Bangalore – Ramanagaram – Channapatna – Maddur – Mandya – Srirangapatnam - Mysore – Nanjangud – Gundlupet – Hangala – Bandipur (halt) – Madhumalai – H. Gopalaswamy betta – Bangalore
This was a just a sudden decision to go some nearby place just for a drive. Mostly we have covered the nearby places.we decided to go to Bandipur, Also I thought this is the right weather to go to a jungle. Called up MC Resorts and lucky got a cottage there. We planned to leave on 5AM next day so I was forced to go to bed at midnight.
25th Aug, 2007 (Sat): We get up at 4AM and find that it is raining outside and no power in the house. Well in all this frustration, it was already 4:30AM and bingo, the power came back. I jumped out of bed.
We start at about 5:10AM, reached OMR Shell pump at 5:25AM, did a tankfull, set the trip meter to zero and proceeded towards Mysore Road. Weather was excellent but when we reached Mysore Road Flyover after Corporation Circle, it started to rain heavily and I was enjoying the drive. Soon I was doing 90-100kmph speeds and never felt any change in grip, Thanks to my Michelins, cornering and aquaplaning has increased a lot compared to my stock tyres.Soon we passed the ORR and on the empty stretch after Kengeri, I started to hit 110-120kmph. My initial decision was to halt for Breakfast at Kamat Madhavan on NH212 at Mysore but soon we were feeling hunger near Gabbar Hills. Finally we decided lets stop in Kamat Lokaruchi itself. I slowed down the car and tried my level best to reach Kamat by 7AM but we reached there by 6:45AM.After gulping hot chai, hot idli-vadas for breakfast. We started the journey again at 7:45AM. As the road was empty, car started to touch 120kmph again.
It was really hard to keep the speed below 100kmph, no matter how much I tried to slow things down, car simply didn’t want to slow. It was 9AM and we were passing Srirangapatnam and soon on the ring road signal at Mysore.I decided to go through Mysore and have a glimpse of the palace as well. Within 15 min we were on NH212 to Nanjangud, had a glimpse of the Palace. Road and weather was excellent so far. On the Mysore to Nanjangud stretch there was a increase in traffic flow. In addition there was occasional bad patches.Still we easily passed Nanjangud by 9:30AM. Now we were into a beautiful stretch of road and the car was touching 90kmph again. Now I slowed down and tried to enjoy the drive. Soon we reached a nice sunflower field and stopped there, had some chips and did some photography. Finally by 10:15AM we reached Gundlupet and onto the Ooty road. The normal road takes a right turn towards Wayanad.
Bad Stretch: The next 10km from here to Hangala village was pretty bad and it took us 15min to cross it. After Hangala the road is excellent and newly laid and with huge trees on either side.Finally we reached MC Resort at 10:35AM. It was the last resort before entering the Bandipur National park. After all those checkin formalities we had a nice lunch in the cottage restaurant of roti, chicken curry, dal, omlette starting with Lemon Soda. We ate so much that we slept till 3PM. Finally woke up and decided to take a drive towards Masinagudi.We start at 4PM, entered Bandipur national Park, saw some deer, peacocks and some nice scenic view till we reached TN border. There is a bridge which is the state boundary. Other side the jungle is Madhumalai. On reaching Madhumalai, straight road goes to Gudalur, we took left onto the single track bridge which takes to Masinagudi.
Spotted a Leopard: We drove down another 3-4km of the single track and inside the dense forest, finally decided to head back, somehow managed to reverse the car and stood for some photoshoot. Soon I could spot something at about 100m inside. It is a leopard, at the same time an innova stopped and we tried to take pics of the big cat. Me and another guy somehow climbed the roadside cliff and tried to take a nice shot. We were indeed lucky that we could spot the cat.
After some nice photo shoots inside the jungle both in TN and KN side we drove out to Pugmark restaurant of Jungle Lodges for chai and snacks. Spent a nice one hour there and drive back to our resort by 7PM. The resort packed with cars and people, some group was also starting bonfire and it was indeed an excellent atmosphere. Soon a herd of deer’s came grazing into the resort and it was a site to watch. The resort owner was also telling that leopard had killed one of their four cows 4 months back and he ate it for 8 days. He also showed us the pic of the leopard eating the cow which he displayed in reception.After a nice evening, we had dinner with roti, egg-burgi, sabji and retired to bed by 10:30PM.26th Aug, 2007 (Sun): After a nice sleep, we went for a stroll around the resort and did some photography. Finally packed up our stuffs, had a nice bath, had our breakfast and checked out the resort by 8:30AM. This time we were heading towards the highest peak of Bandipur called as Himavad Gopalaswamy Hills (Betta as they call in Kannada).
At Hangala village, there is a left turn (right turn if you are coming from Gundlupet) where you enter an arch. Another 10km of scenic drive plus some nice gradient where I had to put in 1st and 2nd gears, we reached the top, where the temple is situated. Maan, it was breathtaking view from the top. I never imagined that this will be so beautiful. We visited the temple and took lots of pics and then started our last leg of the journey.
Slowly and stopping at various viewpoints during the descent we finally started the return journey by 10:45AM. This time I was doing nice speeds and within no time I was in Mysore and this time I decided to take the ring road. Although the road was deserted but I had to do 22km of ring road to reach the SH17 signal. I think we should always drive through Mysore unless you are in a peak traffic hour in Mysore. In the morning we took just 10-15min to reach NH212 from ring road signal.Now we were in Mysore road and my car was touching 120kmph again. I decided to try out Indradhanush for lunch. We reached there by 1PM. Indradhanush and CCD are in the same compound just after Maddur. I really liked the food there. We had some really good paneer masala and tandoori roti alongwith dal for lunch. I would suggest people to try out this place for non thali stuffs (and North India stuffs) and go to Lokaruchi for North Karnataka thalis.We started from there at 2PM and reached home by 4PM including one hour in Bangalore itself. Also filled the tank at Mysore Road Shell. I was shocked to see the car returned the best trip mileage so far.
It returned 17kmpl.Probably I used AC only from Indra dhanush to Bangalore (last 75km) and didn’t push the car much like I do in my other trips.
Total distance from home to home: 526km.
Signing Off
Vijay
