Beast and its rides Trip10 BR Hills, MM Hills, Hogenekkal Falls and coracle ride 500km

Beast and its rides Trip 10 

BR Hills, MM Hills, Hogenakkal Falls and coracle ride (500km)

We had  1 hour late start waiting for others and two guys dropping out at last minute, witnessing an accident from our start place where a MUV collided head on with a sedan as MUV was coming in wrong side of the road (Urvashi signal), luckily there was no death but serious injuries to the drivers.

BR Hills

Pretty cold at 5am even though we were late we reached on time as per the plan to BR Hills, we took short break in Malavalli as usually we do in that route, met a fellow rider who was heading home to Kerala from Bangalore, the sun rise near Talkad was amazing, wish I could come here every day to see the sunrise between the mountains, we missed a turn after Talkad 20km extra de-touring as it's there in all the trips without it is no fun of the trips, reached BRHills by 8:30am. Its open from 6am to 6pm, hardly 2km inside from the check post we could spot dozens of Peacocks on the road side and on the road too little further for first time we were lucky to spot 2 Bison's crossing the road after quenching their thirst from nearby pond, on the top from the view point the name stands true Biligiri Rangantha Betta means white hill but a small change in the name we could make after reaching there is Billigri Mangana Betta as there were plenty of monkeys in the view point, even at 10am it was covered by thick white fog.

MM Hills

We reached there by 12:30pm, the roads were simply superb got a special entry to park the bike near the temple as I requested the keeper to allow me b'cos of my broken leg (ligament tear) was using ankle brace, we could see small chariots carrying the idols were out and people were rolling on the road around the temple, the queue to go inside for darshan was huge so we stayed out, we did one round around temple on our bulls, had our lunch in nearby hotel  and we started to descend towards mettur, hardly 5 km done with hairpin bends and the bike had to do dirt biking, the roads were bad for 15km we were covered by mud completely by the time we could hit metal road.

Hogenakkal Falls

We reached Hogenakkal falls from Karnataka side, the roads were narrow and empty. 

Mettur dam can be seen on the way, took a coracle ride till the falls, it took one hour to reach the fall and return. The water was green  in color, its crowded from Tamil Nadu side entry. Karnataka its always peaceful  ;-)

Return (coracle ride)

Got to know the bike can be put in coracle and shifted across the river as we wanted to enter Tamil Nadu side from there we could save 30km. Shifted two bulls together in one coracle and we took hardly 3mins to cross, but to shift the bulls in and out of the coracle it took more than half n hour. The roads were good so kept our average in 60s as there were many winding roads, saw a snake of two and half feet in length  cross the road it was close to the bull which was ahead of my bull. As we entered the city near atibile the light fuse of classic 500 got burnt, spare fuse too got burnt, the classic chrome was in stealth mode,  we were lucky as it was inside the city and rode slowly and reached home exact 500km done.

Riders,

1 Sharath Chandra

2  Santhosh Venkataram

3 Vishwas vishu

4 Venkataram

 Bikes,

1 Classic Chrome

2 Thunderbird 500

Photographer,

1 Vishwas Vishu

Beast and its rides Trip 9, 704km Belum caves and Gandikota

Beast and its rides Trip 9,  704km

Started at 4.30am from Bangalore pretty  warm weather, two guys pulling out from the team at last minute, still we continued with two bikes  surprising to see  around 100+ two wheelers travelling to Nandi Hills for sun rise, cops were stopping most of the two wheelers to make morning moolah near airport toll booth, surprisingly they didn't stop us, (might be they knew I won't give them anything) as we crossed Devanahalli the chill started and little further surprised to see heavy fog, visibility was reduced to hardly 5 feet , never experienced this from a very long time near Bangalore, and our first stop was in Anantpur for breakfast, amazing dosa at unbelievable price each egg dosa was 15rs and single omelet for 10rs, we stopped our bike for fueling just after gooty.

Belum Caves,

Just before the caves on the way one can find massive  cement industries  and waste black stone piled up in heaps on the sides of the roads with some beautiful small hills in different shapes, we reached the caves by 10.30am, caves are open from 10.00am till 5.30am entrance fee of  Rs50 per person with free guide available inside the caves one has to be present inside to enjoy the natures carvings and the lighting placed in some places makes the carvings done by water look magnificent, the guide was telling us there were saints earlier but I wonder how they used to go in or come out, its 120ft deep from ground level  with bats in it and one has to bend at many places as the height is

about 3t to 5ft, and the Pathala ganga is very narrow to enter where the water still flows and there is natural formation of linga due to lime stone, it took us nearly 2 hours to explore the caves and we did little detouring without the guide, entering new holes and coming out from other.

Gandikota fort,

  Nobody can make that a fort exists, its so inside and on the way you can spot a Dam and the roads are narrow, the video clip where a drunken rider falls on a thorn plant and his back was full of thorns and sadly got to know he was a tourist vehicle driver, hope he drives safe to the destinations. We were hungry but still we explored the fort. Entrance was so amazing we thought that the road would continue on the fort walls but to our disappointment after 4 turns it ended but the feel was different while riding the beast in that small place. we trekked on rocks for some distance to get the magnificent view of the Pennar river and the mountain  the pictures explain themselves. Standing on the tip taking some video and photos we ascended down it was 4pm there was only a APTDC restaurant where he charged us for meals and gave us only rice and sambar and other stuffs got over we had no choice but eat what was there, as no hotels were there. stomach filled with rice we took a short 10min nap in the hotel.

The return,

Roads were amazing and ghat stretches were in good condition with sun playing hide and seek with us and finally we decided to stop and catch the sunset in the camera, as it got dark couldn't make out much on the sides, but the air was cool and both sides surrounded by mountains  but this was short lived and then came an 80km horrible stretch with cement lorries dominating the roads it was just narrow road for one bus or lorry to go, but there were two way traffic had to do some off roading too and these lorry fellows never gave way for us easily, we stopped in between for chats in small town around 8pm had good masala puri for just 10rs, I remember paying 10rs for masala puri 8years back here in Bangalore. As we connected the NH7 the beast was unleashed cruising at its best after an hell ride.

Bikes

1 Thunderbird 500

2 Classic Chrome  500

Riders

1 Sharath Chandra

2 Vishwas Vishu

3 Santhosh Venkataram

Ride photographer

1 Vishwas Vishu

South India trip (N0 8 1980km 48hours)

Beast and its rides Trip 8 1980km

 [Rameshwaram (Panban bridge, dhanushkodi Beach), Kanyakumari, Athirapally water falls, Silent valley national park, Bandipur national park]

It was an long weekend started on 3rd morning at 12am, with two new guys joining us at last minute, we saw the sunrise in Madurai had our breakfast, kept the bike at steady pace of 90kmph and as we were nearing Panban bridge the scenery was breath taking just the road surrounded by Indian Ocean and to add extra beauty to it, we saw two peacocks crossing the road, we stopped few meters before the Panban bridge for our first photo bike was taken near the shore, surprisingly the water was so clean, just as we finished taking pictures the train was passing to cross the bridge, we raced before it could cross the bridge and took some photos it was one of the best memories we can have, the water was so clean and never in my life had seen such clean water except in movies, from there we continued to Dhanushkodi beach on the way the an traditional drunkard trying to cross the road came in middle of the road and had to apply sharp brakes and the beast was in control, got in water played for sometime, the place is the cleanest beach than any of the beaches I had been, best place to enjoy without crowd. 

Kanyakumari
We left Rameshwaram at 12.30pm the stretch between Rameshwaram and Kanyakumari were bad, which took more time in negotiating the potholes and mud roads, since we are from Bangalore we were comfortable in navigating the stretch with comfort as our roads are the same here, added to this slow moving we were slowed down by the local people who were traveling to the Ayudha pooja celebrations and roads were blocked at some stretches and were late by 3hours covering 995km on day one, reached

Kanyakumari by 8pm checked in a hotel room had our dinner and visited the sunrise spot came to room and slept off, next day we got ready to witness the sunrise from the sunrise point to our surprise there were more people than we could find in the market, it was flop as there were clouds and sun could be seen by 8am got some clicks and left to Athirapally.
 

Athirapally Water Falls (Super natural effect)

Day 2 we were slowed in kerala by their festival blocking the roads and the road users were little weird not like Chennai people, it was little respite to us we could cover only 370km riding from 9.30am till 5.30pm, the falls close by 5pm so we had to take room as we had no other option,we got in Pullikans lodge with a special room no 420 had our dinner by 8pm and slept off early, during middle of the night two guys in the room had some super natural effect, the guy sleeping next to me was tossed up in bed and the guy other side of me heard some sound, but i was dead tired and was sleeping like a log, got to know this in morning when I woke up they explained me about the incidence. We were in Athirapally Water falls by 8am the base view was splendid as Niagara falls, had good fun and spent more time there. by this time all our butts were ready for the iron butt challenge.
 

Silent Valley national Park (SVNP) & Bandipur National Park (BNP)

Near the base of the SVNP we were informed that we should be having booking to enter SVNP and the booking was full for the next two days and localite informed us about other route where we can sneak in but that route is heavily guarded by forest staff, we didn't take any chance of taking the risk and we continued our journey home we crossed Mudumalli and BNP we spotted Deer grazing in large nos and some baboons on trees and as usual monkeys on road, we were welcomed by rain in that region we just waited for this from a very long time, the ghat just before Gudalur is little dangerous as there are no barricades on the steep sides.We took the Kankpura road to reach Bangalore near Malavali the clouds opend up completley till Bangalore where we had to move slow in 30kmph as the visibility was very low.

Riders
1 Gajapathy
2 Santhosh Venkataram
3 Chetan
4 Raju

Bikes
Thunderbird 500
Thunderbird 350

Beast and its rides trip 7 1457 km

Beast and its rides trip 7

Places Jog falls, Goa, route of Doodh sagar falls 1457km 

The start was delayed by 4hrs as one of the rider over slept, and we started off at 5.10am on 15^th august we had an happy news for the start as the petrol price was reduced by 2rs per litre from the previous midnight, en route we stopped at Tiptur for breakfast and fuelling around 8.30am, the bunk owner was telling that he still hadn’t received the new petrol price and the person to set the new price hasn’t come yet, we had to fuel for the old price and continued our journey, on the way just before Shimoga we crossed Bhadravathi, the flow of water in Bhadravathi river was strong, we reached Jog falls by 1.30pm, there was some shooting going on in the water falls, good amount of water. We stopped in for lunch near by the quality wasn’t that good and it was a loot, lucky we were carrying lots biscuits in this trip, there are many more small falls on the way to Goa in the ghat it was an nice ride as always the western ghats replenishing the eyes of the rider little further downhill after an photo stop, it was an silliest accident anybody can do and the cost for repair was a bomb, bike fell while taking the bike on road from off road, the speedometer was damaged but it was working, the handle bar and leg guard got bent, but was in riding condition continued our ride probably the rain god noticed it and couldn’t control laughing then we were soaked in rain, tears from comedy. 

Goa

The coastal belt was amazing single lane road the greenery was different compared to the southern part of Western Ghats, Karwar an navy base and many small islands giving an completely different out look to the place. We entered Goa by 7pm missed the greenery of the area as it was dark and beautiful roads reached South Goa by 8.30pm checked in room by 9.30pm near Colva, dropped all our baggage came down to eat 95% of them were pubs and the food you get is of Prasad quantity with exorbitant rates, 12.30am we were in Colva beach the pubs are open till 2am next day, next day we started at 9am to reach North Goa on the way we had to get the handle bar fixed, it took us 3hrs in the Enfield service center got it fixed the staff there were so supportive and helping might be cos of there were more females than males.

Reached Calangute by 3pm most of the rooms were full even during off season, we were lucky to get an room near Calangute  got fresh quick, and went to Baga beach, it was crowded there and as were about to get in water the dark clouds opened up, we had no choice but to get wet in rain and join the group from Mumbai to play beach football, good game after a long time though we lost 5-2 we  made sure they had a tuff time scoring those 5 goal they had 5 men in their time and we were one short. The game lasted for 40 min everybody were tired and we returned to room to get fresh and catch the Cruise at 9.30pm  we were late completely soaked in rain then we visited Aguada fort, Taj vivanta Sinquerim beach in night and slept off by 12 am.

The return

We started by 8am to reach Doodh Sagar waterfalls the route was so amazing full of green and the stretch in Baghwan Mahveer Sacantury is the best till now I have experienced the silent place with trees making an natural tunnel of green and the beast clocking at 120kmph rarely you spot an vehicle in that stretch and two water falls on road side and the water tastes better than the packaged water, as we were nearing the Goa  Karanataka border Anmod, the roads were so horrible as son as we crossed border we were more focused on to finding nice patches of road and missed the turn to Doodh Sagar falls we had crossed 20km extra before we could realize and an local police man there told us that we can’t reach by bike to that place , had to take train that’s at 9am and return by 4pm train or trek for 15km to reach the spot, we just missed it and connected to Dharwad, it was my first time on this stretch NH 4 the roads were amazing, the beast and couldn’t resist the stretch and clocked 130kmph with 5000rpm that was the fullest I could pull and to an surprise NWKSRTC buses were driving like TNSTC bus drivers, then slowed down and the cars in that stretch were above 160+kmph but we could take down alto and 800s, there was hailstorm in this stretch from Davangere to Chitradurga beast slowed down to 80s due to poor visibility and patches of rain in some stretches on the other routes. The best part was the heads turn in the entire stretch just loved the feeling of it proud to own an Enfield, stopped in Dabbaspet for dinner, while we got ready to leave the TB350 didn’t start couldn find any mechanics as it was Sunday, fixed it ourselves by the spare fuse in it, and rode till Nelmangala and the other fuse got burned we were out of fuse and my TB500 fuse is different, while waiting there we spotted classic 350  and bullet 350 cross by we requested them to stop and they did and helped us in giving their spare fuse, they waited till the bike started and they left, thank you so much guys for the help, as our bike was ready to move there was an pulsar guy whose bike wasn’t starting helped him by towing that bike till Yeshwanthpur from Nelmangala Toll gate  and reached home by 11pm covering 1457km.

Little did we realize in last 4 months we had covered Western Ghats and Eastern Ghats alternating and last month we were riding next to Bay of Bengal and this time we were riding next to Arabian Sea.

Riders

1 Gajapathy V

2 Santhosh V

3 Srinidhi

4 Prakash N

Bikes

1 TB500

2 TB350