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.

A ride to windmills and awesome hills

Everything has a reason, and the reason for this ride was Suvra's fetish for windmills. He was so desperate to go stand below a wind mill that he had already drafted a plan for windmills of Chitradurga. I shot down the idea straight away as I have been to that place more than twice and the long boring stretch of smooth NH tarmac is not fun, especially on a Sunday morning. So I decided to do a solo trip to Yercaud and some nearby places. As fate had it, we came across a few pics of windmills in the Pollachi stretch and Suvra wanted to visit Pollachi now. In his words, "Bhai, I want to play with windmills and hang on one of the blades and rotate". Just imagine how desperate he must be.

It was decided that we visit Pollachi and the windmills. I have been there during the year end ride that I did, and I have also been to Valparai. An amazing amazing hill station with 40 hairpin bends to the top. I am a sucker for curves and I proved it by saying, lets do Valparai as well and come back. The total round trip came to 950Kms.

Now the questions, can we do it in a day started to fly around. We almost scrapped this plan but decided that we will go ahead and do it, all this on Saturday night! Time of departure was set at 1am Sunday morning and the meeting point Suvra's place. Neither me, nor Suvra got sleep on Saturday as we very super excited. I reached Suvra's place at sharp 12:55 to see Suvra cleaning his steed. We were all set to leave, then Suvra got down from the bike, went running to his house. Apparently he had forgotten his bike keys. Now he comes back and sits on the bike. I start the engine all set to roll with a big grin, and Suvra gets off again, this time more animatedly hitting his head and runs back. He forgot the keys the second time too! Now don't ask me what the heck! It must be age catching up or he must be super excited, though I think it is the first reason.

We head out, to the petrol station, Suvra gets his steed filled up and we hit the Hosur road. It was smooth sailing till Krishnagiri, yes, a few diversions due to road construction, but we were constantly gliding at 85kmph. We stopped for a tea break at Krishnagiri and Suvra in no time got his camera out. He is very enthu about photography and clicks some awesome shots.

Few clicks and a cup of tea later we were ready to hit the road, I had songs playing with the ipod and that was helping me enjoy the ride at an unearthly hour. We reached Salem real quick and stopped at the tollbooth for a fuel refill. Yes,I need a refill every 270 Kms.

We were really enjoying the ride and we were cruising at a leisurely pace of 85 all the way. Never faced a place where I had to use the brakes and we were doing good time. Reached Pollachi and took the road towards Thiruppur. And at around 6:30 we were able to reach the first destination. Exact time when the sun had decided to show himself and these are the pics that show the beauty of this place.

This place was filled with windmills, like mushrooms in monsoon. I was confused on what to do. Which windmill to click, what next, and you know the dilemma of framing a pic. Then decided to take a pic with as much as I can fill in the frame.

The bikes starred in a few pics.

Close-up of sun rising behind one of these beauties.

We had fun here, found a road that took us to the base of these wind mills. Clicked pics, I tease Suvra chatting, having fun. Once he was happy and satisfied, we decided to head to Valparai which was further 140Kms ahead.

Cruising happily on the smooth TN state highway which was curvy and full of greenery and yeah, windmills, we reached the foothills of Valparai by 9:30. We decided to skip breakfast and have it on our way back and started for the ghat section. The terrain that was dry and hot, immediately changes to cool and breezy once you enter the hills. I was giggling inside waiting for the ghat section, to ride on those 40 hairpins. We took a lot of snaps, stopping when ever we came across beautiful scenery. Rode at will and we were in no hurry as this ride was to be a relaxed ride and we did not mind reaching back late.


The backwaters from the dam. It was a little dry but nonetheless a beautiful view glammed up by gentle rays of rising sun

Wonderful views throughout the ride, this one felt like a welcome decoration specially made for us

From Loams viewpoint. Good that we reached early, on the way back we saw a security guy brandishing a cane at everyone who considered stopping here and shooing them away.

Curvy twisty roads that are amazing especially for the corner craveing lot.

The tea gardens at the top of the hill. No view can come even close to these in beauty

My Ceeber completed her 8888Kms in 4 months, so thought I will present some red flowers to my red beauty.

Misty, cloudy views all around at the top

He couldn't resist stopping and staring at all the beauty for few minutes.

Another view while descending

One shy little stream

Way back was as beautiful as way up, I know I know it was the same road, but I never get enough of this place.

We were in no mood to leave, but it was 12 and we were hungry. Had one of the best biriyanis in a roadside shack. With a happy tummy, we headed back and once out from the hills, it was like being thrown into an oven. It was hot and we could not find shade in the 6 laned highways to stop and take rest. Heck, I would ride on but not stop in the burning sun, not at all with all the riding gears, you will be cooked from inside.

We stopped somewhere near Thiruppur for a quick water break. Return leg also was the same. We maintained a constant 85 all the way to Salem, stopped for a fuel refill and a cup of tea.

Clicked the sunset pics from somewhere near Krishnagiri.

Majestic mountain range as seen from the highway.

The setting sun and the streaks of clouds.

The moment I clicked this photo, 3 guys appeared on what I was doing, and the tone was not soft at all! Had to show them the pics to convince them that I was clicking the sun and not the property below! They were the owners of the property apparently and were suspicious that I am planning some stuff

We reached Electronic city toll booth at 8pm and we were ecstatic that we had covered 930 odd kms in a day. We had this crazy idea of roaming around and make the number 1000Kms, which we decided was silly. This was the longest trip for both of us in a day and we were very happy. Not only we had done 930KMs, we had done it with ease. I think the destination and the roads played their part too in this. The amazingwindmills, the scenic beauty of Valparai will be etched in memory for ever. We headed home, happy, satisfied and with a feeling of accomplishment from this wonderful ride.

Craving for curves - Ooty revisited

My therapy-my bike, my medicine-My bike, My companion-My bike. Week full of crazy work and when weekend shows up, its time to gear up and head out. When there was a discussion of heading out to Ooty and Wayanad for a days ride, I was excited- excited beyond imagination. I have always wanted to ride in the cool twisty roads surrounded by serene forests and this was one heck of an offer. I jumped in and said yes I am joining. What better way to set my twisted off head due to tons of work straight than hitting the twisty and curvy roads of Ooty. 

Sunday 2AM was decided as the time for departure, and as usualy, sleep eluded me. However hard I tried to, all I could do was drool over the beauty of Ooty, and to add over to it, the list of places what I had missed in my previous visit were the ones that we were planning to visit this time around. So mentally picturing and framing my photos and thinking of how fun it will be, alarm started screaming. It was time to head out and so did I. 

Everyone was on time and we left for Bandipur at 2AM taking the Bangalore-Mysore highway. Whoever named this road a highway should be shot in the knees. There are millions.. no zillions of speed breakers on this road and lot of them crawl up at you and show up at the last minute like a surprise visitor, or more like an unwanted guest. Lots of these are unmarked and some of these are really hard to spot even in the day light. Somehow we waded through all these and reached Bandipur gates at 6AM which is the exact time for them to open. Stopped for a cup of tea and pulled out the camera.

Some nice views all around on a foggy morning.

Bandipur gate which was just open for vehicle movement. Travellers please make note that the gates are closed from 8PM to 6AM as this is a reserve forest area. Plan your travel in this route accordingly.

So done with tea we headed on into the forest. The roads have speed breakers every 100 meters. This is to stop people from over speeding and hitting the animals. Early morning, you get to see lot of animals. We spotted elephants, deers, lots of monkeys and some one spotted a fox. The views inside the forest had nothing great to write about since this being summer, all we could see were dried trees. It was the fog that made the journey amazing. The roads were smooth except for the occasional speed breaker and we stopped somewhere for a few clicks.

Few Deer who gracefully posed for a pic

The roads inside Bandipur forest

PC: Pratik Gupta

We crossed over to Tamilnadu in quick time and we took a left from Mudhumalai gate towards Ooty. The fun starts now as this road is decorated with 36 super steep hairpin bends. I was looking forward to these and was grinning from ear to ear. The road till the base of Ooty hill were average and very narrow. We started the climb and I who was tailing the group all this long started leading in all excitement. 

Few pics en route:

Once the curves were done and dusted, we headed for breakfast in Ooty city. Filled up the hungry tummy and the next destination was Avalanche lake. If you read my previous travelogue of Ooty, you will remember that I missed this place due to heavy rain and this time I wanted to make sure that I visited the place. 

We headed on, loosing way, people sending us in all directions, finally it was Google Maps to the rescue and we continued on our merry way. The roads need a special mention here. They are brilliant, smooth, super curvy, super scenic and every damn thing is superb on this road. I stopped for a few clicks as I knew few of the best spots from my last visit.

Emerald lake as from the road:

The city:

Emerald lake:

We reached Avalanche to find out that we had to take the bus service from the department to visit the place and it would mean loss of 3 hours. We had to visit Wayanad too and hence we decided to skip the trip. But this is when few people in the group started to say no to Wayanad. I was a little disappointed as I have always wanted to ride in the Ooty-Wayanad road. Finally we decided  not to visit Wayanad and head out after visiting Emerald lake.

We spent time here clicking pics and having fun. As it was noon and we had no other plans we could relax. Few pics from Emerald lake.

There she is, she completed 10K Kms with me in 4 months.

A panorama of the lake.

Some more posing:

We had food in Ooty and headed back leisurely. A little sweet talking to one of the security guards ensured that we could take the same route we took on our way in. Slowly steadily we descended the ghats. Here I guess few kids were in a hill climb race on their bikes, and one of them suddenly crossed our way in haste in one of the hairpins. Lucky for him and us that we could stop in time. To those kids if you are reading this, please try to take your lives out where there is no one else to be harmed. Don't hurt others due to your foolish acts.

Met another group of people, couples actually who were clicking pics of our group ride. Got stuck in rain and somehow reached back home by 3AM Monday. I was a little heartbroken that I could not visit Wayanad, but that is coming up shortly post monsoon. Till then the journey continues and I will be back with a new destination. Stay tuned for more.