Ride to Kodagu

July 1st, 2010

Dheeraj called me up in the evening and asked “Sir we are going to Nandi hills on Saturday morning, will you come”. Being a enthusiastic Rider, without giving it a second thought, I said yes. I guess it was first long ride for most of them. While coming back, all of them said we should plan for a longer ride. Always count me in. That day we came back and as usual, everyone forgot about planning for a longer ride.

I had already been to Coorg once. This time I was full of enthusiasm as I had a passion for bike rides. After a week or so, one weekend, I casually asked Dheeraj, thinking of riding till Coorg, what do you say. “Just tell me the date and time, I will be there”. So uploaded a public event on facebook. People started giving there opinions and suggestions. Most of them was saying its raining, not a season to go there, bla bla bla.

Thats when Sanjay (Sanjo) and Akshat joined in. Although I had a thought that bigger the group, more fun it would be. But even four was sufficient. We decided that we will start off on Friday evening, after office.

July 30th, 2010

Friday evening, Akshat text me he will not be able to join. I informed Sanjo about it. He said “now what”. “Who cares dude, we will go”. We had decided to start off from our office at 7:00pm, Dhiraj would come and join us at 6:00pm. But as it happens always we did not start off at 7:00pm.

Dhiraj as promised turned up at 6:00pm. Dhiraj & I were supposed to go shopping for a Jacket for Dhiraj and Gloves for me. But we somehow managed to buy the jacket. The jacket too was same as the one bought by me. We returned to my office at 7:15pm. But as usual, Sanjo was stuck with some last minute office work. Sanjo finished his work somehow by 7:30pm and then we started off from office by 8:00pm. I and Dhiraj on their P220 and Sanjo on his Royal Enfield 500.

We had planned to ride into Mysore road via Nice road, as via Corporation it would be jam packed. We hit Jaynagar via Wilson Garden. Then plan was to hit Arakere junction through Dalmia Circle. After Dalmia Circle, we missed the cut and lost the way. So reach Arakere Junction by 9:00 pm. From there we reached nice road entrance @ Gottikere around 9:20 pm. The moment we started on the Nice Road, and it started pouring. We kept riding slowly, and hit Mysore Road by 10:00pm. On Mysore Road, we stopped to refuel Sanjo’s bike. We decided to stay at Mandya, and then proceed further Saturday morning. With a pit stop to have a tea, we reached Mandya around 11:30pm. We covered around 85 kms in 2.5 hours, thanks to continuous downpour. We went straight to Hotel Gururaj, which was on the Mysore Expressway itself. We got the room there, which was not great, but ok. Then came to know that we will not get the dinner there, as its late.

On enquiring, one steward said that around half a kilometer ahead, there is a fast food joint where we can get something to eat. So we took our bikes and started on Operation Dinner Hunt. After around 2 kms we saw the mentioned so called fast food joint. I cant express the degree of disappointment after seeing the so joint. Anyways, we ordered Egg Fried Rice to be parceled. Behind that joint, some people were boozing. We got three plates of Egg Fried Rice and two ommelettes after 30 mins. When Dhiraj took out his wallet to pay the bill, WOLA, cops came. Suddenly all the lights went off, and one of the cop started beating one of the autowallah. We settled the bill and moved from there. By the time we reach back to hotel it was almost 12:30am. Plan was to have dinner, sleep and start in the morning as early we can.

July 31st, 2010

We had planned to leave by 6 am on our further journey. By the time we finished our breakfast it was already 7:30 am. We hit the road around 8 am. We decided to take Mysore – Hunsur Road to Yelwal to beat the traffic. Road till was not very smooth. It had rough patches every now and then. Without any pit stop, we reached Yelawal around 10 am. It was a stretch of 43 kms. We stopped at Yelwal to freshen up with tea.

From Yelwal, Coorg is 130 kms. We decided to take next stop directly at Coorg. Within an hour and covering 80 kms we reached Kushalnagar. From Kushalnagar, road bifurcates for two destinations of Kodagu region. Right track goes to Madikeri and left takes us to Coorg. We took left from there as we had planned to stay somewhere near to Irpu Falls. We left Kushalnagar junction by 11:30 am.

We follwed the route that we saw on one of the websites. From Thitimathi, we took Siddapura forest reserve route. After crossing Siddapura, we reach Virajpet around 2 pm. There we asked for direction to Irupu Falls and came to know that we had to take another route Ponnampet which was around 35 kms. After a short break, we started back to Ponnampet, which we had already passed by while coming to Virajpet.

From the morning, we had been riding in rain. But as soon as we headed towards Ponnampet it started raining heavily. We stopped under a tree, as there was no other shelter. Within 5 mins we realized that there is no point in standing and waiting the rain to stop. So again we started our journey. Through all the curvy roads and heavy rain, we reached Ponnampet by 3 pm. On reaching Ponnampet, Dhiraj said he needed to refuel. All three of us were hungry to the core. We decided to have lunch in the Ponnampet itself and then move further. There was one restaurant (could not recollect the name) near to the ptrol bunk. There we stuffed ourselves with Chicken Kabab, Fish Fry and Chicken Biryani. It was really exquisite.

We then started moving towards Irupu Falls around 4 pm. For all the time we were having that delicious lunch, it was not raining. We had travelled just 5 kms or so, again it started raining cats and dogs. But we decided to keep moving. And this time we did not repeat the same mistake. First of all, due to rain it was like a curfew situation. Getting a glimpse of people was very rare, as all of them were enjoying the warmth of their home. But Sanjo kept on asking for the direction whenever and wherever he got a chance. We crossed Hudikeri, Shettigeri and Srimangla, and seriously it was all deserted. And more than that we three were a matter of amusement for all of those faces peeking out from their windows. We were like lone riders on those drenched roads. We reached Irupu Falls by 5:30 pm.

Reaching Irupu Falls was satisfying beyond words. But to our disappointment, it gets closed at 5 pm and opens at 7 am. Sanjo tried to negotiate with the guard there to take some extra money and let us in. That did not work out. So we decided to look out for some place to stay near by. There were numorous homestays, and best part was all of them were at uphills. We started looking for and reached one of the homestay through muddy roads. Our rear tyre was swinging like waist of a belly dancer. When I applied brakes and put my legs down after reaching at the top and in front of homestay, I could not stop my leg from slipping. I had to let my bike fall, slowly. Sanjo and Dhiraj were laughing loud. Anyways Sanjo negotiated with the owner of the homestay. She asked for Rs. 1500 for a night for all three of us, which was quite economical for us. But the only issue was that they will not provide food, we have to get it. Same was the scenario with all homestays we checked.

We started to move towards Kutta for some more options. After travelling for around 2 kms from Irpu Falls, we saw one guest house. On negotiating we got stay for Rs 1200. Food issue still remained same. We inquired for the food and came to know that we have to get it from Kutta, which is just 5 kms. By the time I and Sanjo finished our enquiry, Dhiraj was already in bed. So I and sanjo had to Go to Kutta and get food. Kutta was almost 9 kms from the guest house. And road was mind blowing, pitch dark and full of potholes and creaking bridges. Along with food, we also got a bottle of whisky to rejuvenate ourselves.

Good part was at such place the guest house had a geaser in the bathroom. We were fully covered with mud and drenched. We had relieving showers, followed by whisky. We had Chicken Fried Rice and Chicken Kabas in the dinner. When we hit the bed, that relaxation feeling was out of the world.

August 1st, 2010

We left guest house by 7:30 am, and reached Irpu Falls. Sanjo said “did we go by same route last night, yesterday it was not this rough”. so we finished for what we put so much effort. We visited Irpu Falls, went to the top and came back by 8:30 am. We had coffee there and left for our next stop, Namrodoling Monastery (Golden Temple), Bylakuppe; by 9:15 am.

Bylakuppe is around 50 kms from Irpu Falls via Ponnampet, Gonikoppal, Ammathi. We reached there by 1 pm, making a pit stop at Ponnampet for brunch. After reaching there we realised it was worth taking the pain to come off route to visit the place. It was quite and peaceful inside the Golden Temple. We did some shopping for souveneirs and headed back to Bangalore around 4:30 pm.

We stopped for lunch at a restaurant in Periyapatna. It was not as good as restaurant in Ponnampet. But due to hunger, tiredness and desire to reach home, we stuffed ourselves with Pepper Chicken and Chicken Biryani. Then we started for our way back home. Our next stop was Mandya. So we covered almost 180 kms in a single stretch. When we stopped and looked at each other, each of us realised the importance of home sweet home. We reached Nice Corridor at Mysore Road around 9:30 pm. There all three of us parted our ways towards our home. When I was riding alone on the Nice Corridor in the drizzle, I could feel my rear tyre swinging.

And yes it was a memorabble, adventurous, tiring, drenching and nice ride. The very next day all three bikes were in respective Service Centres.