix and we head back to the road, by the now vicky and rishi have also found their way here. but they miss the falls.

After a round of tender coconut, let the enjines take over. one dream of a road. stop a bit in an empty parking lot built inside a curve. Gyes pop out some wheelies. the Passing croud only amusded. Observe all the ppl goin don hill with enjines off. hmm.. fuels expensive :D. have a foto shoot of the bike line up. Think of posing for the cameras on the curve below. have and go and lean somuch that for part of a second the wheel is of and weight on the left foot peg. yeeehoo i peg scraped. The fotographers having an argument missed the action :(. was getting late with our destination for the day munnar still 130 kms away and already 5. Come up on a deviation to take a ferry across a river with the bikes to save 18 kms. every body sacrificed the heavenly road for the experiance of the ferry. Takes some pictures and every body still chareged up with the previous section rip. after some time i see raghu signaling me to stop. Sanjay is down. Skidded on a curve. Hi mistook the fiero for his faithfull rx. the one he brought at the last moment cos the yam could not be readied for the trip. He had taken a hard landing on the his left wrist. He couldnt ride any more. The gloves, helmet and jacket saved him a lot of sking. Suspeciting to be a sprain and would get bettor. But needa get medical attention first before deciding further. Angamalai nearset town some 15 kms away. Vicky takes sanjay, along with varun, rishi and santoosh and 4 bikes and keerthi raghu and me wait for the gyes to come back. keerthi uses the time to attache the mobile charges to his battery. again speakers on to kill time. he also attaches a tube light the charger. thats some jinja and also attracts a lot of insects. Quite lonly and its dark already. Santosh and rishi turn up and we get goin towards a small town near angamalai. Now we leave the fiero there at the clinik and head to angalmalai hospital as the damage to the hand is suspected to be big.

Only vicky is in with sanjay and arranges for immediate attention. these kerela hospitals have pretty tight security. We wait for the docters say while me and keerthi go back to the town to fetch the fiero. Now sanjay is out with plaster on the left and its serious needs surjery and he needs to reach bangy soon and we were 500 kms from home. keerthi and santhoos find a volvo bus which would take him and also the bike below. sad with munnar on bike being his dream since 2 years and now so near and yet so far. and also got the deal with the slow and painful recovery process. with sanjay urging us to carry on with our ride. Every one pretty hungry and tired with no lunch. have dinner with the argument whether to continue to munnar or stay there for the night. Tiredness wins with many including me in no position to ride. Gyes get rooms for us and halt for the day at angamalai for some much needed rest. 628 on the trip meter.

Day 3:
Start late almsot 8.30 am and munnar still 110 kms away. Now i am riding around 70-80 n 5 k RPMs. gyes also around the same speed so can aswell go with them rather than goin ahead as they would be doin plenty of pic stops. Now one more section of awsome twisties. truck loads of S curves and wat not goin uphill. my speed constant 70 come wat ever curve, cos mainly i din for rev beyond 5 k. So endup carrying much more speed into the curve and lean more. Updated my personal lean records there cos the tyre was used up on the sides till the edge, where last time some half centimeter was left. so was almost everybody else's. Just hug the left edge of the road and do the fun thing. Pass the deviation for Idduki dam, but keerthi says its far and we would loose time. We take a break at valhara falls while santhoosh has gone ahead. Some fluids and we start again to find santhoosh at a view point. the bugger had finished a whole bag of straberies all alone grr. 50 kms to munnar one more butt break at one more falls. Surpriced to see the the tyres on the sides fully used, ask santhosh to take some pix of my tyre. 5 k rpm not doin justice to the road. finally we reach munnar around 12.30 with 731 on the ok. The temperatures cool donw as we approach. Get a call from sanjay, he is home. We try to find a room or something. Had to go through narrow roads among tea estates in search of the resorts. All goin slowly in a single file, putting up quite a impressing show all full gear clad. after a couple of em found pretty cottage with 7 beds. But needed to climb steap 2 kms. Pretty heard on my bike had tough time avoiding both knocking and reving. We go all the way to the top to an awsome view of the mountains. think of doin something in the evening but now we are hungry. Climb donw half way to the cottage and decide not to take my bike up again.

The view from the cottage itself was enought keep watching. BSNL signal full but no call goes. wat crap. Gyes put on the TV with our fav channel blessing TV. mute in and put on keerthi's speaker and santhoosh puts appropriate numbers from the ipod.:D that was hilerious, ROTFLOAO. Loose sense of time. the lazy motel gys bring lunch 2 hours after we order it and 5 o clock realize how much time we lost. Think of some places to go before sun donw. Again go in the sningle file throught the city to the other side so as not to loose eachother with mobile signals not at its best. Again get amazing stares from ppl around and point their fingures at our number plates. Yeah from bangy alright. Some kids get exited and start vaving at the procession, wave back hehe. almost 6.00 at other end of the town and now wat? loose more time in discussions. Some elger gyes in car stop by seeing our number plates and chat a bit. One gyes says "You gyes came from bangy all the way on bikes, u gyes will have a tough time by the time u reach home. applly for leave now itself" with a concerned look. hehe heards that before. vicky and rishi head back to and a newly discoverd trail by vicky and also he wanted to arrange a bon fire for the night. While the rest of us stay decide to check out a supposedly hollywoods set of an india village. Now it was really cold. do some foto session in the sets jhopadies. and go the tea stall. then we go off road a bit on a uneven area full or small layer of grass. ly down there and chat lazily. Get some tea and snaks delivered to us from the tea stall. Talk of all sorts of things while varun goes around checks for some booze.

8 o clock we decide to head back, as kerela sleeps early. get into the town and do some herbal and eucalyptas oil shopping. Get to the cottage and again have a very expensive lazy dinner. with heated discussions of whos goin where tomm. raghu, varun and me pretty much decided to head straight to bangy. got office u see. but we havent seen any thing in munnar yet. so we decide to start early by 6, visit top station, echo point and matu patty dam all falling on the same road. vicky and keerthi munching about keerthi's plan to cover allepe,kanyakumari, pondy and then bangy phew. keerthi aslo joining us early morning for top station. long ride tommorow need some rest and we all crash.

Day 4:
5 O clock the alarm goes off. n surprice surprice every body up by and ready by 6. never seen that before hehe. we even gotto see vicky rise before sunrise :D. Raghu, santhoosh, varun and me pack our bags and leave the cottage for good while keerthi,vicky and rishi plan to come back pack and head to k'kumari. Pass calmly through the tea estates and then in the city take a deviation to the Top station. 40 kms to go. The timing was great, early morning views mesmorising. we ride cooly hardly watching the road ang trying to look how much ever we could. every turn is pic point. a particluar view of a mountain range on one side the tea estates below, the shadow of the of the mountains on the other side covering half of the mountains the first side. with lazy balls of cloudes hovering above mountain summits. a lake with thick mist rising. all too big to fit in the camera. find an elephant at acurve. is it wild? na its tied to a chain. rmbr the pix PraveenS and arun took of the same hathi when they came here. I accidently touch a electric fense wire. oops lucky there wasnt any power in it. Get to matupatti dam and lo, keerthi has hit reserve, and still needo cover atleat 70 kms to fing a petrol bunk. manage a whiskky bottly from the dam care taker to transfer fuel from other bikes. The views gettin bettor and bettor so pretty much bettor than the views in swiz where i had been couple of months back. A lot of pic stops and an one left curve we take and the view just hits. Every body exclaims, the one view is total paisa vasool for the ride, lemme try it was like, lush green mountains to the left and right below, in the u shape, and white clouds below in between and extending to the horizon and the early morning sun. hehe why the trouble can check out the pix. spend quite some time there taking turns for the pictures. the sun starts chasing the clouds below. Lend 1.5 literl of fuel from by bike to keerthi's. yeah i measured it cos my bike was behaving krazy like "petrol khatham hi nahi hondha" very curious of the mileage. carry on till almost dead end. thought we do head to kodai or pollachi directly from top station instead of goin to munnar. but the kodai forest route is leagally closed. santhoosh and rishi go to acertain it. come to know the pollachi road it tooo bad and woudl not save any time. then wat from munnar it is. have a round of tea and sweet bondas at a stall. its 10 o clock and time to go. have to reach bangy by night.

nobody in mood to leave trying to get as many pics as possilble. Raghu, varun and me start off back to munnar. stop at gather of people waiting for santhoosh as he to wanted to join us. and it is the echo point there. we missed in the morning as nobody was there. well many ppl now shouting all kinds of languages to get the echo. santhosh shows up and so do the others. Find a local walking with an elephant with seating on top of the elephant. 300 rs for 15 mins ride. but we got no time. santhoosh decides to stay back with the gyes. Raghu varun n me bid byes with em and destination bangalore it is. Now getting to the day the empty roads in the morning is with lot of traffic, every turn surprising us with a vehicle. pass though a gathering of college girls who stare at us. lean man lean more than the need to give chamak hehe :D. nearing munnar i hit reserve. waaaat 827 on the trip with 18.5 liters of fuel??? dats 46.1 per liter. wow my previous best was 34 long time back, was giving 28 just before the overhual. most of the ride was still low RPM ride any way. gonna stick below 5k for the rest of the ride too. Get to munnar. varun fetches some straberries. Already 11 am with the trip meter 833. thought of haveing food covering some distance.

Now we start for bangy we plan to take the udumalai, erode, salem k'giri route thinking we do get the four lane highway from erode and could reach bangy without much trouble. fuel up for 10 liters. we get out of the city. i notice an immidiate diff in the bike. damn the petrol was of poor quality. bike not pulling as it did 10 mins back. damn n i put all 10 liters of it :(. thats a lesson learnt not to put fuel in small town. The never ending twisties goes on. so does the picturesque landscape goes on. Varun wants to go slow and look around. but we have no time do we. cajole him to carry on. 70 kms to udumalai. but the progress is slow in the mountains. over taking vehicles gets tough. climbing donw we take a break. i needa unpack myself with al the extra cloths on, which i put on for the chilly morning ride. Me lost the list of cities that santhoosh had given. thought we in wrong route. but raghu says we din pass any deviations. after Mariyoor we pass through chinnar wild life santure. ok chinnar was the list, and we goin right. one pretty strech and pretty roads tooo. none of us got the cam now. no pix till bangy. Many a view just for us to remember. After chinnar we come to the forest check post. the guard confused whether or not to check our bags for stolen sandle wood !!. Varun was carrying a wooden peace which he evacked from the set we been y'day. it was visible too hehe. but i judging us unlikely to smuggle sandle wood the left us go hehe. the roads strighten up a bit, but its already 1.30. pretty slow progress. our main aim now was to reach erode asap.

reaching udumalai asking for directions for tirupur. which is some 60 kms away. roads broaden up and rip time it is but not for me. after umpteen number of requests to varun and raghu to carry on to bangy, they still wanted to wait for me to catcup doin 60-70-80. was ok in twisties where i could keepup with the gyes. Damn missed a chance to race with a p150 v2. damn gotto do runin :(. Just when i was imagining how nice to ride a ZMA there at 130, i see a tvs 50 gye carrying some oil simply crossed the highway with out looking baresly missing the on coming truck. was like came out of no where due to the tall grass around. phew any faster i was would have been in soup. pretty scary thing it was. damn these &#*^#*#. wish the truck had blown him off grrr. n tvs 50s still huant me long after my crash with one. we pass through some fields of huge wind mills hundreds of em. damn no camera and raghu with bettor fone cam is far ahead. stop varun and manage a couple of pix from my stupid fone cam. 3 O clock in thirpur and no break fast yet. and raghu finds one veg restraunt and cant help but hog. 3.45 by the time we start and trip meter hitting 1000. get misguided and do an extra 20 kms. not many sign boards in the state highways in TN plus the language. then riding 35 kms blindly hoping we in the right direction. yup we were on the correct route. finally sombody points us the direction and says salem 85 kms. watt still 85!! and ist 320 kms from salem to bangy. hmmm... we got a tough night ride to do. now on the traffice get horrible. good roads but every overtaking takes time. in much more hurry to get to erode. stop to fill the fuel and raghu suspects loss of enjine oil. check the dipstick ok none of us knew the correct level and he poured some power 1 and keep checking the dip stick level and its still the same and even after pouring 75% of 1 liter can!!!. wat the heck stopped it. time to hit the road.negotiate the shitty traffic runnin or no runnin speeds beyond 70 is a luxuary. at erode at 5.30 and still no sign of the 4 lane highway. now we make run to salem to find it there. damn 70-80 not enough and me gettin pretty frastrated not being able to over take vehicles moving at 80. sum how reach salem by 6.30 and looks like its heavenly 4 lane highway all the way. felt like ages to come there, after all we took 7 hours to do a 250 kms!!! congratulate each other for making it there by day light. we clean our visors with water and tissue and gear up for a 300 km dark ride with 1102 on my trip meter.

Good news and bad news. the Good news is bangy 200 kms only n not 300!!!, yippie (distance doesnt matter but we all tired and not exactly looking for a night ride now ;) ) the bad news the 4 lane ends and its two lane again without a divider. turning out to be a one horrible ride back with the traffice not abetting and on comming trucks continuesly bambarding us with the lights. 60-70 is all we could manage. over taking every truck is a challange cos of the on comming traffic. literally hadda jump out of the road many times to save our lives cos of multiple over takin of busses from the opp side. they just don give a damn for 2 wheeler. this goes on and on. at one point the whole road was with the vehicles in our direction overtain eachother and i zipp through them. ohh wat a rush. but really spending long time on the bikes now. gettin tired and achy all over. take a break at dharmapuri. 8 o clock it is. Still the traffice in the same state. this being a major route goin south the roads full of it. night travelling in karnataka is much bettor with very minimal traffic. Raghu too royelly pissed off. Varun seeing many tough things all on his first ride.

9.10 in kaveripatnam. This is the place where the 'K' in my name comes. where my great grand ancestors moved out of this city to mysore. well i am now in the land of my origin hehe :D. k'giri 10 kms from there and atleast we are sure of 4 lane from here phew!! take a break at k'giri and 9.30 by the time to start on the last session. varun decided to make a bee line for home while me and raghu take it slow. raghu still giving me company. now its getting khoold. wanna stop and pack myself but that would loose us 15 mins so carry on. and the super highway is still painfull cos of the slow speed, waiting for each km to pass. i am at the right lane and get several honks. hey i am not at 110 as i am always here but doin only 80 so getoff to the left lane. see many a blades of new wind mills on the move. maaan these wind mills are enmours with the blades around 60-70 feet on long trucks may be more. never picture the size of em when u see it from far. there were lot of em. thre were also cops frantically moving round. well there seems to be an accident or sumthing. Finally at bangy. bid bye to raghu and at home by 11 with 1303 on the tripmeter. Took us egjactly 12 hours to cover 470 kms from munnar pluss 100 we did in the morning dats 570 for the day.

Wohav longest trip for me in terms of days, all 4 full days of it. Really thank the gyes for accomadating my runnin though i tried my best not to be a drag. Else i would have had to do boring runs to k'giri and tumkur to complete the runin. but now got to travel new roads, see new places and runin done too. dined on the best of the twisties i have seen so far. Really missed allepy being so close. but sure wanna go there again, with the bike in full form. i still needa make justice to those roads hehe.

Too bad for Sanjay and vicky to have taken the fall, but their spirits are still high. Biking is not just fun, but also has the potential for painfull long after effects. Thats the risk we take for our passion. wishing them a speedy recovery.

New Year's Ride : Gokarna - Goa

2006-01-10T06:13:00.001+05:30

Click here for more PIX
Pix by varun

Had been 4 months since i had a multiday outing on my bike. n things were not working out. New year approaching and really din wanna spend at home watching salman khan dance on TV. Many rides were being planed. Sanjay offering me 2 day ride to belum caves. But me wanted a 3 day and long one. Arun with kamal and pradeep left for gokarna on thursday morning. I could start till sat morning as hadda be in the office. Thought would do a solo till gokarna on sat. Raghu was interested to join if i was goin. Santhosh was also interesed on starting on friday. So told them to carry on as i was still not sure of making to the trip. Santhosh and Raghu also start on Friday morning. I do some shopping on friday morning for essentials to carry, duplicate keys, tubes, bunjee nets and also a foot pump. Vicky calls up in the evening and would like to hit the road too. N sujjested we leave on friday evening itself and cover sum distance. Finally by 8.45 after patafying our families we decide to leave in an hours time. PraveenS very much interested but dropped out at the last minute due to parental pressure. Most of the gyes were returning on sunday and me very keen to extend till monday as arun had promised to extend by a day if he had company.

30th Dec 05
home Odo - 26408 Trip - 0 10:35 pm
All set start of my ma home to meet vicky at devegoda petrol pump. I was goin to my friends place to stay the night and start of in the morning. (Dats wat i said home :D). Vicky show up after few mins and its the just the two of us on the move.

Devegowda petrol pump 26413 5 11:15 pm
After refueling and encashing we start of from the pump heading towards nelamangala. we where wearing the just the regular gear and little did we know of the biting cold awaiting us ahead. Pass through the empty streets and of the city and get to nelamangala.

31st Dec 05
Nelamangala 26449 41 12:15 am
Have a round of tea a small chat and off we go towards the 4 lane highway. Ohh wat a start. Nice rip. But all the while me little conservative on opening the trottle as had the clutch plates recently and din wannna pressure it as i was warned not to ride full throttle continuesly for some time. Used to go till the top and back down. Vicky doin the lead business. At the other end of the toll gate, vicky stops saying nows the deviation, we could go to Goa through hubli of the New years blast. After discussion we thourth to head to gokarna any way negotiate with all the ppl (supposed to ready gokarna by 11 am) and head to goa together as it would be more fun with the numbers. Head towards arsikere, and the temp falling gradually. The Roads were pretty good with the center line painting done recently, reflecting well. We could maintain good speeds past 95. Now the cold was gettin harder. Have ridden in night before but this was too much. pretty unevent full ride till arsikere. Giving us doubts of riding on.

Arsikere 26592 184 2.25 am
Reached Arsikere all cold and a bit numb. A gyes sellin coffee in flask was very welcome. we have 2 rounds of coffee each. with our hands shivering in cold. Legs pretty cold too, with my nose at full steam. Contemplating whether to continue of stay. But decided to carry on till shivmogga as we thought we do find bettor place there to rest. 2.40 am start off again. But the temp was unrelenting and it got only worse as and when we entered a straight strech with trees, we were blasted with cold gust. pretty unverving. and now on the roads getting pothetetic. The bunjees on the bag coming off quite a few times because of the bad terrain. Finally wore the bag on ma shoulders till the roads improve. Now loosing out the fun and the road still being repaired continues bad. This was slow prograss being almost bumped of quite a few times. Nearing shivmogga the roads smoothen up we have sum burst before we stop in the city. Dats it no more riding for the night. we are done with.

Shivamogga 26700 292 4.25 am
Finally find a lodge and wakeup the keepers for a room. Who wanted to make sum quick buk by lending us the room unaccounted. we like wat ever just let us rest. nice big room for 200 bux and take sum sleep. But disturbed quite a few times by the attendents wishing us to leave for their manager not to find out about the issue. We like get lost we needa sleep. Managed sum sleep and got up 8.30. vacate the room and look for break fast. Me gettin a bit nostalgic as had stayed at shimogga for 4 year sum 18 years ago. Give update home. Expecting good roads ahead. Leave for gokarna by 9.50 am. The weather all nice and warm and we do sum spirited riding till we approached some curves. this is where i loose vicky as i take em a bit slow. Been a long time since i ate some twisties. The clutch plates work being good was getting lot of torque on the curves. The NH 206 last time i visited with moonie and sojish an year back. Now the roads have been made up and super smooth giving much confidence to lean at will.

Jog crossing 26804 396 11.25 am
Come the jog crossing and there i find vicky waiting for me acompanied by a sig. Should we visit jog?? naa no water any way would be just waste of time. This time i decide to stick to vicky's tail. and there we go a wonder ful session on the NH 206 twistes. Its much easier with a lead in the twisties. Wow this is wat we came for, pretty undulating tarrian leaning to the max. Have gala time after so many days. Take a brief pitstop at the Sharavathi valley view point. As we near honnavar i could see the roads are now widened up. The narrow and scary road before was much more enjoyable. We get to honnavar and think of calling the gyes from kumta.

kumta 26886 478 1.15 pm
Take a long break for juice and snakes and trying to get hold of the gyes supposed to be at gokarna by now. Vicky again sujjestin to hit goa and wait for them their. But being so near we decide to go the gokarna and do the conferance there it self.

gokarna 26915 507 2.25 pm
Gokarna it is again reached quite at the planned time. would have been the same had we started early morning 4 am, not now atleast we got sum rest in between. We go the See bird resort and ask of the where abouts of a Fiearo gye, who thinks gokarna is his farm house. The hotel gye said there were 2 gyes for sure on bike and they have left for om beach. We decided to head to om beach have lunch and cool off as we wait for gyes. Yeah the dredded 8 KMs road which i remember from the last time i had come to the place with 6 inches stones littered on the paths. but not this time ans the road was flattened recently for easy movement of vehicles. probble lying proper road. but once dat happens the beatty and seclusion of the place will be hamperd for sure. Vicky himself had visited this place quite a few time and i was following the lead got in to the parking space and wat i see. i got a brown new jacket now with vicky pirellis kicking up lot of dust. sure wasnt as dusty last time. guess it was flattining of the trail the culprit. There we see varun's thumper. well hello, had hint dat he to be travellling there but now we know. Lot of other bullets were parked there with bit carries welded. Guess hard core travellers on the bullet. Go to the Namaste hotel and still no sign of the gyes. Get a call from arun, still long way away as they had sum problems with the bike. Santhosh and Raghu still the idugunji temple. well now vicky cajoling me for goa and i thought why not always wanted to see new years at the goa. was 4.45 and we thought of having a stoll on the beach before leaving. N there varun spots us from under a shades of the tree. Had found himself and his friend a nice place on the beach. we join them for sum chat and loosing enthu to hit goa. With the pretty sunset impending we decided to stay at gokarna for the night hoping there do be sumthing special for the new years. pic some spot on the rocks to watch the sunset. Vicky dearly missing his SLR. After the sun set we leave for the resort and decided to come back and spend the night on the beach. Go far from each other to avoid the dust. At the resort in varun's room and here comes Raghu and santhosh after the pooja at idugungi temple. Arun on the from murudeshwar after the sunset. Thought of having the dinner the resort before goin to the beach. These buggere eat quite a lot of our time. 9 pm and still at the table waiting for the dinner. Nothing special seem to be cooking for the new years. Bye the time we have dinner and arun with kamal and pradeep show up all tired. We chat for some 10 mins and thats the only time we all 9 are at the same place. They decide to stay at the room so does santhosh. While varun, his friend, raghu, vicky and me head for the beach. Thought of goin to paradise beach for the night but the trek was not possible at night time and no boats were available. Walk along the beach in the dark to find a nice place to occupy. cool and calm which i would love any day but its the new years eve for gods sake wheres da party. not this time, this place no different than any night except for a bit more number of people.

1 Jan 2006
put our mats at a place. we had whisky too and raghu the non drinker for my company. orderded some snaks fromt eh nearby beach hut. there we lay on the beach exploreing the galaxy with the milkey way clearly visible. Vicky arranges for sum fire wood and voila we have bon fire too. Then its new year 2006. could see some fire works goin of. Pick our places around the fire to retire for the nite. Its gets pretty cold later on and the fire is must. Poor raghu who din gt his jacket was most of the time near the fire. we exhausted our wood but there was another group lookin for a fire and they had wood and put em at our place for the rest of the night. now dat conviniant. Try to catch up some sleep. had slept only 3 hours the previous nite also. 6 am varun, his friend and raghu leave as the wanted to reach bangy the same day. Vicky still in two minds whether to stay of not for monday. we both thought of the checking out the paradise beach. For which we needa do a 4 km trek also called the golden trek. Vicky pops up saying how bout we go to goa any way. Hmmm... dat gets me thinkin. Now we start the trek and could see the golden dry grass along the path guess so the name. had to go on many rocks through thick vegetation. many times on narry paths of 1 foot wide. over the side it do directly drop to the sea below. walk catuiously. pass half moon beach. Its just a tiny beach with some small vegetation fields. continue and get to the paradise beach. with the sun still not up it was pretty comfy to do the trek. This place mostly dominated by firangs. pretty place and secluded. we drop on the sand till the sun light up. Ok i said we can go to Goa wat say. But being just the two of us still in two minds. Have a break fast at the paradise beach. Watching the firangs do all sorts of crazy things, mimicking monkeys, hiding behind rocks and shooting at some group who came hehe. and would run to the huts when one of the gyes shoots back. hehe. have a garlick sandwhich. Which was so garlicky dat i could taste garlic for the next two days in my mouth. we took the boat ride back. Vicky arranging for a extra long boat ride with some extra payment. Now this was fun we have a good boat ride on the sea and head for om beach. 11.30 already. Reach the room to be greated by arun and gyes. They were goin to paradise next. we finally decided to hit goa by evening spend the night there and start of in the morning to make a one day run for bangalore.

12.30 pm we start off to goa and boy oh boy wat a road especially after karwar. Awsome high speed twisties. Never been on twisties with 30-40 feet width of road. Could take them at high speed. 90 seems pretty slow on them. This strech made the whole trip worth it. Both leaning to max 90+. Found ma bike good for 2nd and 3rd gear twistes but is in asking for 4th5th gear twisties. Build of a speedo of 100 enter the curve slowing donwn to 80-85 but does not pic up the speed soon. Bit fraustrating but gotta do with wat i have. Enter goa border and with some number entry at the check post. Now we have some hight speed twisties at goa side too. Wow this was fun trying out different techniques we were discussing in the groups. Hanging off and all. This time was also look far ahead of the curve and gave much more confidense in cornering than before. It was like a new toy in the kids hand. nice really nice. At a brief juice stop vicky says lets try out each others bike onthe twisties. He get on my bike and takes of. I start he p180 and damn good pickup does small wheelies before i move. but the steering why doesnt the bike turn?? felt pretty hard on steering especially riding my bike jsut before. was riding slowy at 50 thinkin how am i goin to catchup with vicky now. But only short while after i find vicky standin by. Says ur bike is scary with the slightst handle movement the bike leans so much and hard to control. hehe dats the monuvarability of the CBZ. Switch back and ride hard. Now we oberser the Goans ride rashly with car don move in straight like at at home. We were warned of this at the check post. Then on its narrow roads from margoa to panaji with alot of traffic. with every car trying to overtake the next one. funny this behaviou leave somuch space ont he left side of the road dat we could easy go past them from the left side though risky. But the goan roads are pretty clean and good. Seemed out of the county.

panaji 27115 707 4.10 pm
Finally in panaji and take a break. Vicky takes sum pix of the tyres which were freshly scraped off on the side due to the twisteis, showing only half centimeter of the tyre on either side not touched on the roads where as vicky was literally running on the edge of the pirally pattern. Too bad the fone got currupted and we lost the pix. :(. Baga beach is the destination but we thought of visiting the augoda fort before dat. Not much impressive comparing to the bekal fort. now head to calangut where baga comes next. Baga is reached and no place to park our bikes lots of ppl already there. sum how manage to find sum place. Could here the music blarning fromt he shakes. finally we hit the baga beach. n wat a site. the whole beach is lika big party floor. Now i see wat vicky was trying to picture about the place. The beach was full of best of the desi pretty girls. With great music from the shakes. Had cots and matterss along the beach with plenty of water sports goin on the sea. we get in to our bermuda and tshirts and stroll aimlessly. Cursing ourself not to come the on the newyear's eve. would have been much more vibrant. Find a nice table at one of the shake with a vantage point ;). With crazy stuff of coming all the way in bike, also wanted to try the drinks as i wanted to check wat these boozers rave about. Bacardi breeaser to start with. Nothing but a bad tasting orange juice. alu gobhi paratah and paneer, ahh nite getting bettor and party seems no end. Post dinner we head for the ATM to draw sum cash and see if we could manage a room. Highly unlikely it was and we don have a room and beach it is. Went to vicky's fav zanzi launge bar. Tried out taquela. OK i confess i got drunk for the first time in life. it was nice feeling but with dizzy ness. it wore off in 45 mins and he said i do need to take more for it to continue. wat crap i do feel the same again after 1 hour so i stopped there. With vicky saying he would take something lite as it was warm there and its gettin cold on the beach. He tries out some thing new call malibu and dat gets him drunk a bit. Again we storll on the beach. Vicky barrows a kinetic honda from a drunk firang and rides on the beach pretty extatic. hehe. And trades it back for his shawl tooo. All the while the party on the beach still goin on with dance floors full and great music blaring.

2nd jan 06
put our bags for pillows and try to catch up sleep before the big ride. Up by 6.30 and both in know condition to make the big ride, with vicky still having some hangover and me not having much sleep in three nights. Head to the city and luckily find a room which had just been vacated. Not cleaned too. we like wat ever just wanna sleep couple of hours. Was a nice big room and 200 bux for 4 hours. nice bargain. Crash and 11.30 am by the time we wake up. Go the baga beach again for brunch before the big ride back home. Get lazy at the lunch order omlet toast in which vicky smells fish. err... i eat only the toast. Ogle at many desi babes. Vickty wanting to try sum water sports like banana raft being tugged by a power boat. but we don have time.

baga beach 27134 726 01.45 pm
Now we start for home. Damn it late. we prolly reacy home by 12 in the night. Nobady's at vicky's place so tought of putting up at vicky's place till next morning. Pass the crouded streets and fill fuel. dropped to idea of goin through londa-hubli as we heard of bad roads and head back the way we came. Now we have sume good riding to do don we to start with the Goan twisties. Now pretty confident on the bike opened the throttle more liberally. Gorging on the fast twisties. Remember a particular long 100 degree right turn goin upwards and took it at 95 + leant so much dat i could feel slight slided of the wheels. woooow awsome dat was good. Entered karnataka and another sessions on the fast twiestes.

karwar 27272 864 3.30 pm
in karwar by 3.30 dats good progress with 130 kms in 1.5 hours. take some 20 minut break and head towards honnawar.

honnavar 27360 852 5.00 pm
Doing sum good run with 226 kms in 3 hours. Now this is where things get real slow. Thought at this rate it do take us at least 3-4 am in the morning to reach. Hungry us get lazy on teh food and 6.15 we start. Now we got sum a nice session of slow twistis but getting dark too. make up as much of daylight as possible. Just then we realize how cold it could get and al night run to bangalore may not be possible. Had to take a lot of curves slowly in the dark which would have been a delight in day time. end of ghats and do sum spirited riding. guided by the freshly laid center line paint.

sagar 27448 1042 8.00 pm
In sagar and we fuel up for the rest of the ride. Now its getting colder and din wanna go through the likes of the first night. So we get innovative and start wearing stuff from our bags. we wear 2 pants. i put on 2 banyans the T shirt, stuff a towel through the the sleeves of the jacket and also wrap a banyan around my neck. vicky doesnt even spare the bermuda. All this self packing takes half an hour and we start by 8.40. plan to have dinner at shivamogga. All nice and warm kinda enjoy the night ride and pick up speeds with vicky leading with his 100-90 blup. We do be in shivmogga in 20 mins but not so soon, vicky took a curve a bit first and lost control cos of the gravel and managed to slow the bike to 20s before finally giving way. vicky jumped of the bike took a couple of deep wounds on his palms when he laned. All the extra clothing helped. Just then a family on sumo stop by help in lifting the bike. The bike looks ok except of broken headlamp and bent break pedal. The drive sujjesting to put battery acid on the wounds else would not be possible to ride in the night with the cold. With two drops of it vicky felt too much pain for 5 mins but it worked like wonder. the Wournds dried up in no time and he was ridable again. Stop at one more place get the some metal props at a police check post to straighten the break pedal. This takes lot of time and ETA at blr gets more delayed.

shivamogga 27522 1114 10.15 pm
In shivamogga and still 300 to cover and the night gettin colder. Also as vicky said cops would get interested in the broken headlamp and maight hold us for questioning n all. so we decide to stay the night there and leave early morning by 4. Have dinner and retire for the night and keep and alarm for 3.30 am.

3rd Dec 2006.
4.30 am get wake up bangs on the door. Damn i had set alarm to 3.30 pm by mistake. We get up warm up and start by 5.15 am. Wondering weather we could make it in 4 hours as could be done normally. not really this time. We have a bloody broken strech to cross first before we touch arsikere and its colder dan the night. Already pretty fraustrated at the ride gettin extended to the 4th day. Take it really slow. Stop for coffee. vicky puts he hand on the enjine to warm up. We ride for some time and again stop for sum time. And realize how far the distances we travell. We generally rip and make distances small but with the adverse environment it could be eternity.

arasikere 27631 1223 8.30 am
takes almost 3 hours to cover the first 100 kms. Again we take quite a few stops and pie breaks. Past arsikere we find lot of cold fog when we were desporately waiting for warm sunlight. This whould have been a welcome delight any other time especially when starting a ride. but not this time for us tired and cold self. with vicky literally banging his helmet in dis belieafe. Vicky suspect a flat tyre and now wat and we stop to inspect. pull out couple of nails and tyre looks fine. we carry on rather slowy in the rippable roads. Now see some sunlight and environment warming up and we star to rip hard.

turmkur tollgate 27738 1330 11.00 am
wat bettor way to end the trip with blast. Go full throttle between the 35 km of the toll gates of the 4 lane highway. Then on face shitty bangalore traffice. Such a pain expecially after not being used the vehicles close by since 3 days. We miss each other in the traffic and head home.

back home by 12.15 am with 27814 on the odo and 1408 on the trip meter.

One satisfying ride after a long time especially the run on slow and the fast twisties. we encountered only 150 kms of bad roads of the 1400 odd kms dats a pretty good bargain for fun we had. Would have been realy good had we spent the new year at Goa and had a nice one day run back home on monday but we cant have all can we. This ride was mixed bag with 3-4 groups on the move but only 10 mins together. One more ride i will remeber for long.