Our 2nd Annual Ride covering Namma Karnataka for 8 days from ( 24 Dec - 31 Dec 2010)
The day we started our biking, we decided that we do one annual ride every year so that we pack all the things and hit the road for minimum 10 days completely out of technology. Everyone was very clear that we need to cover NAMMA Karnataka and I was very particular that we cover the Western Ghats of Karnataka. Finally it was just 3 guys who were finalized and it was a small nice team. Trust me, anytime hitting Western Ghats road is an amazing experience and need to be felt. Here is the route map covered
Day1 : Bangalore – Hassan – Chikmagalur – Agumbe – Kundapur
Day2 : Kundapur – Kollur – Kodachadri Ranges – Sagar
Day 3 : Sagar – Jogfalls – Sirsi – Dandeli
Day 4 : Dandeli – karwar – Ankola – Kumta – All Konkan Stretch
Day 5 : Visited Gokarna and OM Beach
Day6 : Covering the Konkan Road, Rode all the way to Mangalore Via Bhatkal, Kundapur and Udupi
Day 7 : Mangalore – Sakleshpur – Hassan – Bangalore
Team : Myself, Aditya and Rajesh Dhingaran
Bikes : [Me on my Thunderbird] [Aditya on Machismo] [Rajesh on Bullet Electra]
Iam sure you would envy seeing the route map and no wonder this is one of the best route I had hit with my bike, especially Kodachadri was risky and was amazing. My ride was completely covered with Sceneries, Water Falls, Forests and Obviously bad roads of Karnataka. Here is quick narration of the incidents and let me make it short and nice one.
At Nelamangala Toll - Myself and Rajesh Dhingaran
Day 1 : As per the plan, we 3 guys met at Nelamangala toll sharp at 6.00AM on 24th Dec 2010. We had geared up and were a perfect bikers on the road with full protection, saddle bags hanging on either side. We started our journey with a thump and started riding towards Hassan, since it was winter there was too much of mist and we could not see anything. Somehow we continued with our Journey further and realized it’s going to be too risky because the mist was too much and hardly we could see anything. We decided to take a break till Sun comes out, once the mist got clear we continued with our journey and we were maintaining a constant speed of around 80Kmph. We ensured that we don’t rip in the first day because we have lots of days to cover. We stopped at Channarayapatna for Breakfast and I realized my bike started giving problems. There was oil leaks and I got it rectified at Hassan, since it was taking time at Hassan to get my bike repaired, we decided to have lunch at Hassan. Our target was to reach to Kundapur or Kollur for the first day stay. We continued our Journey covering Chickmagalur, Sringeri, Agumbe and finally we reached Kundapur late in the evening. We were completely exhausted because we happened to cover almost 450 Kms and desperately wanted to have a nice drink and rest. We took a lavish hotel and Prithvi (our friend who was in Kundapur) joined us for drink on that day. Had a good time and it was a tremendous start.
Highway to Belur
Chickmagalur - Scenic Route
View of Agumbe Forest - Ghat Roads
Day 2 : We started early morning and our plan was to visit Kollur MoogambikaTemple. We reached around 8.00AM to the temple and had a good Darshan of goddess Moogambika, we spent some time in Kollur Temple relaxing ourselves. Now our plan was to hit Kodachadri and was excited about it, because I was very particular to cover this range. We started riding towards Kodachadri and on the way we passed through Moogambika Forest, Nagodi and Nittur. It was very scenic and we enjoyed the ride with lots of snaps. After Nittur, the roads were horrible and at some place it was so isolated, we were thinking to ride back. As usual I started pushing my guys that we go further what ever happens and finally we reached Kodachadri basement. If you wanted to reach Kodachadri top, you cannot go in our own vehicle and only 4 wheel drive Jeeps can go. We decided that we take our bullets and ride uphill, there was no roads and it was loose sand. It was nightmare ride for us and once we reached top, it was a wonderful scenary. Adi had a fall and we decided that we go back as there was nothing more to cover because we were already on the top. We reached the basement of Kodachadri in the afternoon and we were brownish with full sands on our body. But Kodachadri was one of the best experience. We started driving towards Sagar and on the way we happened to reach a dead end with big Linganamakki lake. We happened to ferry the bullets in the boat and reached the other end of the shore. Then we rode towards Sagar and there were no roads for next 15 kms, it was horrible and atlast we reached Sagar in the evening. Guys decided that we return home and cannot ride in these kind of road. Once again I need to push them to continue further and we skipped Hampi which was in our ride circuit.
Kollur Entrance
Moogambika Forest - On the way to Kodachadri
Road to Kodachadri - Muddy Road
View of Kodachadri Ranges
Linganamakki Lake
Day 3 : Our Plan was to visit Jog Falls and then reach Dandeli. We left early morning and visited Jog falls which was really good, but unfortunately there were not much water. The roads to Jog falls were too good and hardly we spent time in Jog. We continued to take the state highway passing through Sirsi and it was good road. We reached Dandeli in the evening and on the way we happened to visit a forest guards who was in the mid of forest. They offered to stay along with them and it would have been a different experience if we would have stayed there. But since we were so tired, we wanted to have some good food and rest, so we went looking for forest lodges, luckily we got accommodation in Phansoli Nisargadhama.
Mighty Jog Falls
Dandeli Forest Route
Day 4 : Early morning I got up and I wanted to go for Forest trek. I took the help of guide and started trekking in the forest early morning 6.00AM. Rajesh and Adi did not join, because they are not interested in Trek. As I started walking deep inside the forest, I was scared because it was too dense and I was worried about snakes. At some point I said to my guide that lets go back, since it was just 2 people and it was not safe to continue further. But this was one of experience and forest look was thick and dense compared to Mudumalai and Badipur.
My Trek in to the forest
Our Team - Rajesh Dhingaran, Myself in Middle and Aditya
We started our journey at around 10.00AM and our target was to hit Konkan road. We moved towards karwar and on the way there is stretch of 20KMs near Anshi which is horrible road. Our Bikes got a good beating and we could not go more than 10KMPH. Atlast we reached karwar and hit the Konkan road. Here with Arabian Sea on one side and mountains on the other side, Konkan stretch was amazing road to ride. After hitting the highway, we started to rip was were riding at good speeds and at one place before kumta, Aditya was hit by a Innova while overtaking he was hurt. Also his bike was damaged and we got really scared. Luckily, there were minor injuries and we wanted to take rest and wanted to get his Bike repaired. We slowly continued further and we stayed at place called Kumta. We gave the bike for repair and took accommodation in Kamat and stayed there.
Bad Roads near Anshi - On the way to karwar
Beautiful Konkan Stretch
Day 5 : Since we did not have bike, I did not wanted to waste the day and wanted to cover surrounding places. So we decided to visit Gokarna Temple and OM beach. We visited these places and Temple was too good and ride to OM beach was very nice. The name OM beach was given because the beach shore has a symbol of OM.
OM Beach - Symbol of OM
Day 6 : we got the bike repaired and we wanted to reach Mangalore. We continued our ride on the Konkan Highway and it was good road except for some stretch near Bhatkal. The scenaries near Mavanthe Beach was too good. The stretch from Udupi to Mangalore is horrible with too much of traffic and lots of roads construction. Atlast we reached Managalore at around 5.00PM and took a 3 star hotel. Relaxed there and went around Managalore during evening.
Marvanthe Beach
Day 7 : According to our plan, we were supposed to cover Nagarhole on Day 7 and stay at Madikeri. Since Adi was hurt, we decided to cancel that route and they wanted to take rest. I did not want to relax when Iam on ride, so I rode alone to Moodabidri and visited the 1000 pillar temple. From there went to Udupi and spent good time at Malpe beach in the evening. Later went to Mangalore in the night and joined the guys for a dinner
Moodabidri 1000 Pillar Temple
Malpe Beach
Day 8 : Day to ride back to Bangalore. We started very early at around 7.00AM and it was a good stretch till Sakleshpur. The Ghat road in Sakleshpur was horrible and we managed to ride continuously. Finally we reached Bangalore and home at 6.00PM.
Overall it was a nice ride, but due to some incidents we happened to change the plans. Anytime covering Karnataka is a wonderful experience. These experience would be still better if Roads are too good and if government promotes tourism at higher level. Looking forward for the next annual ride.
