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Tripometer- 470 km in 15 hours
Saturday 8-May-2010. My friend and I decided we would visit BR hills. We woke up early and got ready. By 5 AM we were on the road riding the majestic bull. We topped up the fuel tank and were ready for the trip.
The Route: Bangalore- Kanakapura- Malavalli- Kollegal- Yellandur- BR Hills- K. Gudi- Chamarajnagar- Mysore- Bangalore
We hit the road and it played along, providing us with scanty traffic. We made good of it and stuck at 80 kmph as much as possible. The road till Kanakapura is good. There are some speed breakers that really break your speed. 
The road from Kanakapura to Malavalli is good too. On the way, we came across a reservoir. Do not know what it is called, but it is a very nice place to just spend some time. Took a couple of pictures here before moving on.
We passed Malavalli and pushed on to Kollegal. On the way, we kept seeing diversions to Talakad, and other places. At one point we saw some directions stating that Barachuki was 7 km from there. (For the ignorant)- Barachuki and Gaganachuki are two falls about 2 km apart. You can take a dip at Barachuki, but not at Gaganachuki.
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We gave it a minute’s thought and decided to check it out. So we went to the falls. The road is ok with some patches of bad roads. The Barachuki falls is quite a good place. “Good Stuff is hard to come by” is true about this place as it presents you with a really steep climb down. We climbed down, took some pictures and left as we had not gone prepared for a dip. We hit the road again.
The road to Kollegal was good. Beyond Kollegal is where it all starts. We took the road to Yellandur. The roads are being repaired and so a lot of stretches are not easy to ride on. Had to stick to 40-50 kmph. We kept at it and after a trying ride on loose gravel, and muddy roads, we reached the hills.
The roads became better and we started enjoying the ride through the forest. There are quite a few viewing points along the way. The distance to the top from the foot hills is about 32 km. There is a board that welcomes you to the hills. This leg is a good ride. We stopped for breakfast on the way.
Once at the top, we decided against visting the temple. So we just went around and inquired of places to visit. We quickly learnt that there are few places apart from the temple. So we moved on to K. Gudi. I would recommend this ride to anyone who just wants to enjoy nature as it should be- almost… though. The road is good but narrow. 
We are not supposed to stop anywhere on the road because it is a “wildlife zone”. I wish we could. It would be so nice to just turn the engines off and sit around listening to the “silence” of the forest. We reached K. Gudi.
There is a Forest Guest house, for those who want to stay. It costs about 800 for a single bed and 1700 for a double. There is another place to stay run by the Jungles Lodges and Resorts (we did not inquire about it). They arrange safaris too. We decided to move on and took the route to Chamarajnar. I would advice against taking this route.
Chamarajnagar is about 28 km from K. Gudi and the road is horrible. We figured we could at least enjoy the forest, but we were disappointed that we were out of the forest bounds within 10 km. It was NOT worth it. We wished we had taken the route back to BR hills and then the way we came.
Till near Chamarajnagar the road is bad. Work has been started, but dunno how long before we can see some decent roads. At Chamarajnagar, we stopped for a while. We had reached a junction where the roads to Bangalore and Mysore diverge. Like the cross roads in life we were pondering which way to go. We finally decided to go to Mysore.
The road is not all that great, but you can ride at 60-70 kmph. When we reached Mysore, we contemplated on visiting a friend, but when we called him, (as it always happens) his mobile seemed to be switched off. So pushed on to Bangalore (asking directions every now and then. We were set upon the ring road by a passer by and the road never seemed to end. I guess we should have taken the route through the city.
As soon as we got out of Mysore, we had lunch at one of the several Punjabi Dhabas that dot the highway. We ordered Chicken Biriyani (to make no delay and be on our way asap). What they served us, was a hybrid of some chicken curry without the gravy and some fried rice. It was bad but we were hungry and so gulped down as much as we could and left. At Mandya, we visited a friend. He was very kind enough to provide us with some snacks and some refreshing juice. Spent about an hour chatting. Happy that we were refreshed and our bottoms were rested sufficiently , we started off on the last leg of our journey.
On the way it started raining. We welcomed it as a very pleasant relief from the otherwise scorching heat and continued riding. We did not stop. We had to lower the visor and the visibility fell to about 10-15 mts. We did not stop yet, just slowed down to about 60- 70 kmph. In about 20- 30 mins the rain ceased and we sped up to 80- 90 kmph and covered as much distance we could capitalizing on the good roads and steady flow of traffic, before reaching our very own congested Bangalore.
We inched our way back home, heated up some water, took a shower, changed into clean clothes and rested thanking God for a good and safe ride and reflecting on the highlights.
A paragraph dedicated to the Majestic Thunderbird that so faithfully and carefully carried us and made it memorable. She performed really well. No troubles. She took a really bad beating on the shock absorbers though, but did not let us know of it. I am pretty sure she has given us 40+ kmpl, and that is wonderful. The ride was comfy. Even at the end of the road, we were not very tired. I am very thankful to her and wish she had ears .
Another weekend gone by. Another ride that will remain in our minds. We are already making plans for the next ride and we are looking forward to it.
Great unplanned trip!
This weekend started with a lazy morning. As we were lazing around, we hit upon a plan and decided to ride to Dharmapuri, Tamilnadu to visit a friend.
We took the Highway Bangalore-Hosur-Krishnagiri-Dharmapuri. It was damn hot. We were riding in the afternoon. We had to face the scorching heat from the sun, the road, the trucks and the rocky hills. It was tough but we pressed on. We found a stream (more of a canal) and washed our faces and poured some water on our heads. We reached Dharmapuri at 3:30. We met our friend and spent time with him. The actual plan was, to return to bangalore the same day.
Suddenly it struck me that there had to be a shortcut from Dharmapuri to Mysore, through forests. Opened google maps and found the route. It did not give the details of the road, but we decided to risk it. Made notes of the towns along the route and slept.
The route: Dharmapuri-Pennagaram-Podur-Anchetty-Kodihalli-Kanakapura-Bangalore (About 200 km. But will take quite sometime, as most of the journey you have narrow and winding roads)
We left at 6 AM. Reached Pennagaram and started asking for directions (Ask for Podur, or you will miss it). People advised against taking the Podur route. They said the roads were not all that good . They advised taking the hogenakkal route to Anchetty. We chose forests over highways. So we took the route to Podur. Podur is a small village just off the Pennagaram- Hogenakkal route. Passing Podur, we reached the forest checkpost. They stopped us and asked for details (name, vehicle number, mobile number, where we were coming from and where we were headed). After giving them the details we rode on to a very rarely motored road. The road was tarred. We broke the silence of the forest. It was a little bit scary, with no human beings around. We braved on. There were some bridges that were broken and have not been repaired in years. So we had to ride off-road. It was interesting. It was the first time for both of us, riding alone through the forest. We had to ride at around 40 kmph, since there were so many curves and most of the curves had loose sand on it. As we rode on, we kept looking for animals, birds and reptiles. We started loosing hope, when all of a sudden we saw two deer cross the road. Wow, that was a treat- watching two animals free in the wild. That raised our spirits and we kept moving. We started spotting jungle fowl and other birds. It was amazing.
Soon we reached Anchetty. With that, the most interesting part of the ride was over. The Podur- Anchetty stretch was the best. I am not sure if they have time limits to allowing vehicles through the forest. I feel it will be really nice if we made the trip during the winter. This time, it was dry all around. It may not be advisable to try it during the rains or immediately after the rains (reason: broken bridges).
The rest of the trip was as anyother trip. Once we crossed Kanakpura, the roads widened to that of a state highway. We started topping 80 kmph. We started wishing we got home at the earliest. We reached home by 12:30.
The Royal Enfield Thunderbird Twinspark is the best bike. After 6 hours of riding, on mostly bumpy roads, we were not tired. Wow, what an amazing bike!!
Falling in Love.
Do you know when it starts? Do you know if it is coming? How do you know it is Love? These are some questions running in my mind. I have no answers. I don’t think anyone has definitive answers.
Is it good to be a friend and then fall in love with the friend? Is it wrong to fall in love with a friend? I am not sure. But when you fall in love with a friend do your expectations change? What do you see in the friend? A friend or “your love”?
Is it important to keep your distance? When do you tell your friend that your feelings for him/her has progressed? Is there a particular stage at which you express your new found feelings? Why do you fall in love with a friend? How hard is it to take a no for an answer? How nice is it to get a yes?
What is your life after that? How do you live on- as friends or just partners? How do you treat each other? Do you fight? Do you get bored of your partner soon? Do you ever feel that it was better to have been friends?
A lot of questions, no answers. It will be good to have some thoughts on this.
What’s in a New Year?
A new year is here. 2009..what does it mean to you? the first day is full of wishes..”happy new year’…hand shakes…etc…wishing one and all for a great year ahead.
Resolutions; are they needed? will they be followed? have you made a resolution today? what is it? Do we believe in what we try to do? do you have an action plan for the resolution?
I don’t know how you felt to see a new year dawn..but I did not consider the dawning of this year a big thing. It was almost just another day save for the wishes and the cake.
Well I was on the bus at the start of the new year……at the stroke of midnight….no fireworks to raise my spirits, no family around, no Church service thanking God for the past year and praising God for the new year, just a couple of phone calls, a short prayer for health and safety, and a bus full of tired and snoring passengers, lying asleep in oblivion to the new dawn. I was travelling to bangalore from my home town- Karur. I am going to work today. I work at a KPO in Bangalore- Getfriday.
Anyway here is a new year- 2009 and with that..are you the same old person or striving to show the new face around? Whatever the decision, it is upto you to make this world a better place to live in. We all want it to be a peaceful world, but are we living upto it? Don’t we get angry at the slightest mistake? Worse- don’t we tend to erupt at the slightest anger? Won’t it be better if we just practice harmony, love, forgiveness and grace. Think and act.
Have a fulfilling new year. God Bless you and your family.
A strange thing
Today I went to my friend’s home in Hosur. Sunday 14th Dec.
We arrived this morning. We slept for most of the morning, as I had worked last night. We watched small parts of the movies “The Impostors” and a documentary “the Real Eve”.
The Real eve is a documentary proving or atleast trying to prove that the real eve was from Africa and we are all linked to her. Now you may wonder how they come to such a conclusion. The answer is a very very tiny part of each one of us- the Mitochondrial DNA. It had to do with the mutations in the DNA. Well it was full of scientific stuff- and I could not follow very well, inspite of my Biotech education (B.Sc. Zoology-Spl Biotech).
Then in the evening my friend and I went to a Carol service. Did I mention that I am a Christian? Ok so we went to a packed church and ended standing outside- Crooning and craning to get a view of the choirs displaying their wares. Everything was normal till-there came a procession of Muslims. I honestly do not know what it was for but I kept watching the procession when they were still quite a far way off. There were drums and other music and they were approaching, just as a choir was taking center stage. I was wondering what was going to happen- if they were going to step up the music and silence the choir that was ready. . .
This is where I saw the strange thing. I watched- side by side- the choir and the procession, keeping my fingers crossed. The choir began singing the first song…. the procession approached. All of a sudden someone that was leading the procession turned around and asked the band to stop playing, and the singers to stop singing, signalling the church ahead. The procession fell silent and as they moved slowly past the Church, as the sound of the generator hummed to the song of the coir. I was really impressed by the little deed and it has left a mark in me. I salute the group.
Islam truly means Peace!!
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