Bandipur Forest
Guys at Bandipur forest
Cave Inscriptions at Edakkal Cave
Waynad Heritage Museum
Beautiful Mountain ranges
on the way up to chembra peak
Exhausted!
At Chembra Peak...Still remember the chill breeze there
Soochipara Waterfall
Return from the falls
Phantom Rock
Morning Beauty!
Lillies in Pookot Lake
At Pookot Lake - 1bhp engines & heavy payload!
At Banasura Sagar Dam - Ready for the speed boat rideNormally we spend a week gathering information about the routes, places
to visit, activities to do, book the accommodation and so forth. But
this time the whole planning was just 10 minutes! 5PM on 10th Feb 2007
we started from Bangalore, Me (huez) and Pops the pillion on my Pulsar
and Shash and the luggage on his Apache. It's been usual that the gang
gets lost in the Tumkur highway traffic within city limits. We met each
other once the traffic got lessened. We were doing good speeds about 110
km/hr but still our frequent chai breaks slowed us down. We reached
Chicmagalur around 12AM and took a good rest in a decent lodged until
Pops woke us up 8AM the next day. We checked out by 9 and ventured out
to Baba Budangiri after a good breakfast.
Baba Budangiri is a mountain range near the Mulayangiri peak. It is 35
km from Chicmagalur and is famous for its shrines for the Hindus and the
Muslims. There are trek routes as well which spans across the hill
ranges. There is a water falls too. This trip was only of motorcycling
and sight seeing and we didn't have plans for a trek.
It was Shash's turn to take the heavy load (he isn't that heavy though)
and I to carry the luggage. As we started riding up the hills there as a
dirt track detour from the main route. We decided to take this road
that's less traveled as there is either a bad road or no road at all.
The scenery was beautiful; we came across a couple of small villages
peacefully tucked in dense forests. Here the trees had leaves in many
color, violet, purple, brown, yellow...Probably it's because of the
season? Dunno. As we rode we saw a huge lake (forgot the name, It was
tank actually) We had the whole place for us as no one was around. We
spent a quality time enjoying the gentle breeze and taking snaps here
and there.
We continued the ride wondering what nature has on our way and where the
route actually leads to! There were steep climb ups and steeper slopes
and curves on sandy tracks making our bikes to wobble. The ride was
worth it all. Pops had no worries; he was happily sitting behind
enjoying the nature. I wish I get to ride as pillion some day. But that
way I would miss my favorite part of biking. Hm one needs to loose one
to gain one.
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Suddenly our adventurous dirt track ride lead to a tar road which
continues to climb up till the Baba Budangiri. The road was bad.
Actually there no potholes on the road, it's the other way round! We
didn't get to zoom on the ghat section. We took a break on a small
stream that cascades near a bridge. We had some snacks and continued our
ride. Finally we reached the peak from where a few beautiful view of the
forest in the valleys below and a falls. Pops decided to shout each of
his girl friends'(girls who are his friends) names and was ecstatic when
the mountains talked back! His list was huge with 18 names. I guess Pops
can pursue selling his mantra to guys as his primary career for living.
Having seen lots of falls we decided to skip the falls to save some
time.
There was this remains of a very old building on the hill where we took
photos the Dill Chatha Hai style. After a pleasant chat we decided to
roll. Its time to start towards Bangalore. We took the route through
Hassan as this route is better than the Tiptur-Tumkur road. .jpg)
The ghat Section till Hassan was a breeze. We raced with another pair of
bikers on their pulsar. There was a super duper curve near a lake where
I took a very lean turn at about 90-100km/hr scratching my right shoe on
the road. Wow what a wonderful stretch of road it was. Its time our bike
manufactures build bikes with better ground clearance.
We reached home that night at 11PM. We had covered 640KM in 30 hours,
riding through dirt tracks, colorful forests and ghat roads. That's all
for our Club's first anniversary. Enjoy biking!
huez -the Biker
The hiwayREBELS Motorcycling Club
Okay this is yet another motorcycle trip of ours managed by the baddy of hiwayREBELS, Addi. We started from our office by 6:15pm on Friday 12th Jan 2007, took the bypass from Kanakapura road to Mysore road. A little on the route we took: Bangalore - Mysore - Nanjangud - Gundlupet - Sulthan Bathery. The distance was close to 300km. Our dinner was in a dhaba on the highway just before Mysore. The food was good but it came to our table an hour after ordering. Probably the food came from Bangalore! We reached Gundlupet that night and slept in a cozy lodge there.
Early morning on Saturday we rode through the mist in the Bandipur forest. The whole scene was very beautiful as the sun came out. It was too cold that our ungloved hands almost froze that it felt nothing. Sign boards here and there warned not to stop in the forest in fear of herds of elephants roaming across the roads. In spite of the warning we stopped for a quick photo session. We stopped at the Kerala border check post finding some deers roaming on the road side. I couldn't believe we missed to take pictures of the deers! There was a roadside eatery somewhere in the Muthanga forest where we had puttu and chai, Kerala style. Addi and myself test rode Imti's cruiser, I loved the riding posture and the feeling it gave.
We checked in chakalakal lodge in Sulthan Bathery, freshen up, had appam for breakfast and went for sight seeing. Saturday's agenda was to visit Edakkal Caves, Waynad heritage museum and Meenmutty falls. Edakkal caves and the museum was like a peek into the history of Wayanad, saw hand carvings on rocks in the caves, the tools they used in the olden days
(don't remember the numbers).
Meenmutty falls is the next target. This falls is tucked into a valley about 7.5km from the road. About 4km of the distance we rode on bikes through dirt tracks as we enjoyed the forest and tea/coffee plantations on the steep sides of the hill. The route was very bumpy but beautiful scenery around is worth it all. We reached a point bike cannot go and the trek down to the falls starts here. Few guys coming back warned us not to venture as the falls is unreachable and the trek is painful through dusty slopes. In spite of that we went down. And yes the slopes were indeed steep and dusty, slips here and there. We are almost there but we need to jump down a huge distance to reach the falls! After few trials and errors the though guys Addi and Varun went to the falls. The rest of us took rest in the shades. Meenmutty falls was a mission unaccomplished for some of us.
We rode through the ghat sections with plantations everywhere till dusk, went back to our camp. That night we had a pleasant moonlight walk in the neighborhood talking about lot of things, especially Varun with his insights on constellations. We also designed next generation motorcycles with redundant pairs of engines with different characteristics and two handle bars ect. A real crazy idea it was! And lots of other interesting stuff was discussed too.
Sunday is the big trek day, the day to conquer the untamed Chembra peak. This peak is 6900 feet high, standing taller than Karnataka's tallest Mulayangiri peak. After a good breakfast and packing snacks we road towards the base of the hill. Again the ghat sections were beautiful
with coffee/tea and pepper plantations all over. The whole trek till the peak is 3.5km through three steep hills. There is a track of foot path most of the time and it doesn't require a guide. The trek really made me realize I need to start my exercises again. A stops here and there, while we gazed at the splendors all around. Gulping lot of water we continued climbing the hills. Our Varun had some funny incidents with the nature here...can't write them here. Contact Varun!
Reaching the peak finally was like "what a relief!" The whole surroundings were beautiful. Had a good chat as we enjoyed the beautiful sight. We had our snacks, finished all the water we had, took some photos and climbed down the peak. Boy... the climb down is also killing.
It's easy on the lungs but puts a lot of pressure on the knees. After the trek we visited the soochipura falls for a bath. Now comes my favorite part, riding the ghat section. It was really a beautiful ghat section full of curvy roads, some are S type, and some are like a coil! The road was super windy all the way from the falls till Meppady. I loved each curve of it! We rode through the section at foot peg scraping speeds till we reached Meppady.
We reached our favorite restaurant The Green's at Kalpetta. Everyone like the food here. We ate like hell that night. Any place we visit in waynad is scattered and we have to travel about 30km through ghat sections to each place. So a lot of bike riding was a part of every day in this trip. We rode almost 300km like this in wayanad itself. We loved it!
Monday arrived, the black day of the trip as we have to return to Bangalore that night. Our list had phantom rock, Pookot Lake, Banasura Sagar Dam and a ride through a 12km ultimate ghat section from Lakidi towards Kozhikode. The speed boat ride in the Banasura Sagar dam was my first time! Time to go back to Bangalore, the part we hate. Anyway there is always the next trip that keeps us sustaining till then!
We had very less time before sun goes down. We decided to cross the forest in daylight so that we get to see the forest in day light again and also avoid any encounters with mad elephants. Here is where I hit a damn speed breaker that wasn't much visible at speeds around 80km/h and my chain guard came off. We fixed the situation ourselves and continued the ride. We rode overall 900km this trip in which a pretty good length was on ghat sections. I am confused now on which is my best trip, Agumbe or Waynad. We reached Bangalore that night realizing that Wayanad is really Gods' own country.
For photos click here.
huez -the biker
The hiwayREBELS Motorcycling Club
