Doomsday to XMAS... Merry Merry Merry (Wayanad-Kannur trip)

A crazy person who travels is better than a wise man who lies down idle. With our mind stuck on adventure, and our hands whirling our bike's accelerator we started our trip towards Kerala early morning at 4 am. With no solid plan of our trip the 8 members, Ashish, Pankaj, Pawan, Nand, Atul, Awadhesh, Vipul and me were riding through the dark towards Mysore from Bangalore.

Just getting out, 3:00 am

 It was too cold and after sometime the hands were no longer part of our body. We stopped after Mandya, and it was still dark, grabbed a cup of tea and went ahead. With mysore coming closer, the next morning to Doomsday was greeted by the first rays of sun. The fields around mysore and srirangpatna were all glittering with the sun rays. It took us sometime to reach Mysore as we had two first time riders with us. We had breakfast at Mysore, and our opportunists Pawan and Pankaj, utilized the waiting time to their fullest.

We headed towards wayanad via nanjangud- gundlupet- sultan batheri- kalpetta. The road was very nice and scenic. Infact after Gundlupet, we entered the Bandipur forest area, though late during the day but still the road was pretty awesome. Alas, that we were not able to spot any animals at that time apart from the regular dog, cows and  monkeys.

Though the time was not favorable but the route surely was. We reached Sultan Batheri by 2:00 had kerala meals there, our first choice for lunch and luckily the food was also OK OK. After a tummy overflowing lunch we headed towards kalpetta, and had no idea where to go from there. We had an idea of camping overnight somewhere in wayanad, and wanted to select a riverside location. There is when GPS came in, and I was looking at all the small streams close by to us. With no proper location in sight and the overhead sun going for the kill, we decided to move on towards Soochipara falls. The route to falls from Kalpetta is all what wayanad is about. Small curvy roads in the midst of tea gardens with the chembra peak peeking from every nook and corner made our day.

We reached Meppadi, a small town from where most of the tourist spots are close by. A right turn from Meppadi and a 13 km drive along the tea gardens took us to the falls. There is a ticket entry to the waterfalls but the money given is worth it as the government has made pretty nice arrangements and pathway to the falls. The waterfall itself is a pretty nice experience setter. The water was pretty cold and hence served a nice Jacuzzi for all of us. A nice experience of waterfall after the Jog falls.

By the time we left the waterfalls, it got pretty dark. We straight away headed towards our camping spot which was about 2 km down hill from the waterfalls. Set out the tent and started our work for a campfire.

The night in the tent was a pretty hard experience as the temperatures were quite low and and we were not equipped with blankets. The cold night went by and a goldish morning woke us up. The morning troll along the tea estate was an awesome and a must not leave experience.

The morning after packing we went to Meppadi where we hired a room, got fresh, had some breakfast and then left for Edakkal caves about 25 km from Meppadi. The root again was nice, via Vaduvanchal and had Kanthipara waterfalls, Meenmutty falls, all along the way. But the caves themselves had nothing to offer. Sunday afternoon, a big rush was there and a huge queue in the sun made it a very bad spot selection.

Painting from the Edakkal caves

After that we decided to go to the Pookote lake which was 40 km from the caves. On our way we found the phantom rock too. It's a rock standing on the cliff of a small hill, giving it's name. We went ahead towards the lake and got across Vythiri, a small hill station and a nature's gateway in wayanad. The resorts in vythiri are simply ecstatic. We reached the entrance of the lake and there was a police checking going on there, 2 of us were not wearing helmets and hence were fined. The lake is not that great a place but the self row raft boat truly made it worth a place to visit. There is a nice park surrounding the lake where you can get elephant rides too. There is an aquarium and a small nursery too. 

Next to the lake is a beautiful sunset view point called as the Calicut view point. It's a stupendous combination of human architecture and nature's. The hill point where the descend to Calicut starts and in that valley you can see the sun setting. Though we missed the sunset but the essence of it was still there.The next morning we decided to go to Sunrise valley, which is about 13 km from Meppadi on the way to Vaduvanchal. There is a right turn about 8 km from Meppadi towards vaduvanchal for the sunrise valley. Sign boards are there to guide you. the road after that is very bad, with a lot of bumps and holes, and there is a sudden end to the road. We reached the end of the road by 5:30 am and it was still pretty dark. We were not able to spot the way to the valley and there was only jungle visible. We saw a lady walking around her house, so we asked her about the way to the valley. To our surprise, she called her husband who came with a torch and showed us the way to the view point along the jungle without asking for any favors. Hats off to Kerala is what we exclaimed at that moment. You can slide down along the view point to get a clear picture of the valley, there is a stream flowing below which adds to the beauty and ambiance  Be careful while descending and ascending though!!

After that we headed towards Chembra peak as we were sure that none of other mates would have woken up by that time. The road to the peak is very bad but compensated by breathtaking views of the hill and valley. You have to take a ticket though to go to the top, even as a visitor, some 20 rs per person, and if trekking than 500 rs per 10 people. Unfortunately we were not able to make the trek due to shortage of time, but even driving in the morning breeze along that so called road made our effort look valiant.

A colorful parrot spotted on the way to Chembra peak

After that we were on our way to Kannur, a 120 km drive, but the route was pretty bad and the overhead sun made it even worse. We left meppadi by 10 30 odd, and reached kannur by 4. A horrible time lapse and  a pretty slow pace. We followed the way to kalpetta-tharuvana- kuttiady- thalassery- kannur. The road at some places was from the cities and had to go through city traffic, somewhere the road was under construction and then it was a 10 hair pin bend road through the periyar forest reserve. As we reached Kannur, our friend Rohith joined us there, and took us to Kannur fort. A fort built by portugese in 1505. Not much of a construction there but a beautiful view of Arabian sea made it worth watching.

Arabian sea face at the fort

Rohith Awadhesh, JAI and VEERU

A view from the fort wall

Full moon sky at the drive in beach

After the fort we headed towards the Drive in beach in kannur, about 10 km from the main city, a paradise for the leisure lovers. A beach made to drive vehicles on, with no immense crowd and a platform to sit and relax. We landed on a resort there, which was quite cheap to it's standards, and crashed the whole night there. Next morning was when we did the photo session of the action at the drive in beach.

 We left kannur by 11 after having breakfast, and followed the way to Kannur- Iritty-Virajpet-Hunsur-Mysore-Bangalore. As soon as you enter the karnataka border the next 80 km of road is horrible and pretty hard to drive on at a brisk pace. On my way back, my bike got jammed just about 30 km before bangalore.
Shockingly had to park the bike at a petrol pump in bidadi and took my way back on a bus. Next day went back just to get the bike repaired.

A beautiful lake near Iritty

All is well when end is well, though in the end we had a mishap of bike not functioning, but still the trip was too good, with the main highlight of the drive in beach where we sat late night drinking beer and sharing stories. The beautiful roads which we drove on and hence another place conquered in south India on bike.

Murdeshwar- Gokarna - Jog Falls Bike Trip

It was mid of july when I suddenly thought of exploring coastal Karnataka. Travelling is something that drives me crazy and that's the only normal thing I do in my life :). It all started with a small motivation to all my friends and we were all set to travel 1300 km in 3 days on bike. Karnataka's coast is something that is unexplored and a paradise if explored. We planned to travel during august, to use the holidays of that time, and to our surprise the plan looked so luring that friends from Delhi, Tirichy, Chennai and even from Gwalior joined us. We were finally 16 people to travel along, and even better thing was that none of us owned a bike back then. The hunt for bikes on rent started and we finally found 3 apaches, 1 fazer and 2 thunderbirds for us. We also hired a cab for the rest 4 non-bikers :(, which actually turned out a pretty good decision by the end.

All Set to roll.........

Day 1:- We left pretty early at 4 am with a thought of reaching Murdeswar by evening, but God had other plans for us. Driving on NH4 till tumkur is like driving a wave runner, none of us were below 100 and we reached there by 5:45 am. Had a cup of tea and went ahead towards Tiptur. Here is where things started to get dirty. Two of the riders slipped namely Kamal and Raj as Kamal had no idea how to swing the bike :p, luckily they were not at all seriously injured but hats off to Raj who was injured but still covered the whole distance to and fro on bike. Another mishap, and an expected one of bike puncture happened about 20 km before tiptur in a No man's land. Had to take a mechanic from tiptur all the way down to the place. These things hurt our plans, as we were also not able to find any place for medical dressing of the injuries to Raj and Kamal. Somehow, we started from Tiptur by 11:30 and reached Tarikere by 1:30. We had a pretty bad lunch there, and to the worst it had rained at that time. The road was pretty slippery now and it was hard to drive above 70. Though we continued on NH 206, but from the Paper town before Bhadravathi we took a left turn and followed SH57 and turned towards Shettihalli Wildlife Sanctuary. We had planned to travel this same road towards Murdeshwar via Kundapura as it was more scenic. As we entered the jungles, the road got thinner and thinner, somewhere there was not even a road, and it was continuously raining. We had no idea about these conditions, and we went ahead on the same road along the jungles, pretty few vehicles crossed us, and it was always a lonely road where only our 6 bikes were roaring along.
                  By evening 5, we were all completely wet,but the scenic landscapes always took away our minds from this fact. At this point we were around 180 km from Murdeshwar.

It had started to get dark now, with continuous rain making our clothes a water sack and a road which was hard to find, we were driving along singing songs loudly. We were not able to spot any animals though, apart from few monkeys and usual dogs and cows. The road and the conditions had reduced our speed considerably and we were not able to maintain an average of even 40. By night 10'0 clock we reached Siddapura, and were still 90 km from Murdeshwar. All the small waterfalls which passed our way during the night were just being cursed upon, as we were just able to hear there voices in the jungle and not at all able to even see them. We knew that we will be joining the NH66 in another 30 km so were expecting a better road. The road from Siddapura to kundapura is infact nice. When we touched the highway we realized that God is mocking us in a lot many ways now. The road is horrible with holes pretty deep. As it was raining so all of them were even filled with water and the depth was a mystery. Somehow we reached Murdeshwar at 1:00 in the night, and I was being cursed for choosing the awful road. We slept without dinner that night, with just a couple of whiskey pegs each person. The 21 hour long drive was over but a lot was left to follow.

Day 2:- The day started pretty late for most of us, but I had to wake up to gp and pick up pankaj who came to murdeshwar by bus to join us. Luckily he escaped the long journey. Now was the time when people had lost hope about travelling anymore, so I went out brought breakfast for people, then I and amar bought rain coats for everyone. I think, the excitement of wearing a rain coat and travelling made every one energetic again. It was continuously raining in Murdeshwar, and by 1:00 we left the dormitory where we stayed at night. We went to the beach and the temple, had a good time there. We were planning to got to Nethrani island, but the weather was too bad for any such thing. We had a pretty nice lunch at Naveen beach retaurant, awesome food, in an awesome location and at pretty cheap rates. 

Black magic of raj

Sunil Shetty (Ashish)

Naveen veach restaurant

 By the evening we had left for Gokarna 80 km, again the same highway which was pretty bad till Honavar, but got better as we closed in to Gokarna. We missed out on the dates to book any resort in Kudle or Om beach, but it's a must be place to live in a resort, and those all are pretty cheap too. We stayed in a decent hotel for the night and had plans to leave early morning for the Om beach.

Day 3:- We left for Om beach pretty early and reached there by 8 in the morning. The road to Om beach is pretty scenic.

On the way to Om beach

It was pretty empty, and we started off with exploring the rocky beach. Then we moved our attention to beers from namaste cafe and straight away jumped into the water. 

Shampoo in sea water :)

The beer cost in Namaste cafe was 130, but with God's grace raj and kamal had 2 beers at the same price. Though the place is totally worth 130 too. We came back to our hotel decent, had lunch and left for Jog falls. It was about 110 km from Gokarna, and we reached there by 4 in the evening. Jog falls was at it's full lush at that time and with the rain coming, it added a bit more spice to the aroma. We reached the the drop point of one of the main streams of the falls, but the place was very risky, as the rocks were very slippery, and to our miseries Mr Jageera added another one. When we reached the base of the falls we all went together helping the one's coming behind us as the way to the base was pretty risky. In fact a guy got a shoulder fracture in front of us, but we did continue. After coming back to the base of the 1298 stairs to climb up, we realized that dear Mr jageera was missing. We were all worried as it was already dark, and no way of tracking a person there. I and ravi went back to look for him, again travelled the risky patch, and came back to realize that he is still missing. We decided to climb up and check upstairs, as it was totally dark by that time. To climb up 1298 stairs with the out bursting tummies of few of our highly fit members, was a big task. Phewww we reached, and there we saw jageera laughing. At once we got happy to see him, and then gave him a abuse bath for not being with everyone. Things are risky in Jog falls, though we somehow managed to get the charm.

We left jog falls by 7:30 in evening, though missed out the musical fountain show held there from 7pm. We now left towards Sagar just 25km from Jog falls, and there we changed our wet clothes, and were getting ready to have our dinner, when suddenly we realized that the key to a thunderbird is missing. An hour long search went on, we even called up a guy to break the lock, but finally the key was found hiding beneath a stone where one of us had pissed :p. We stayed at shivmoga the same night and left early morning next day to reach back bangalore.

An unforgettable trip for each one of us, which taught me that I should never make plans. If God sitting above is making plans for me then why the hell should I waste my time. Hope you find this useful to help you planning in some of your trip. And of course the best dialogue from Mr. Atul Kumar, "Itni raat me, baarish me bheege hone ke baad bhi aise gaddho waali road pe hum log paagalo ki tarah chale ja rahe hain, ye ya to BEWAKOOFI hai ya CHUTIYAPA"......... :).