A murky sunset at Agumbe

Diwali Road Trip - Part II

Last year was Part I - the Coorg Waynad ride, and I couldn't let that glorious tradition die, now could I? So, I embarked on another ride this year that took me to Tumkur, Lakkavalli Dam, Agumbe, Karkal, Kudraemukh, Hanuman Gundi, Belur, Savan Durga and back.

The entire ride distance (home to home) of 920.8 kilometers was covered over two days with Kudz on his brand new Thunderbirde for company...

View a larger map on google maps

Day I - distance 428.3 kms, travel time - 8 hrs
Bangalore - Nellamangala - Tumkur (breakfast at Pavitra's Tatte Idly is yummmy) - Gubbi - Tiptur - Kadur - Berur - Tarrikere - Lakkavalli (281 kms) - Kuvempu University - Shimoga - Teertahalli - Agumbe - Hebri

The Lakkavalli dam looks tiny, but the reservoir is absolutely enormous! A sight worth seeing.
We were at Agumbe in time for the sunset (which was the plan), but some erratic stupid clouds messed up the otherwise spectacular sunset. Again, a sight not worth missing for all the gold in the world.

The roads to Mangalore were excellent, bar for a few kilometeres (around 50 kms totally) near Tarrikere and Shimoga.

Day II, III and IV was spent at Mangalore (via Hebri - Karkala - Moodabidri - Bajpe; travel time = 2hrs; distance = 80 kms) at my parents home (and Diwali)

Day V - distance 492.5 kms, travel time = 13 hrs
Hebri - Karkala - Kudremukha - Kalasa - Magundi - Balur - Bidarahalli - Gonibeedu - Belur - Hasan - Kunigal - Magadi - Savan Durga - Ramanagara - Bidadi - NICE Road - Kankapura Road - Bangalore

The Western Ghats are absolutely fantastic! The greenery, the early morning mist, the coffee estates, the tea gardens, the sheer silence, the hair pin bends... what else could one ask for!

On the way back only the roads near Mudigere on NH - 13 were sad. Real sad. A total of 10 kms out of 492.5 kms was sad. The rest were excellent.

If you want to enter south Bangalore from Hasan side, you must take the Kunigal - Magadi - Kengeri route over the Nellamangala route. The roads are empty for one and recently laid (as of nov 11th '07), so they are excellent. We took a wrong turn at Magadi and reached Ramanagara instead of Kengeri, which meant we traveled 50 kms and 1 hr more than we should have.

Since, I have given up on ever completing a post... I'll leave this one right here... I shall attempt to finish the Kodachadri night trek and then get back to this ;)

20th Nov 2007 -
Kudz is doin' his write up on this ride on his blog....
Part I - Dream: the journey - the beginning

Part II - 2

Part III - 3

Photos

A murky sunset at Agumbe

Sounds of a moonless night

The violent rocking of the bus, though unlike the gentle sway of a cradle, had put me to a rather, hmm... whats the word... ah right - "deep" sleep, last night. So, when I woke up this morning, I half expected to be in Mangalore. But wait, it was a little too dark to be 6:00 am! The pre dawn deep blue sky rose over the silhouette of a distant mountain range. "Crap!", I thought, "we are still in the western ghats. This does not look good. Not good at all."

Sitting in a bus, where the acronym AC expands to Air Chilling and not Air conditioning can be quite a strain on the delicate urinary system of most mortals. Why would anybody maintain 18 deg Celsius in a bus? Wouldn't 24 be more comfortable? The violent rocking hadn't subsided either. It had only gotten worse. "Looks like I'll be sea sick on land", I fretted as I drifted back to an uneasy morning sleep.

Last night, Googie, Vivek* and I set out from Gandhinagar on two different buses for Mangalore at 2300 hrs. The weird booking was thanks to the Eid and Dassera double whammy weekend and our last minute booking. Googie and Vivek were on the Ideal travels Volvo and I, on the Manjunath Road Lines Volvo. Googie, VMK a.k.a WeeWake a.k.a. Vivek, Paddy and I were to proceed to Kodachadri from Mangalore. Dynamic plan i.e. no plan was the plan!

The usual route involves negotiating the Shiradi ghats on the Hasan - Sakleshpur - Upinagadi route. However, oil laden multi-axel vehicles and an unrelenting monsoon has mauled it to Swiss Cheese. The road literally has holes in it, not potholes, just enormous gaping pits strewn with rocks. Even the roads to Leh would score higher on the motorable quotient! Understandably, the bus operators use the longer Mysore - Hunsur - Madikeri - Sulia - Puttur route to Mangalore these days.

Sounds of a moonless night