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
The first place we visited was Karappuzha Earth Dam
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 take another 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 less 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 Muzhappilangad drive in beach, this is the only and longest drive in beach in Kerala.
Muzhapilangad 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: Muzhappilangad - Kasaragood - MangaloreDistance: 170 kms
First thing in the morning we washed the 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 4:30PM 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.
Day 4: Mangalore - Agumbe - Kodachadri
Distance: 210 kms
D Day for me, had waited for this day for more than a year. The plan for the day was to visit beach in Mangalore and head towards Kodachadri via Agumbe. I would like to put up more pictures than text to share my experience, Hmm I would tell this was one HELL of a experience.
Morning 7 AM we headed towards the beach, it was raining but it did not stop us from visiting it.
Beach, rain, so all the gears still On
We came back to the guest house, packaged up things and left by 10 AM. It was smooth ride till Agumbe.
Some where before Agumbe and rain
Base of Agumbe
Some where in the Hills
By the time we reached the top it was around 1 PM but the view was like this which was hard to believe it was 1 in afternoon.
At the top. Isn't it Beautiful.
At the top.
Wish I could have spend some more time but the time was running out, we had to reach Kodachadri before sun disappeared. When we inquired about the route towards Kodachadri, to our shock the guy said it was more 100 kms. Left immediately and headed towards Thirthahalli, the rain had eased a bit when we reached Thirthahalli, had lunch and inquired about the route, was not convinced by what local guys suggested, called up Akhil and asked for the direction who was a great help in directing in the right direction. Thank you Sir :D.
As soon as we left Thirthahalli, we came across a board which read Kodachadri 68 kms, there was big smile on our faces, started ripping. Time 3:30 PM, Ok roads, raining lightly.
Finally reached the base of kodachadri at 4:45 PM. Locals there suggested us to take the jeep as it was too dangerous to go now and we came to know the guest house was under re-innovation and Battara mane was full. We had only two options either halt in kodachadri base and ride up early morning or ride up. But I was very eager to ride up, convinced chetan some how and we started around 5:15 PM.
At this stage chetan asked whether we need to continue or head back. I said lets continue, even though my heart was pumping like mad. The rain had started, the fog started to cover us and the light was fading. Finally at 6:15 PM we reached the top. It was raining very heavily and the fog was too much to see anything.
I was thinking what made me ride up at this time, chetan wanted to ride down but I didn't have the balls to do that. It was very hard to convince him but I do the convincing very well you see. Finally spoke with the battarmane guys and got place for 2 of us to sleep.
I should say, this is the craziest thing I had done so far.People were surprised and obviously shocked to know we had come in bike. The asked about our trip, we had nice dinner and tried sleeping but we could hardly sleep in the cloud.
We some how got the signal and were able to contact Arjun from XBHP, he had planned to come to kodachadri the next day, but hearing our story he ditched the plans and said he will wait for us in Shimoga so we can ride back to Bangalore. So we decided we will leave early around 6 AM and tried sleeping again but in vain.
We were awake before the alarm could go off, chetan asked to come out and have a look outside, hmm there was nothing to see as we couldn't see anything because of the fog and it was raining heavily. We thought we would wait for some more time and time was 7:00 AM and the conditions were same. Our mobile batteries were very low by now and even we couldn't get network coverage. Finally we decided hell with the rain and fog and decided to make a move. Payed the bill, to our surprise it was 150 Rs for stay and (super) food.
As we left, we were drenched in 5 mins and we didn't care about the rain or fog. We enjoyed the ride down very much. But I have to say it, it was the toughest, craziest thing I had done in a long while. My bike turning radius or the tires didn't help me a bit. Chethan looked comfortable riding his P200 but I had to consider the ground clearance, the slippery tires because of the slush.
We headed towards shimoga, the roads were very bumpy and it was drizzling continuously. We wanted to catch the ferryboat at one place and head towards shimoga, this ferryboat saved us like 30 kms and more than 1 hour.
The batteries in our mobiles very dead by now and we 't contact Arjun who was waiting for us in Shimoga. Sorry a lot buddy.
We waited for the ferryboat for 20 mins, I was excited a lot because this was the other thing I had in my mind from long time. Travel in ferryboat with my bike.
The ferry journey was for 15 mins but it was lot of fun for me. Me and chetan were at opposite ends looking after our bikes. It cost us less than 20 Rs. Cheapiest transport I guess.
We made one more stop at Shimoga at some hotel, recharged our mobiles and ourselves, dried up clothes as the sun was out finally. Left shimoga by 4 PM.
We were in Bangalore around 8:30 PM, tired, happy and wanted a very good nap.
What a trip it was, total 1400 kms, 700 kms of rain ride, Ghats, Beaches, Fog, Hills, ferry ride and a found a great friend in Chetan.
As soon as we left Thirthahalli, we came across a board which read Kodachadri 68 kms, there was big smile on our faces, started ripping. Time 3:30 PM, Ok roads, raining lightly.
Finally reached the base of kodachadri at 4:45 PM. Locals there suggested us to take the jeep as it was too dangerous to go now and we came to know the guest house was under re-innovation and Battara mane was full. We had only two options either halt in kodachadri base and ride up early morning or ride up. But I was very eager to ride up, convinced chetan some how and we started around 5:15 PM.
Before the Hell-Heaven starts
Just after half kms of riding up
At this stage chetan asked whether we need to continue or head back. I said lets continue, even though my heart was pumping like mad. The rain had started, the fog started to cover us and the light was fading. Finally at 6:15 PM we reached the top. It was raining very heavily and the fog was too much to see anything.
I was thinking what made me ride up at this time, chetan wanted to ride down but I didn't have the balls to do that. It was very hard to convince him but I do the convincing very well you see. Finally spoke with the battarmane guys and got place for 2 of us to sleep.
Look at the fog and my tires :D
This is where we stayed for the night.
Warming up
Our bikes are right after the last pillar
Around 8 PM inside the house
Close up, can u see the devil
I should say, this is the craziest thing I had done so far.People were surprised and obviously shocked to know we had come in bike. The asked about our trip, we had nice dinner and tried sleeping but we could hardly sleep in the cloud.
We some how got the signal and were able to contact Arjun from XBHP, he had planned to come to kodachadri the next day, but hearing our story he ditched the plans and said he will wait for us in Shimoga so we can ride back to Bangalore. So we decided we will leave early around 6 AM and tried sleeping again but in vain.
We were awake before the alarm could go off, chetan asked to come out and have a look outside, hmm there was nothing to see as we couldn't see anything because of the fog and it was raining heavily. We thought we would wait for some more time and time was 7:00 AM and the conditions were same. Our mobile batteries were very low by now and even we couldn't get network coverage. Finally we decided hell with the rain and fog and decided to make a move. Payed the bill, to our surprise it was 150 Rs for stay and (super) food.
As we left, we were drenched in 5 mins and we didn't care about the rain or fog. We enjoyed the ride down very much. But I have to say it, it was the toughest, craziest thing I had done in a long while. My bike turning radius or the tires didn't help me a bit. Chethan looked comfortable riding his P200 but I had to consider the ground clearance, the slippery tires because of the slush.
Morning while coming back.
Chetan had enough of the rain by now.
Fog gone at one stage.
Green patch
Rocky ride
Look at the bikes
We headed towards shimoga, the roads were very bumpy and it was drizzling continuously. We wanted to catch the ferryboat at one place and head towards shimoga, this ferryboat saved us like 30 kms and more than 1 hour.
The batteries in our mobiles very dead by now and we 't contact Arjun who was waiting for us in Shimoga. Sorry a lot buddy.
We waited for the ferryboat for 20 mins, I was excited a lot because this was the other thing I had in my mind from long time. Travel in ferryboat with my bike.
Ferryboat arrives
Chetan bike
My bike
And we left
The ferry journey was for 15 mins but it was lot of fun for me. Me and chetan were at opposite ends looking after our bikes. It cost us less than 20 Rs. Cheapiest transport I guess.
We made one more stop at Shimoga at some hotel, recharged our mobiles and ourselves, dried up clothes as the sun was out finally. Left shimoga by 4 PM.
Drying up. :D
We were in Bangalore around 8:30 PM, tired, happy and wanted a very good nap.
Last Pic of the trip
What a trip it was, total 1400 kms, 700 kms of rain ride, Ghats, Beaches, Fog, Hills, ferry ride and a found a great friend in Chetan.
