Photography ride 406km

Photography ride ( BR Hills) 406km

The Start,

Started off by 5am on a warm Sunday morning, this time my cousins accompanied our gang and we had 3 DSLRs and 3 bikes, in the trip both were first timers for the ride, they were invited as it was a half a day ride but later on due to deviations and bad road it consumed an entire day.

First Stop

We took a short break in Malavalli as we do regularly in that route, but this time we were running late as the sun was out early due to summer, last time the we were in Talakaad during sunrise. To catch up last time we revved up the engine for a short distance and again slowed down due to bad roads, it was rare to spot clean patch for a smooth ride for almost 40km which consumed a lot of time.

Lake

Just 20km before the BR Hills there is a big lake,  well barricaded on one side with electric fencing  to avoid animal human conflict, but the humans are on top of everything, there were fishing activity happening all just within half n hour it was caught and sold, was lucky to spot big size fishes, three times the size of a cat. The two professional photographers got busy with their job on the side of lake, the other three did some trek to go to the other side of the lake, took couple of photos, almost spent an hour there, with some selfies.

BR Hills

Two bikes went ahead early in that stretch. The weather was so pleasant at 11am with cool breeze even though the sun was shining bright in the sky. I had to slow down for Vinod to take photos of birds, found a couple of them. We were three hours behind schedule.  At the top, took a couple of pictures after  climbing  rocks and tree ... as usual, and  the temple was open this time.

Return

Throttles were opened to cover up time, true beasts unleashed on road, but the riders needed a break and we took a short break for coconut water, they were just harvested, the water was very tasty, so we had coconut bottoms up competition ;-) , Vishu and myself could manage 4 where as the rest stopped after two rounds. As we were nearing shivansamudra the bridge across the cavery river was under repair. De tour rode for 20km backwards and this time we transported the beasts in boat, this mode shortened our de touring by 40km and saved almost a hours time. Heavy traffic on the Kanakapura road stretch spotting couple of fresh accidents en route, Even NICE road had heavy traffic.... we were home by 6:30PM.

 Riders

1 Shrath Chandra

2 Vishwas Vishu

3 Santhosh Venkataram

Bikes,

1.  Classic Chrome 500

2.  Thunder bird 500

3.  Standard 350

Photographers

1 Vinod krishna

2 Nandini Ram

Colombo feb 2015 missed beast

As all my travels are related with beast  but this was my first international exp

My first international assignment as a Chair Umpire thanks to the TOI and SLTA for giving me this opportunity.

 

My immigration took more than one hour as there were many flights landed at the same time, Dharawka and his team were waiting for me at the airport, thank you guys for the pickup nothing much difference as compared to India in weather wise, traffic is the same as here but with discipline. My accommodation was in National official house.  Big independent house I had a separate room to stay in Ground floor Thanks to Anjana for the accommodation it was like home with home food for breakfast and at times dinner if we didn't go out. The food was great at  his place and the places we had been to eat.

First Week ( Queens club)

I got in an trisho (auto rickshaw) to reach the venue, the trisho missed the route and was sightseeing for me in Embassy and defense area,  Jemin You the Supervisor  for the tournament.  Venue is quiet far from the place I stayed, it was like an hour's travel one way to reach the venue. Since the courts were slow had almost Three setters everyday and we used to be free by 3pm with not much trouble from players. We had been to Mount Lavina beach and Galle face in evening for walk during. First week just flew off.

The four legged spectator on bottom right corner

Second & Third Week (SLTA)

It was our Supervisor who was happy that he did a tournament without rain, but his words were short lived, it was almost wash out for next three days due to heavy rain, somehow finished the matches by Sunday, we had to use hard courts for one day to cover up the matches, second week used to be long but it was quick, There was one special spectator who used to come to see the matches everyday only the matches happening  in court 4.we could make time to go to Galle it's a hour's drive from Colombo. Most of my return travel from venue to house was accompanied by Prasad J in Bus, Thanks to you buddy for dropping me every day. without you it would have been tough for me to get down even though there was a big statue which almost resembled Like Muffi ( just kidding buddy).

Conclusion

Jemin You, it was nice working  with you  learnt many things from these three weeks, the coolest ref, had a great time with you on court and off court.

Anjana, thanks once again for the accommodation and special thanks to maid who used to cook veg food specially for me,  it was like home for me, but I don't know where eva I go am related to an Criminal Lawyer .

Prasad J, thanks buddy for travelling with me most of the time during return to home.

Dhwaraka E, Dinusha W and Muffi, had great company with you guys. It was an memorable great three weeks

I would like to thank again TOI and SLTA for giving me this Opportunity, without your support I wouldn't have experienced all these.

Regards,

Santhosh V

Trip 11 Go green 1736km Bhimavaram

It was an late start for the year on the beast due to work travel.  Bhimavaram 1736km march 2015

Bike

First of all I would personally thank the Enfield service center in BTM layout Bangalore for not solving the battery issue under warranty  and giving false promise to customer, cos they themselves didn't know what the problem was,( I am not being sarcastic here) its the fact that I can enter into limca book of records for the number times my bike has visited the service center in one year,  for the same battery issue. I was even promised that the issue would be solved and i would have peaceful ride during the trip, but they never even bothered about taking this one seriously.

The Ride

On Friday morning by 6am my ride commenced pleasant weather as usual in morning, roads were amazing, little further surprised to see single lane road till Naidupet which slowed my speed took my first break in Sri Khalahasthi around 11am had breakfast and continued after crossing Naidupet little further stopped for fueling bike did another full tank, it was time calculate the mileage as this was my first solo 800+km one way ride, was surprised to know that bike gave me 35kmpl had never got this mileage before in my rides, so happy to know about the mileage, it came to an end soon as the bike started to give trouble it used to go off when it was slowed down during speed breakers and an long time to start it, for my bad wasn't carrying any spares which I regularly used to, somehow managed till Adaanki 30km from Ongole in my grandma place.

Village Jatere (Ongole district)

As it was Holi the next day the district hosts an village festival once in every year 10 nearby villages come together to celebrate it  I was lucky to witness it, the crowd and the lighting was amazing the picture tells all, the horn speakers are   most of the houses didn't even have main doors, they were telling me there are no thefts here it's just us we stay no outsiders come here, as it was night couldn't take much pictures as my phone camera in night is bad.

still in use with no noise cancellations system there were 11 stages in one open ground playing different music, it's an night long festival starts at 7pm and ends at 5am next day. I could just spend half n hour there as I need to get some sleep for my ride tomorrow. Staying in rural side was different experience for me the people were so soft and nice, I stayed in a village of just 16 house, along with cattle's

Adaanki till Bhimavaram.

had to give around 15kicks to start the engine, ride started at 7am in morning the birds chirping it was an very long time since I saw sparrows, thick mist in morning made the ride a pleasant start with the same issue with bike, nearing Guntur the views of small hills with fog half covering them was an nice view, saw two dead monkeys on road due to hit and run, nearing Vijayawada around 11am the traffic was heavy and all the speed was reduced and kept the throttle high then letting the engine go off,  turned on the gps near benz circle the narrow rural roads surrounded by sea of greenery on either side was just amazing. As was entering Bhimavaram Spotted an Enfield service center stopped the bike took drop from the mechanic and left the bike for servicing ( 5days in service center), they actually did fix my battery issue and later informed that accelerator cable was gone and replaced.

The return

Started by 2.45am took Tadepallegudem route, actually there was no road for first 20km till Pipera, it took one hour for me to reach Tadepallegudem from there the NH 5 was superb till Naidupet, wonder how drivers are blind saw another hit and run this time it was buffalo and calf, calf was smashed on the spot and buffalo dragged for 50mts both on the spot death. so sorry for those poor creatures for no mistake of theirs they ended paying up their lives for hit and run. Met a group of bikers from Nellore district they were having their weekend coffee ride, just took three stops one for fueling and other two for photos and did 868km in one stretch, from KR Puram the traffic got heavy,  was home at 4pm, second time the beast doing 850+ in single day.

Bike

Thunderbird 500

Rider

Santhosh Venkataram

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