Whimsical bunch of fools (Work in progress.... )

Bangalore - Balmuri - Nagarhole - Gonikoppal - Irupu - Kalpetta - Banasura Dam - Edakkal - Sultan Bathery - Muthanga - Gundulpet - Chamrajnagar - B.R. Hills - Chamrajnagar - Mysore - Bangalore

Distance: 847 kms

Duration : 4 days and 3 nights

Bikes
One Royal Enfield Thunderbird
One Bajaj Discover

How To? and the what to...
If you take a map and plot our progress you'll notice that we have moved in a lollipop like fashion. Such a plan is actually quite fun, there is no onward leg and there is no return leg, well almost. The only part where we felt this onward and return leg fatigue was on the Bangalore - Mysore state highway.

Balmuri - Just after Srirangapatinam (if you are heading towards Mysore) take a right turn, towards KRS. This turn is almost 20 kms before the Mysore outer ring road. On this road at the Belagola village take another right turn and 3 kms on you will be at Balmuri.

Balmuri is 7 kms downstream from the Krishna Raja Sagara Dam( built by the legendary Sir M. Vishveshwariyah). It is the perfect location to relax, swim or take a boat ride for a few hours, especially in the mornings, when the place isn't crowded. The place doesn't start seeing the usual tourist action till 11:30 am. There are plenty of places to eat, which open only at noon.

Nagarhole - At Hunsur (on the way to Madikiri from Mysore) you'll need to take the road towards H.D. Kote. Nagarhole, 50 kms from Hunsur, is a beautiful national park infested with rouge elephants and man eating tigers, or so the forest guard claimed when he turned us back from the national park gates. Sadly this mistake cost us 100 kms and 3 hours of riding time and set the mood for a melancholy trip. No bikes are allowed!

Gonikoppal - Nothing much to see around this place, a good place to take a break for lunch though.

Irupu - Around 27 kms from Gonikoppal, Irupu is an idyllic village nestled between scenic coffee estates. It is the perfect weekend getaway from Bangalore. There are plenty coffee estates offering "home stay" facility. The Laskhmantheerta waterfall is a must see. So is the trekking trail to the nearby peak.

Kalpetta - Is the popular tourist hub in Waynad district. It is centrally located, with respect to the tourist spots. All types of accomodation is avialable, right form the 5 star resorts to dingy lodges. Waynad has "shitloads" of places to be seen, including
* Banasura Sagar Dam - Great views. Absolutely no sound. Perfect to meditate. Built with stones.
* Edakkal Caves - Imagine an enormous boulder wedged between two other equally enormous boulders. Now imagine 3000 year old paintings and carvings. One the result of an earthquake almost 30000 years ago and the other thanks to a bright caveman. The trek is next to treacherous, especially if you want to summit the peak. Not suited for children below 10 nor old people. You can see the entire Waynad district from the top of this peak, well almost!!
*Muthanga wild life santuary - If you seen one, you've seen them all... haha... not here. Worth a visit, in the season during the early mornings and late afternoon/early evening times.
*Pookode Lake - Boating etc etc. Ideal for kids.
*Chembra Peak - At 2100m above mean sea level, it is the highest peak in Waynad.

Sulthan Batheri - An alternative to staying at Kalpetta. Plenty of places to stay and a tad bit cheaper than Kalpetta. We'd recomend the food at Hotel Regency.

B.R. Hills - Another national park in the Chamrajnagar district of Karntaka. It is 90kms from Mysore. The ideal time to reach here is either early in the morning (after 0600) or in the evening (1700) the park closes to vehicular traffic at 1800 hrs and there is no place to stay once to reach the top, unless you have a prior booking with Jungle Lodges. Most of the wildlife make themselves visible only late in the evening, so it is adviseable to stay at Jungle lodges for a night. The roads are in a pathetic state, though.

What about us?
I shall, try to, chronicle the trip from the night of 19th to the night of 23rd with as much impartiality as is humanly possible.


Proluge
"Lets go some where guys", said Yak.
"Ya man. Lets go some where", chimed in Tatti.
"Hmm... How about Coorg during Diwali ?", Shart Circuit asked.

The humdrum of life in Bangalore had evidently taken its toll. As most techies do, we sought relief in an escape to the "country side". Only that, nobody usually escaped during Diwali, that too with friends. Diwali, like all other Indian festivals, is meant to be celebrated with family. So what, if you have been doing just that for your entire life.

"Chal, Ultra Fast Charger ko phone lagathe hain. Vaise bhi, I have to talk to him about his bike", said Yak as soon as the last syllables had slipped from my mouth.

Ultra Fast Charger is our friend from Mumbai, the heart and soul of all mirth and entertainment and a master of BS. His famous RX100 was rotting away in Bangalore, waiting to be sold at a pittance to the local thug of a mechanic. Yak was in charge of the bike till it met its sad demise. Yak, we must say, had very cleverly parked the bike at his acquaintance's home. So, that it wouldn't be a case of out of sight, out of mind.

Sitting on the steps of Shart Circuits'* home on a cool September evening Short Circuit, Houdaaaa Tatti and Paapi Yak called up Ultra Fast Charger on his fishy network. The fishy network (which, if you are not aware really stinks) - keeps sending the signals out to the Ratnakar Sea# instead to sending them inland. Yet Paapi Yak persisted, believing in the inherent goodness of his Kutta network.

After a while, an exasperated Yak muttered, "Kya yaar, iska number lagtha hi nahi hai!". Something very fishy, we all concurred. Again.

On the twentieth try, yes that is how much we all value Ultra Fast Chargermaam, we caught hold of the man. "Encha ollare", greeted Yak.

Yak proceeded to ask Charger, "Apun log Coorg jarela hai... Atta kya tu??" (Us dawgeies Coorg going be... Coming what you?) Charger was looking for this opportunity from a long time, the big bad city lacking in decent charging points and his own charge having been depleted by overexposure to a certain sections of society, lost no milliseconds to confirm his participation in the vile act be being away from home during Deepawali.

As a rule of thumb, it doesn't take much to convince any of us, to partake in hair brained schemes. Especially, if it is hatched at the drop of a hat. Accordingly, it didn't take much convincing. Ultra Fast Charger was ready to get onto the next plane to Bangalore. We had to remind him that Diwali was a few weeks away!

The details of the plan were sketchy at best at that instant, but Ultra Fast Charger had a very important question for me, "Abbe, hamare gaand ki suraksha ke bare mei sooch!" - Please, do think of a way to save our butts.

The roots of a statement as controversial, can be traced back to the earlier, similarly hair brained trip to Gopalswamy Betta in March. My bike's shocks had softened to a point, where riding pillion would propel the stocks of Amrutanjan and Iodex to the circuit breaker limit. The riders of that trip carried numb butts for a week. In that context, Ultra Fast Charger raised a very pertinent and emotional point.

I attempted to allay his fears, "Tension nako leneka re bhidu. Naya Gas shocks install kiyela hai apun. Ek dam rap chik ho gayela hai apun ka bird. Gaand ko malayee pe bhitaya hai, aisa lagtha hai" - Don't take too much tension dude. I have installed new Gas filled shock absorbers. You'll feel as if you are sliding on whipped cream.

"Bhagwan thera lakh lakh shukr kare, re baba" - God will bless you a million times over, dude.

We were four of us and just one butt-killer bike. Tatti, was all charged up that we weren't even considering his bike - a Bajaj Discoverer. "I did 100 kmph on the Mysore road man", he claimed. Knowing Tatti, there was no point arguing. Plus, the other alternative was Yak's TVS - Centra. Not much of a choice, so the Discoverer it was.

So, I revealed to Ultra Fast Charger, "The other bike will be Tatti's".

Over the next few days, Yak did some research on Coorg. Well, he researched a lot more than some! On a lot more than just Coorg. Yak claimed to have a friend in the hills. So, we would apparently have some "inside" help. How nice. The Coorg - RX100 link was finally making sense.

Day One Assemble at Short Circuit's home

Day Two Balmuri and Dinner

Day Three Rain rain go away

Day Four Banasura and Edakkal

Day Five B.R. Hils and back home

Epilouge
I was sitting on a plane the next day to New Delhi, thinking of past five days, wondering why we tortured ourselves by embarking on a bone shattering, arse numbing ride. I was quite sure the rest of the gang were thinking the same. I was also quite sure that we'd all agree that it had been worth it. No Pain No Gain!


This is how we make a whirlpool.... hehehe...


At Edakkal --->
Kini, Googs(back), Me and Kates after the trek
*Names changed so that only the four characters know whats going on... hehehe...
#Hahaha... Thanks HP for letting me on this secret!

Whimsical bunch of fools (Work in progress.... )

And it rained... really? where?

As promised, here is the installment of words and pictures which will describe how four nuts set out to reach Yercaud and only three reached Ottacamund...

Paddy, as I have mentioned earlier, was the instigator of this ride. We were scheduled to get four days of holidays on account of Independence day and a days CL on Monday. As the marked day to depart crept on us, Ketva (K)realized that his bike papers were not in order. Surprisingly, he did not vacilate on the idea of a trip! Paddy though had become non-committal for the past few days. That left five people and two bikes. In the meanwhile Dinga, after being appraised of the monsoonal plans opted out, which suited us fine (Hopefully Dinga never gets to read this!). The location though, was not certain.

As luck would have it, Gurubhai, from the Cyanide factory up north, was visiting the nether regions. Googendra was back in town after his tryst with the Himalayan Yaks and Yetis. Sufficient enough to call for a party, which sadly never happened, unless you call dinner at Nagarjuna followed by ice cream at Corner house a party. Nevertheless the entire gang met up for the first time since we departed from the hallowed portals of Manipal and that was more important. That it also served as a venue to recruit more bakras for the trip is a different story! While Googendra regaled us with his stories which involved a Yak, a Kraut, and a rickety Jeep, the food was served. Paddy, unfortunately had had an accident (minor) earlier in the evening, so he ruled himself out. And no one else displayed enthusiasm in getting sore butts, leaving only four people and two bikes on a trip to where? God knows!

Over ice cream, we debated about the sanity of even going on a ride given the weather forecasts. It was settled that we would proceed only so far as there was no rains. The minute we encounter a sheet or rain, that shows no signs of subsiding, we'd turn back. (Hello! Doesn't matter if we turn back, we'd still be stuck in rain) Our convoluted logic is evidence enough of the mental torture a "conventional" IT job puts us through! We were that desperate to get out of Bangalore and smell the unpolluted air of the countryside.

Nowhere near the destination are we? I told ya so! I wanted to go to Ooty, but I had promised the guys Yercaud. Baburao opined that there was pretty much nothing to do there. "You wont like it. I bet!", he exclaimed. Then Oodies, my ex-roomie, volunteered, "The roads suck big time man". We were now really not sure. Then he gives us the missing piece in the jig-saw puzzle, "But that was when RG died". Which led to another heated debate, about the exact date and time of Mr. Banana-man's assassination. God bless his soul. All said and done, we decided to stick to Yercaud. The rendezvous point was decided upon as Airport road, outside Leela and we went our ways back home. I took a slightly longer route though, having a long chat with Gurubhai and riding on Bannerghata road for the first time in my life! Got back home, packed the saddle bags and then hit the sack.

I am little hazy about what happened in the early hours of Saturday, it certainly comprised of a visit to the local petrol pump (only Shell will do for his highness), a partial breakfast at home (courtesy Grandma) and being present at the Leela Palace with Kates as the pillion a good hour later than decided. Vatsa, poor bloke, was already there. And after the initial "Hey macha. Haven't seen you since college" moments we set out to pick up VSK from his abode near Kids Kemp. That done a few minutes later, we tackled the first problem of the day. Breakfast. Where do we halt to breakfast? Kates, as usual, knew the perfect place. It was off the outer ring road, near Googendra's ex-home. Some where en-route, it started drizzling. I kept thinking, "This isn't good. No. Certainly not good". I sensed a similar unease wafting the in air, at the breakfast table. Someone, don't know who, suggested, "Why not Ooty?", I could have danced all night, I could have danced. Danced all night... Well you get the picture, I was elated and seconded the idea without hesitation. Then came the inevitable, choosing the correct route and reorienting ourselves for a trip to the misty Nilgiris. The easiest route, we determined, was via Mysore and Nanjangud. Thus we set out, to Ootacamund at the proverbial drop of a hat riding an extra 40 kms in bad Bangalore traffic.

The best part of leaving a busy bustling city teeming with traffic, is that you never realize where the city ends and where the countryside begins. In our case, this phenomenon was accentuated by not taking the more nondescript national highway and taking the more modern state highway to Mysore. The state highway is the state government's gambit to undermine the work undertaken by the NICE group. Whether the move pays off politically or not, only time will tell but the commuters benefit immensely. I will not digress into a political discourse on the merits of government-industry competition, but surely we the citizens have a lot to gain, provided the competition is healthy. There isn't much that I can add about the charming stretch of tarmac that lies between Kengeri near Bangalore and the Mysore outer ring road. The only updates I can provide is that the roads have been redone in the towns of Chennapatana and Ramnagaram, which had borne the brunt of last year's treacherous rainfall. The road is more or less complete, baring a few diversions near a couple of bridges. The bridge on the river Cauvery to the east of Srirangapatinam has been thrown open to traffic towards Bangalore. The old bridge still services the traffic towards Mysore and should suffice for some time to come.

As usual we halted at two places, whenever Kates and I travel this road, we invariably take a halt at these two spots! One near a desolate stretch adjacent to the railway track a little outside of Ramnagaram. This is the first stop, while our butts get accustomed to the uncomfortable seats of the Thunderbird. If is a good point and we left our biological marks by the railway track. After a little readjustment to the distribution of luggage, we set off onwards towards Mysore. This was Vatsa's first time on a long ride on his Thunderbird, so we kept a more manageable speed or 80kpmh. It was quite tempting to let the throttle go where it loves to go, but economy and sense prevailed. 80, I believe is a good speed for any vehicle on our roads. The rider is more at peace at this pace, our bikes are stable and muted thump of the Thunderbird is music to the ears.

Someplace before Mandya our reverie was broken by a red scooter, which zipped by. Overtook a Royal Enfield! The bikes were insulted and we took off behind that rouge scooter, which had broken the shackles of bike hierarchy, to investigate. I confess, I went behind that scooter to ascertain its make, since I had not seen it on our roads before. It is an entirely different story that the pillion was a chick and I'd like to believe that I am not that desperate! After a few kilometers I did manage to catch up with the red scooter, it was the new Kinetic Blaze. What a beauty! The scooter, not the chick, she was wearing a helmet. If anyone asks me what I think of the Kinetic Blaze, I will congratulate the bugger on making a fine choice for a scooter. It looks sturdy, and apparently handles quite well at high speeds (for which I can vouch). But not ideal for the nifty zip and zap that city traffic requires. Just before Mandya we halted at the other usual spot. This halt let us catch our breath after being beaten fair and square by a scooter and take stock of our physical conditions.

A few months back, I made the blunder of going on a similar long trip, with beat shock absorbers and a prerequisite for this trip was the new gas shocks. The gas shocks were good as far as performance was concerned, but a sad side effect an increase in the height. This resulted in an anticipated shift in the center of gravity and the consequent imbalance that the bike displayed, especially at high speeds. We discussed this issue at length at this halt apart from the our own physical status. VSK was having a tough time sitting on my bike. He was complaining of a backache and I suspected that the new shocks were effective enough. He agreed to sit with Vatsa, while Kates sat behind me and we set off on the last leg of the trip towards Mysore.

A little ahead of Mandya we saw, for the very first time, a pileup. Four cars were involved, thankfully there were no injuries. A cursory observation revealed that there was a speed breaker ahead and all the four drivers had missed noticing the speed breaker ahead sign, which is entirely possible, given that it was camouflaged behind a plethora of political banners. The first one would have braked hard when he saw the impending travel to outer space only to be nudged hard in his posterior by the trailing car. From then on, it was a perfect example of car concatenation. Three cars , two Honda cities, suffered major damages in the engine and boot regions, while two cars got away with broken bumpers and a dented boot. The first car “responsible” for the pileup was no where to be seen, and we caught up with it near Srirangapatinam, the boot region was a mess! I have a sinking feeling that we'll see more of these pileups as the roads improve.

Without further ado, we reached the Mysore ring road, and took a short break to decide the future course of action. VSK, as you recall, had complained of a bad back, which was thanks to the late night “party” at Corner house, and the early morning wake up call. He was emphatic about being unable to go any further in this condition. He volunteered to go back to Bangalore by bus, and the cold hearted people that we were, we agreed to that proposition. At that instant of time, it looked quite practical, he couldn't sit on the bike, and there was no point in going back to Bangalore behind a bus. The other factor, that was to be considered was, that Dana, VSK's ex-rommie from Manipal, was working at Infosys, Mysore and VSK called him up and Dana invited VSK to stay over. So the next stop was the Infosys campus at Mysore. It is around 12 kilometers from the ring road, towards the North. We did not go inside the campus, but the view from the outside revealed a contemporary architect gone berserk!

Dana, was waiting at the gate to receive VSK and after the usual “Hey macha, long time no see. You have put on weight since college”, we went our way. Towards the ominous looking gray clouds that seemed to envelop the Nilgiris, reduced to three people on two bikes.

And it rained... really? where?