One of those mornings and moods where you want to ride all day .. found this place off the kolar highway. The terrain seems very unforgiving but the bull just chugs along and crunches those miles! Reached a desolate place about 3 kms off the main road, after riding over huge rocks, probably fallen off the neighbouring Hill and balancing over smaller rocks. This is now my new place of joy.. not a soul in sight, and nobody seems to have ever been here either, except the electric board to plant their high voltage cross city lines ! Some fields in the distance, but that’s about it. Only huge random rocks, and the whole floor terrain is uneven rocks too ! The only civilization I found during these 3 kms was a couple of bikers who parked their bikes at the beginning of the area and perched themselves on top of the hill.. but nothing after that .
…This page hasbeen intentionally left blank, for… The journey never ends..
Funny incident yesterday that I forgot to mention.. went to drop my sister at the hospital, and got a tour there. Reached the ICU silent zone and got a call from a friend.. told him.. I’m in the ICU, can’t talk. Apparently he was wondering for the next few minutes what happened, till I called him back.. sorry dude !
Yesterday, we were playing around with the Bluetooth functionality of the in room ihome system, and I paid for that dearly this morning.
Before sleeping last night I finally found the switches to the curtains and whatever little light was getting into the room wasn’t there anymore. One of those nighgs where you think.. I’m not waking up early tomorrow .. slept in a really dark room, content.
Turns out we had set an alarm for 6am during all the fiddling with the device.. I hit the snooze button cos it was too dark in the room to find the kill switch..and it rang again in 3 minutes, snoozed again, and the shrill bitterness filled alarm sounded again.. pulled out the power, and it still rang.. stupid battery backup! ( I felt like Phoebe from friends where her fire alarm wouldn’t quit) ..cursing early morning, I had to switch on the lights – where I hit the master switch by mistake and the evil room was like a chandelier filled glittering light .. giving up on sleep, I finally woke up and switched off the alarm.. another early morning wasted ..Argh !
Went downstairs, finished my coffee and newspaper, and then headed out for my 3k morning walk target. Came back and petted little ‘chashma’, the second shift labrador who sniffs cars for weapons et al.. the poor little chap was so excited on being petted, he dropped all his work and refused to do his job anymore because he wanted to jump on me and get petted. Finally I was asked to leave and he went back to work again, all the while looking at me till I was in sight.. with absolutely no focus on his sniffing.. so in the interest of the security of the hotel, I vanished from there ?
I have absolutely no interest in sniffing for ammunition, i would rather get petted for a living
Spoke to the hotel guys to see if they could get my bike washed before I head out this afternoon, and they obliged. Will ride a shiny bike again !
Waited for little doctor to come join me for breakfast after her night shift at the ICU. Both of us spent A LOT of time relishing all the excellent food !
Time to head back leaving all the luxury behind… checked out loaded up the luggage and left for my next destination – karnala bird sanctuary – camping ground. Took the same couple of hours to leave Mumbai and arrived at the camping place shortly after that. Only 70kms in all today.
My expectation was a nice big camping ground full of trees and ruggedness, as part of a fenced area within the sanctuary. But this was something different altogether. A 45 acre farmhouse, with a big well tended garden, and a tent setup in the grass somewhere. Ha..! All the fun and looking forward to fizzled out big time.
For someone who lives in a super busy place like Mumbai, maybe this is enough of a getaway… Not for me though, having camped in the choiciest of places in the middle of the wilderness…But well I’m here, so might as well try and enjoy it.
Parked my bike, unloaded my luggage and carried it to the tent. A good but not so clean tent, and something that horrified me… Found a couple of cockroaches and spiders crawl out of the sleeping bag.. eeeeew .. I’m NOT sleeping in this tent.. I can stand wild insects etc. But cockroaches and spiders are just plain unhygienic. I loaded up my luggage, texted the host who hadnt arrived yet, and pushed off from there. Where next? Was already 5 pm, and I had decided on this ride that I will not ride after dark.
Made a few phone calls, and finally my sister arranged for a government tourism run MTDC hotel near Lonavla. And since that was supposed to be the route anyway for my next destination, I took off. Reached there by 6, it’s more than 100 acres here, with individual cottages and more than ample space and plenty of green to walk around, Fairly clean, picked up a standard room and settled there. Rode back to Lonavla for dinner, and had a super sumptuous local Maharashtrian Thali. Then back to the hotel 8kms away, watched some TV and slept..
Tomorrow – off to a home stay at the coastline..
First off, no bike ride today… And I, despite promising myself last night not to wake early, could manage to be asleep only until 6…. argh !
Headed downstairs, picked up a nice strong coffee, took a nice 3k walk downstairs, trying to plan what to do for the day..
Next was a saloon hunt, turned out to be close by, took a rickshaw.. everything is so cheap in Mumbai.. transport, food, haircut(!!!), you name it .. except of course the real estate here.
Walked back from the saloon after my infamous ‘near-bald chop chop’ – and added another 2k to my walk kitty. Played with the sniffer dog (golden retriever named Pepsi !) at the gate for sometime and then headed for breakfast. All was healthy so far, we were looking forward to eating like never been fed before.
Meanwhile, I made some calls to the places I’m scheduled to stay next, surprises again.. one of them said no sorry, you are the only camper so the hosts of the property may not travel down, so had to change that plan.. next days schedule is a similar problem (sorry we do not let solo bikers camp here.. ftw !!)
Made immediate plan changes for the next two days, and let’s see what next after that..
Lunch time – what junk do we eat next ? Headed to prithvi theatre (the play theater type, not a movie theatre) which attaches a cafe to it, awesome food, but no place to sit; so we kind of squeezed in to a seating platform below one of their in-restaurant trees – and nobody cares here anyhow, so it was good. Picked up some fancy stuff including their special Irish coffee ( not so Irish, but wasn’t bad), and headed back. Found a big crowd on one of the roads and it turns out, that’s where Amitabh bachhan stays. A whole crowd gathers there to see him every single day… Now that’s a following. He owns a couple of (whole) blocks there.. full of huge bungalow real estate.. emmmm well.. good for him ! Sour grapes et al 😉
Once back tol it was again planning for dinner. Now I have no idea if I’ll start getting withdrawal symptoms for this food when I get back, or I’ll just be happy not eating street food anymore.. Mumbai does that to you – and I mean that in the nicest possible way.
Watched some TV at the hotel, and headed out again.. this time in search for the best vada Pav’s in town. Found a place – conveniently forgetting the name now, ate giant vada Pav’s and carried a couple of them (just in case hunger strikes at night.. lol) .. no we didn’t come back after that, we went to the food street in Bandra again and hogged on kababs, chicken Momo’s, and then the famous ‘oh fudge’ ice cream – all this while carrying along the ‘just in case’ vada Pav’s lol !
As I write this, I give up on Vada pav, I cannot eat anymore, I cannot even think of food anymore as of this moment. We had to finally give away that ‘saved for a rainy day/time vada Pav’ because our gluttonous vada Pav greed got the better of us. But hey – tomorrow is a brand new day – which means all these bitter thoughts will go away once again, and as I sleep now, I hope I can start with the love of eating all over again, so with all my conciousness, guilt, no mental pressure and many other feelings I solemnly hope for forgiveness and withdraw my said statements about the food that is the Vada Pav, God’s gift to the human race -AMEN
Woke at 6 today, checked my sleep band – close to 3 hours of deep sleep of 7 total – much higher than it’s been in quite some time now. It’s a sign.. you lose sleep, go take a long ride, break your back, and you will start sleeping again !
Woke up super early today, rushed downstairs with my luggage and started mounting it on the bike with all the bungees et al.. There was no scope for any Delays today, the target was a huge 670 kms – before dark.
After what seems like a million years, it is time to burn some rubber and rip the tarmac, and get some payback on my Road Taxes ! All prepped, this time, no side boxes for stuff, removed those this morning. Inaugurated my Via-Terra Leh Saddle bag, (which btw – DOES NOT GET FULL). I have so far […]
Preliminary trip plan as follows, let’s see where the roads take me ! Can’t wait for this 10-day trip ! Route as follows: Bangalore (KA)- Nellore (AP)- Kalipatnam (AP) – Visakhapatnam (AP) – Gopalpur Beach (Orissa) – Bhitarkanika National Park (Orissa)- Satkosia (Orissa)- Balangir (Orissa)- Jagdalpur (Chattisgarh)- Bangalore (KA)
Started this morning from doddamane, went down to someshwara wildlife sanctuary, and onwards to Manipal, the university town. Had come here more than ten years ago, was a sleepy little town then. This time the who’s who of all brands were there and the whole place looks super different, picked up a couple of things here… Went onwards to Udupi, the place I’ve always wanted to go since my childhood, the place which was most mentioned in tinkle comics as the idli central of the South!
Didn’t find a single idli dedicated shop there. Too bad..
Went onwards to Shimoga shettihalli forest – which meant I had to go back again via Agumbe – a 60 km retrace, did it anyway ! Was getting hotter by the minute and my tan mark behind the glove is more like a burn mark now. The ride started getting more and more tiring and beaks started getting longer and more frequent.
About 200 kms from Bangalore, my air intake pipe cracked and popped out. Not sure when this happened, but the bike was running ok. Once I noticed it, tried to hunt around for a mechanic or a auto spares shop, didn’t find either. Cut the end of the pipe, stretched it, clamped it on again, moved on..
Reached a cafe coffee day, grabbed a much needed red bull, and went onwards..
Nothing major other than the fact that I am super tired today after 570 odd kms of biking, not too many pictures either, except for the sunrise ones.
Things I need to replace –
My helmet (linings out, and I’d rather just buy a new one than replace that)
My gloves – worn out after 9000 kms of riding
My jacket – don’t even ask ! It’s barely holding together now.
Things I need to buy –
1. Gel seat layer 1
2. Air cushion seat layer 2 for putting on top of the gel seat
3. Gel seat layer 3 on top of the air cushion seat..
– you can probably understand my pain here!
The only things I didn’t have to use over this journey
– my spare gloves.
– my tarpaulin sheet for waterproofing luggage.
– my waterproof jacket and pants.
– my flashlight.
Health casualties – none except that bruise on day 2, sore bum and tan marks.
Bike casualties – engine oil drain and air pipe – nothing major
All in all a very happy and exciting 1470 kms in 4 days, and I would do it again. maybe in a few months from now, different route though. Have to work tomorrow argh !
Ok so, woke up at 6am (and proud of it), zoomed to the sunrise point, took some amazing pictures of the valley below. Came back to doddamane, had a lovely breakfast, and will head out again now.
Dreading the thought of going back to work tomorrow, will try and cover as much green area as possible today, given that the next such trip won’t be for the next few months ! Don’t feel like getting back into work mode now.
Plan for today is to cover someshwara wildlife sanctuary, Shimoga forest (Because of one bad detour yesterday, it’s almost one or the other – I’m in the middle of these 2) and then back via charmadi ghat or so.
As of now the hand is naturally tan-tattooed – the shape of a tribal mark on the back of the Hand as well as on the knuckles – cost of using stencil gloves and riding in the scorching heat yesterday! There is also a funny tan mark on the face – from the center of the nose to the ears on both sides – basically the gap between the lower part of my sunglasses and the top hem of my face cover.. I like ! Nobody is getting any funny pictures of me though…
Something a lot of people don’t know about bullets – yes, they are known to be long-haul bikes obviously, but the 500 atleast can also put to shame a lot of other bikes when it comes to top speeds and pick up (the ‘thou-that-shall-not-be-named’ variety )… Managed to touch 120 this morning for a brief moment before I had to slow down cos of road conditions – with still more juice to go – thats difficult on most other bikes except I guess the 390 ktms – not sure though.
Some other efficient measures taken since yesterday – one phone for photos only, one for location and data and tethering to share data with other devices on WiFi as opposed to each one powering up its own data, and power bank charged up.
You should always carry a multiplug adapter so you can plug in all 3-4 chargers together since most rental rooms have only one or two power sockets available.
You should also carry a real camera so you can take real pictures as well as save on phone battery. The HDR in the phone was fairly decent for low light pictures, but did not do any justice to the scenery I saw that a standalone camera would do… Not even close. Moreover the name sake led flashes do nothing for landscaping nature pictures. My loss… Maybe next time, But hey – you can only carry so much on a bike !
Packed, strapped the luggage, and headed out after saying the bye byes to the family there.
The last ride for this trip has started, damn !
Very happening day today… Did 200+ kms I think… Super hot day, but the bull didn’t really seem to mind.
Left kasargod at 11am, headed for Agumbe, took a detour to get into kudremukh national park, so turned from mangalore towards Sringeri.
The national park has a 1 hour upper limit for 2 wheelers to cross the 35 km stretch, else you pay a fine ! The beauty of this is that there is a 30 kph speed limit. You don’t need to be a mathematician to figure out that 2 wheelers, on paper, are not allowed to cross the forest, yet they let us in, time stamp a ticket and give it to us, instructing to go at 30kph and cross 35 kms within an hour… Lol !
Forest department – this is a fundamental and shameful mistake that needs to be corrected. Cars get 1.5 hours to cross the stretch.
Anywhoo I wanted to stop somewhere and take pictures, so I was obviously way above the allowed speed limit, to cover time for breaks, and still make the stretch in an hour. Found a track going inside the forest and decided to go in about a km – dense vegetation, but there were muddy road tracks nevertheless.. Took some pictures, and somehow felt that I’m not allowed to be here – there was a yellow board at the entrance, but was in the local language… Forest department – again please take note- if you don’t tell me in English or Hindi not to go somewhere, I will not know ! Anyway, I turned back and headed to the main road, and found another very tempting path going inside, asked someone there and he said you need the forest rangers permission to get inside any of these tracks.
So off I went to the forest rangers office – protected all around with barbed wire and a guy sitting outside surrounded by sacks with a gun in his hand – to ask for permission to go into one of the inroads, take some pictures, and obviously get an extension on my ‘time stamp’.
Once I went in, I was told ‘this is a naxalite area, please hurry up and leave the forest, forget about any such permission’ … So I had to rush out coz there was still 10 kms of forests left and only 14 minutes to go, made it at the last minute, and the moron didn’t even check my time stamp, just took my ticket and let me go…
Once I exited the forest, there was a little suspended bridge over a river, separating the main road from a villlage in the forest, and yes, I was allowed to go there, so off I went, taking pictures everywhere.
Headed back towards my destination, Agumbe. Found a small town just outside the someshwara wildlife sanctuary. Found a beautiful homestay called ‘Dodda Mane’ – a 125 year old huge house, occupied by a family of 4 generations, with room to spare for guests. Asked them for permission to stay, and was welcomed.
This place has a well inside the house with ground water, next to the shower area, has 2 floors, a huge centre open air verandah where people have dinner. On asking them how much they charge, I was told ‘you can pay whatever you wish’ – fancy that ! Anyway, was asked to freshen up, got a home made herbed juice or something, and asked to go visit a sunset point 2 kms away – lovely place showing s beautiful view of the forest below and the sun setting ahead.
Also, No cellphone signal here at all ! So this post will be posted after I leave from here tomorrow morning.
The place is surrounded by forests on all 4 sides, and they get visitors from all over the place, who come, see the house (free admission) and leave. Some decide to stay and get to decide how much to pay as well.
They have maintained the house fairly well for its age, and in the evening the whole crowd sits outside… Family as well as house guests, chit chatting with each other. As of now everybody is wondering what to pay them tomorrow, since nobody has been here before. Almost 15 house guests.
Thanks to Santosh for mentioning this place ! Love it ! It’s a pure vegetarian family, but that doesn’t bother me much, the food was great – traditional, served on a banana leaf.
Decided to take the bike out for a night ride… Did a few kms and came back- nothing worthwhile at night.
Crashing now, headed for sunrise point 17 kms from here at 530 am. Sleeping at 10pm, That’s a new feeling !
Will post this and the pictures tomorrow after I reach a place which has cellphone reception.
Ok so… A major ‘popat’ happened at that wildlife sanctuary, went in, covered half the route of 20 Kms, and all was hunky dory, so turned back, nothing, went back in deeper, still nothing…spent almost 2 hours in there, but no fog, no nothing…. !!
Did find a small signboard leading to a temple 1 km deep into the woods.. A super steep mountain terrain covered in slush and dry leaves… So I thought, maybe here is my adventure, started the ascent in my bike, went 100 meters, got scared (of the terrain) and turned back to the main road. Then again thought, what the heck, might as well… Went back on that track, covered 500 meters this time, but it was way way too much for even a 4 x 4.. So turned back with great difficulty and started the downhill roll… Was very difficult handling the bike during this time ! Tougher than the climb…
Anyway, reached the main road, happy about something at least on that stretch… You will see this terrain in the picture… Shows covered with leaves but it’s what under the leaves that’s terrifying… Slush and big rolly boulders, leading to zero traction on the bike.
Entered Kerala state, reached kasargod, with no major trouble, except I slipped (while standing next to the bike) and no, I was not drunk smile emoticon hit my foot on the bike stand , and bruised a little.. This is after I came out of the wildlife sanctuary. I guess gods way of saying… You wanted excitement ? Here it is!
Anywhooo.. No rooms available anywhere being a long weekend and all (why can’t people just stay at home on long weekends ??)
When I was about to give up and had come to terms with the fact that I might have to ride all night, found a decent hotel, and checked in.. It’s twice the cost of the previous one, but they additionally have shampoo and conditioner in the bathroom (must be a really really expensive shampoo .. )
260 Kms today.. Me like !
Freshened up, wiped the helmet visor of all the butterflies ‘splattered’ on it, had dinner, and now going to crash… Check out the pictures !
Those of who have bikes as well as cars and do long drives in both will know what I am talking about here…
When the roads are good, and so is the weather, you will be super happy on your bike – better than any experience a car can give to you. change the equation a bit, and obviously you will want to be sitting in your car with the air conditioning blowing away, the car absorbing 90% of the potholes, and passing 10% impact on to you. The difference though is that when you take your car on such roads, you can hear it screaming – ‘please just get me off of this road!’ On a bike however, all you hear from the bike is… ‘I double dare you… Let’s continue on this road, I can handle it, you can’t, I’ll just pass on 90% of the impact to you ! ‘
And it does this so beautifully, that you only blame the road, not the limited shock absorption capabilities of a two wheeler.
Another thing I’ve noticed before, and it was very prominent this time on mountainous roads —
If you are on a bullet and your brakes are on the right side…( they have switched this and the gear left location more than a few times in the past 20 years ),
When you bank while turning towards the right side, your brake pedal hits the road, which means you cannot be pushing down on the rear brakes while turning, which also means your approach speed to the curve should be calculated precisely and within milliseconds or you end up going off road – not a good thing on the mountainside ! This calculation needs to be done on every second turn, and winding roads in the mountains mean your mind is very busy at all times..
Somewhere along the way I checked my engine oil since the bike was running warmer than usual and I found out I was again out of engine oil … Faced this On my last trip so I was wise enough to carry a spare liter with me. Topped up and continued on my way.
Today’s plan was to reach kasargod ( thanks Santosh vaidyanathan for the route ) and I insisted and put another destination in between. There is a story behind that as well. Some of you who read my last years post would probably remember the spooky jungle. After that I had taken another trip and not written about it, where I covered another area (5 times spookier) called talacauvery sanctuary and this was in October 2014 … There was road visibility of 15 inches at the worst point, and one meter at the best point. I was literally walking the bike in the dark, the headlight seemed like a tiny little flashlight, had to stop every dew minutes, to wipe off the fog from my helmet visor as well as from glasses and my eyes, and I did this for 20 Kms – seemed like a hundred. Took me a little more than three hours that day.
So this time I wanted to do that same route again, late evening.
So as of now, parked outside that forest, waiting for it to get a little dark, and do that stretch again… It’s almost like a dare for me…. Want to revisit the road that sent me scurrying off last time with my tail tucked between my legs… Much more prepared this time – 2 flashlights, 1 blinker, 2 phones with 70% charge ( not that the will be a signal anyway, but hell, I can use them as a flashlight, iPad and a fully charged power bank.
Let’s just hope ‘mera popat nahin ho jaye’ and I don’t just find a regular 20 km road without adventure this time. For those of you who couldn’t decipher the previous sentence, sorry I couldn’t put it in a better way or in another language – it loses its meaning that way.
Will update with pictures late night tonight after I reach kasargod. Almost time to start the dare trip ! Will post again only after I finally reach kasargod though, so keep your fingers crossed until then !
Unbelievable how the day goes by when you are riding!
All roads are Tollfree for bikes ! I love this place… Managed to get quite a lot of ‘payback’ of tolls that I’ve paid while driving in the car on highways.
Fingertips still numb after 425 Kms of riding. Backend sore already… Need air cushion or gel based seat padding !! After 300 Kms, Checked in to a local lodge at sakleshpur, wolfed down some lunch, didn’t want to waste the rest of the day, so took off to pushpagiri, a very neat ride up in the mountains, thanks to google maps, cos most locals didn’t know the place or maybe I was just pronouncing it incorrectly.
The Google phone battery isn’t as reliable though, (neither is the extra power bank) died with all the pictures and location searches. Had to manage in the middle of nowhere using sign language and super-broken knowledge of the local dialect to find my way around… Was fun though! Got a déjà vu feeling in many places even though it was my first time on this route. Gave someone a ride for 3 Kms and he wouldn’t let me go till I had a coke with him – his treat … How thoughtful !
The roads were in bad shape and a pretty steep climb, but the bullet chugged along to its destination effortlessly. It was me who needed a break every now and then!
Came back to sakleshpur after the phase 2 – 125 km ride, grabbed some dinner and ‘liquid carbs’… Drained now! Sharing some pictures, all in all a very tiring yet refreshing 425 Kms! Tomorrow it’s time to head to the coast line through the forests and ghats, planning for a short 200 km ride. Will do a probable route map to it and get some well earned sleep !
