Kemmanagundi

Kemmanagundi literally means "pit of clay" which might not sound very interesting but trust me, it is one of the best kept secrets of Karnataka.


There were around 5-6 bikes planned for this trip but as usual many backouts and we came down to two and no points for guessing me and Ashu.

We met at MG Road at 6:30 AM and he was with a pillion, Ajeet. Soon we were inching towards Neelmangla through heavy truck traffic. Tank up at Shell Petrol Bunk and we stopped for breakfast at a dosa joint. Road was good, weather was perfect and we took next stop after 100 km and had some fresh juice. I glanced at my wrist watch and a smile came to my face. We were just 40 odd km from Hassan and it was not even 11 AM. Good we were on schedule.


We soon crossed Hassan city and took the road to Belur via Halebidu. There was a big pothole on the road and my speedometer cable snapped off due to that jerk :(. Though road was not one of the best but I loved the route. Soon we were in Chikamaglur and we stopped for lunch. Vegeterian it was. You see navratri and all :).


We had barely moved 5-6 km from Chikamaglur and it started raining. We had to wait at a small shack as neither Ashu nor Ajeet had any rain protection. "Necessity is the mother of all inventions. This was proven true with these raincoats. Cost Rs 8/- per piece :).


A shorter but bad road route to Kemmanagundi is if you take a left turn after some 8 km from Chikamaglur but we chose the longer but good tarred road route. The roads were amazing and rain kept us company almost throughout . We reached Kalahatti falls at around 4 PM. We were slowed down substantially because of rains. By the time we reached Horticulture Department Guesthouse, sun had started turning red.

Now the difficult part. We had tried booking the guesthouse over phone from Bangalore but no one picked up the phone and like we feared there was no room available. I must tell here that there is no other place in Kemmanagundi to stay apart from this guesthouse unless you want to spend some quality time with big cats of the jungle :D. After some persuasion and negotiations, we finally managed to get a room with dirty sheets and damp beds :(. Thank god we carried our sleeping bags. No electricity and we had a candlelight dinner at the canteen. Walked back to our rooms and retired.

Next day morning, my shoes were still dripping so I wore floaters. We rode out towards Z-point. It was all muddy and slushy with last day's heavy rains. We went as far as our bikes could do, clicked some photos and returned.


Spectacular views! There wasn't any time to trek till Z-point. Maybe next time. We headed towards Hebbe Falls.


After diverting from the Chikamaglur road towards Hebbe falls, we could see the landscape changing from green to brown. It was a mining area and we could see that in the dark coloured soil. After sometime the real bad jeep track started.


Hebbe falls is some 8-10 km from this point and it took us almost an hour to cover. The track looked like a seasonal waterway which was used as road when there is no water in it! I doubted whether my bike would be able to take on it but it was a pleasant surprise :). After reaching the foothill, there was a small walk till we reached the waterfalls. We had to cross few streams and on the way I noticed that my feet were infested with leaches! I could see stains of blood on them. I washed my feet and floaters throughly in the water and moved on.


Hebbe Falls. What a sight! We spent some time admiring and clicking the waterfalls and soon were back on track. We wanted to reach Baba-Budayangiri by noon. The ride towards Baba-Budayangiri was full of spectacular green hills and twisty roads. And ther trafiic was so low that we were wondering if this was the correct road! We stopped at this spot which looked like just taken out from windows XP wallpaper! I had never seen anything so pure green and blue! We stopped and clicked loads of photos there.


By noon, we had taken the diversion and were climbing towards Baba-Budayangiri. This road was smooth and quite steep. It felt like top of the world from B-Top! The beautiful green valley below with clouds shielding sunlight at some spots was just fantastic. But we had to move on and we did.


The roads deteriorated further. The soil is very clayey and it was damn skiddy after rains. But we were out of bad roads and into Chikamaglur by 4 PM. Lunch time!

After having some chicken biryani, we started off for Bangalore at around 5 PM. It was hardly 10 mins on the road and it started raining heavily! We immediately took shelter under a shed. We waited for more than half an hour and there wasn't even slightest hint of rains slowing down. We finally decided to push off at around 6.

As we moved towards Hassan and then to Bangalore, there was no sign of rains slowing down. Though I had a rain proof jacket, I didn't have rain proof pants. We were chilled to bone riding for 150 kms in rains !! Due to heavy rains and headwind, visibility was very less and we could not go past 60 kmph. Finally some 100 km before Bangalore, we stopped for garamagaram chai and changed to dry clothes. What a relief! The rains were now just a drizzle and we just wanted to reach Bangalore as soon as possible. With non stop riding, we managed to enter Bangalore at around 1 AM. Due to less speed in rains, I got a whopping 47.5 kmpl of average!

Reached home at around 1:30 AM, took a hot shower and crashed on the bed with a content smile. I just visited the most beautiful place in Karnataka!


Summary:
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Date:
20th Oct 2007 to 21st Oct 2007

Riders:
1. Ashish - Bajaj Avenger
2. Ashutosh - RE Thunderbird
3. Ajeet - Pillion with Ashutosh

Route:

Bangalore - Neelmangla - Hassan - Halebidu - Chikamanglur - Kemmanagundi - Hebbe Falls - Baba Budayangiri - Chikmanglur - Belur - Hassan - Bangalore

Total Distance covered: 760 KM

Night Stay:

Kemmanagundi: Horticulture Department Guest House. Double Room for Rs 550/-

More pics can be seen here

Skandagiri: The long awaited trek

I was tempted to go to skandagiri when I first saw a set of pics being forwarded on mails but something or other, the plan never matured. It was one fine day when Ladha and Piyush saw these pics and we decided to hit it coming sunday.

Saturday night no electricity => Plan almost dropped due to lack of sleep and internet. Internet? yeah we needed to check where exactly this place is located. Finally power came back at midnight and I checked the route in some blogs. A sleep of 2 hours for few of us including me and night out for others and we were ready by 3 AM to hit the roads. 2 water bottles, 2 bags to keep jackets while climbing and 6 of us on 3 bikes headed towards outer ring road. Myself with Piyush as pillion on my Bajaj Avenger, Dotty with Mahe as pillion on his Bajaj Avenger and Nair with Ladha as pillion on HH Passion.


To reach Skandagiri, one has to take the Devenahalli road, yeah the new airport is coming up at Devenahalli. Total tide was 70 km. Straight till Chikaballapur from Bangalore and then a left turn from there leads to Papagni Mutt which is the base of the hill. Road is a four laner till the Nandi Hills left turn and a two laner bumpy one after that. It was still dark when we parked the bikes near Papagni Mutt. We were quite surprised seeing sizeable number of two wheelers parked there. So, we were not alone :).


Whole idea to start so early was to reach the top by sunrise. We refused to take a guide and started moving towards a faint trail. It was dificult to say if we were on the right track. Some plastic bottles lying here and there kept us going in the belief that people do come here :).


We were half way (or we thought so) when horizon started turning red. Ah the sunrise ! The surroundings were clearer now but the peak was nowhere in visual range due to slight mist. As we climbed up, the mist turned to fog and then to thick clouds. We could hardly see anything farther than 3 ft and yes we lost our way!! We had to cross some seriously steep rocks and Piyush almost lost it there. He was like what the hell are we doing here and how are we supposed to come back! Luckily we found the trail after sometime. I guess it tool close to 2 hours to reach the top with some 3-4 breaks in between.


The winds were amazing at the top but no view because of thick fog. We were quite surprised to see so many people on the top. Had some chilli bajji, omlettes and tea. After some 20 mins, fog started clearing and we could see some breathtaking views. And at this point, we realized that we have gained much more height than we thought :)


Descent was much quicker with trail very clear thanks to no fog :). Soon we were at the foothills and this time we could see the peak too. Everyone had that content smile saying yes, we did it :). Most of the people were first timers in trekking and it was a wonderful experience.


On return, we took a different route. We took a right turn from Papagni Mutt towards Nandi hills and then the usual Nandi Hills - Bangalore route. We did not stop anywhere on our way back and were back at home for lunch. Finally trip accomplished with so many lazy bums :)


Stats:
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Date:
12 August' 2007

Route:
Bangalore - Yelahanka - Devenahalli - Chikaballapur - Papagni Mutt

Distance:
70 km one way

More pics can be seen here.

MM Hills

I really love unplanned trips :). We planned of just meeting at MG Road on saturday morning and decide then and there where to go. Good old Ladha was pillion with me. We on my avenger and Hathee on his reached MG Road on time. We called Saswata to find out he was getting ready.

Waiting for Saswata at HP Petrol Bunk, MG Road

We moved on till Mysore Road Shell Petrol bunk and asked him to join us there. He arrived after some time with a surprise package of Sagarneel. So four bikes with 5 riders headed towards Mysore Road. Early morning ride with Ladha as pillion to talk during ride-it was good :). Soon we reached CCD and settled for breakfast at the restaurant nearby.

Now the million dollar question popped up - Where to go ? After some discussions we shortlisted Malai Mahadeshwara Betta better known as MM Hills and Himavad Gopalaswamy Betta also known as HGS Betta. I called vasanth and sachin to enquire about distance, road conditions and all but they were also not very clear. After consulting a waiter from the restaurant we zeroed upon MM Hills as according to the waiter it was just 70 km from there and looked good for single day ride. So zoom we went towards Mandya and then towards Malavalli.

Somewhere near Malavalli

Near Malavalli, we saw the first signboard showing MM Hills. It was still 121 km from there and we had already come close to 100 km already! Few people were not ready for such a long ride and we had to return back the same day. But now there was no turning back and we moved ahead. We stopped at few places to click pics. After Kollegal the roads became bumpy and narrow but the surroundings were just beautiful and weather amazing! We crossed few small villages where people were staring at us as if we landed straight from Mars.

90 degree isshtyle pose :)

Soon after some more beautiful rural roads, we reached the foothills. We clicked some snaps there but did not keep the fabulous twisties in front of us waiting for too long.


It is so amazing, I guess a different kind of high riding through forests, negotiating curves, approaching a hair-pin bend. The feeling cannot be described in words. Enjoying the surroundings, we soon crossed the hills and reached a valley. It was a bit disappointment when we reached the destination as there was just a temple and it was real hot at that time of day! But as someone said that it's not the destination but the journey which matters, we had our lunch and started climbing the hill again carefully leaning on those pretty curvy roads :). On the way we took a detour which looked a very promising road and boy what a road it was ! Thick forest and roller coaster kind of ups and downs :). After around 5-6 km of ride, we reached a village and sadly that was the dead end so we had to turn back.


On return, we stopped near shivanasamudram to chill at the banks of Cauvery.


The great ride was complemented by showers and we thoroughly enjoyed the ride in rains. By 5 PM, we touched the Bangalore-Mysore Road. Had a refreshing cuppa chai and chilli bajji and hit the couch in CCD :). After relaxing for more than a hour, we started moving leisurely towards Bangalore only to stop at the good old Chandigarh Punjabi Dhaba near Ramanagram :).


Garama-garam chai, mast chicken and kishore kumar songs. What else for a perfect evening :). Filled our bellies as it was already dinner time. From Ramanagram to Bangalore is just a formality and we quickly did the run. At our apartment parking, final reading was 480 km. I guess maximum for Ladha in a day :). I hope he did not hurt his back much after pillion riding for 480 km in a day :).

Summary:
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Date:
4th Aug' 2007

Riders:
1. Ashish with Ladha as pillion On Bajaj Avenger
2. Sumit Chatterjee aka Haathee on Bajaj Avenger
3. Saswata on Honda Unicorn
4. Sagarneel on Hero Honda Achiever

Route: Bangalore - Mandya - Malavalli - Kollegal - MM Hills - Shivanasamudram - Bangalore

Total Distance covered: about 480 km

More pics can be seen here.

Monsoon Ride: BR Hills

It happens all the time. Tens of people make a plan and finally only one or two left. Same story repeated with our plan to ride to Biligiri Rangaswamy Betta also known as BR Hills. Cutting the long story short, finally only me and PJ were left for the ride. PJ was travelling with his wife and had booked K.Gudi Jungle lodges which was out of budget for me. So were thinking of dropping the plan and he would leave in his car with his wife.

Surprise surprise! Came to know about a group of people from "Avenger Owners Bangalore" community who were going to Shivanasamudram. Since it was enroute BR Hills, they joined us or rather we joined them? Whatever, finally 6 avengers with 8 riders were ready for one amazing ride.


Only 3 bikes (myself, PJ with his wife and Rajesh) showed up on saturday morning. We started off and others were supposed to catch up with us on the way. We were having breakfast when other three bikes (Vishal, Nipin, Gautam and pillion Pradeep) zoomed past us. We quickly paid the bill and moved ahead. After catching up, a round of introductions and we were on the roads again.

Ride was pretty smooth till Shivanasamudram except for few small patches between Maddur and Malavalli. Shivanasamudra falls were in full glory at this time of year. Clicked loads of photographs and moved towards BR Hills. It was still 10 AM.


Road till Kollegal was good with amazing surroundings. After Kollegal, the two lane state highway became a single lane village road passing through villages and farmlands. Though the road was bumpy, I enjoyed it thoroughly because of amazing landscapes. Soon after we were at the toll gate of the BR Hills wildlife reserve. This is where the most beautiful ride ever started. As soon as we entered the sanctury, it started to drizzle. Lush green surroundings, light drizzle, smooth tarmac and twisty road. What else can one ask for? Around 10 kms of amazing ride and we were at BR Hills.



Food first. Everyone was hungry and we could locate only one place. Had nice meal and cheap too :). BR Hills was quite a small place. A hill top, a temple and a village. There was a jungle lodge around 20 km away. We spent sometime clicking photographs. Thanks to Vishal and his camera, we had some really good pics :).


Since, there was nothing much to do there, we started back to Bangalore except PJ and Mrs PJ who moved towards the jungle lodge. We departed after giving lots of advice to them at around 3 PM. We spent hell lot of time in the jungle clicking photos and yes for the first time, I saw a wild elephant :).



After around one hour, we were moving towards Kollegal when someone struck with this idea to visit Brindavan Gardens and immediately we all took a U-turn :). The road to Mysore through Yellandur was bumpy at most of the places but as we neared Mysore, it got better. By the time we reached Brindavan Gardens after asking directions for n times, it was already dark and the garden was in full glory with fountains and amazing light work. We clicked some snaps and saw the musical fountain show. IMHO the musical fountain show at Wonderla was much better.



By 8 PM we were again back on the roads searching for some place to fill our bellies. Vishal told about some Hotel Fishland near Srirangapatna famous for its Mangalore style fishes. Fishes and that too Mangalore style! What else can one ask for :D. Soon me, Vishal, Prady and Rajesh were devouring Mackerils and Anjils while Gautam was trying to catch up with Nipin who mistakenly did not stop and moved on. We got a call from Gautam that he is waiting for us at Maddur CCD and there was no news from Nipin. We could not even reach his phone.

After dinner, it was a sprint to CCD. We relaxed there for some time . In the meantime got a call from Nipin also. He reached Bangalore. After around an hour, we were back on the tarmac, this time slower. We reached Bangalore at around 2:30 AM after covering around 500 km. Amazing experience especially my first sighting of a wild elephant! :D


Summary:
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Date:
14th July' 2007

Riders:
1. Ashish
2. Prabhjot with his wife as pillion
3. Vishal
4. Gautam with Pradeep as pillion
5. Nipindra
6. Rajesh

all on Bajaj Avenger

Route: Bangalore - Maddur - Malavalli - Shivanasamudram - Kollegal - BR Hills - Yellandur - Mysore - Srirangapatna - Bangalore

Total Distance covered: about 500 km

More pics can be seen here and here.

Yercaud!

We have been planning for a wet ride to Yercaud last weekend. But due to some commitments it got postponed to the June end. Ashu and Sathish backed off from the ride due to some unavoidable circumstances. So it leaves three of us me, Saswata and Gurinder. I saw a post on BN that few people are planning for a weekend trip but they were not decided on the destination. I proposed Yercaud and 3 more people joined in.


I got my new Fieldsheer Hydro Tour Jacket on friday evening and I was dying to test it on the road and rains :).

Plan was to meet at NIIT, Off Silk Board flyover on Hosur Road at 6 AM on saturday morning. Only Saswata and myself turned up. We came to know that only two of us will be riding and Himanshu might join though he was still in the bed!

We started off at 6:35 AM. Weather was cool with clouds playing hide and seek with the sun. We saw an Australian couple on a Harley on the way. They were apparently on the 13th phase of their world tour on their motorcycle! They have clocked 3,70,000 km till date on their bike!! hats off to them. Gathered all this info from their website :D.

After riding for some 40 km, my speedometer got kaput. Saswata has blown his speedo/odo long time back. So now none of us had one :D. We rode till A1 plaza and filled ourselves and our bikes there. Half hour break and we were back on roads.

Ride till Krishnagiri was smooth on 4-lane NH-7. We crossed Krishnagiri at around 9. Around 3-4 km after crossing Krishnagiri, we got a call from Himanshu that he is about to reach Krishnagiri! We waited for him there. Few snaps and back to the roads.

Road after that was a mix of good and bad patches till Salem. Salem is around 200 km from Bangalore. It started getting hot by then. We were in Salem at around 10:30 AM.

After Salem, ghats for Yercaud starts. Yercaud is only 30-40 km from Salem. The ride was refreshing with cool air blowing and beautiful twisties passing by. The view was breathtaking! We stopped few times for some snaps.


Yercaud welcomed us with no hotels available. Apparently there was some function in a boarding school there and all hotels were booked by the parents of the students. We roamed around in the town and visited Pagoda Point. Finally we found a hotel! We dumped our luggage and went for some sightseeing. We visited Ladies seat, Gents seat and Children seat, all of them being some nice viewpoints. We rode through heavy downpour and made good use of our raincoats :).


After rains stopped, we took a ride on a boat in the lake and managed to get good chicken biryani for dinner :D.


I did some experiments with the night mode in my camera. Few pics came out good. We dozed off at around 11 PM.


We woke up at around 8 and were ready soon to get going. We went to Kiliyur waterfalls.

Had to trek down a steep trail to see the falls. We were told there is no water at this time in the falls but we trekked down. We could go only till a point where an uprooted tree was lying blocking the trail and it was really tricky to cross that. We called our mini trek off, clicked few snaps and turned back.

Soon we were having a breakfast which turned into a lunch or rather brunch with heavy egg-parottas. After filling our tummies, we started the descent.


Amazing twisties and more amazing views like a whole family of dad, mom and 4 kids climbing to Yercaud on a bullet ! and a couple taking on the hairpins on a scooty pep! :). This happens only in India! :D

We stopped for naariyal paani (tender coconut water) before entering Salem. We rode till Dharampuri in abeautiful weather. Himanshu wanted to have some tea so I stopped just after crossing the city. But both Saswata and Himanshu were out of sight. Called them and found Himanshu had a flat tyre in front of a puncture repair shop :). Interesting. I took a small nap on my bike. I must say Avenger is not that bad to sleep on :D. Soon we were on roads again after having tea. I kept stopping on the way for pics. There were some fabulous views on the way.


It started raining as we entered Bangalore and I parked my bike at my apartment at around 6 PM, satisfied with the ride and the new jacket :D. More about the jacket in some other post.


Summary:
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Date:
30th June' 2007 - 1st July' 2007

Riders:
1. Ashish on Bajaj Avenger
2. Saswata on Honda Unicorn
3. Himanshu on TVS Apache

Route: Bangalore - Hosur - Krishnagiri - Dharampuri - Salem - Yercaud

Total Distance covered: about 550 km

More pics can be seen here.

Bird Watcher's Paradise: Ranganathittu

Ranganathittu- a beautiful bird sanctury situated in cosy little town of Srirangapatna.


Ride to Ranganathittu was a surprise one. I saw a posting from Vasanth on BN announcing this ride. I immediately joined in. I had heard so much about this place that I could not resist it.

There were 4-5 riders planned. I knew Vasanth from the Munnar ride and had read a lot of posts by Sachin. Rest were unknown to me.

Meeting point Raj-Rajeshwari nagar Arch on Mysore Road at 6:00 AM. On reaching there, a pleasant surprise, Venkat. Venkat and Sachin were waiting for us. After waiting for sometime, Vasanth and his pillion Santosh arrived. We started off and rode coolly till Cafe Coffee day. We had some delicious tumbler idlis and kesari bath for breakfast.

The ride was very peaceful and soon we were at Srirangapatna. We have to take a right there to go to the bird sanctury. It is only 5-10 km from this point. The sanctury reminded me of the picnic spots from childhood days. But I could not see any birds other than crows and sparrows!

Then we took a ride on a boat in the lake. And yes, there we could see so many species of birds. Open bill storks, white ibis, err I don't remember other names now :) but the place was amazing though a bit stinky. Organic stink from water and bird droppings(?) and maybe some dead bodies of birds also. There were few crocodiles also in the lake but could not shoot them (I mean with my camers:D).


It was almost lunchtime, when we left the place. We went to Venkat's native place which happens to be in Srirangapatna only. That was an old mansion and his cousin treated us very well with delicious food. The curd-rice was the best I ever ate. Do consider the fact that I do not like curd rice very much. Venkat narrated some very interesting stories about Bajaj and Lambertta and Fiat Padmini of older days. How Padminis were transported to Madras and how scooters were booked in advance. It looks like we have evolved in leaps and bounds since those days. We started off early in the evening for Bangalore.

We took a break at Maddur CCD and again back to Venkat and his amazing experiences. This time all technical. I seriously get so amused at times knowing this man's knowledge. Hats off to him! This was a real long break and we headed back to bangalore. After 2 hours and 90 km, I was at my home. Content with the short beautiful and informative ride.


Here is a link to more info on Venkat's Auto Service.

Summary:
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Date:
16th June' 2007

Riders:
1. Ashish on Bajaj Avenger
2. Venkat on Kawasaki Eliminator
3. Sachin Koppikar on Bajaj Pulsar 150 DTSI
4. Vasanth on Hero Honda Karizma
5. Santosh pillion with Vasanth

Route: Bangalore - Maddur - Srirangapatna - Ranganathittu

Total Distance covered: 280 km

More pics can be seen here.