Saturday 1 December 2018

In the search of Off-road trails around Devarabetta

When: 1st Dec 2018.
Destination: Devarabetta - Tamilnadu
How and who all areMyself, Krishna and Kishore on HIMALAYAN.
Odometer reading: 125kms.
Route MapBangalore -  Chandapura - Anekal - Devarabetta - Hosur - Bangalore.

Short and sweet description:
Quick getaway for off-road enthusiasts. Must visit place for HIMALAYAN owners.

Travelogue:
Krishna was asking me for a Off-Road trails since long time. With a vague thought of off-road patches around Devarabetta, I’ve suggested about it.
Even Kishore wants to join us for the exploration. Around 5.30AM, started the journey towards Devarabetta from ElectonicCity-Bangalore. As it’s very chilled, coffee is much needed. Luckily found a hotel after Anekal.
Resumed the ride after 10mins. Plan is to reach Devarabetta before Sunrise.

Instead of riding via place called “Thally”, took a off-road stretch.
By 6.20am we are at the foot of the hill. Parked the bikes near by temple which is at the foothills. In another 20mins, climbed the Hill. Unlike most “Betta”(means Hill) around Bangalore this one is not crowded.
Actually we can’t even find a single person. There is a temple at the top and a hill adjacent to the one where we are standing.
While Krishna and Kishore are busy with clicking the snaps, I explored the edges of the Hill. View of reserved forest at the back of the Hill is picture perfect. While the Sun is rising, clicked couple of snaps.






Panorama view from top of the Hill
Some crazy poses. Krishna's photography :-)
Meanwhile, could see a couple of youngsters climbing the other hill and reaching our side. Actually, they helped us to know about the off-road stretch behind the hill which leads to bottom of the hill. Except couple of turns, rest of the path is easily climbable by Off-road Bikes and 4*4 vehicles.

Decided to ride through the stretch. Quickly descended the Hill and started riding through the off-road trails. After all, that’s the motto of this trip :-)

As Kishore’s bike had issues with Back tyre pressure, we left his machine at parking space and he started shooting our ride. We explored the stretch till Half of the hill and came back. While returning, came across another off-road stretch near Hosur. The patch covered with greenery both the sides is the best part of our ride.






Machines

Here comes the video of the trip.





Happy Reading

                      \m/ Happy Riding \m/

Tuesday 2 January 2018

Trip to Mangalore, Udupi, Agumbe, Kodachadri, Shimoga

When: 29th Dec 2017 - 1st Jan 2018.
Destination: Bekal fort - Kerala,
                     Mangalore, Udupi, Agumbe , Kodachadri - Karnataka
How and who all are: Myself (RE HIMALAYAN), Anjana(Bajaj Avenger).
Odometer reading: 1540 kms.
Route Map: Bangalore - Hassan- Mudigere - Charmadi Ghat - Kasaragod - Bekal Fort - Mangalore -  Udupi - St.Mary’s Island - Agumbe - Kodachadri - Hasirumakki Ferry Point - Shimoga - Bangalore

Short and Sweet description:
Temples to Forts, Dense Forests to Island Beaches, Highways to Toughest Off-roads, Curvy roads with Breathtaking views.
Completely soaked in all these beauties just in 1540 kms of ride in 4 Days. I feel India is a country where you find Snow Mountains, Lush Green Hills, Dense Forests with huge Wildlife, Beaches, Islands, Deserts, Rivers, and…. what else you want to get lost.
Except Deserts and Snow Mountains, you can find everything is South India itself. Our ride was to explore few in those.

Travelogue:
Day 1: Bangalore - Bekal Fort - Mangalore - Udupi
“Nagumomu, Ganaleni naa jaali telisi…
nanu brovaga rada sri raghuvara ni”(Tyagaraja Keerthana).
This song stuck in my brain since morning and I’m keep humming it quite often.
Probably as I woke up to this song(set as alarm tone).
Only my helmet knows how bad I sing. It’s part of Helmet stories :-) While I’m still continuing it… the first glimpse of Charmadi ghat beauty made me stop Humming and Riding too.

This is our first stop post breakfast. Well, to make it short, we’ve started from Bangalore at 6.30am, first stop was for Breakfast around 9.30am and now it’s 12.15pm, we are in Charmadi ghat range.





I’ve heard about the beauty of Western Ghats in Charmadi range. Now, experiencing it. See, how beautiful greenery spread across the hills and water streams everywhere.








We could hear the sounds of water splashing on rocks, and the breeze from somewhere letting us not to leave the spot.


This is just the start, we are wondering about how many such breathtaking views are ahead.
Anjana started scolding me for screwing up the GoPro.
Uffff…. I’m like, Dude, why don’t you take a walk along the road for 10 mins. So that, I can fix it peacefully.
Well, GoPro was working fine when we started our ride, suddenly unable to power on.


After struggling for sometime, GoPro is back to life.
Yaayyyy…!! Now we can capture the ride on the curves(talking about roads :-p) .
Buddy, let’s resume the ride and u take a lead.


The next couple of hours of ride is ascending and descending of hills with blind turns and wonderful view points.
A quick break for lunch @ Ujire around 2pm. Initially we have planned to reach Mangalore by evening and if possible visit Bekal fort.
Now, we have decided to ride to Bekal fort and then to Mangalore.


Resumed the ride around 2.30pm. Post Ujire, took a left turn(NH275)  to reach Bekal fort via Puttur, kasaragod.
Bekal Fort closes @ 5.30pm. We have exactly 3 hours of time to cover 114 kms.
Even Google Map shows, 3 hrs to cover this distance.


So far, the roads are very good with minimal traffic. As we cruising through the dense areas, I can feel the Sunlight from West is showing Golden Yellow color passing through tree leaves. Couldn’t resist myself to not to stop. 2 mins of break  to capture that moment.



We’ve another 1hr to cover 43 Kms. If further road is full of Ghat section, then, it’s difficult to reach Bekal Fort before 5.30pm. But, we just want to try our luck.


Riding through some short routes here and there helped us to reach Bekal Fort parking space by 5.17pm. Parked our bikes and keep running towards the ticket counter.
And….guess what..!!, It’s CLOSED.


I thought, security must be selling the tickets. so, quickly went to security at the fort entrance and asked for 2 tickets,
He politely said, “Sir, ticket counter is open till 5 o'clock. We don’t allow anyone post 5’o clock.”


Then I asked, how come it has mentioned closing time is 5.30pm(pointing at ticket counter). he replied saying, 5-5.30 is exit timings, will make sure everyone comes out before 5.30.


We are like literally begging him.. “Cheta.. We have come all the way from Bangalore just to see Fort.. pls let us allow at least for 5 mins. We have tried to deviate his mind, Bribe him and do all the possible stuffs to get in…!!”  But all in vain.


Seems like he is taking his job very seriously. :-) Good thing is, he didn’t even allow the local auto driver.
The frustrated auto driver told him, will enter the fort  from beach side.
I’m like.. “Anjana seems like Auto driver knows some other route, let’s ask him.”


We have followed him till parking space and asked “Cheta, which is the other way to  enter Fort?”. He pointed out to some bushes and asked us to walk through that.


With no other option, we walked through small stretch to find the below beautiful beach with the perfect Sunset view.










This beach is just adjacent to Fort with a no way to enter the fort.
We just chilled out till 7’o clock.
As our first day plan didn’t work, we are in confusion that, whether to stay in bekal fort itself for today night. So that, can visit fort tomorrow morning and then start to Udupi via Mangalore.


But, to make further days plan to go as expected, we must reach Mangalore/Udupi by today night. So we’ve started riding towards Udupi.


The only snap of Bekal fort is this(from outside :-))….



It is again a 120 kms of ride. Around 9.30pm, stopped for having dinner and by 10.30pm able to reach Udupi.
15 mins to search for economical Hotel.
Finally by 11.15pm our day has to come to an end with 582 kms of distance covered.
I must mention that, My Bagheera(HIMALAYAN) has lived upto the expectations.
My Bums are not hurt, shoulders are perfectly alright. :-) Signing off for the Day 1.
Day2: Udupi - St Mary’s island - Kodachadri
Today’s plan is to visit Udupi’s Krishna temple, St Mary’s island, and get drench in the dense forests of Agumbe ghat while riding to Kodachadri.


We expected that, darshan can finish in 15 mins. But, it took 1.30hrs to come out of Temple. As its year end, lot of people had come for the visit.















Next, straight away went to Malpe beach from there Ferry/Boat service to the St.Mary’s island is available. Finished the breakfast while waiting for the Ferry.

Slowly beach is getting crowded. Lot of stalls have been put up to Entertainment the Tourists. While we exploring the beach, our turn to get into the Ferry has come.
From Malpe, it’s 30-45 mins of journey to St.Mary’s island. The frequency of these boats may vary depending on the number tourists travelling.





Island is famous for “Basaltic rock formation” and it’s hexagonal shapes.
The crowd in the Island is much less compared to Malpe beach. People started taking different directions to explore the place after entrance. Even we are looking for a nice place to chill-out. Soon, reached the other end of the Island.





  




Ooh.. forgot to mention…!!  in the morning, while we were waiting for the Darshan, we have met one solo traveler from Bangalore and joined us to visit the Island.
We’ve got some good snaps of us with the help of new friend.


By 1.30pm we are back to Malpe beach and within 30mins reached Hotel to pack our bags and post lunch started the ride towards Kodachadri.


Plan is to ride through Agumbe ghat, reach Kodachadri before sunset and search for Home-stay. It’s 140 kms of ride.
By 4.30pm, we have reached Agumbe Sunset view point. But, can’t wait here till Sunset time. From here it’s another 80kms of ride. Will take easily 2 Hours of time to reach Kodachadri.  We are worried about finding the Stay there.
One of the friend of Anjana has a contact of Homestay, Anjana is in touch with him. Due to network issue, we didn’t hear anything from him.


From Sunset view point, tried to make a contact with him. Finally we came to know that, “Kodachadri Hallimane Homestay” has been booked.


With a hope of catching Sunset view from some other place, resumed our ride.
As hoped, came across a spectacular Sunset with “Mani reservoir” in the foreground.







Our average speed has reduced while the dark is rising. Rarely coming across any  vehicles on this stretch.
I guess, most of the travelers must have reached the destination except us.
It’s little scary to ride through ghat section at this time. Here and there Moon(almost full) is giving us the company for some distance.
At some point of time, just after a blind curve... came across a Buffalo which is walking in the middle of the road. As we are under the speed limit it’s a easy escape.


Finally, we are able to reach “Kodachadri Hallimane Homestay” by 8.40 pm.
It’s 4 ½ hours of relaxed ride. :-)
While we are waiting for the room, by chance met 2 bikers(Kishore and Sundar) from Bangalore.
As someone said, Travelers can get mingle with anyone very easily..
With in no time, together we made plans to ride our machines to the Kodachadri peak tomorrow morning @ 6.
Until tomorrow, signing off :-)

Day 3:  Kodachadri Peak - Hasirumakki Ferry Point - Shimoga - Tarikere.

      That was worst winter night experience. The frosty night, cold air through open windows of room didn’t let me have proper sleep. At one point in the night, I’ve covered myself with riding jacket.


Sleepiness and tiredness will be their until the first water drop. Quickly got fresh up and sharp at 6 O'clock we 4 riders(Myself, Anjana, Kishore and Sundar) started the ride towards the Kodachadri peak.  


 Decent road is available till check post. Post that the game starts.
As we start ascending, the complexity is increasing. The slippery, uneven, rocky terrain. The Terrain is getting worse by meter, while the surroundings are getting better.
For a moment, Myself and Anjana felt that, our Himalayas trip is much better than this.


As we continue further, Sundar had a first fall. quickly helped him to get back on track.
I’m just standing on foot pegs of Himalayan and enjoying the off-roading. The grip and comfort which it gives made me realize the power of Himalayan in it’s terrain.


Solid 1½ hours of time to reach the Sunrise view point. Post that, the terrain is getting flat. Within 30 mins, reached the “Kodachadri Moolakshetra”. Luckily, we are able to get the breakfast here from a local guy. Vehicles(including jeeps) are allowed till this point, after that, by trekking for 1.5kms(one way) can reach “Sarvagna Peeta Shankaracharya Temple”.












Within 1.30 hours, we’ve finished the trekking and back to parking space. Sundar is not confident enough to ride back his bike. So, we found one guy to ride it till checkpost where as sundar preferred to come by jeep.

The descent is worst than climbing.. As the sand/mud is very slippery, even applying brakes is not stopping the bike from sliding. While coming down, opposite 4-wheeler traffic is more. Thank god, didn’t face while climbing.




 












 By 1 o'clock able to reach Homestay.
Physically I’m here, but mind still riding through those rocky terrain, a miles long breathtaking views, fresh air, clear skies...I’m kinda hooked to the place.
Took a while to come out of that. Had lunch in homestay itself and bid bye to Kishore and Sundar as they are heading towards Gokarna.


Where as our plan is to cross the backwaters of a river near  “Hasirumakki” by ferry along with our bikes and reach Shimoga by night.




“Hasirumakki Ferry point” is 18kms far from homestay, within 20mins reached it.
As there is no one to reach our side, Ferry took 1 hour to reach our end and within 45 mins dropped us in the other end. Actual Ferry journey time is just 15 mins, rest all goes in parking and removing the vehicles from ferry.










The ride after river crossing is of 100 kms through Sharavathi wildlife sanctuary and state highways to Shimoga.
But, continued riding till we feel sleepy and able to reach “Tarikere” by 9pm including dinner break. Halted for the night in “Tarikere”.
With this the fun and adventurous Day-3 has come to an end.


Day 4: Tarikere - Hosadurga - Huliyar - Tumakuru - Bangalore

  Good morning from Tarikere. Body pains due to last day off-roading is completely gone. Today, nothing to explore. As holidays comes to an end for most of the people, all the highways towards Bangalore will be having heavy traffic by evening.
To avoid that, we’ve planned to reach Bangalore by afternoon.


So, by 7’ o clock  geared up and started the ride of Day 4.
Mornings never fail to surprise me. The helmet view of Sun rays through misty weather over lush green landscapes are magical. Everywhere “Happy New Year” hoardings and sketches on road :-).

We suppose to reach “Hiriyur” and from there take “Pune- Bangalore” highway.
But due to misunderstanding of sign board written in Kannada(in this stretch sign boards written in English are not available), we have reached “Huliyar” instead of Hiriyur.
The story behind it goes like this,
Technically, both the words needs 4 letters in Kannada.
We were following those 4 letters on the sign-board and riding. We didn’t realize that  along with “Hiriyar” in between “Huliyar” sign boards also exist, simply started following and Booomm.. we are nearby “Huliyar” far from changing the diversion to “Hiriyur”. Following 4 letters without Kannada knowledge has screwed us.


Continued riding via Huliyar, Tumkur and reached Pune-Bangalore highway by 11 O’clock. After a quick break, resumed our ride and by 12.45 PM reached Bangalore.


With this, our 4-days of trip covering Beaches, Island, Temple, Forests of Western Ghats and Off- roading to the challenging peak of Western Ghats came to an end.

Until next trip, Happy Reading
                      \m/ Happy Riding \m/