Hola Folks
Back after a wonderful sojourn at
chikmagalur.The trip was well planned in advance,albeit however things dint look rosy a few days before the travel date. Work as usual started playing spoilsport and I somehow managed to get outta the hustle and do the trip.
The whole idea was to celebrate my 1st wedding anniversary away from home. I was so lost and engrossed with work that I even went ahead and posted my confirmation for the
Yelagiri Drive. Only later did I realize my blunder while I was talking to my better half about the drive dates
. Uugghh !!!
I wanted this whole trip plan to be a complete surprise, since my better half always wanted to see Chikmagalur and thought what better gift for our 1st anniversary. A week before the trip, the whole scene was uncovered. There goes my surprise through the window, its pretty tough to keep surprises under wraps when you are married and live under the same roof.I am sure the married folks here can agree.
My bookings were done well in advance at
Nature Craft Homestay in Chikmagalur. The plan was simple, visit as many places possible and catch up with a few old friends from Hassan.
Day 1 : 06-Dec-08
Route Taken : Bangalore--Nelamangala--Chennarayapattana--Hassan--Belur--Chikmagalur. ( roughly about 240kms)
Am sure everyone knows this route and the road conditions too well.
Left Bangalore only by 7:00am and a blessing is disguise was that petrol prices had reduced by Rs5 ? Surprisingly most IOC bunks along the route aint selling normal petrol "
only Xtra Premium is available saar " was the common response. I tanked up at IOC before the Nelamangala Cross.
Took me 3 hrs to reach hassan and speeds hovered around 80-90kmph, sedate eh?
For those traveling along this route the best bet for breakfast is Kamat at Chennarayapattana, else try
Venkatesh's hotel for the yummy Ghee Dosa's its famous for. Am sure most of you chaps who travel regularly on this route would know this place.
Its on the same road as
Malnad College of Engineering. This was my 1st stop for breakfast and my bro-in-law with his friends caught up with us here. I too tanked up my grumbling belly with dosa's only to realize I was already feeling sleepy.
Its only 11:30am and my bro-in-law tells gives us the idea of checking out the Windmills around hassan. There are 40 odd such Windmills in Hassan to harness Wind Energy and convert the same to electicity.
Wifey gave a go and zoom we were off on the Hassan - Halebidu road to check out this magnificient thingy.
We visited the mountain rite after the MAster Control Facility of ISRO in Hassan (
Master Control Facility (ISRO) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).
Please ensure you don't pull your cam's or bazooka's around the MCF. If they ever spot you pulling your camera out , before you realize you will have someone pointing a gun at your face.
I was informed well in advance and realized the magnitude of the warning only when we saw the number of gun weilding chaps along the towers.
The approach road is nothing short of an OTR track once you deviate from the Hassan-Halebidu road.So watch out and drive carefully if you plan to visit this place and forgot doing this place if in case it rains.
On flat dry surfaces there was absolutely no traction with the S-drives, all that the car would do was wheel spin.
Am posting a few pics, was in half the mind to pull my camera and shoot since the place was that full of dust.Dint even bother to change the lense coz of the dust factor.
The car was all dirty and we had to send it for a wash in one of the service stations in hassan before we could continue our drive. Me and wifey headed over to her friends house while my bro-in-law got the car washed.
It was 3pm now and I get a call from Ansar at Nature Craft asking us when we would reach chikmagalur. My bad, I had informed Ansar that we would join them for lunch which apparently dint happen.A few aplogies and then we decided to leave Hassan and head to chikmagalur.
Hit the hassan - belur highway and was in for a complete surprise. Excellent road and what more, I did a top whack of 180+ (as per speedo) on this road GPS showed 177kmph.
Flat 40 mins we are in chikmagalur
. Call up Ansar and we are guided to his place, which methinks is the closest homestay to Chikmagalur town. Ask for some snacks since we missed lunch and we are served hot kebabs with coffee. Dont ask me anything about the combo, it tasted yummy.
For the rest of the evening we did nothing much other than spending some quality time with Ansar and his his family. Dinner was served at 9pm and hell Ansar's mom cooks really well. The taste of the chicken biriyani served during the 1st night still lingers on my tongue.
I fell asleep by 10pm and so did wifey.
to be continued.. Critics welcome..