KONKAN RAID

             KONKAN........ the rugged western coastline from Thane to Mangalore. A region lined by the mighty Western Ghats on the east and the Arabian Sea on the west. A region famous for its beaches, cuisine and culture. This is a small travelogue of a roadtrip I did along with my friends, Arun, Vishnu & Jeevan, during 28 to 31st March, 2013.

DAY1: Bangalore to Mangalore

Bangalore is baking hot in the afternoons... The plan was to leave early morning to beat the heat and reach Mangalore by afternoon. I pushed my bike out of the parking lot and went to pick my friend Arun from his residence. It was dark and pleasantly cool as we rode towards Hassan. The early morning mist was hanging in the air, reluctant to let go off the tree tops. Tanked up the bike before we hit the ghat section towards Sakleshpur.

At Sakleshpur Ghats

The roads started winding up the western ghats. Well laid roads, wide but infested by big tanker lorries carrying oil from the refineries in Mangalore.

Watch out for those tankers

Sakleshpur Ghats

Arundas taking in the views

Pulsy was at her element, cornering and trail braking through the wide hairpins.












We passed through Kukke Subramanya and with cool forest stream lined with bamboos, hugging the road as we rode along.

A cool forest stream

Boards written in Malayalam started showing up once we reached Nelyadi.










Smooth roads, with crests and dips in the middle, made riding a pleasurable experience.












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Mangalore... 104kms to go

We passed through Uppanangadi, a place which came recently in the news due to an oil tanker disaster which claimed 8 lives.











We reached Mangalore by 2pm and had a nice lunch with Pomfret fry at a Kerala Hotel.

We called up our friends, Jeevan and my longtime travel partner Vishnu, who had already arrived at Mangalore from Kerala, and checked in to a hotel.

Lunch at Mangalore

 

We met up and planned to visit Sultan Bathery. To know the directions, I called up my friend, Akshatha and with her timely help we reached there.

Sultan Bathery, Mangalore

Sultan Bathery, Mangalore

Sultan Bathery, Mangalore

The watch tower built by Tippu Sultan is said to be made from stones obtained from demolished churches.









So much for Tippu being secular, eh? :)











 Romance was in the air as we spotted many couples spending some time together... Vishnu and Jeevan checked out from the hotel and off we made our way towards Udupi...

NITK, Surathkal

We saw NIT Surathkal by the side of NH-17, stopped and asked for directions to the Surathkal Beach.

Parking on the beach!

 
A serene beach awaited us... I spun up the rear tyre on the sand and parked my Pusly! :)

Surathkal Beach

Surathkal Beach

Lighthouse at Surathkal Beach

Surathkal Beach

The beach was clean and calm with a red lighthouse seen at the distance.







































We made our way out of Surathkal towards Udupi.

NH17 widening work was going on which meant frequent bad patches... A board told go left for Kapu Beach.

Sunset at Kapu Beach

I waved my friends riding behind to pull over and they did and came up to me surprised. I told anyway we'll reach Udupi by nightfall only, why not see the sunset at Kapu beach? It turned out to be a good idea.

Mr Crab

Lighthouse at Kapu Beach

Kapu Beach

Kapu Beach

Kapu Beach

Jeevan got to work with his Nikon DSLR while Arun me and Vishnu started out chit-chat, lying on the rocks, cooling off with the evening sea breeze on our face.










It was dark when we decided to leave and had trouble finding where we had parked our bikes.











We reached Udupi, checked into a small hotel, took a bath and had tasty biryani, which was washed down with some chilled beer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DAY2: Udupi to Panaji, Goa

Day 2 started early. We heard a commotion down at the hotel reception. Apparently the receptionist got so drunk, there was no way to wake him up. People were queuing up to collect advance and their patience wearing thin.

Malpe Beach, Udupi

We made our way thorough the cold, dark morning towards Malpe beach.

Malpe Beach, Udupi

Malpe Beach, Udupi

One could see the port and St. Mary's Islands at a distance.

Sunrise

Hitting the road again, we got a gorgeous view of the sunrise as the sun peeped over a bunch of palm trees...

Mangroves

There were mangroves lining the backwaters and rivers connecting to the sea....

[To be continued]

Road Trip: Bangalore to Trivandrum in a day

I knew it was going to be tough.... riding 800-odd kms in one day is tough... In the end, I made up my mind and went for it... Did Bangalore to Trivandrum via Wayanad 819 kms in 19 hours. Some memoirs from the trip.

HOW IT CAME ABOUT

My dost Arun Gopal had requested me to bring his motorcycle from Bangalore to Trivandrum. Ah, like the diary milk shots ad "Manassil oru ladoo potti"! How about riding it to Trivandrum! The build up was eventful. The bike's gear jammed in 4th... got it repaired... then I lost the key at my office parking!! Luckily found it the next day from security. Now my mind was split on which route to take. Sensible option was via Hosur-Salem-Coimbatore-Palakkad-Ernakulam-Trivandrum. But its all monotonous highways. So I opted for the more adventurous Mysore-Wayanad-Thamarassery-Thrissur-Kochi-Aleppey-Kollam-Trivandrum. 

AND OFF WE GO....

3AM, 10th of November... the alarm buzzes in my ear... its chilling & foggy outside and I push the bike out of the parking... Its 4.00AM when I hit the Nice Ring Road to Mysore. My breath inside the helmet fogs the visor for a few seconds and it keeps repeating. The sun peeps through above the sugarcane fields as I reach Mandya... 

I stop for a tea and munch on a Snickers. Kilometers later, I can see the towering St. Philomenas Church in the distance. I stop to pray at the church and spot make-up artist Pattanam Rasheed there. Then a comical incident happens... I see many people having tea from a guy. I go and ask for a tea. When I'm about to pay for the tea, he is stunned... He asks "Are you not here for the film shooting??" I stare at him wide eyed  and  then say "No". Moments later we share a laugh....

Its 7.30AM as I reach Mysore. My usual hotel at Mysore is 'Hotel Mysore' near Jagmohan Palace, from where I have my breakfast. After taking some snaps of the Mysore Palace and we make our way to Sultan Bathery in Wayanad.

FZ had performed well, but I wonder how it will fare in the ghats of Thamarassery. At Gundlupet, I stopped to take in some water. The Bandipur reserve forests  were up ahead... To slow down vehicles, the forest department has dug ditches in the road, instead of humps! There were black lines formed by screeching tyres  under sudden braking, which suggests many a driver was caught unaware! I happily used this as my marker to know when a ditch is up ahead :)

The huge bamboos suggested I'm close to civilization again, nearing Muthanga.  I reached Sulthan Bathery by 11.30pm. Sulthan Bathery got its name back in the 18th century, when Tippu Sulthan drove the Jains out and used the Jain Temple as his battery! It's getting hot now... I'm sweating inside the jacket of mine. The road from Bathery to Kalpetta is a back-breaker! Along the way, an accident involving a jeep had occurred... it was sickening to see blood splattered across the broken windscreen and the clotted blood on the tar. A reminder of how a little miscalculation, frustration or  lack of concentration, can make it all go horribly wrong. With that reminder in mind, I hit the Thamarassery ghats. Narrow at places and with trucks and cars jostling for space, its not the most enjoyable of ghat roads to ride on!

Stomach was grumbling as I finished the ghat section and reached Adivaram. I settled my slightly aching bum on the bench of a small roadside hotel and had tasty meals along with fish fry. After asking the hotel owner for directions, I rode towards Thrissur via Kuttippuram. Stopped to take a few snaps of the Bharathapuzha river (Nila) nearby to Kuttippuram bridge.

Fatigue was setting in as I reached Thrissur by 6 pm. I rode to the Swaraj Round in the middle of the town, found an empty bench in the Nehru Park and dozed off for half an hour. Back on the bike and we hit the NH from Mannuthy onwards. Next stop was at Vytila for some thattu dosa & beef roast from a roadside "thattukada".

From there on, it was a non-stop 240 km ride to Trivandrum via Aleppey and Kollam. My bum was paining, wrists felt weak and fingers numb from all this riding. I reached Trivandrum by 11pm. At  home, my father and mother were not impressed (as I had expected). But Amma after venting out some anger on me, did serve me a delicious dinner. So let me wind it up with this quote:
"A mother's love is patient and forgiving when all others are forsaking, it never fails or falters, even though the heart is breaking"

PS: A big hug to my buddy Arun Gopal for letting me dish out this punishment to his motorbike :)

Thanks for reading,

Visakh.