Going West Coast in search of Peace

Frustration! Frustration! Frustration! This trip was born out of Frustration! Always had West coast in mind, chalked out a plan along with Chethan our very own bike baba and decided on visiting Wayanad, Muzilipagandi driven-in beach, Mangalore, Kodachadri, Sirsi[We couldn't visit this place, read on to know Y?]

Day 0 Sept 28th [Bengaluru - Kalpetta]:
Due to some unavoidable reason we decided to start around 2 PM, plan was to halt in Kalpetta so we could spent the next day around Wayanad. It was a smooth and boring ride till Gundalpet, time was already 5 PM, we knew after 6 we couldn't enter the Bandipura forest area. Started pushing a bit, we crossed the check post around 6:15 PM.

After Entering forest range

The roads were beautiful and very scenic, it was full rip session till the natural lights went out. There was a big traffic jam near Sulthan Bathery check post, we some how came out of it very quickly and took a small Coffee break. We hit Kalpetta around 8 PM, looked out for some hotels and finally checked in to The Woodlands hotel which had a private, secure parking. Ended the day with the following.

Energy Drinks :D

Yummy food

Route: Bengaluru - Mysore- Gundlapet - Sulthan Bathery- Kalpetta
Distance: 278 Kms
Route Map Link


Day1 Waynada

Today's plan was to visit the main places around Kapletta, lazy started around 9 after having the breakfast in the Woodlands hotel.

Places around Kalpetta

Places around Kalpetta and Distance

The first place we visited was Karappuzha Earth Dam

Way to Karappuzha Earth Dam

Dam from some distance

Dam

The other side of the Dam

Old hut near Dam

Next was Edakkal caves, here we want to take small jeep [roller coaster] ride which will take us to the base of the Edkkal caves from where we need to trek for 300 mts.

Want some?

Edakkal caves, trek

Edakkal caves, trek

Inside Edakkal caves

Inside Edakkal caves, Chethan posing

From here we can again trek another 400 mtrs up and see the whole of wayanad but we were in no mood because it would 400 mtrs trek would take 45 mins, so dropped the plan. We trekked down, and took the Jeep drive back to the place where we had parked our bikes, the jeep drive was very good. I have a video of it will, watch out for the video section.

Next we headed to Meenmutty waterfalls, the entry fee here is bit wierd, for 1-10 persons it 300 Rs with guide. Guide said it was 1 kms trek but guess it was more, this trek had everything from rope to no support steep slippery way.

Lonely tree

Getting down using a rope

First view of fall

Falls

This is way back up

One more

By the time we came back, we were completely drained, gulped a bottle of butter milk and rested for some time.

We continued to the next place, with no place in mind we were waiting for some board to show up, the roads were too good to stop.

Road

We got some checkpost, we paid a entry fee of Rs.7 and we crossed it only to know we were heading towards Ooty, turned back saying 'next time'. The roads were too good to stop.

We made a stop near some place which is very close to Chembra peak and refueled ourselves with 1 biryani and omlet each. We knew Chembra would be hard to trek considering what we had gone 1 hour back. So we headed towards Soochipara falls, we say a board which read Kanthanpara falls 3 kms, so we took a diversion to check it out. This is what we saw.

Initially we thought this was the falls

Kanthanpara falls

Kanthanpara falls

This place was uncrowded and kind of nice, after spending some time we headed back towards, Soochipara falls.

We need to walk 2kms or so to reach the falls, this is what we saw while we were on our way to the falls.

Chethan named it Double Decker :D

Falls from distance

Falls closeup

From here we headed back to hotel, it was 5:30 already, we saw a board reading Pookot lake 5 kms, we thought we shall give it a try but when we reached there it was already closed. So we headed back to hotel.

This was a very tiring day with so much trekking and we had covered 130 kms.

Day 2: Kalpetta - Vythiri- Banasura Sagar DAM [-Manthavady-Nedumpoyil-Koothuparambu-Thalasheri

Today's plan was to visit Banasura Sagar dam via Vythiri, which rockkyy[Xbhpian] had suggested and head towards the drive in beach near Thalasheri. Thanks rockkyy the roads were very good and scenic. We checkedout of hotel around 9 and headed towards Vythiri.

First view of Banasura Sagar Dam

Beautiful Dams

We parked our bikes outside the entrance of dam and carried all our luggage hoping we can drop it some where and visit the place, lucky we dropped all the luggage in the ticket counter and waited for the jeep to takes to the Dam. The distance was not more than a Km but we were in no mood to walk, we waited for the jeep for 20 mins which finally came, we boarded the jeep along with a couple and kid. The place was very crowded which made the place more beautiful.

Banasura Sagar Dam

Speed Boating

Banasura Sagar Dam

So our next destination was drive-in beach. Finally it started raining, than i realized i had forgot to get rain gear for my bag which I had tied on the pillion seat. Went to some shop and got two big covers which worked well through out the trip.

Bike all set for rain ride.

Traffic jam.

Finally around 4 we reached Muzhapilangadi drive in beach, this is the only and longest drive in beach in Kerala.

Muzhapilangadi Drive in Beach

Palm shore resort adjacent to beach

We dumped in all our luggage in the room we got in the resort which was adjacent to the beach and came back running to ride in the beach again ;).

Chethan riding

We could easily ride upto speed of 70 kmphr without any difficulties but if you stop the bike for more than a min this would happen

Tire got struck

Me

Two bikes

Darmaland Island

We were in the beach till 6, later we went into near by town to get booze and some snacks as we had skipped our lunch. We came back by 7, order food and we spent rest of the day wandering on the beach, chatting with resort owner and his friend till 11. [Ask chethan more about this :D]. This place was very beautiful, we could hear to the wave even when we were in the room and this place is visited less by tourist I guess, as we saw only around 100 people many of them were locals.

View from resort entrance

Road to resort

Day 3: Muzhapilangadi- Kasaragood - Mangalore
Distance: 170 kms

First thing in the morning we bikes and lubed the chains. It had started raining, after a short while we stopped to have breakfast.

Breakfast for the day.

Next stop was at Kasaragod, the roads were pretty Ok here but it was raining non stop. When we reached Bekal fort it was almost afternoon. This place is beautiful, its a must visit place. Lets the pics do the talking.

Entrance of Bekal Fort

After entering Bekal Fort

View Of ocean

Me posing

Both posing

Beach we couldn't visit

This place was beautiful, Forts with greenery and ocean made it more beautiful. Spent enough time and left towards Mangalore.

Now rain started to pour down heavily, so did the average speed.

Divider

Roads got worse and to add to that the rains never stopped. We reached Mangalore by 4:30
PM but it took us 30 mins to search for the guest house we had booked for. Thanks to the locals, we were rounding the guest us but no one told the right location. Finally some school kid showed us the way. We decided not to visit the beach instead we shall go some nice place and have good dinner.

After riding through pathetic roads we decided not to take updpi road to reach Kodachadri instead go through agumbe. One of the many best decison (:D) we took in the trip. And we decided to skip Sirsi, as even if we had visited Sirsi we couldnt have visited many places. So Sirsi we decided to visit next time.

We had a heavy dinner came back around 10 and crashed for the day. We could visit only one place today but it was worth it.

Best and Last Part to come..