It all started on Friday Diwali morning.
7:00 am we hit Mysore Road. Tanked up! Minimal Traffic, speeds not in excess of 130kmph due to certain passengers in the car.
12.30 we a Home Stay at Siddapura. Clean place, 3 spacious rooms recently built, behind the Estate owners house.
Its run by an Estate Owner and his wife. We were the very first guests there. They were very friendly. He showed us his Estate (which included a little lake on the property).
Breakfast and Dinner was given by them and it the best Coorg food I have tasted. Yes Obviously Pandi curry was on the menu.
By the way he owns a decently maintained MM540 4x4. and said he could get me a good 1995+ model for 75-90k.
2 Days all we do is drive to various places. My friend had bought a farm near chickliholle dam. so we were driving up and down quite a bit. The Drive from Siddapura to Chickliholle was about 20 km and each time the drive felt better and better. 60-80kmph on windy well laid roads with greenery all around. Did I mention the roads were smooth?
Sunday 1pm we head back to Bangalore, with an aim to reach in 5-1/2 hours including 2 stops.
Coorg to Periyapatna was bad. Roads were very bad.
After that the road was wonderful. Wide and fast.
It then got better as a 4 lane highway and the wide divider in the center. The type with plants growing and you cannot see the other side if anyone or anything is trying to dart across.
On SH17 before Ranganathittu a Scorpio overtakes me and we were at the same pace for over 10km. We maintain good distance. On one section of the open road the road goes downhill and as I go downhill at about 90kmph... as soon as the Black Scorpio passes a point a herd of little brown cute little goats trot along right in front of me with their more cute looking kids following them. There were about 15-20 goats of all colors and sizes.
It was all over in a flash !
Well you know the drill Screeeeeeeecchhh ... Trying to control the braking without locking the wheels. ......just not enough space.
I felt like I was in a FlintStones cartoon where Fred runs into something and Things go flying all over.
By the time I reached the pack.. with all the screeching and honking they spread out a bit. Cutting left or right would have anyway not helped as they were all over the place.
I ran into 3-4 goats/kids/lambs.... It was all over in a coupla seconds, however I remember most of it as if it were happening in slow motion.
In a span 3-4 seconds this is what happened
Tires screeching... Loud Thuds on the front... one goat thrown to my right... sound of bones cracking under us... thoughts going through my mind that I was glad I did not flick the steering at that speed in a reflex reaction.... Thoughts of the damages to the Baleno these freken_good_for_nothing_but_lambchops have caused. :(... Thoughts of my family in the car and that I need to GET THE HELL OUTTAAA THERE.
As we all know with India being developed and all, Farmers have the right to beat the snort and fart out of anyone who hit their chicken let along goatS. I was not ready to get beaten and lynched for a herd of goats.
As soon as I realize it over I cut gears and use the G16B torque to get me out of that town (and district). Meanwhile Mr Scorpio had slammed his brakes to see what happened.
Mr Scorpio. hears my horn, sees my flashing headlights, feels my pain and guns his CRDe.
The guy was literally making way for me. I am not if he was trying to help but he sure was. He was going through some traffic which helped us gain some good ground fast.
We thought some guys might follow in bikes or Sumos or something to get compensation for their poor neighbor shepherd. So our aim was to get out of there fast and get off the road after about 20-30 km. We reached Ranganathittu junction and instead of the right to Mysore Road we took the left to the bird sanctuary and took the immediate
Call me Paranoid or just Crazy and Stupid, however how often do you hear someone running over 3-4 goats? If that could happen ... I just did not want to take a chance of getting my wife, son and the other couple into trouble with some drunk villagers.
So there.... Here lies my car in the Garage back in bangalore...
46k bill.
Main damages:
Front Bonnet bent (dead center edge)
Front Bumper (smashed, cracked, hanging)
Grill
AC Condenser (Bent), (Fan Broken), assembly et all
Insurance has sanctioned most of it...
IronWolf got a broken jaw after trying to bite off more than he could Chew :(
Also, Guess what I had for Dinner that night at 'Sues Kitchen', Indra Nagar.....