[SRISRI_90]

Team-Bhp Monsoon Meet 2.0 - Thirthahalli

It’s the month of July, and it's time for our annual monsoon meet. After the lovely meet we had last year, we promised to do it every year and meet at an ideal place to enjoy the Monsoon and the company of fellow Bhpians. Thus the idea of Monsoon Meet 2.0 was conceived, and here’s how we executed it to perfection.

Planning and some more Planning!

Following the success of the previous meet, it was decided that this year's meet would be organized by Bhpian @thirugata, @mohansrides and me. Due to other commitments, I could not help organize this year’s meeting, so it was the sole planning and execution by Bhpian @thirugata! The initial plan was to have the meeting at Valparai, a hill station in Tamilnadu. However, we were unable to reach a consensus and dropped it as an option. That’s when Bhpian @Thirugaata suggested we meet at Thirthahalli in Karnataka.

The tentative dates were proposed as the 3rd or 4th week of July and the 26-28th of July was finalized as the meet dates. We had set our priority right, It would be to Relax, Eat well and go for a Drive, and in that same order.

This is how the Final Schedule looked like

Day 1 (26th July): Arrival of Bhpians to Vihangama Resort at Thirthahalli.
Day 2 (27th July): A short drive to explore surrounding areas, and chill for the rest of the day
Day 3 (28th July): Check out of the resort, say final goodbyes and disperse back to respective homes.

Final List of attendees and their steeds!

@arunjosie from Bangalore – Jeep Compass MT
@iashishi from Bangalore – Honda Accord 2.4
@redcruiser from Bangalore - Riding shotgun in the Honda Accord 2.4
@deetee from Hyderabad/Mangalore – Mahindra TUV 300
@narayanang76 from Bangalore – Toyota Fortuner 3.0
@turrrb0 from Chennai - BMW 320D
@Malyaj from Bangalore - Kia Seltos
@Mohansrides from Mumbai – Honda BRV
@Osteon206 from Mysore/Bangalore – Volkswagen Taigun.
@thirugata from Surathkal - Skoda Fabia
@samaspire from Manipal - Kia Carens
@srisri_90 from Mangalore – Citroen C3 Turbo.

Day 1 – 26th July 2024.

It was D Day of the Monsoon meet and in contrast to the previous years' meet where we had barely any rains, this July we were getting belted by proper rains and even before I left Mangalore, I had a feeling that this would be an epic drive and the excitement would give me a sleepless night, at the end it was something else that gave me sleepless night, read on to find out! Osteon206 arrived in Mangalore the previous day and stayed at my place, so on the morning of the 26th me and him Left Mangalore at around 11 AM.

Just before entering the Agumbe Ghat !


We had a blast of a time driving the 2 little fun cars the C3 Turbo and the Taigun 1.0 TSI through the beautiful and curvy roads of Padubidri, Karkala and later the Agumbe Ghat. Halfway through the Agumbe ghats, we were greeted with torrential rains and after crossing Agumbe we were hit with heavy winds that were shaking the cars, It was all fun and Frolic and we reached the Location by 1 PM. By Then Bhpain @thirugata, Malyaj and Narayanang76 had already reached the location.

Fast 5 who reached early


We all met up had a small introduction of each other and headed for Lunch. After a sumptuous lunch, we ended up chilling at the open-air restaurant till evening, just discussing random topics whilst simultaneously tracking other members' journey progress. The weather was relentless, we got belted throughout the evening and superb rains and cold weather meant we were in no mood to go anywhere. By 9 PM couple of other members had arrived @mohansrides, @iashishi, @redcruiser & most notably @turrrbo who left Chennai at 11 AM and reached Thirthalli by 9 PM. We decided to have dinner at the resort itself and had a lovely night with good food and drinks, and before we knew it, it was 1 am and we decided to crash into our beds.

Dinner party


But remember I said that I had a sleepless night, that is because the Tunga River had been issued with a flood warning and our room was right on the banks of the river. There was even a landslide below one of the riverside cottages, but a few Brave Bhpains decided to stay in that room, with assurance from the resort owner that the rooms wouldn't get washed away overnight

View from the Room Balcony, below which the land had slid to the river

Day 2 – 27th July 2024

Woke up early to the sound of the steady drizzling noise of rain. It had rained pretty heavily throughout the night and the water level in the rivers had risen even more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALEkcYixr_E

We all met up at the breakfast table to decide our agenda for the day, which was supposed to be a day-long drive to cover all the Points of interest near our resort. However thanks to the late end to the previous day, by the time all of us were done with breakfast and ready to roll it was already 11 AM. So we dropped the plans to visit POI’s and decided to just go for a long drive, and as most hadn’t driven through Agumbe ghat, we decided we would drive down the Ghat, have a small snack break at Seethanadi, and then drive back up the Agumbe ghat and reach back in time for Lunch. Alternative destinations were considered but dropped later due to multiple reasons - Kundadri, Jog Falls and Kavaledurga Fort.

We drove through a foggy Agumbe ghat and by 1 PM we had arrived at Hotel Seethanadi where we were able to park in a nice formation as this place had a mega parking lot.



A couple of Bhpains wanted to check out what the hype was about the C3 Turbo and took it for a spin and they all seemed to love it.
Meanwhile, the rest of them went inside the restaurant to have some Mangalore Buns and Coffee. By 3 PM we were on the way back to Thirthahalli, driving up the ghat. Everyone loved the challenging narrow roads and super twisty hairpin turns through the Agumbe ghat.
By the time we reached back to the resort, it was close to 4 in the evening, we had a super late lunch and Thanks to the lovely rainy weather nobody was in the mood to go anywhere.

By 6 PM a few of us gathered enough energy to get up and go to the town to fill fuel into our cars. The rains had receded and the sky was still bright and those roads were so goddamn inviting that we decided to go for a short spin, I ended up driving @narayanang76s Toyota Fortuner MT with ARB Suspension. My first time driving a Fortuner with a non-stock suspension and I loved it. It corners flat like a Sedan and the overall handling is superlative. We were being chased by the BMW 320D driven by @turbbb0. It was super fun chucking this massive SUV into the smooth-flowing corners around Thirthahalli.

Toyota Fortuner + BMW 320D


By 8 PM we had all gathered at the dining hall, it was too early for dinner, so I decided to use this time to Gift every member a small badge to honour their presence at this meeting. Bhpian @osteon206 had created a lovely design to represent our monsoon meet, so I decided it would be right to use that image on our badges. A Novel idea which stuck with me at the last moment just before I was leaving Mangalore for the meet.

Badge of Honour


Me handing over the badge to @arunjosie



After this, we all had a sumptuous dinner and by midnight we were all back in bed.

Day 3 – 28th July 2024

The agenda for today was to have breakfast, say our final goodbyes and drive back to respective homes.
By 10 AM all of us had finished our breakfast and were sketching out the routes for return Journeys

Final Group Pic. L to R : @thirugata, @narayanang76, @turrrb0, @iashishi, @deetee, @redcruiser, @malyaj, @srisri_90, @osteon206, @arunjosie, @mohansrides.


And that’s the end of our short and sweet Monsoon Meet!

Or is it ?...

By 11 AM most of the members had left to their respective places. However, the remaining 4 of us had a last-minute idea of driving to Jog Falls, as it was very close by and the folks from Mumbai and Chennai did not want to miss this opportunity after having driven such a long distance. So it was 4 of us @thirugata, @turrrrb0, @mohansrides and me in 4 separate cars driving to Jog Falls in a Lovely Convoy. We took the Thirthahalli-Ripponpet- Sagara- Jog Falls route.

Convoy at Jog


The roads were good throughout and the scenery even better, the recent heavy rains meant that the green canopy was everywhere.
The rainy weather also makes the weather pretty cold and that brings a problem of its own, the urge to pee every once in a while !!!
It was @mohansrides who couldn’t hold it any longer and asked us all to stop so that we could all relieve ourselves. So we stopped by the road in the middle of Nowhere, by the time we were all finished I spotted an Elephant with its Mahout slowly and graciously walking in our direction. It was such a unique experience to see an elephant up close. It turned out to be a 46-year-old female temple elephant from the nearby Humcha Jain Temple.

@Turrrb0 & @mohansrides with the Elephant


It blessed us all and even gave a blessing to my Citroen C3 as well.


After this we kept driving towards Jog Falls and reached there by around 1 PM. Due to the construction activities, we had to park our cars a kilometre before the entrance and walk the rest of the way. The water flow at the falls was decent enough.

Jog Falls


After this we drove to Kargal for Lunch and from there @turrrb0 said goodbye and drove back to Coimbatore. Whereas the rest of us decided to head back to the coast via the Nagavalli- Bhatkal road, which goes through the Sharavati Wildlife Sanctuary. It boasts some amazing Scenery with good twisty roads and there is even a waterfall by the roadside. I had posted about it in my previous thread of my Drive to Jog Falls and Banavasi.

Waterfall by the Road


We faced heavy rains throughout the ghat, but the scenery made the trip worthwhile. It was so good that @mohansrides quipped “ Thank you Srinidhi for making us drive in this route, I don’t know how to thank you for this, had you been a girl I would have kissed you by now ”

Just Before Nagavalli


It was 5:30 in the evening when we reached Bhatkal, we stopped at a local restaurant for Coffee.
We said our Final goodbyes, and by 6 PM me and Kiran were driving back to Mangalore and @mohansrides drove on towards Mumbai.

Conclusion - Same Same, but different!

It’s been nearly a month since the meeting was over, but the memories are still fresh! We hadn’t set a high benchmark for this meet, we just wanted it to be as good as our previous meet. Not only did we match the benchmark set, we surpassed it by a good margin. Everything about this year’s Monsoon meet turned out better than the previous year's meet. From the Weather to the food to the number of bhpains who participated in the meet. But the Basic premise of having good food and enjoying the company of fellow bhpains remained the same, and the meet was a great success.

Looking forward to next year's Monsoon meet!

[ashkamath]

Awesome Srini, that seems to be a fantastic monsoon meet.

I see some familiar faces here.

Great write up. You guys sure know how to have fun. 😊

[sharmanova]

Nice pics Srinidhi. Looks like a great meetup.

I guess @thirugata's Fabia is camera-shy, so it's hiding behind your C3.

[cogWheel]

SRISRI_90, sure looks like you guys had a lot of fun in the twisties. Nice pics. Your C3 is eye catching!

[samaspire]

Before the actual meet, the 3 of us locals - Kiran, SriSri and I had gone on a recce drive a month earlier to finalize on the resort. We visited 2 places and Vihangama was finalized.

















The Resort

The last picture is probably what convinced most of the guys to finalize this resort.


__________________________________________________ _


When the actual meet came, I could stay for only one night and so, missed most of the action.

One main thing Srinidhi forgot to mention is the food. It was the highlight of the trip for me. Everything the chef made, veg or non-veg, was delicious.










I stayed in one of the river facing cottages and this was the view from the balcony.





I had to leave on the evening of the 2nd day. Here are couple of parting shots of our cars.

[arun_josie]

Nice write-up @SRISRI_90 and sampspire!

I am glad that I was able to meet you guys at least from day 2. It was great to meet many t-bhpians whom I’ve interacted with but never got a chance to meet till date.

My drive to Thirthahalli:

This was my first drive to Thirthahalli/Agumbe. Google showed multiple routes, and I decided to take the Chitradurga route. I had a quick call with paragsachania as well to check on other route options. The rough estimate from google maps was 6 hours 30 minutes.

I started at 4:00 AM with a rough target of 10:00 AM at the resort in Thirthahalli (including a breakfast stop). As I wished, it was drizzling and raining intermittently. The early morning start helped maintain a steady pace. Once I hit the 6 lane road after crossing Tumkur, I had a Fortuner and a Skoda Laura for company. They helped me to reach Chitradurga before time.

Chitradurga – Shimoga is a wide two-lane road and its scenic too. What I liked about this route is, there were no speed breakers except for a few. The roads were very good with minimal random patches. The ETA for Shimoga was around 7:30am so I decided to stop for breakfast here.

The wide 2L stretch







After reaching Shimoga, I did a quick google search and found Hotel Shubham. This is inside the town but since it was early morning, the traffic was very less.

The food was good, and the service was quick.





From here I took the route via Gajanur Dam. Most of this entire route goes along with the Tunga river. This route is very scenic too. The traffic was very minimal and I reached the resort by 9am. So, it took roughly around 5 hours from Bangalore.



Vihangama Holiday Retreat:

• It’s a very nice place in the forest region and on the bank of river Tunga.
• Loads of space to walk around.
• The rooms were spacious and clean.
• They have river view rooms which are very close to the river
• The food was very good.
• Overall, a very nice place to spend with family and/or friends.

Drive through Agumbe Ghats:

This was in my list for quite some time now, and happy that I was able to do this during this meet. It was a convoy drive and we had fun. It was around 12:00 PM when we took this ghat road, but it felt like evening 6:00 PM. It was raining/drizzling and very mysty too.





Some group pics of our cars when we stopped for a break after crossing the ghats





The traffic was very less during the onward drive but there was some traffic during the return. Also, there were 2-3 fallen trees which slowed us down during the return. This ghat section is narrow and the climbs were steep. It can get tricky when there is a bigger vehicle in the opposite direction.



During the return from Agumbe to the resort, I was behind SRISRI_90’s C3. It was flying on those twisty roads. I was amazed with the way this turbo petrol was pulling ahead. It was probably the star of the day as whoever took the driving seat were mightily impressed with its power delivery.





Lunch, dinner and fun banter:

After the drive to Agumbe ghats, we returned to the resort by 3PM for lunch. The food here was really good. The post lunch drive didn’t happen as it kept raining. So, we spent the rest of the day in the resort itself.

We had a nice dinner and lot of discussion on various topics. By the time we called it a night, it was 12am.

Drive back to Bangalore:

After the breakfast and few group pics, we decided to check-out. Some of us directly returned to bangalore with a stop at Gajanur Dam. Some went to Jog falls and enjoyed the drive.

Everyone set for the return



It was 10:30 when the bangalore convoy of 5 cars started, we stopped at Gajanur Dam and made a quick visit. Later we got stuck in Shimoga due to a political party convoy which blocked the road.

Gajanur Dam



A quick stop before Chitradurga


Lunch stop was on the highway after crossing Chitradurga. From here the traffic increased and had to cross two accident spots as well.

Overall, this was a fun trip, and it was fun to meet people I have only interacted online and made new friends. A big thanks to all those who organized this meet, especially @Mohansrides, @thirugata and @srisri_90

Overall trip details

[redcruiser]

It was a memorable trip, and I'm glad I was part of it. Here is my part of this meetup.
Before the trip, Ashish (known by his handle @iashishi and younger brother of one of the moderators) and I decided that he would bring his 2008 Honda Accord 2.4L iVtech AT for the drive and I would ride shotgun.
You can find short review of the Accord in this link.
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-scene/222701-pre-worshipped-car-week-used-honda-accord-v6-5.html#post5427279[/i]

I enjoy having company on long drives, and the opportunity to drive the 2.4L iVtech for the first time was tempting. I convinced myself it was a good idea and worth it to leave my Virtus GT in my garage.
Ashish, who lives on Sarjapur Road, took the Varthur route to reach Whitefield. Since it was a Friday and peak office hours, it took him about an hour to get to my place.

My first view of this Accord at my apartment.

We took the STRR road from Hoskote, driving all the way to Dobaspete before joining NH48. This new STRR highway is truly a boon for getting out of Bangalore, sparing us the usual traffic jam at Goreguntepalya or Neelmangala. We cruised along smoothly until we reached A2B @ Sirsi for lunch. Fortunately, the traffic on NH48 was light, making the drive even more enjoyable and relaxing.

After lunch, we swapped driving duties, and I took the wheel for the rest of the journey. I had the chance to experience both straight highways and winding countryside roads. We passed through Chennagiri, known as the land of arecanuts. The landscape was dotted with endless rows of arecanut plantations,

We diverted from our route to view the Tunga River at the dam. The river was flooded, and Google Maps alerted us to potential flood risks.

Parked here to view the downstream waterflow

Downstream end of the Dam. Most gates are open here.

We had some quick fast food at this place.

This couple had setup a small shop for people who visited this place.

After a 30-minute break, we continued our journey toward the destination. Soon, the rain began to pour, turning our Monsoon meet into a truly remarkable experience. It's not every day that you get to drive alongside a river brimming with water, navigating winding roads enveloped by a lush green canopy. The scenery was breathtaking. And again, folks from Whitefield and Sarjapur just couldn’t resist to stop again and capture the moment.

Ashish captured the menacing beauty of the Tunga River as it swelled with water.

This is what he is seeing in the pic

Why not click the Owner with his Accord

We reach the resort after multiple stops at around 6 on a Friday evening.
As I check into the river facing cottage the level of water was dangerously near to our cottage. The river was very terrifying because it had rained a lot in the previous couple of days.

View from my cottage.

[/indent]

On Sunday morning though the river had receded a bit.

We had a good chit chat over dinner until 12:30 midnight.

We had a well spent Saturday already described by Srinidhi. To think of it our trip can be categorized as “drive to meet” rather than “meet to drive”. Majority of our stay we spent chit chatting in the resort. Hardly 3 to 4 hours of driving on Saturday.

Driving to Agumbe ghat

Drove for refueling after a late lunch

Can you see someone lurking in the woods to take photos for his travelogue.

We returned on Sunday, with everyone starting the journey back after breakfast at around 10:30 AM. It was a leisurely start to the day as we wrapped up our time together and prepared for the drive home.
On our return journey, Ashish took the wheel for the entire drive. He had missed driving his Honda during the trip, and this was his chance to make up for it.

As we were leading the convoy of the cars headed to Bangalore & Mysore we decided to stop by the dam on Tunga

Gajanur Dam.

@Osteon206 accompanied us before he took the turnoff towards Mysore at Shivamogga.
While returning Accord tried its best to keep up with “The famous Jeep Compass” of this forum.

Accord trying to keep pace

Bangalore folks halted for quick photoshoot on the way.

from Left to right @arunjosie @narayanang76 @Malyaj @iashishi posing with their steads.

We halted for lunch at Guruprasad Restaurant, just before joining the NH48 highway. The restaurant offered a pleasant break with good food, clean restrooms, and an air-conditioned dining hall.

Tea break just before the turnoff towards STRR road.

Ashish with his Accord drove all the way straight to take the NICE road while @Malyaj with his Seltos and @Narayanan76 with his Fortuner decided to take the STRR road to enter Bangalore.

Final partying shot.

That is the welcome you expect from Bangalore

Overall it was a memorable trip . Many thanks @mohanrides for getting the lazy folks together to agree on the meetup and @thirugata for organizing the stay. I wish we had more time to visit the POI as mentioned by Sri_Sri in the opening post. Buy hey there is always a next time.

[thirugata]

Thank you SriSri Srinidhi for penning down a detailed report of our meet.

Here is my version of the same, I will keep it brief and let the photos do most of the talking.

Day 1:

I started from home around 9:00 AM and was in no hurry to reach the resort. Its about 3 hours drive. Since no other participants were expected to reach prior to lunch, I had whole morning to cover the distance.
As soon as I left home it started to rain heavily and rain continued to give me company almost throughout the journey.



I drove past Athur Church at Karkala and from here terrain changes and hills begin to appear.



When rain paused for a bit I got a chance to take this photo.



Roads were almost traffic free and was inviting for some spirited drive, but I was in no hurry so took it easy.





Once I climbed the Agumbe ghat it was no longer raining and it turned very foggy. Visibility was very poor here.
After driving through this fog for couple of KMs it started to rain again. Finally I reached the resort around 1:00 PM.

By 2:00 PM guys who had left Bangalore early morning started to come in and @SriSri_90 and @Osteon206 also reached who had left from Mangalore around 11:00 AM. We had lunch and waited for rest of the people to arrive.

By night everyone had reached the resort & some had covered real long distance.
We ordered food and the chit chatting continued till late in the night.

When everyone was busy eating and chatting, @Mohansrides took the opportunity and started clicking some candid shots.
He not only took these photos but also sat through the night to edit them and went to sleep only after sharing them with the group.

Here are some of those photos.



@iashishi



Self



@redcruiser



@narayanang76 & @samaspire



@srisri_90



@Osteon206 & @Malyaj



@narayanang76 & @Malyaj

[thirugata]

Day 2

It had rained throughout the night and when I woke up in the morning the sky had cleared a bit. I took this opportunity to take some photos around the resort.

















In the early morning soft light all the cars which got washed by overnight rain looked perfect for a photoshoot.















Post breakfast we were discussing possible drive options for the day and eventually decided to go for a drive down the hill on Agumbe ghat and return via same route.
@deetee Who was suppose to join us this day was asked to wait for us at Seethanadi restaurant and we started our short drive.
Driving through this ghat was new experience for few and everyone enjoyed it.



Got a nice motion blur effect on this photo enroute.

We assembled at parking area of the hotel and some had snacks and coffee here. After some photoshoot of cars we began our return journey.







We reached resort around 3:00PM and had our lunch.
@samaspire had to return home cutting his stay short, so we decided to have a quick group photo before he departs.





We were lazing around the restaurant area not wanting to do anything and not knowing what to do.
Eventually few guys decided to go to town the get the fuel filled before they depart next day morning.
After filling fuel weather was just perfect for a drive so 2 of the cars went for a short drive around Thirthahalli town.





After returning to resort @narayanang76 was parking his car and I ended up getting this halo effect around the car because of the break lights.



When we assembled for dinner I got my badge for participating in the meet.
Very nice gesture by @Osteon206 and @srisri_90 make one of these for everyone.

[ashkamath]

Originally Posted by thirugata

Here is my version of the same, I will keep it brief and let the photos do most of the talking.

Your photos have some charm in it. The candid photos of the meet attendees are amazing catching them in different moods.

Your version is brief, but conveys a lot more. I feel you put a lot of heart in everything that you do

[thirugata]

Day 3

Plan for the day was have our breakfast and return home. And we checked out of our rooms after breakfast and bid good bye to everyone.
I had driven less than a kilometer from the resort and my phone rings asking me to stop. @srisri_90 & @Mohansrides had plans of visiting Jog falls and they asked me if I would like to join and I had no reason to say no.
@turrrb0 who also wanted to visit Jog falls decided to join. @deetee had other commitments, so he left for Mangalore. So our monsoon meet got extended a bit longer.



On our way to Jog we spotted an elephant and its mahout. Elephant was very gentle and friendly it also blessed all of us.





Convoy enroute Jog falls



We reached Jog falls by noon. We had to park our cars bit away because of the construction work. Place was crowded too because it was Sunday.





After a quick visit to falls, we had our lunch and @turrrb0 took leave towards his home and rest of us continued our journey towards Bhatkal.
This is an amazing route that passes through Sharavathi wildlife reserve and there was hardly any traffic on this route. Thanks to @srisri_90 for suggesting this route.











At Bhatkal we had a coffee break and we parted our ways towards our homes. From here the drive was uneventful and I reached home by 7:30 PM.

At the end of it I am wondering how to sum up this experience, I guess I will just say " when are we meeting again?"

[ALTIMAed]

Having graduated from MIT Manipal (1988 ~ 1992), my trusted steed a blue colour KAWSAKI BAJAJ RTZ DETLA, KA20E1341 - which I purchased pre - worshiped, ridden it all around Dakshin Karnataka. Agumbe used to be a Sunday ride types. I remember, from Karkala, when one approaches the Agumbe Ghat, there used to be this small shack (typical of that part of the world), which tossed out the freshest and tastiest 'neer dosa', the taste of which still lingers, though I must have brushed my teeth many a times over the years. Monsoon was the best time to feel the curves of the 14 hair pin bends. Fileter coffee pre neer dosa, filter coffee during neer dosa and filter coffee after neer dosa!! Rain, filter coffee and neer dosa - a deadly combination!!

I had installed a pair of Roots pressure horns on my bike, which proved to be really reassuring on the ghats. My bike sported MRF Zappers (which were just launched) proved to provide more than ample grip on the wet surface (one would appreciate the speed carried those days was snail pace compared to what bikes of the day are capable of carrying).

[narayanang76]

I am glad that I got a chance and I made it to the meetup. From the time I came to know about the meet, I wasn’t sure about making it due to some other personal travels planned. Anyways went ahead with the plan of attending it and glad that I could make it finally. It was an awesome meet. Was able to meet some friends whom we have only spoken with or messaged.

Highlight: The drive back and forth from Bangalore to Thirthahalli, the stay and food at the resort, meeting and chit-chatting with friends, seeing those cars, rainy monsoon drives and sightseeing were the key highlights. I have to admit, I was a bit worried about the proximity of our rooms to the Thunga river and also the cars that were parked overnight by the river side.

During my onward journey, I drove non-stop starting from Bangalore till reaching the resort. I would have stopped for few bio breaks and checking messages and making some calls enroute. Started after having breakfast from home Whitefield, Bangalore and had my lunch at the meet venue. It was an awesome drive. I was also the first third or fourth person to reach the place.

The resort felt like the places I am used to in my hometowns with lots of rains and trees and plants and birds. Was lucky to spot a grey hornbill, think they have their nest at the trees within resort. The food was awesome and the prices were reasonable for Bangalore standards. Resort is having an excellent location, by the bank of the River Thunga and there are couple of cottages close to the river banks itself. I stayed in one of the rooms in those cottages.

Meet: Meeting some of the friends – Kiran, Srinidhi, Arun, Dr Naveen, Mohan, Samarth, Gaurav, Ashish, Anirudh (my esteemed roommate for the stay), Malyaj, and Dharma. Meeting them , talking to them about various topics and spending that time leisurely was an awesome experience.

Now wait until we meet next.

Few pictures from the meet

Our Cottages and cars pretty close to the overflowing river Thunga

Some pics of the resort

Nearby reservoir

Some of the cars at the meet

Someone else caught me at the wheel

Admiring the Sprite

Award ceremony

Parting shot

Cheers,
narayanang76

[thirugata]

Originally Posted by ALTIMAed

I remember, from Karkala, when one approaches the Agumbe Ghat, there used to be this small shack (typical of that part of the world), which tossed out the freshest and tastiest 'neer dosa',

I am assuming you are referring to this place. https://maps.app.goo.gl/j5UcCREQLGcjmaqB7

[Osteon206]

Hi everybody. Here goes my version of the meet. This was my first ever Team Bhp meet other than the dinner meet with the Bangalore folks and @Mohansrides.
Apart from this I had met Srisri90 a good number of times at Mysore & Mangalore.

Day 0
I started from Bangalore in my dad's 2007 Honda City ZX Vtec to Mysore to pick up my car - The red Taigun. The drive on the Bangalore +- Mysore expressway was amazing highlighted by heavy rains around Mandya.



I reached Mysore post lunch and picked up the Taigun. I then left for Mangalore via Madikeri - Rains were relentless which I absolutely loved. Stopped for a quick coffee break at Western Coffee Roasters near Periyapatna.






The next stop was at Big Cup, Madikeri for water / restroom break. Here visibility dropped significantly to just a few meters till Sampaje, accompanied by scattered showers.



I reached Mangalore at 10PM - Srisri90 was waiting to pick me up near his place - we headed for a quick dinner and then I crashed at his place for the night.

Day 1
Next morning he had some office work to finish following which he got the badges made quickly and we set off in the Turbopetrols - The Citroen C3 and Taigun 1.0 TSI to Thirthahalli.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vLnO2CIbXo

Once we deviated off the coastal highway, I got a chance to enjoy the C3's explosive performance while Srisri90 drove my car.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq-3dJxbgrQ

En-route we halted at the Varanga lake Jain temple for a quick stop - unfortunately the temple was closed - nevertheless we stopped for a quick photoshoot of the cars.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=de2VGqOiKoo

P.S.: I love making shorts/reels of cars in general and had carried the monopod to try a few fake drone shots.





Just before the climb up the Agumbe Ghat road we stopped for a quick snack at Hotel Seethanadi (Made a mental note to try and come here later with the others). This was my first time driving in the Agumbe ghats and I absolutely loved the experience. The steep climbs and sharp curves were managed well by both the cars. Once atop we were greeted by the mist covered town which looked way better than any of the famous south Indian hill stations at that time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3RzxyY6NsE

We continued from there to the resort at Thirthahalli - Vihangama. @Thirugata was already there. We checked into our cottage right on the bank of the mighty Tunga river. Gradually everybody else started arriving. We relaxed with piping hot beverages after the sumptuous lunch. The picturesque location was a haven for taking photographs. Evening we settled in front of the private cottages for some quality discussion with dinner and drinks. Being the first ever meet of this kind for me, I was very impressed by the deep discussions we had especially considering all of us were from varied professional backgrounds. Just around 10PM @turrrb0 reached in the BMW 320d – he’d driven solo all the way from Chennai. I really applaud the skill and patience of @Mohansrides also having driven from Mumbai, solo in his Honda BRV.

Day 2
We had an idea of things to do around Thirthahalli, but we were not able to decide where to drive to - Jog falls was dropped since we might lose the entire day driving (Not that this is a bad thing, just that we wanted to not spend the entire day away from the resort). Finally we decided to drive down Agumbe ghat road to Hotel Seethanadi (the place where we stopped on our onward journey – That way we could all drive the ghat and we would have a vast parking area to show off our cars) - @deetee was driving from Mangalore and met us there.

We drove down in 8 of the 11 cars viz. :
@arunjosie– Jeep Compass MT
@iashishi – Honda Accord 2.4
@deetee – Mahindra TUV 300
@narayanang76 – Toyota Fortuner 3.0
@Malyaj - Kia Seltos
@Mohansrides – Honda BRV
@Osteon206 – Volkswagen Taigun
@srisri_90 – Citroen C3 Turbo

We all unanimously arrived at the conclusion that the star car of the meet was @Srisri90’s C3 turbo – The car is an absolute pocket rocket. Everyone was floored by its performance and as the others have mentioned this became an avenue for everyone to TD the C3. In fact we were all listening to @turrrb0’s experience of driving the C3 downhill.
Meanwhile we thought of parking the 8 cars in a formation with the C3 in the center due to availability of the parking space and for a nice photoshoot. At the end of this we exited the parking lot in a formation – I have attached the videos of these below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn11AJqdlNY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjmkW_j0G4Q

We then drove back to the resort – on this leg I was driving the Taigun behind @narayanang76’s T-Fort in which @Thirugata was riding shotgun.
Once we returned to the resort, we chilled in the cottages for a short while and then met for dinner when @Srisri90 distributed the Meet badges he had got made for all of us.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHdAd4bfMso

Just before this most of us went to Thirthahalli for re-fuelling our respective cars. At this point there was a spin-off of the T-Fort and 320d.

Day 3
Post breakfast we took a few group photos and the group split to drive back to our respective destinations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASLCIn7eUEE

Initially I thought of driving to Mangalore along with those who were heading that way and then drive to Mysore from there, but then thought this would lead to late night drive through Madikeri. Hence I drove long with the Bangalore guys till Shimoga.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pejGK3a4I6c

We stopped at the Tunga dam on the way. Then I drove through Chikmagalur & Hassan to Mysore, with my last stop at Sagarkatte over the backwaters of KRS dam.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SEeiWG2UfI

On the next day I left to Bangalore by the Honda City.
I am so looking for the next meet now.