[Photo Feature]: Roadtrip to the misty mountain

It was just another day at the office. We gathered at the café for a cup of tea in the evening cribbing about the hectic day & the work we had so far. Among the group,there were 3 of us who had our bikes all set for a weekend getaway to some place. None of us really knew where we would be heading but we were all set for a weekend roadtrip. The plan was to spend more time on wheels & less amidst four walls.
We 3 came to office fully geared up on Friday. Little did we know of the place we would be heading! Our bikes were ready for the action& so were we.

It was the time when the scorched heat of summer was nearing the end & monsoon was just around the corner. It was on 14th of June 2013 we were ready to hit the road. 3 riders, 3 bikes &countless number of endless open roads around to cruise on! 2 Honda CBR250R’s & a CBR150R, our short weekend ride began.

We decided to ride to Mysore on Friday, 14th June 2013. We left office at 7& took the NICE road to reach Kengeri. The stretch from Hosur road till Mysore road exit was just brilliant! We rode in formation& the entire stretch was a speed run. All the excitement ended when we reached Mysore road. We were welcomed by a series of speed breakers which almost popped us off the bikes& a million vehicles of all sizes on the highway heavy traffic made it difficult & a stressful ride till we reached hotel Kamat near Ramanagara. A tough one & half hour ride was equalized by the authentic south Indian food, karavali meals as they say. We were so damn hungry for food& we ate tummy full & in a way it was bad for the ride ahead. Two other riders almost fell asleep on the chair we relaxed there until the traffic stabilized & left the place at around 10pm. The ride ahead from there was a complete trance! The highway was so peaceful & all I could see was the open road in front of me&two headlights of my fellow riders in my rear view mirror. We continued in the same formation& we reached home at Mysore by 12am. Then the million dollar question was thrown on my face. Where do we ride to? I was the only guy from Mysore & all others belonged to different parts of Karnataka. It was their first visit to Mysore & all the planning burden fell on my head. I wanted to keep the ride ahead a surprise & we continued the ride again on 15th June 2013 after a 4 hours’ sleep.

Then the interesting part of the ride began. We headed towards Nanjangud, a town around 20km from Mysore. We stopped there for a cup of tea & breakfast. We stood at the diversion, I told the other riders about the two places. The road on the left goes to BR Hills& the road ahead towards Bandipur & Madhumalai forest.After a little thought we moved on towards Bandipur.



The next 50 km ride amidst the nature & fresh air beneath dark clouds was indeed refreshing. Just as we were passing a small town on the way, we saw the direction board “HimawadGopalSwamy Hills” which was only 11 km to the right. We stood by & looked at each other. We all had the same very idea, why don’t we take our bikes for a rough ride before heading to Bandipur&Madhumalai? We turned the bikes & started the ride uphill. The approach road to the hill had lush green farms on either sides& hundreds of sun flowers staring at the sun. This was a sight to behold. We stopped there for clicking few pics. Dark clouds vanished &gave way to soothing morning sunlight. We then headed to the check post. We had to wait till 8:30 am for the gates to open as we would be entering the Bandipur forest range. I recalled my visit to this place more than 5 years back, there was no timing restrictions.These restrictions were brought in for the better conservation of wildlife. All plastic stuff were taken away from the tourists & kept at the check post. The place was plastic free to a greater extent from what I had seen few years back. We all appreciated the efforts put in by the forest department& kept all the plastic stuff we carried. At the stroke of 8:30am, we started riding uphill. We were given strict instructions not to stop anywhere on the way & head back within 1.5 hours. As we expected, the road was really rough! Hairpin curves & rough roads made it a challenging ride atop the hill. We rode through the clouds revving & at this point, visibility reduced to less than 10 feet. We had to ride with extreme caution. We had our headlights on & rode tight till we reached the top of the hill. The place always lived up to its name “HimavadGopalSwamyBetta” which means “hill covered with mist”. Over the top, there were forest sentries looking out for tourists crossing the danger zone which again surprised me. There were no restrictions as such few years back. We visited the temple, stayed there for some time, took pics& started our bikes for the ride back.



Interesting ride so far turned crazier than we expected when it started raining heavily!



We packed our cameras inside the bag & rode downhill with extreme caution. After a tough downhill ride, we finally reached the check post. We picked up the “plastic” stuff we deposited & had a small chat with the forest officer & we moved on towards Bandipur. We did sight spotted deer, wild elephants & common macaques. Although none of us were game for the safari in rain. We clicked some pics, relaxed, & dried ourselves



we then jumped on the bikes & headed on to Madhumalai forest. Ride through the forest was always been exciting for us. We cruised slowly looking out for wildlife around. We were again given strict instructions not to get out of the vehicle until the next check post. We reached Madhumalai national park. It started pouring again & inevitably we got drenched. We jumped on the bikes again & started the ride back to Mysore.



Tracing back the roads we rolled on, we stopped only for tender coconuts on the way back as we were about to reach Mysore for yet another heavy meal. We reached hotel RRR near the majestic Mysore palace. As usual, we had to wait for 20 minutes before we got a place to sit. We treated ourselves with authentic Andra meals.

We then headed towards Mysore palace by walk until one of the guys noticed a horse rickshaw! We jumped on to the 1 horse powered vehicle & roamed around the Mysore palace. I was a freelance guide for the other riders showing them each place, telling their significance & history as well as answering their queries about the city(well, I could answer most of them )

Day two, 16th June 2013, sunday was more relaxing as we headed to blue lagoon, the backwaters of KRS dam built across the river Cauvery which is around 18 km from Mysore. we left early in the morning & the water level there was almost zero. this was a bad thing for the people & a good thing for bikers like us since we got an opportunity to off-road the place was surreal & we spent some time there, took few pics & headed back to Mysore. After a sumptuous breakfast, we headed back to Bangalore.



Overall, it was a short & fun weekend getaway yet we always wanted to ride further & farther!

Attached Images