chikmagalur-Belur-Halebid

Hola Folks

Back after a wonderful sojourn at chikmagalur.The trip was well planned in advance,albeit however things dint look rosy a few days before the travel date. Work as usual started playing spoilsport and I somehow managed to get outta the hustle and do the trip.

The whole idea was to celebrate my 1st wedding anniversary away from home. I was so lost and engrossed with work that I even went ahead and posted my confirmation for the Yelagiri Drive. Only later did I realize my blunder while I was talking to my better half about the drive dates . Uugghh !!!

I wanted this whole trip plan to be a complete surprise, since my better half always wanted to see Chikmagalur and thought what better gift for our 1st anniversary. A week before the trip, the whole scene was uncovered. There goes my surprise through the window, its pretty tough to keep surprises under wraps when you are married and live under the same roof.I am sure the married folks here can agree.

My bookings were done well in advance at Nature Craft Homestay in Chikmagalur. The plan was simple, visit as many places possible and catch up with a few old friends from Hassan.

Day 1 : 06-Dec-08

Route Taken : Bangalore--Nelamangala--Chennarayapattana--Hassan--Belur--Chikmagalur. ( roughly about 240kms)


Am sure everyone knows this route and the road conditions too well.
Left Bangalore only by 7:00am and a blessing is disguise was that petrol prices had reduced by Rs5 ? Surprisingly most IOC bunks along the route aint selling normal petrol " only Xtra Premium is available saar " was the common response. I tanked up at IOC before the Nelamangala Cross.

Took me 3 hrs to reach hassan and speeds hovered around 80-90kmph, sedate eh?

For those traveling along this route the best bet for breakfast is Kamat at Chennarayapattana, else try Venkatesh's hotel for the yummy Ghee Dosa's its famous for. Am sure most of you chaps who travel regularly on this route would know this place.
Its on the same road as Malnad College of Engineering. This was my 1st stop for breakfast and my bro-in-law with his friends caught up with us here. I too tanked up my grumbling belly with dosa's only to realize I was already feeling sleepy.

Its only 11:30am and my bro-in-law tells gives us the idea of checking out the Windmills around hassan. There are 40 odd such Windmills in Hassan to harness Wind Energy and convert the same to electicity.

Wifey gave a go and zoom we were off on the Hassan - Halebidu road to check out this magnificient thingy.
We visited the mountain rite after the MAster Control Facility of ISRO in Hassan ( Master Control Facility (ISRO) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).

Please ensure you don't pull your cam's or bazooka's around the MCF. If they ever spot you pulling your camera out , before you realize you will have someone pointing a gun at your face.

I was informed well in advance and realized the magnitude of the warning only when we saw the number of gun weilding chaps along the towers.

The approach road is nothing short of an OTR track once you deviate from the Hassan-Halebidu road.So watch out and drive carefully if you plan to visit this place and forgot doing this place if in case it rains.

On flat dry surfaces there was absolutely no traction with the S-drives, all that the car would do was wheel spin.

Am posting a few pics, was in half the mind to pull my camera and shoot since the place was that full of dust.Dint even bother to change the lense coz of the dust factor.

The car was all dirty and we had to send it for a wash in one of the service stations in hassan before we could continue our drive. Me and wifey headed over to her friends house while my bro-in-law got the car washed.

It was 3pm now and I get a call from Ansar at Nature Craft asking us when we would reach chikmagalur. My bad, I had informed Ansar that we would join them for lunch which apparently dint happen.A few aplogies and then we decided to leave Hassan and head to chikmagalur.

Hit the hassan - belur highway and was in for a complete surprise. Excellent road and what more, I did a top whack of 180+ (as per speedo) on this road GPS showed 177kmph.

Flat 40 mins we are in chikmagalur . Call up Ansar and we are guided to his place, which methinks is the closest homestay to Chikmagalur town. Ask for some snacks since we missed lunch and we are served hot kebabs with coffee. Dont ask me anything about the combo, it tasted yummy.

For the rest of the evening we did nothing much other than spending some quality time with Ansar and his his family. Dinner was served at 9pm and hell Ansar's mom cooks really well. The taste of the chicken biriyani served during the 1st night still lingers on my tongue.

I fell asleep by 10pm and so did wifey.

Day 2 : 7-Dec-08

Wake up by about 7am and get myself a bed coffee and damn its chilly out in the woods here. I take a stroll only to realize my toes are going numb. Well where in bangalore would you get to experience such a thing, I continue my walk through their estate.

Todays agenda is to visit Kemmungundi and Hebbe falls. My bro-in-law is joining us at 10am with his friend for the drive. Meanwhile me and wifey spend time with Ansar's family and have a lovely breakfast. Apparently the boys enroute have had a flat tyre and are getting it fixed in Belur. Its already 11am and am already going bonkers waiting endlessly.

11:30 am they arrive and we ask Ansar as to whats the best route to do Kemmungundi. We are asked to take the road towards Tarikere and then deviate at Lingadahalli towards Kemmungundi.

Reason the 51kms of road from Chikmagalur via Mullayangiri and Bababudangiri towards Kemmungundi is in shambles.

Route taken : Chikmagalur--Aralaguppe--Thogarihankal--Lingadahalli and take a left at the Petrol bunk.This detour is easy to spot,simply watch out for the pertol bunk. From here on its 21kms roughly to Kemmungundi.


Roads are excellent till the detour and from there on its a drive via villages for the next 20kms or so.Bad patches here and there so take it easy.Total distance from Chikmagalur is close to 72kms.

For those of you visiting this place, dont waste your time at the Kalahatti water falls, aint worth the time.

We drive thru the winding roads and reach kemmungundi. Mind you these are estate roads and hence watch out for those occasionally speeding MM540's and the Bolero Invader's.

Kemmungundi is a very small town which has hardly anything to offer other than the trails in its mountains. Hebbe is close to 8/9 kms from Kemmungundi, you need to hire a jeep to get to the waterfalls. We hired a jeep from here for 700 bucks (to and fro) to the waterfalls, the deal being we get 90mins at the waterfalls.

All excited we jump into the jeep and we are in for a rough and a bone jarring drive through the mountains.

Let the pictures speak for its self about the terrain.Truly a jeepers and trekkers paradise.

You gotto cross 3 such small streams to get to the waterfalls. This is another 5-10 mins walk from where the jeep drops you off.







We are done visiting the waterfalls and take our drive back since its already getting dark. Back at the waterfalls I saw a group of imbeciles opening up their booze and partying.

Sucha nasty sight to say the least, would these fellas booze and dirty their own houses and backyards ?

I wonder when will our tourist places be rid of such morons, We walk back to our jeep cursing these fellas.

Back at kemmungundi and we order for some hot omlettes. Carry your own food and water when you travel to this place, coz there aint any hotels or shops.
7pm and we reach Lingadahalli cross, only to realize my cars headlamps stop working. There aint any street lights all along this winding ghat roads and yeah all hell broke loose. I barely can see anything, no mobile coverage and not a single soul in sight for the last 5/6 kms.Pull over the car and 3 mins of switching on and off, voilaa the lights come on. Only highbeam seems to work, I drive on apologising to every single passing vehicle for not dimming my lights.

Its 8:30pm by the time we reach Chikmagalur, the boys bid their good byes and are off to hassan.We catch up with some good dinner and retire for the day.

Day 3 : 8-Dec-08

We are up by 6:30 am today and planning what needs to be done for the 2nd half of the day. 1st half is to be spent visiting Mullayanagiri and Bababudangiri back for lunch and then what next ?

My better half wants to see both the peaks with a lot of mist and I know for sure if I did do visit the place with mist around us my blue sky fantasies would go for a toss.I have this fetish for blue skies . The devil in me decides to play spoilsport with my lady's idea of getting to the peak when the mist is still around.

I delay breakfast as much as possible and we leave only by 10am. The drive to Mullayanagiri is lovely and an eye candy for nature lovers minus the bad roads. I cant seem to fathom why our lousie gov' doesnt provide good roads to atleast tourist destinations.

We reach Mullayanagiri and climb the steps to reach the peak. Here you go with some pictures of the place.No PP done apart from adding the frames, most shots processed from RAW to JPEG and posted as is.

We are greeted with this view .





I counted 504 steps , those of you who have counted it please post the exact number.



The temple atop Mullayanagiri


Further on we drive from Mullayanagiri to Bababudangiri and here is what you see.

Couldn't visit the cave in Bababudangiri since it was closed for tourist and there seems have to been some kinda communal problems. We decided to drive on further for another 3/4 kms to see Maanikyadhaara.





We were back at our home stay by 3pm dead tired. Ansar's mom treated us with some excellent chicken kebabs and I slept like a log only to wake up by 6pm.

Later during the evening we took off to Chikmagalur town and got ourselves some coffee powder and the usual mundane shopping. I get back and start washing the car since tomorrow we gotto drive back.

For the 1st time, it gets really cold in Chikmagalur and I never experienced this in the last 2 days. My toes go numb again

Ansar gets back asking me if I could shoot some pics of his homestay and post it on Holiday IQ. I simply obliged and it was an honor.I spent about 45 mins shooting his homestay and go on to have dinner.





Its 10:30pm and we hit the sack, reality as usual starts to sink in. Tomorrow we are back to chaos
.
Day 4 : 09-Dec-08

Overslept and woke up a little late, was already feeling bad that my holiday has come to an end. Everything has been packed the previous night and my car also washed, with a heavy heart we go over to Ansar's house for breakfast.

Its 10am now and time to leave, thats when Ansar's mom offers to give recipes of a few non-veg dishesto my wife. My better half is still a novice when it comes to cooking traditional non-veg dishes. 30mins later we are off , bidding our adieu to their family.

Today 1st stop is at Belur and from there on to Halebidu. Lunch is already planned at Suvarna Regency at Hassan.

Posting pics shot at Belur. Please note the skies were a bit harsh and I had to underexpose most of the pics. The weather playing spoilsport was the main reason. When we left Chikmagalur its all cloudy and all of the sudden the sun is out.












We finish up with Belur and head over to Halebidu. Halebidu is just about 17kms from Belur. The road is pretty well marked and hence no chance of loosing your way. Excellent roads and watch out for those occasional errant drivers/bikers.






I never carried a flash (since I dont have one) hence no pics of the interiors of the temple. I shot a few with my wife's sony cybershot.

From here on we take the road in front of the bus-stand to reach the Hassan-Belur Road. There are 2 routes to reach hassan.
If you take the road in front of the lake, its the same Hassan-Halebidu road which takes you via the MCF.

By about 2pm we are hassan and pull over at Suvarna Regency for lunch. Fill up our grumbling bellies and we are off to Bangalore.

The 1st milestone read 174kms to Bangalore. Wifey buckles up and falls asleep and lets me do my driving. From Chennarayapatna floor the pedal and enjoy the pleasure of revving my beauty to the max.

Simply wanted to test the S-drives and its performance. Managed to sustain speeds of 140kmph on most of the stretches and for company I had a Innova whoz driver had excellent driving skills.

In flat 2 hrs and 30 mins we reach Peenya and from there on it takes us another 1 hour to get home. Beat that !! Therez a huge traffic jam and guess what !! the cops are letting go off the 2 wheelers, autos,buses and cabs stopping 4 wheelers and asking them where are they coming from blah blah.

I am pulled over and I ask the cop whats this whole scene about and response is this that " we are checking vehicles coz of the mumbai scene" . A little lost I still ask him whaaat !! He says " All this coz we need to ensure that terrorists don't enter our City " .
What rubbish !! I go on to reason saying what about the buses and the auto's you just let go ? No response and then goes on to say " hogi neevu" . Me and wife have a good laugh at our so called Police Force and their reasoning.

Am back home by about 6:45 and the odo reads 942kms. Did a quick check of the mileage and the figure was about 15.xx after all the ghat section driving and the redlining I did for the whole trip. Not bad at all for and wifey puts the ball back in my court asking me " Do you really want to sell the car " and here I am back in the same old dilemma .

Thanks all for your time going thru my banter. Have a nice day.

Weekend Travelogue: Bangalore - Pondicherry

Bangalore – Pondicherry (via NH7/NH66) (321 km)Pondicherry – Bangalore (via ECR/SH58/NH46/NH7) (426 km)

This trip was more of a preparation/training trip.We called up hotels/resorts and all were booked or overpriced beyond our budget. My favourite Banyan Beach Resort is closed; St. James only had a suite available. Kailash, Ashok, Ajantha Sea View and Dune were beyond my budget. Finally got a nice guest house near Auroville called GAIA’s Garden with a nice AC cottage with kitchen but only drawback is no food available and it is not near the beach. Anyway the purpose of this trip was more of a long drive with the baby rather than roaming around there. I had already been to Pondi twice before (once by bike and another by PTC Volvo). This was the first occasion that my car will take the road to Pondi.

Day 1 (19th Jul, 2008): Bangalore – Sarjapur - Hosur – Krishnagiri – Uttangarai – Chengam – Thiruvannamalai – Gingee - Tindivanam – Pondi

Sarjapur/SH35 route: At 5:30AM sharp, I set the tripmeter to 0 and started the journey. It was drizzling outside. We crossed DRDO phase II and hit the ORR and slowly reached Bellandur signal and took left and came out at TOTAL MALL on Sarjapur Road. I didn’t push the car and was driving in 60-70kmph range.

This was the first time I will be taking this route as Hosur Road till Attibele is under construction mode. Taking Hosur Road can be a pain anytime now. This route turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Another 15km on Sarjapur Road we reach Sarjapur circle, it is marked right for Attibele and straight for ChikkaTirupati(13km) and Devanahalli(67km). My Tripmeter reads 26km. We took the right turn onto SH35. It was a beautiful 2 laned road and another 9km we reached Attibele junction took left and in 2 km went passed Karnataka border check post. With such leisurely drive we were in Hosur in 1 hour and which I thought was fast and we could not have done that on Hosur Road via Electronic City. It is actually a great route for people coming form North and East Bangalore and even for HSR layout and Koramangala residents as well.Once passed Hosur flyover (which was in repairing mode and not in good shape now) the GQ becomes a dream and my speed starting to hover at 120kmph. I overtook a Zen Estilo and he got personal and started racing with me. A car like Estilo with stock tyres could not take those curves on the Hosur – Krishnagiri stretch which I was taking at 120-130kmph and finally gave up the chase. I must admit that the Michelins in my car do perform very well in rain and corners.It was by 7:15AM and trip reading 72km, when we reached A2B (BPCL Ghar outlet). I did not tankup the car from Bangalore which I always used to do in the previous trips. With the steep fuel price rise I lost my obsession for Shell/Reliance and hence planned to tank up with cheaper fuel in TN and BPCL COCO Ghar outlet was the best point for a refill. We tanked up the car at the Ghar outlet.

This was the first time I will be taking this route as Hosur Road till Attibele is under construction mode. Taking Hosur Road can be a pain anytime now. This route turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Another 15km on Sarjapur Road we reach Sarjapur circle, it is marked right for Attibele and straight for ChikkaTirupati(13km) and Devanahalli(67km). My Tripmeter reads 26km. We took the right turn onto SH35. It was a beautiful 2 laned road and another 9km we reached Attibele junction took left and in 2 km went passed Karnataka border check post. With such leisurely drive we were in Hosur in 1 hour and which I thought was fast and we could not have done that on Hosur Road via Electronic City. It is actually a great route for people coming form North and East Bangalore and even for HSR layout and Koramangala residents as well.Once passed Hosur flyover (which was in repairing mode and not in good shape now) the GQ becomes a dream and my speed starting to hover at 120kmph. I overtook a Zen Estilo and he got personal and started racing with me. A car like Estilo with stock tyres could not take those curves on the Hosur – Krishnagiri stretch which I was taking at 120-130kmph and finally gave up the chase. I must admit that the Michelins in my car do perform very well in rain and corners.It was by 7:15AM and trip reading 72km, when we reached A2B (BPCL Ghar outlet). I did not tankup the car from Bangalore which I always used to do in the previous trips. With the steep fuel price rise I lost my obsession for Shell/Reliance and hence planned to tank up with cheaper fuel in TN and BPCL COCO Ghar outlet was the best point for a refill. We tanked up the car at the Ghar outlet.

In about an hours time we finally got stuck at the Samalpatti Railway crossing. The railgate opened after 15min and immediately after Uttangarai we found that the road was heavily potholed but the good sign was the patchwork was on. It was only about a km of potholed road we reached better roads and our speeds too increased. I could easily do 90-100kmph from Chengam onwards till Thiruvannamalai.

Passing Thiruvannamalai: We reached Thiruvannamalai at 10:30AM. I kept left on the highway till we reach the huge shiva temple in the right side. Once we cross that temple the road is blocked (it is made oneway), we immediately turn left. Actually there is a U turn from road to the highway to Pondi but I took the first right and hit the main road immediately. After about a km we stopped under a tree for about 5min. It was food time for the kid so my wife moved in the rear seat with the baby. Once the navigator seat is stretched forward fully there is enough space in the back to prepare food and feed the kid. By the time it was very hot and it was better to be in AC environs of the car. So I decided to start the journey.

We passed Gingee fort in no time and reached Tindivanam by noon. Took the Tindivanam flyover where NH45 from Chennai meets NH66 at the top of the polo-mint shaped flyover.

We passed Gingee fort in no time and reached Tindivanam by noon. Took the Tindivanam flyover where NH45 from Chennai meets NH66 at the top of the polo-mint shaped flyover.

At 5PM, we decided to check out the beach. We drove down to ECR and went to a nice beach (behind Soorya beach Resort). Spend the evening there until it was sunset. After sunset we drove down to beach road and had nice walk along the road and we drove to the other end as well. The atmosphere was really very good and it was fun enjoying the evening breeze on beach road.During this time we decided to cut short our trip and return the next day. Reason was it was very hot and as planned we wanted to cover Chunnambar Island the next day. With a 6 month old kid in this heat I thought it would not be advisable to do it now. May be sometime later.We had a nice dinner at Soorya Beach Resort before returning back to Cottage by 10PM.Day 2 (20th Jul, 2008): Pondi – Mahabalipuram – Chengalpattu – Kanchipuram – Ranipet - Vellore – Krishnagiri - BangaloreAfter a very nice sleep we woke up at 6AM, packed our belongings, prepared the kid and after a nice shower started from cottage by 8AM. Immediately we took the ECR (East Coast Road) towards Mahabalipuram. Soon realized to tank up the car in Pondi so entered into an IndianOil outlet next to Pondi Engineering Collage and did a tank full. Fuel cost Rs48 at Pondi, a good Rs10 more than Bangalore.

ECR experience: This was the first time I was driving on SH49 (popularly known as ECR) and must say it was truly a great experience. It reminded me of another such 2 laned road, the SH61 (Putalapattu – Tirupati - Naidupet). I was consistently doing 110kmph but I must also add that some of the curves are quite steep and negotiating those in lesser speeds is advisable. They also charged me Rs35 till Mahabalipuram.

We broke off for breakfast at Midway restaurant at about 9:20AM. Although the ambience was ok and their chutneys and ghee roast was fine but the ottapam and chai was poor. Overall the restaurant was much overpriced. We paid Rs110. (chais(Rs30) + Ottapam(Rs35) + GheeDosa (Rs40) + Tax). I expected better taste at that price. It was nowhere compared to the beautiful Kamat chains in Karnataka.

I was speeding very fast and enjoying my maiden ECR drive. It was very hot to say and we were sweating even in the restaurant.

It was 10:30AM when we turned left from ECR near Kalpakkam Township and entered SH58 towards Chengalpattu. This was a nice highway too but with small villages enroute the drive was getting slower. Somehow I managed to reach Chengalpattu by 11PM and took the Kanchipuram route. NH45 passes by Chengalpattu as a flyover at one corner of the town. Chengalpattu to Kanchipuram was a very fast drive. With lesser traffic and better roads I was consistently doing 100-110kmph and reached Kanchipuram outskirts by 11:30PM. I did about 40km in about 30min.

Stuck at Kanchipuram: I knew there was a left turn to hit Vellore road onto GQ from Kanchi but don’t know somehow I missed it and upon asking locals they directed me a wrong road which leads to the GQ on the Chennai side. I lost a good 45min in this jugglery.

I went past Kanchipuram Railway station and in another 4-5km hit the GQ. Not only I lost some kms but in all this process I lost a good one hour. It was 12:30Pm when I hit GQ at Kanchipuram BP. Car started to hit 120-130kmph and also I got an S-Class doing similar speeds and kept on following it. This helped me make up the lost time and did about 95km in the next hour. Vellore and Ranipet passed in no time.Tamil Nadu was baking outside as we were passing Vellore. Lesser traffic also helped maintain the speeds. In no time we passed 2 toll booths and were nearing Vaniyambadi. At Vaniyambadi I had to stop to fill some water from the watertank in the boot. I have been driving nonstop from ECR till now.Qualis at 140: I was doing 120kmph after the Vellore BP. Suddenly I see this Qualis overtaking me. I was amazed the way it took off. I am sure it was doing atleast 140kmph speeds with 5-6 people inside. It was surprising to me as I never expected Qualis to attain those speeds.I had to stop after Krishnagiri Toll booth for baby change over session. I calculated the distance was amazed that I covered 210km in 2hr 15min which also included 3 minor stopovers at Toll booths and a 5min break to fill water. Thanks for the amazing GQ we could cover such distance so fast.After that the drive was regular and we reached Attibele by 3:20PM. Took a right turn and reached home in another one hour.

Total tripmeter read 426 km.

About the Car: We covered 765km in 2 days and the car returned 15+ kmpl approx. (need to check the exact mileage after a tankfull here) with about 90%AC usage.

Signing Off

Vijay

Bangalore - Calicut - Bangalore

It’s been 2 months and the car has done some 3.5 k Kms on odo and so far so good.

Recently (last weekend) took her for a drive from Bangalore to Calicut some 370 Kms away and then things fall into perspective. I hate to drive it in Bangalore, its choppy ride along with the mental agony of having fellow bangloreans who can’t keep there brake levers, rear view mirrors and all sorts of gadgets they carry in hand away from the car.

Started of 8 am from Indira nagar, to avoid the traffic on the Mysore rd, took around 1 hour for both the cars (esteem on tag) to reach the out skirts of the city. And then the roads opened up a lil, and yeah baby yeah I started pressing the accelerator pedal harder n harder.

First break Kamat hotel on the Mysore highway (80kms from Bangalore), good clean food and some caffeine to beat the previous nights outing with whisky. Burrrp and I lead and just before Mysore huge traffic block, took the service road (katcha) and yeah this car is for all this alright! Took a deviation down hill, slip slide into a village road, pass through some narrow village galis and fields (yes barren field) jump the small culvert and back on tarmac. Lucky the traffic pile up hasn’t reached that long on the other end.

If u can find the sign board


hung over u will see horses


Forgot to mention, the ground clearance is not that great and scraped the foot board on rt side while getting down from the service road to katcha village road, lucky no damage apart from soft soil stick on the foot board.

Well esteem and that too with professional driver couldn’t take the risk and was left behind by 20 mts, new bypass for Mysore and well time to warm up the car with the twisties; yup it rolls, but yup can manage also.

Caution rear seat passengers better belt up or be prepared to have the feel of soft carpeting on there butts during hard braking, I had quick learners as passengers (bro’s driver n cousin) at the rear and they immediately belted up after the first braking fiasco, trying to overtake a qualis and tucking behind a truck and the good ol state transport inter city bus not in a mood to brake. The rear seating with space between the rows the reason, along with the excellent grip offered by the Bridgestone’s

Left Mysore and waited for the esteem to catch up, some leg stretching with ciggie and couple of snaps of the car + 30 mts of wait and esteem lands.

Small break at a shiv temple to keep mommy happy

temple..


banyan tree


elephant..


un starts


follow follow n follow..


Nothing great happened from Mysore to Bandipur, especially tagging behind the pilot jeep (speed limit 90kph) n the car



Entered Bandipur after some 5 Kms, suddenly the pilot jeep screeches and the guys jump out flagging us out, ELEPHANTS ohhhh yeah and big heard, STOP/UNBELT/GRAB CAMERA and move close to them, remember to keep the flash switched off. Click click click…









Off again and finally enter mallu land  and guess what greets u, he he he he twistieeeesss…





yup a beautiful narrow and steep down hill twisties, parked the car to enjoy athe beauty.

Finished the hills and handed the keys to the driver (entering populated north kerala and no big fun to drive this ship, along with some bad sinus probs, ). Reached Calicut by around 545 pm, catch up with the bigger family over some vodka and snoooooooooreeeeeee.

Sunday morn family function and 3 pm starts off from Calicut, grab the keys from the driver, coz no head ache of pilot jeep n one is gonna lead the band 



Yup same “Kalpatta Churam” (GHATS for NON MALLUS) awaits you, and downhill ya uphill take in shtyle he he and hello the tailing car minus the owner means you need’nt slow down and wait after every corner. Ok some gyan time to the esteem driver, he complains the car doesn’t pull, hmmm solution: the MPFI motor loves to be revved and unless one does it, it’s a very sluggish machine. End result and he improves his style from 3 k to 4.5 k, nothing great to talk about but still any improvement was fine.



As for the car, keep her in 2 and 3 gear, keep rpm above 4k and trust me anything in front can be overtaken. Right from a CD 100 to BIG TRUCKS to Toyota Tercel.. GRINNNNNNNNNN.



Objective was to clear Bandipur stretch before nigh fall and yes uneventfully we passed Bandipur.





The road inside is being widened (shoulder work) and at places its only wide enough for one car, so be prepared to reverse couple of tens of meters, BUT once work completed, it will be one of those dream drives you can take, guess some idea can be gathered from the pictures.


Some sun set pics.





Reach Mysore by 730pm and decides to tread the kanakpura rd to avoid traffic, BIG MISTAKE!! Road exist for only 1/5 of the total distance, rest is katcha track thanks to widening and elevation works to take care of the water logging issue.

Lights, one of the best sets I have seen on a motor car (non xenon type) headlights along with running lights give you amazing visibility and no oncoming traffic will dare to play the chicken trick with lights.

Shot @ 70 kph 



THIS CAR IS NOT FOR THE CITY BUT FOR HIGHWAYS ESPECIALLY ONES WITH ¾ foot drops on the road (ground preparation being done) and yeah this baby takes them without a single thud or broken parts hanging afterwards. Loved the car in this front, where you would have to slam brake and pray to gods and end up swearing the contractor, you just dab the brake leave it milli seconds before the THUD (for suspension to raise) and RIDE OVER ANYTHING!!!

Arrive Indira Nagar at 1045 pm, open house door, unscrew a bottle of white wine and stretch on the SOFA. Thanks bro for not asking for the keys the whole trip

Weekend Travelogue: Sangam, Ranganathithu, Gaganchukki

Route: Bangalore – Ramanagaram – Channapatna – Maddur – Mandya – Srirangapatnam – Mysore – Bannur – Malavalli – GaganchukkiFalls – Malavalli – Maddur – Bangalore (401 km)

I had to undergo some hectic 4-5 months both in office and home that I could not even think of taking the road.Atlast i completed everything & ready to take on wheels.

Saturday: 23 Feb, 2008Finally I thought I will sleep the entire weekend and plan some drives in subsequent weekends. So comes the boring Saturday, I was dozing off since morning. Suddenly the phone rings, My friend raj was on line & planned for a travel.

Ok done, although I was not so interested for a Mysore drive but went ahead with it.

Sunday: 24 Feb, 2008We get up at 4:15AM and after a nice bath, start at around 5AM to pickup raj from his house in RT Nagar. It took me another 30min to reach there. Finally we start our journey at 6AM and soon hit the Mysore Road flyover after Corporation Circle.Early morning drives are very refreshing and thankfully there was not much traffic on SH17 and soon we start to zoom on Mysore Road (SH17) and car starts to hit 100kmph. We were enjoying every moment. While passing Ramanagaram, everyone was hungry so we decided for an early breakfast at Kamat Lokaruchi where we reached by 7AM. As always had the special idlis and tea and while coming out say a series of R1s and Hayabusas. This was the first time I was seeing those bikes and these were indeed very tempting. At the same time I wonder whether we can utilize these powerful bikes in India (I mean, where are the roads?)

It was around 8AM we start again from Kamat and pass Channapatna and Maddur in no time. I like the Mandya – Srirangapatnam stretch except for those 2 bumps just after the downhill, guys please watchout, those are axle breakers. Anyway I was already aware of those, so no problem; I hit 140kmph in this stretch. Pachhu was amazed by the car’s cornering ability and performance since he was traveling for the first time in my car on highways.Sangam: Reached Srirangapatnam by 8:45AM, took left turn for Sangam. Sangam is another 8km from there passing Tipu Sultan’s Summer Palace (Dariya Daulat Bagh) and Gol Gumbaz. Sangam. It is the place of religious importance where the river LokPavani meets Cauvery and it was nice to reach there in the morning. Last time I went there during the monsoons and the river was overflowing. This time the level was low and we could see the two shiva lingas at the junction of the rivers. We took a coracle ride and went past the lingas and took some pics as well.

Ranganathithu Bird Sanctuary: We spent a few minutes in serene environment at Sangam car park. After a few rounds of cakes and chips we started again. This time we headed straight to Bird Sanctuary. We took left towards Mysore on SH17 and immediately after a few kms there is a right turn (Hunsur / Coorg Route). After taking the turn RBS is about 4 kms from there which we reached by 10AM. Reaching early in the sanctuary helped. We could experience the chirping of birds. We spent sometime sitting at the bank of cauvery and chitchatting. Also saw a bunch of crocs roaming around and a few of them resting on the rocks in between the river. We walked around the bank and took some pics.

Now what? I told lets go to KRS / Brindavan Garden. Nobody was interested for KRS but they wanted to see some falls too. So we decided to go to Shivasamudram after lunch. We decided to go to my favourite restaurant Hotel Heritage Shelters for lunch which another 10km enroute KRS. We had some nice lunch of Tandoori roti, Chilli Chicken, Egg bhujiya, Egg Biriyani, Paneer alongwith lassi and softdrinks and also spent some quality time taking pics in the hotel campus. I like this resutarant both for ambience as well as food.

Gaganachukki Falls: After filling the belly with the nice stuffs we headed towards Shivasamudram. I had to take a new route this time. We went past the Infy campus and hit Ring Road and past the Bangalore junction and headed towards Bannur junction. There is a left turn for Bannur from Ring road which we took. We took the following route:Mysore – Bannur – Malavalli – ShivasamudramFirst time on this stretch: I was traveling on this stretch for the first time. The road turned out to be a nice one. Although you cannot do very high speeding because there are bumps within every few kms but there were nice picturesque surrounding and nice curves.Excellent road on NH209 after Malavalli: Road construction activity was happening in Bannur and after Malavalli. The NH209 from Kanakapura meets at Malavalli. The stretch after Malavalli to Shivasamudram was pathetic last time but it has become excellent now. I was doing 120kmph after Malavalli till Gaganchukki falls on this newly laid road.Hotel at Gaganchukki: A couple of things that has changed in Gaganchukki. There is a nice hotel cum restaurant has opened up there. I also went and enquired the room rates and checked the rooms. I felt an AC room for Rs2300 was quite expensive. Also the room amenities don’t quality for such a price. We did spend some nice time there. As it was already evening we decided to return back and do Barachukki and Talakad sometime later after monsoons.

After the mad rush in Bangalore, the sisters did enjoy the beauty of Karnataka outskirts.Return journey: We did the return journey through the Malavalli – Maddur – Bangalore route. We started at 4:45PM from Gaganchukki and did a nonstop dash to Pachhu’s house at 7PM. Mysore Road was choked with traffic. We had a nice dinner prepared by Shikha there and return back to our house by 10PM. It was a nice break after some hectic months and was quite refreshing indeed. Moreover, the sisters enjoyed a lot.

Total distance from home to home came out to be 401km and the car drank 23lit of petrol with 75% AC.

Signing off

Vijay

Mysore-Madikeri-Bhagamandala-Talacauvery-Mysore

Friends,
This is My third Travelogue in our site & this time the difference is I got a New Sony H7 (Digital camera) and hence photos should be OK as in my earlier travelogues, Photos were out of focus Or Bit Shabby.

Date : Feb 2nd / 3rd 2008
Car :Wagon R
Route Taken : Mysore - Hunsur- Periyapatna-Bylekuppe-Koppa-Kushal Nagara-Cauvery Nishadharma - Hosakote - Suntikoppa - Madikeri- Abey Falls-Bhagamandala-Talacauvery-Madikeri-Mysore

Distance (From Mysore) ( You need to add +6 kms to the undermentioned as we Joined the Hunsur Road @ Hinkal Junction) :
Hunsur (38 kms)
Periyapatna (63 kms)
Bylekuppe( 78 kms)
Koppa ( 80 kms)
Kushal Nagara(82 kms)
Cauvery Nishadharma ( 88 kms)
Hosakote(94 Kms)
Suntikoppa ( 100 kms)
Madikeri (115 kms)
End- to - End :- 340 kms

General Hints:-

1)Once you Leave Mysore, you have good Hotel near Hunsur Bypass Followed by good Hotels At Kushal Nagara and that's it in the entire stretch of Mysore - Madikeri
2) Take Care while you drive back from Abbey Falls as it's SSSSSSssoooooo Steeppppp Climb for few Kms and one Mega U turn which I felt someway odd and difficult to take the turn & Also road is kind-of-single at many places (I mean IF a car comes in the opposite Direction, it's better to stop and go instead of getting down which might create problem as the Road sides are with Bigger Holes
3) It's better to aVoid taking older people for the Steep walk From talacauvery temple to the Top to have views of Brahmagiri Mountain Ranges as eventhough the view is brilliant the Steep walk is very very difficult for anybody

Feb 2nd :-
We started at around 11.30 am from Mysore on Saturday and took Hunsur Road and Road is as usual smooth, Drove Thru Hunsur Bypass and Reached the first bad patch of the Trip and that is periyapatna (For Around 3 kms) Road is Bad .Drove past Bylekuppe / Koppa ( People who are interested to Visit the Tibetan Settlements / Golden Temple need to take a Left in Bylekuppe Or Koppa and in one of our earlier trips we visited Tibetan settlements and we took the left from Koppa).From Koppa again the road is bad and the stretch is bad upto Kushal Nagara.Stopped for few minutes in Kushal Nagara anf got some snacks / Packed lunch and continued in Madikeri Highway. Road is bad until Suntikoppa .From Suntikoppa the actual Ghat road starts and it is just like normal Kerala Roads and we never felt we are climbing up with no Valley view OR Hair-pin bends.Reached MAdikeri around 3 pm (I normally drive relatively slow and hence and experiences drivers can make it much faster).
From Madikeri, We wanted to go to Hotel Mayura Valley view (Karnataka Tourism Hotel) and we asked a Policeman and he directed us towards the Raja's seat (For Raja's seat, just before Madikeri bus stand, we need to take a left). Drove past Raja's seat and took the extreme left and passed "All India Radio Madikeri" and saw the Hotel.
We got a Double B/R and it's 999 Rs /Day (INcluding Taxes) + 200 (For extra mat). Rs 1200 /Day. Complex is new and rooms are also neat and we have the same view from the rooms equivalent to the view we had from Raja's seat. Just Relaxed for 1/2 an hour or so and then we started towards Abbey Falls.
We got a Double B/R and it's 999 Rs /Day (INcluding Taxes) + 200 (For extra mat). Rs 1200 /Day. Complex is new and rooms are also neat and we have the same view from the rooms equivalent to the view we had from Raja's seat. Just Relaxed for 1/2 an hour or so and then we started towards Abbey Falls.
ForAbbey Falls, Basically we took the Same road and reached the Madikeri Private Bus stand (Via Raja's seat and Turned left). From MAdikeri PRivate Bus stand we took a right (It's better to ask i the PRivate bus stand). Road is excellent with roads Zig Zag kind of and towards the end there was a Mega U turn and reached Abbey falls (I think it's around 8 kms). Parked the car ( PArking 20 Rs) and Walked for 10 minutes or so and reached the falls and it's almost 6 pm and the Lone Policeman there told, it's relatively late and hence may be you can finish soon and come back to the PArking & he started walkign back. Took Few Photos and we followed him to the parking. Started back From Abbey Falls and PArked near Raja's seat.
AIR Madikeri @ 6.00 am:-




Returned back after taking few photos Had breakfast in the restaurant (Breakfast is inclusive in Room Rent) and we had Upma / Bread Omlette and Vacated the room around 8 am (We Planned to vacate as in all the Karnataka tourism hotels the check-in time is 12:00 and check out time is also 12:00).
We started and took first left after Raja's seat and then took left after few metres (there are 2 lefts one leading to Virajpet / Gonikoppal & this left is almost like U turn and the left which we are supposed to take is proper left (Sign Board Bhagamandala says 36kms and Talacauvery 43 kms and mangalore 110 kms or 115 kms --This OR is mine as i forgot). It's gradual descent with every curve in bad patch and after few kms, we need to take a right as the straight road leads to Mangalore. Road is excellent and Sign boards are there and no need to ask anybody for route and we reached Bhagamandala and drove past for Talacauvery (Bhagamandala to Talcauvery is Ghat Road and Relatively steep , scenic Valley views , Saw Few PRivate Buses on the way) and at last reached Talacauvery. Parked the vehicle.

TalaCauvery Temple Photo:-




Steeep Walk From Talacauvery temple to View Brahmagiri Mountain Ranges :-



[IMG]http://img352.imageshack.us/img352/4985/talacauverytempleinbgzj3.jpg
[/IMG]

View of Brahmagiri Mountain Ranges :-







WIP to build an Arch in front of the temple and the temple is Beautiful and we saw people climbing up the Steps near to the temple and it's dead steeeeeepppp. That walk is worth as we saw beautiful views from the top, came back and visited the temple , had prasadam, theertham and drove back to Bhagamandala. On the way, Saw a Board "View Point" stopped there and took a photo of Bhagamandala Temple and it came out good.

View of Bhagamandala Temple from View Point (Talacauvery):-






Then we visited Bhagamandala temple and we saw temple authorities are preparing the temple for Kumbabhisekham (Not sure on the date but the work is in full swing)
We Started Again and on the way , near Cauvery nishadharma , People are cutting down the trees for Road Widening . We waited for 1/2 an hour or so as the road is blocked as they are trying to pull down the chopped tree.

Then we continued and I thought of visiting harange Dam this time atleast (8 kms from Kushal Nagara) BUT saw a PWD board , "Welcome to Haranage Dam - 8kms" & " Entry to Harange Dam is prohibited"".. It's good we saw as We had a simlar experience when we tried to Visit Shimsha Power Plant near Shivsamudra some time back. We drove all the 10 kms (After seeing the Board " Welcome to Shimsha Power Plant First Plant in South East Asia " in the bad roads with none around on the way to ask for route to face the question at the Dhimsa plant gate, "Who asked you to come here & without authorization you are not Supposed to use this road first of all"-- We turned back (Aleast HAranage PWD people are good)
We Drove Straight with few minutes stop at Kushal Nagara for refreshments and reached Mysore at around 5pm.

Hope this will be of some help when our T-BHP Members plan a trip in future to these places.

ForAbbey Falls, Basically we took the Same road and reached the Madikeri Private Bus stand (Via Raja's seat and Turned left). From MAdikeri PRivate Bus stand we took a right (It's better to ask i the PRivate bus stand). Road is excellent with roads Zig Zag kind of and towards the end there was a Mega U turn and reached Abbey falls (I think it's around 8 kms). Parked the car ( PArking 20 Rs) and Walked for 10 minutes or so and reached the falls and it's almost 6 pm and the Lone Policeman there told, it's relatively late and hence may be you can finish soon and come back to the PArking & he started walkign back. Took Few Photos and we followed him to the parking. Started back From Abbey Falls and PArked near Raja's seat.

Weekend Travelogue: Ooty-Mysore

Bangalore – Ramanagaram – Channapatna – Maddur – Mandya – Srirangapatnam – Mysore – Nanjangud – Gundlupet – Bandipur – Theppakadu – Masinagudi – Mavanalla – Ooty – Mysore – Bangalore

This was just a sudden planned trip. As my parents were in Bangalore for 10 days, we did have plan for a small trip. My dad last visited Mysore when I was 6month old and he was more inclined to see Brindavan garden and Palace. For me it was like, “No, Not again”. Slowly the trip extended to Ooty and I got a Friday off for me. Since I did not have much time to book hotel, I asked an agent to do it which was the mistake which I later realized. You pay him upfront and you have no other choice but to stay there.As usual I loaded the car with the 20lit water bottle a day before, did a full tank and checked the tyre pressure. Mom and wife did the regular packing and we were ready for this trip.

28th Sept, 2007 (Fri): We get up at 3:30AM but my initial plan to start at 4:30AM failed as everyone took some time to get ready. Finally the car started at 5:20AM.As usual passed OMR, Corporation Circle in quick time and hit the Mysore Road flyover. We were out of the city by dawn and the car was zooming. It was nice to see that with so many loads the car (340kg approx) was hitting 120kmph pretty easily. Weather was excellent as well for a nice drive plus the nice Bengali numbers in the ICE was adding aura to the occasion. I hit a top speed of 130kmph at a down slope near Srirangapatnam. We reached the Mysore Ring Road by 7:10AM and to Kamat Madhuvan on NH212 at Mysore by 7:30AM. My tripmeter read 153km. 153km in 2 hours was fast considering that we passed Bangalore and Mysore city in a very slow pace.This was the first time I went to Kamat Madhuvan and I liked the food as well as the ambience. We had some nice masala dosas with the Kamat special chai. At about 8:15AM, we start the journey again, amidst some heavy traffic reached Nanjangud. I think there were some elections happening there which added more problems for traffic. Anyway after Nanjangud, it was like empty stretch of road. There are occasional speed humps midways made by villagers, so careful in 3 digit speeds. I was aware of it hence was hovering between 80-100kmph. Soon passed Gundlupet, the roads were not so smooth in the initial 7-8km till Hangala village. I am doing this road twice in a month, went to Bandipur last month. Soon the smooth stretch arrived and zoomed past quickly. We stopped for a water break at Pugmark restaurant for 15min and quickly passed Bandipur national Park.Soon we reached Thepakadu, that is the TN border and gate of Madhumalai Wildlife Sanctuary. Straight road goes to Ooty which is the normal bus route. We turned left on a single track bridge. This is the Ooty road via Masinagudi and 30km less than the former. Initial 6km road was single track amidst the dense jungle but the road condition improved before Masinagudi and it was well marked. Within no time we were passing Mavanalla which the foothills of Nilgiris (just before the famous 36hairpin climb). There are lots of resorts there. Probably lots of people come down there.

The Steep Climb: Soon we hit the 36 hairpin climb. This was really an endurance test for my car with full load. It was the steepest I have encountered in my life. Initially my father got really scared seeing me drive in such a steep road (infact this was the first time he saw me driving on a highway). I didn’t tell him about this climb (otherwise he would not have agreed for Ooty). The car was not pulling at all in second gear; I had to engage first quit often. I did some red line push in first gear in the first two hairpins just for a test and felt some smell of coolant. After that it was smooth acceleration in only first and second gears. I could hardly keep it in second. I and my wife were enjoying the drive, not sure about my parents. It was an amazing experience, it was indeed very steep which we later realized while descent. It was like 36 Hairpins and 14km and you are in Ooty. After the climb, I must the car handled it pretty well.Masinagudi road meets Gudalur road about 7km before Ooty and from there the road was bumpy (not potholed though). We finally reached Hotel Charring Cross at 11:30PM. I was not at all happy with the hotel. No proper car park and view and at Rs 825 / room it was quit expensive. Anyway I had no choice as I had done the payment already.

At lunch inside hotel, slept for an hour. Weather in Ooty was chilling. At 4PM, we walked down to Botanical Garden which was just few minutes from hotel. Spend nice time there; clicked lots of pics, mom and wife did some timepass on the roadside shops. We decided not to go anywhere else, had dinner and back to bed.Tripmeter for Day1: 275km29th Sept, 2007 (Sat): Route: Ooty – Masinagudi – Bandipur – MysoreWe get up at dawn after a nice sleep, did some early morning photography, checked out of the hotel by 8AM. I opened the bonnet of the car to see everything is in order. Suddenly I notice that the coolant bottle is almost empty. I got scared initially. Opened the bottled and found that there was hardly any coolant left. Soon opened the radiator cap and found that the coolant was fine there. Immediately called up Lokesh (of Suraksha Car care, Bangalore) and told him about the situation, “He told to pour some clean water in the coolant bottle”. I poured drinking water to the max level in the coolant bottle and then started the car. Probably the first gear redlining uphill could have overheated the engine. Now I know what not to do at that steep climb when I come next time.Anyway, we headed straight to the Ooty Lake and came to know that it will open only at 9:30am. We did some photography outside and moved to the Punjabi hotel near bus stand where we had breakfast in my last visit. Had puri-chole and tea for breakfast and then started the drive downhill at 9:30AM.

Even before we hit the first hairpin bend, we saw multiple warnings / sign stating, “Keep second gear downhill”. Even in second gear my car was hitting 50kmph. I had to use the foot brake alongwith the engine brake to control the car in the descent.At Hairpin 15 we decided to stop the car and do some nice photography. We could also see the Kalhatty falls from there. Further downhill there is a road which goes towards Kalhatty falls. The road is good and also the very scenic compared to the Gudalur route.

Remaining journey to Mysore was as usual. We only stopped for Coconut water at Bandipur and reached Kamat Madhuvan for lunch at 1 PM. We had an excellent North Karnataka Thali meals (similar to Lokaruchi@JanpadaLoka) and spent a nice one hour there before moving towards Mysore and checking in Hotel Airlines, Mysore. It also rained very heavily while entering Mysore.After a nice rest and a bit of the cricket match @ Chinnaswamy we headed towards KRS which was about 20km from hotel. We reached there by 7pm. My father was very excited to be visitng KRS (his last visit was in 1979). According to him, many things has changed here and it looked more beautiful and structured. After the light-sound show and some pics we headed back towards Mysore.We stopped by at Hotel Heritage about 5km from KRS near the Srirangapatnam-Hunsur road. We had some amazing tandoori roti, chicken curry alongwith dal, egg-burji and spend a nice hour there. The hotel is huge and has a great ambience. We start from there at 10PM and reached our hotel in Mysore at 10:30PM and retired to bed.30th Sept, 2007 (Sun): Although the Mysore hotel was better than that of Ooty’s but the restaurant in the Mysore hotel was amazing. We had some amazing dosas and chai at a throw away price. Headed towards Mysore Palace, saw that it will open at 10:30AM, it was only dad who was interested to go there. Somehow I convinced him that we will get late here and also I have some pending office work to do today only before going to office. He agreed to skip this and we headed towards Zoo. None of us had seen the Mysore zoo yet.Amazing Zoo: It was indeed beyond my expectation after entering the zoo compound. It was the best zoo that I have seen so far (previous zoo were Alipore, Kolkata, Zoological garden, Hyderabad and Banerghatta near Bangalore). It was very well maintained and with nice collection of rare birds, animals, chimpanzees, deer, tigers, elephants. It was a fabulous experience. I can see my dad liking it now after missing out the Palace visit. It was only 12:30PM that we could come out of the zoo. I will surely visit Mysore zoo again with a whole day to spend. This time we had some time crunch.

We start the return journey at 12:45PM. We soon hit SH17, stopped by at a IOC pump. I was very much interested about the mileage after the powerful hill drive. Car drank 27lit for 471km. Kool !! that’s nice. Remaining journey was high speed one with speed hovering between 100-130kmph. By 1:45PM, we reached Indradhanush for lunch. We had paneer butter masala, tandoori roti, rice and dal except my dad who was in thali mode. He had South Indian thali.We start from Indradhanush at 2:30pm but this time it was heavy traffic throughout. Still we could manage the next 75km in 2 hours and reached home by 4:25pm. It was a nice and satisfying trip, moreover this was my first trip with my parents and they were very happy too.

Total distance Home to Home:

611kmFuel Mileage: 17.5 – 18kmpl (I have to do another refill to calculate the exact mileage)

Signing off

Vijay