[Dr.AD]

A drive needs no excuse. We "live to drive" after all. This was one such drive for no reason other than just driving. Driving was the primary agenda. And of course, given that the drive was to a scenic location, photographing our cars there (and en route too) and spamming all close and distant friends across multiple groups with the pictures was the secondary agenda.

Like most of our weekend drives, the plan got hatched in an impromptu manner during a casual conversation the previous week. It was sometime last week that my friend and driving buddy, BHPian robimahanta (let us just call him "Robi" henceforth, as we call him in real life) and I were just chilling out and discussing our usual topics including cars, driving, photography and a few other random things. Suddenly one of us said "I am free this weekend. How about a drive?". When one of our driving friends says this, there is a 90% chance the other guys will say "Yes, why not, definitely, let us go for that drive!". After all, we "live to drive", right?

Luckily, this was one of those 90% situations. One proposed the drive, and the other agreed immediately. We had a plan in place in literally two seconds. We were going for a weekend drive.

After the initial two seconds of agreeing on a driving weekend, we spent next two to three minutes discussion where to go. Some points in the discussion where along the following lines.

"Let us drive somewhere far. This needs to be a good long drive."

"Let us go where we have interesting roads with hills, ghats and scenery. Not the boring six-lane highways".

"If we find some good spot to take car photos, that would be perfect".

That was all really. With these quick requirements spelled out, suddenly we remembered Maravanthe Beach, in Coastal Karnataka. That popped out as one of the first destinations off the top of our heads, and in next minute or so, we finalized it.

Why Maravanthe beach? Because it is abut 450km away (one-way), which was a good enough driving distance to enjoy the drive (anything shorter would have been too short a drive given the mood we were in), it offers great sunset views for us to take those pictures to spam our friends, and most importantly, it offers an excellent driving circuit across the western ghats, with plenty of hair-pin bends and ups and downs and twists and corners to enjoy on the way. All requirements satisfied! This was the perfect destination for our weekend drive.

Thus, out of a complete casual and impromptu discussion last week, the weekend's drive plan emerged suddenly in a span of few minutes. The overall plan was made and confirmed on the spot! The two drivers in this drive would be Robi and I, and ours steeds taking us there would be Robi's Sunset Orange BMW M340i , and my Melbourne Red BMW 320d.

It was only the next day that we figured out the other mundane details such as where to stay and what time to start etc. For stay, there are not too many great options in that area. There are a couple of "resorts", but we wanted to try some offbeat place. "Let us find a place that is right on the beach". One of us said this the next day while discussing the places. Sure, why not? With that idea, and some Google search, Robi found some beach cottages which were basic, but perfectly located and offered the exact experience we were looking for. Thanks to Robi for finding out this lovely place. More on that place later.

The Driving Route and Plan: We drove to Maravanthe Beach via Chikmagalur, Sringeri and Agumbe. This is one of the best driving routes in Karnataka. And for the return journey, we drove via Udupi and Charmadi ghat, which is another lovely driving road. This entire loop is a lovely driving circuit with some scenic and smooth hilly roads, with plenty of opportunities to enjoy both the driving and the landscapes. Our overall driving distance for the weekend was a tad above 950km.

The driving route (this offered a perfect mix of fast four-lane highways, numerous hill sections and ghats with plenty of bends and corners, some very scenic driving sections, and finally a coastal drive to with views of the beach; it was fun to experience all this in one weekend drive) :



The Onward Journey: The onward journey through Chikmagalur and Sringeri was smooth, quick and scenic!

The two cars on the side of a scenic section between Chikmagalur and Sringeri:



Another view of the two cars enjoying that scenic spot:



A bit further ahead, enjoying such lovely tarmacs and corners:



Somewhere in Agumbe ghat, which is another totally enjoyable driving stretch:



After around 450km of driving across the western ghats enjoying the roads and the scenery, we found ourselves here, on Kodi Beach:



The two cars at Kodi Beach, under some really harsh sunlight and hot weather:



The Stay: We wanted to stay at some offbeat place on the beach. And the place we found, right on Kodi Beach, was exactly this. An unassuming, simple place with 6 beach cottages and a small restaurant serving very good food. And most importantly, good and safe parking! The place was very basic but it was clean and comfortable. We were not expecting or even looking for any luxuries anyway. It was a drive and not a "vacation". This place turned out to be absolutely perfect for our requirements. The name of the place was Coqueiros Beach Cottages (https://g.page/coqueiroskpur?share).

The parking was right next to the cottages, and was very convenient (such perfect parking options are more valuable in my books than any other resort amenities):



The simple, unassuming "resort", with an open air restaurant (those tables you see in the picture) under the coconut trees:



A tiny and charming road outside the resort (the cottages are on the left) running right next to the beach:



The view of the sea from the cottage balcony:



The beach across the road. This was not a fancy beach (nor was it very clean either), but was nevertheless a nice place to spend the evening enjoying the sea breeze:



Sunset at Maravanthe Beach: One of the main agenda in our drive was watching the sunset at Maravanthe Beach (which was about 25km further north from our cottages). This beach offers fantastic views of the sea on one side and the river on the other side. Of course, this is also a lovely place for car photography. After checking in our cottages and freshening up, we drove to Maravanthe at the perfect time to catch the sunset views.

My car at Maravanthe Beach:



The two cars enjoying the golden sunlight of that evening hour:



The mighty M340i, in "Sunset Orange" bathing in the orange light of the real sunset (to be honest, this photo was the key moment of the drive for me):



Another view of the M340i on the beach:


And now it was that perfect time for the "car and the sunset" photos.

The M340i:



And the 320d:



Sunrise at Kodi Beach: Next morning, as soon as we woke up and stepped out, we were greeted by a lovely morning sun and the most beautiful sunlight on the beach across the cottages.

My 320d enjoying the morning light:



And now the Sunset Orange under a Sunrise:



The two cars enjoying the moment, the light and the location:



Could not resist taking more random photos of my car there:



And finally, a parting shot of the two cars at that lovely point in space and time:



The Return Journey: As I mentioned earlier, we drove back via Udupi and Charmadi ghat, and eventually joined back to Belur. This completed a lovely loop drive. Charmadi ghat is always a fantastic section to drive on. Lovely ghat with plenty of hairpin bends, scenic views, and then near the top of the ghat, some wide sweeping corners to enjoy the cars. Unfortunately we could not take many photos in Charmadi ghat, but we absolutely enjoyed the drive! We drove non-stop from our cottages on Kodi Beach, till Ibbani Cafe after climbing up the Charmadi ghat.

Crossing a small yet charming bridge somewhere on our way:



At the famous Ibbani Cafe, after climbing up the Charmadi ghat:



The Ibbani Cafe is well-known for this neer dosa:



And finally, a parting shot of the lovely cars that made this drive even more amazing, under some tree-lined road between Mudigere and Belur:


After enjoying the 950km of driving which offered the almost perfect driving conditions, we reach home well before the sunset, completing a truly memorable drive!

Before I wrap this up, please allow me tell you a short story of a "beach shack hopping" that we did in the evening. After enjoying the sunset at Maravanthe beach, we came back to our cottages and wanted to have food at a beach shack. Our cottages had a restaurant which was not exactly on the beach. Luckily, we found another beach shack serving food right on the beach (a much simpler, cheaper, and rustic version of the beach shacks in Goa, if you will) , about 500m away from our cottages. So we walked there and had a round of starters there. We thoroughly enjoyed the walk, and the experience of eating on the beach enjoying the sounds of the waves and the breeze. However, we also wanted to eat at our cottages because the reviews said they have great food too. So we walked back to our cottage and had main course in our cottage. The food was delicious, and it was totally worth it to have the dinner there. After these rounds of starters and main courses done, it was just natural that we thought of having a dessert to end this long and tiring day. It was quite hot, and a cold dessert sounded like a perfect way to end the day. Unfortunately, and to our surprise, our cottage restaurant said they have nothing to serve us as desserts. Not even an ice cream. Remember I mentioned this was a basic place? So we gave up on the idea of a dessert. But before we ending the day and going to sleep, we decided to take one final stroll on the beach in the night, enjoying the night sky and the sea breeze. And now while walking on the beach in southern direction, we accidentally stumbled upon another beach shack with attractive lights, and asked them if they had desserts. Thankfully, they had a few options in desserts, including the famous local drink, "gudbud"! (Gudbud is some kind of ice cream mixed with thick milkshake with plenty of fruits and nuts added together). And they served us two delectable and chilled gudbuds. We really enjoyed this unexpected episode of finding the famous local dessert at this most unexpected beach shack late in the night.

Now, to end this travelogue on a sweet note, let me share the picture of that delicious "gudbud" we had at that beach shack:


With that sweet taste of gudbud still lingering in my mouth, let me end this report.

Thanks a lot to Robi for his amazing company and for driving together. I always enjoy his company and we have many common topics to discuss from cars to drives to photography to food and drinks. We have done many memorable drives together, and this was one more in that list. And last but not the least, sincere thanks to our respective better halves for allowing us to drive around on the weekends while they were busy taking care of the important things in life (which I often forget about when there is a chance to go out for a drive). Family support is the most important factor that makes such drives possible.

And finally, thank you very much to all of you for reading this!

[Eddy]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing.

[robimahanta]

Thanks a lot AD for the brilliant trip report. I believe you are like Tendulkar of the 90's when it comes to travelogues. It is really funny how this 1000km drive was planned. During our recent drive around the outskirts of Bangalore, we decided to do a longish drive over the subsequent weekend. Zebo wanted to head to Chikmagalur with family while Hari said he wanted to take a long route via Mysore to Calicut. Then AD said he and I should do some drive too and shared some drone images of Maravanthe. I was like this should be easy and the plan was set. No route and no planning. This is the fun part about our close knit driving group. We are not paranoid about PPF, ceramic, mileage and service costs. Rather just use the cars like they are meant to be. A lot of time is often wasted looking for routes, weather, the perfect weekend etc and we end up missing out on the fun.

Anyways I will keep rambling, so better get back to the drive in question.

I started around 8am from work and the first 200kms were a mileage run due to road construction and I eked out a mileage of over 9 in a BMW inline 6 (this is for the mileage aficionados) with a decent average speed.

As we picked up speed and drove across ghats, fast 6 lane highways etc. the mileage hovered around 8.5 to 9kmpl.



We parked at a beautiful location around coffee estates and made our own coffee.





Not that we didn’t stop for proper Chikmagalur coffee



Post our coffee breaks we had fun along amazing ghat sections and beautiful villages.





Finally we hit the coast and that’s where all the photography fun began.

Our parking for the evening



Late night ice cream



Quaint place for some ice cream. Udupi/Mangalore is as famous for ice cream as for seafood.



Chasing AD’s 320 during our return drive







Coming to the actual car and drone photos

Sunset Orange













Ad’s and both together









Some drone images from the trip



Eye level with the gulls



Side view



Top down



High up in Maravanthe



Near our resort



Finally I headed to Bangalore airport to pick up my better half and what better parking than parking at a designated 340 spot.




Until next time.

[ampere]

Very nice drone shots. Especially the one which shows the sea and the river in one frame. Which drone do you use? A Mavic Pro?

[robimahanta]

Originally Posted by ampere

Very nice drone shots. Especially the one which shows the sea and the river in one frame. Which drone do you use? A Mavic Pro?

Thanks. This was a DJI Mini.

[megazoid]

Setting the roads on fire, raiding shacks, giving Ansel Adam's sleepless nights,
making sunrise pics out of sunset orange cars, bringing Melbourne closer to Maravanthe, wining and dining nomadic style and making India shrink around you like the BMW cockpit is remarkable. Thoroughly Enjoyed!

[PearlJam]

As usual, a very well written travelogue, AD!

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

(Gudbud is some kind of ice cream mixed with a thick milkshake with plenty of fruits and nuts added together). And they served us two delectable and chilled gudbuds. We really enjoyed this unexpected episode of finding the famous local dessert at this most unexpected beach shack late in the night.

This brought back memories of my childhood days. Gadbad was invented either in Mangalore by Mr Prabhakar Kamath (who passed away very recently) of Pabbas Ideal icecreams, or in Udupi (in Hotel Diana - also known for its other icecream attraction - Falooda!). Yes, there's a debate on who actually invented Gadbad! More details here: https://www.indiatimes.com/culture/f...in-357540.html

An ideal (no pun intended) circuit would be to have Gadbad and Falooda at Hotel Diana, Udupi, followed by a 50 km drive to have the Gadbad at Pabbas in Mangalore. There's always a drive possible the next time to do this

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by megazoid

Setting the roads on fire, raiding shacks, giving Ansel Adam's sleepless nights,
making sunrise pics out of sunset orange cars, bringing Melbourne closer to Maravanthe, wining and dining nomadic style and making India shrink around you like the BMW cockpit is remarkable. Thoroughly Enjoyed!

Thank you very much megazoid. Your own travel stories are inspirational stuff, and such stories keep fueling our passion for driving.

Originally Posted by PearlJam

As usual, a very well written travelogue, AD!

Thank you very much, PearlJam!

This brought back memories of my childhood days. Gadbad was invented either in Mangalore by Mr. Prabhakar Kamath (who passed away very recently) of Pabbas Ideal icecreams, or in Udupi (in Hotel Diana - also known for it's other icecream attraction - Falooda!).

Thanks for this info. Also, I see that it is spelled as "Gadbad". In the menu card in that shack, it was spelled "gudbud" and hence I continued writing it that way. But now I will write it as gadbad henceforth. The name sounds quite funny to me since the Marathi meaning of gadbad has some funny mischievous tones.

An ideal (no pun intended) circuit would be to have Gadbad and Falooda at Hotel Diana, Udupi, followed by a 50 kms drive to have the Gadbad at Pabbas in Mangalore. There's always a drive possible the next time to do this

Thanks for this idea. Good idea. Actually some of us were planning to do a drive to Mangalore just to have the Pabbas ice cream and come back. And of course, Mangalore buns too. But that drive got cancelled when we went to Arunachal instead, and that Arunachal drive took away any and all possible driving times for other ideas. But there is always a next time, as you said.

[kiredd1005]

@Robi: The last photo was super cheeky!

@DrAD: Very nice write up! Glad you guys had fun!

[rhsakarp]

The sunset and car pictures are just wow !
Nice write up, thanks for sharing.

The 340 looks so purposeful and aggressive.

Have a question, how sensitive is the car to fuel quality en-route ? Do you fill up only from specific brands and outlets ?

[vikas2211]

Great trip @DrAD and awesome coverage through drone @robimahanta.

I really liked the place where you guys stayed. The view is awesome and the place seems very calm unlike other beachfront resorts in popular destinations.

[Air_Kerala]

"And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it- Paulo Coelho". I dont have a better quote to summarise what I want to say, because this travelouge was indeed the universe conspiring to make it happen. I have a week of vacation coming up and our plans to visit family in Dubai have been dashed by the Omicron variant. Just as I was about to plan another trip to Goa (the quintessential plan B), this travelogue pops up. Beautifully written, pretty much covers everything one would need to plan a drive to coastal Karnataka, as this would be our first one. Cheers

[autocrat]

Stunningly beautiful pictures! Thanks for sharing and inspiring me to go for a long drive

[Ghibli]

Western Ghat roads with their curves, green foliage, perfect cars, lots of sunshine, that pure salty sea breeze air, amazing food and great company. What else one can ask for? 'Once in a while' experiences like these make life worth living and it gives me joy reading about people having them.

[robimahanta]

Originally Posted by rhsakarp

Have a question, how sensitive is the car to fuel quality en-route ? Do you fill up only from specific brands and outlets ?

Thanks. I use regular petrol almost always. XP95 once a while if available. Also I don’t have any preference for brand or outlet. Just that I try to fill in a bunk which seems busy. With BS6 throughout India, most of the fuel is pretty decent anyways.