Captivating Charmadi to the Divine Dharmastala

This was a special ride, I had to visit the place where I grew up, studied and had all the mischievous fun that a young teenager has. Yes, apart from the charming beauty of Charmadi ghats, it was also Ujire that where I spent my teenage days which makes this ride special for me. Read on at your own risk as this involves a few sentiments when we reach to Ujire part.

As usual, it all began with an urge to ride and the destination was fixed as Gandikota in Andrapradesh. Due to political turmoil in Andra, we had to change the destination and there were many suggestion flying around. Now I dont know how or why but I wanted to go to Charmadi and come back via Dharmastala and everyone in the group agreed!

We left Bangalore on a chilli Sunday morning at 4AM and headed on the smooth Bangalore Mangalore highway. I was leading the troop and we were covering good ground and all was well. Rather all was cold, everyone was shivering down to the bones inspite of having warm clothes and a tea break was in the cards. Stopped for a cup of tea and stop means camera time.

 Found lit up fire to warm the frozen self.

Continued after the short break and I am not a person to miss a sunrise or a sunset from the road, so the next stop was to capture the sunrise and also moon set for a change.

A group pic.

We reached Belur by 7:30 AM and it was time to settle the fight with growling hungry tummies. The road from Belur cross till Belur was fantastic, with fast sweeping curves and amazing views. We were really enjoying this ride and this was to get better.

Windmills!!

And my love 

Plantations on the other side of road

Just another day for him, where as we have to travel miles away from the concrete jungle for such views.

After breakfast, we headed on towards Moodigere. The tarmac was freshly laid. Smooth, curvy, scenic, inviting. We were in no rush and headed on in leisurely pace. Stopped at few places for monkeying around and clicking pics.

And some fake babaji who got kicked

And the poser me showing off

The beautiful roads

And the surrounding scenery

We were enjoying this ride, and to add further to our already overfilled plate, we hit the ghat section. It is a delight to be on this ghat section any time of the year. Though post monsoon makes it gleam with beauty, it is not even an inch lesser in the scorching summer. 

Breath taking views all around, tried to take home all these in the form of pictures. I was gearing up to catch up with the others while a group of kids came along. They were so happy to see the bike, they took their group pics with the mobile they had, and they took a snap with me too. It was fun to see excitement in their eyes and I was happy to let them take pics.

Carried on to reach Ujire, the place where I did most of my schooling! What a feeling it was to be there after close to 6 years. Lots of changes to the place. A sleepy village with few shops has grown to be a small city! The masalapuri shops which we used to frequent, the cyber cafe which we used to go to play counter strike (most off the time bunking classes), the secret head out place form the college campus jumping the fences, seeing all this at once had me in, I dont know an inexpressible state of awe. The cricket stadium where I spent cricketing days (and the days when I was suspended), the shop where we used to frequent all the monkey stuff, the library and in final the school and the college. Golden days!!

I wanted to stop and recall all this, I had no interest to move ahead, but given the fact that many of my relatives stay there and being spotted would only spell trouble, I rode slow. As slow as possible to give myself time to sink all this in. Emotions, though I am not very emotional kind of person, I could not stop recalling those childhood and teenage days and compare them to the life I am leading now.

Continued to Dharmastala, had lunch at a road side place. And then set on with our journey towards Bangalore. Somewhere close to Sakleshpur, Saquib's clutch cable snapped. Got it repaired quickly as the bike stopped exactly in front of a mechanics shop.

What followed this was carnage. We re grouped at Sakleshpur and we were ready to hit the amazing Bangalore Mangalore highway which transforms to a 6 laned beauty from here. We were enjoying oursleves and quickly split into 2 groups. Myself and Ashish were way ahead and we were doing constant 120 kmph with ease and cruising happily. Saquib was close by and rest were at their own speeds. It was fun watching i10,s and swifts dissappearing in the rear view mirror, but what was appaling was that few of the car drivers would not let us overtake them. Even though they were doing much lesser speeds, they would constantly block us, and we had to wait for an opening to push ahead. We covered good ground and did it quickly, which saw us in Bangalore by Sunset. Met everyone at Nelamangala toll, sipped few cups of tea and headed on to homes.

PC: Suvrajit Ganguly

While it was a fun immersive ride which had all the aspects that a rider looks for, from curves that surprise you to the highways that let you use the vehicles potential, this was special for me due to one place Ujire and the memories associated with it. I really wish to do the circuit again and visit few more places. Till then ciao.