Archive for category: 1470 kms

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..

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.

 

 

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 !