Travel..

I am one crazy guy who loves to ride bikes... And the joy you get while exploring new places, wont get in any other jobs.

My Bike

My first bike rides were some of the places near by my place(Pondicherry). I dont have any pictures of those trips and it was not that far to mention.

Once I shifted to Bangalore for work. There were so many places that i heard especially for bike riders.So i planned to go for trips once in 2 months...

Hogenakkal Falls

(Its 180 kms - 4 hrs by bike average - Bangalore, Hosur Road, Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri, Hogenakkal(Route)  -  One day trip.)

Hogennakal

                    The first one was to Hogenakkal .is a waterfall in South India on the Kaveri (or Cauvery) River. It is located in the Dharmapuri district of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, about 180 km from Bangalore and 46 km from Dharmapuri town It is sometimes referred to as the "Niagara of India". With its fame for medicinal baths and hide boat rides, it is a major site of tourist attraction. Carbonatite rocks in this site are considered to be the oldest of its kind in South Asia and one of the oldest in the world. This is also the site of a proposed project to generate drinking water.

Parisal ride

We were actually 6 of them, in 3 bikes. And everyone was my room mates. It was early morning 5:30AM we started from Home and we had many stops like for Nashta (Breakfast), Tea break, Dhum (Cigarette in local language) and for some ass burn :) . We started so early 1. to avoid trafffic as its Hosur main Road where you will get stuck after 8 AM as its one of the Highway connecting Bangalore-Tamilnadu 2. To reach ASAP as none of us been there before, so even if we take a wrong route we dont want to reach at noon as its one day trip. Luckily we didnt take any diversions and reached there by 10 AM. I still remember that was the time there was Cauvery problem between Tamilnadu and Karnataka. So once the police saw our KA registrations we were not allowed to park the bike in the actual parking area for that place and one of the police a bit arogant and he was about to hit my friend too. So we are pushed to park outside, kind of risky though.

Finally we reached the place and got the view of the Cauvery water, can hear the sound of the water hitting the rocks but to see it you have to take a Parisal (Indian Coracles in Tamil) that is operated by the locals over there... But the frustrating part is you need to bargain with them for at least 15-20 mins to get to the original price + 100 rs.

The best part is you can buy beer's and have it while you are on the Parisal ride.

Kemmangundi (kemman - red sand, gundi - pit)

(Its 250 kms -8 hrs by car average - Bangalore, Tumkur,Chikkamangalur, Kemmanguni - Two day trip.)

           Guys believe me, its an awesome place for any sort of trips, either with family or with friends, really worth visiting. i had been twice to this place once with my colleagues in 2008 and again with my roommates in 2010.

Kemman Gundi

First thing that you should know is that there is no private Hotels in the top of hill . Its all Government, so you need to book in advance the rooms as its not easy to get in season time. Its good if you visit after rainfall so that you ll get a green views. Good place for nature photography lovers.

It was 2 day trip so don't want to take any off to work. So we started on Friday night from office at 11pm, as we work in UK shift. And we had some stops in between for food, and for drinks too :) .we were 20 of them including my manager with his wife and there was another couple. So it was a kind of bachelor and family mixed trip. But everyone one of us enjoyed. We boozed till the dawn, it was around 5 we all started hibernating and the vehicle was climbing the hills. Some how we reached the destination, and yeah we booked the rooms in advance so there was'nt any problem of searching for one unlike my 2nd trip with my roomies.

The 1st first thing we did after refreshing ourselves was the breakfast. To be frank it was worshhht breakfast, so dont think of any luxuries over there. And there are 3 places you will be visiting in that hill station 1.trekking to Z-point, 2.Hebbe falls 3.Mullayangiri highest peak in Karnataka.

 1st day - 9am - 2pm
Trekking -  Trekkers will really enjoy this , even others too as its not an hill climbing , its just a flat surface , yeah but there are some ups and downs but you will have fun.. After 2 kms, the path will be very narrow and bit scary but the view will be an awesome one.Once u reach Z - point u ll never want to come back.

Another interesting part of the trip was Z- point is not the highest point to reach in that place, but the path is made till Z-point. But from there u can reach the next highest point but actually , but to climb the hill the way you like and its risky too. So first 3 of us started to go to next height but on seeing us the rest of the guys also started with us to show that they too have courage to do that. But some stayed half way and one puked within few steps and went back. Finally it was only 6 us reached the peak and took the snaps.We reached back to the dormitory and had lunch and got ready for the next enthu place by 2.pm which is hebbe falls.


2pm - 7pm
Hebbe Falls - I really don't know how to explain in words about this place. Its wonderful not only the falls but also the ride to reach the falls.We can reach that place only by their jeep which was specially designed for tackle the path.It was a scary ride, but a safe one. Not to worry, just sit quiet and enjoy the ride.The jeep ride will not take you directly to the water falls. You have to walk for almost a KM to see the falls. Don't carry anything except a swim suit / towel to the falls as you ll not find a place to keep that if u want to get wet. After a lovely walk for a KM we got the view of the huge water drops like a group of white dressed angels jumping from a huge rock.
Was almost frozen with my 1step in the water .The temperature of the water is at least  4- 5 degrees.But we were welcomed by other members by splashing on me. After sometime got used to the temperature. But it was a real fun, we would have not come out of it if there is more sun after 6.30pm. Also we dont want to miss the next event which started around 8 during dinner.

8pm - 12pm
Camp Fire - Every next event was getting better than the last one. You have to even book for the campfire in advance. Coz there are 2 sets of dormitories, the 1st one you get as soon as you reach the place is Private and Campfire is allowed there, whereas the 2nd one half a km above from that place wont allow Campfire as they have a Garden which shouldn't be destroyed.
So its best if you get a dormitory in the private itself. It started around 8'o clock with drinks and slowly we enjoyed sharing our talks, jokes pulling everyone and then songs by the time it was midnight all those non-boozers left to their respective room, but it took another 2 hrs for others i mean boozers to get completely mad.some of us really dont know how we slept that night...

2pm- 7pm
Urrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.........
sleeping :)


7 pm -  9pm
Got ready for the next event, which was 60 kms from Kemmangundi. It was really difficult to make everyone ready as most of the boozers got hangover the next day.

9pm- 3 pm 
Mullayangiri - highest peak in karnataka
Everyone was tired of the night event, so heard hardly anyone's voice in the bus, but the non-boozers were very much active and having fun. we were just quiet and gazing through the window at the beautiful view of the route to Mullayangiri from Kemman gundi. This is one reason why you should go just after the rainy season is over.Coz the view will just let your heart and mind free. Just take the last seat , relax and bask in the nature.