[masterChief007]

Prologue:


December end was fast approaching and I had sanctioned leaves at the end of December. Tried various places for accommodations but
none of them materialized. I definitely knew I won't be cancelling my leaves anyways so started planning for some road trips, with main focus on the road part. One plan that came up to my mind was BLR-HYD biriyani run. But realized that it will be way too trivial for 2 days of leave + weekend.

So discussed various plans with my uncle who stays in HYD, and after I gave multiple options which included regular touristy/historic places plans and a western ghat drive, the ghat trip got finalized. This trip was in line with a thread BHPian pramod listing all the ghats in Karnataka, which is a very good and extensive list. The link as below:
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/stree...karnataka.html (Full list of all Ghats of Karnataka!)

I picked up a few ghats, which I have never driven on, during my goa/mangalore/chikkamagaluru trips and mapped them on the google.
Following were the ghats that I shortlisted for this drive:
1. Dandeli -> Joida -> (Anshi Wildlife Sanctuary) -> Karwar
2. Mirjan -> Yana -> Sirsi
3. Jog-falls -> Kargal -> Nagavalli -> Bhatkal
4. Baindur -> Kollur -> Nittur -> Nagara -> Tirthalli
5. Tirthalli -> Agumbe -> Hebri
6. Karkala -> Kudremukha Township (KIOCL) -> Kalasa -> Banakal

With the detailed plans and bookings in whatever places I could lay my hands on I finalized the trip and asked my uncle to join on 28th
so that we will start the trip on 29th and finish on 1st tentatively from BLR. I booked a dorm in dandeli JLR (Kali adventure camp) for 29th and another stay in Baindur for 30th night. The third day I didn't book anything as the plan was not concrete for the third day as we could either return back to Bangalore beating the holiday traffic or take one more day to explore Mangalore (Machali's and PABBA's ) and be back.

On 29th Plan was straight forward, to reach Dandeli before the JLR starts their safari.


On 30th there was no rush for anything, plan was to visit goa if we were feeling too adventurous (which we decided against as we will not be spending much time in goa and won't be able to have a goan meal anyways due to our early morning start). The map below is not at Baindur though (as I was not sure where the stop will be when I created this map)


For 31st I wanted to visit and see the Malgudi Days home (in agumbe), as Malgudi days is a series which reminds me of the simpler childhood days and I still watch it from time to time.


29th Dec (BLR-Dandeli) - 492kms [6:00am - 3:15 pm]
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My uncle arrived on 28th early morning from HYD, so went to pick him up and then headed for some trip groceries of the usual chips, soda, sweets, chocolates etc etc. Got the car filled with diesel and checked the tyres and engine oil and prepared my luggage. On 29th Morning, I woke up at 5 am and made coffee and were in our car by 6 am. The drive started off without any music this time around as we were catching up on various things and conversations were enough to start the drive.

The usual restlessness prevailed till we crossed BLR city limits and then we faced dense fog in the early morning. I always keep my headlights on
in the highways for visibility, so I didn't make any other adjustments apart from following any car that is having a tail light. Here I saw many
people catching the Hazard Light Virus (HLV). Many of the drivers started with their hazard light and seeing one another the HLV started spreading fast,
and soon 60-70% cars had their blinkers on. Combined with crazy trucks with no rear lights, and possibility of humans/animals jumping on the road from medians I had to be more careful.

Foggy Start:


I have always had the view that the Hazard lights are for emergency/parking besides the road and not for fog visibility. As it snatches away the
capability of informing vehicles of your intended lane changes. Seeing the HLV side effects I started questioning my approach, so much so that I
asked my uncle to check in google on whether it is recommended to use Hazard Lights in fog. The answer was no, and that gave me great relief that
I was right.

At around 140 km mark, I stopped at Gurjent Punjabi Dhaba for Paneer paratha, Gobi Paratha, Curd and Tea. The food was good, but the restroom could be a bit better. For guys its absolutely fine and no complains, but for ladies it could have been better. The sun was bright and it indicated that the trip was really on.
Gurjent Punjabi Dhaba:


After the breakfast, we started again till our next tea break at odo: 355 kms for some nice tea (around 11:40 am). By now the rock music was doing it's duty dilligently and keeping all signs of sleep away. The drive till Hubbali was wonderful with good roads.

On way to Davanagere:


After that the google genius started to have some fun with us by suggesting we go and take a left on a mud road, or drive down a biking path etc etc. Being a veteran of google's pranks I stuck to what I call "yellow roads", i.e; the google map roads marked yellow, till I found a decent exit marking Belgavi (NH-48). This was a 2 lane road with truck traffic and all sorts of slow moving vehicles. Driving carefully, crossed this stretch and entered into the Dharwad-Ganeshgudi/Ramnagar road.

Towards Dandeli:


Passed through many villages with sedate driving till I think it was Haliyal.
Where one side of the road within the town was lined with sugarcane loaded tractors causing congestion. Negotiating this town we entered into the Dandeli area.

We checked into our dorms by 3.15 pm and quickly changed and got ready thinking that we can catch the Safari, but alas the safari was full for the day. They gave us the option to do a coracle ride (uncle didn't want to and I find it not exciting anymore), or to do the safari next morning (which we declined as we had to start the drive early next day).

So we spent some time exploring the camp then freshened up and then I went in for a quick 1 hour nap from 4-5pm. After waking up evening tea with some chicken BBQ was served and we had a cat pestering us with meows till the chicken BBQ plate was not in my hands anymore. Least bothered with Chilli Bhajjis which were now left in my plate, the cat started pestering other guests.

In the evening time we strolled around the campus and had a great buffet dinner at the JLR and retired early as we planned to start the day by 5 am.

30th Dec (Dandeli-Karwar-Yana--Jog Falls-Baindur) - 393 kms [5:30 am - 7 pm]
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So finally our road trip's main objective to drive the ghats was to start from today.
The day's agenda was to cover the following:
1. Dandeli -> Joida -> (Anshi Wildlife Sanctuary) -> Karwar
2. Mirjan -> Yana -> Sirsi
3. Jog-falls -> Kargal -> Nagavalli -> Bhatkal

Dandeli -> Joida -> (Anshi Wildlife Sanctuary) -> Karwar:

Day started at 4:30 am with the consumption of besan laddoo (my childhood favorite) and a glass of water, navigating the dorm room in darkness lest other tourists get disturbed. After packing our stuff and checkout done the car keys were turned at around 5.15 am, the dawn hadn't broken yet so it was dark outside. In the pitch dark forest the Aspire's headlights lit up the cat eye reflectors on the road, apart from lighting up a fox eye too !!

Before dawn forest road:


It was a suspenseful drive till the dawn broke, had many discussions on ghosts and what not, rolling down the car's window added that early morning chill that makes any ghost story more goosebumpy

The ghat roads were quite decent and enjoyed driving the road as the golden globe raised its head. We made a few stops and overall the drive through this section of ghat was wonderful.

Scenic spot in ghats:





Getting down the ghats we reached Karwar INS Chapal meuseum at 8.15 am (odo:101 kms). Both the museum and food court closed, we took in the sights of the karwar beach and decided to stop for breakfast ahead. So made a pit stop for a cup of hot coffee, a glass off sugarcane and idli-vada at Kamat upachar and also filled up the tanks 9.20 am (odo:133 kms).

Karwar Beach:


Breakfast at Kamat after Karwar:



Mirjan -> Yana -> Sirsi
Drive from Karwar to Mirjan is on wonderful roads though with a few diversions and cows on median hellbent on their usual suicidal stroll (reminds me of the cow dodging in odisha during my kolkata drive).
After Mirjan we need to take a diversion to reach Yana and this Mirjan -> Sirsi road is broken tarmac with many potholes. Though it is still decent till the Yana diversion but between the Yana diversion to Sirsi it needs a careful drive through these pothole ridden roads.

Mirjan-Sirsi Road:


The road to Yana is lined with trees and the lights and shades make the scenery even more pretty. The road is narrow and will be the bane for us during our return traffic.

Towards Yana Hills:



We reached the Yana parking at 11.15 am (odo:185 km). Parked the car and started the long uphill walk to the Yana hills. It is sure a beautiful sight to behold but it is not too easy for aged people and persons with knee/leg issues. Though my uncle is 60 yrs he managed it quite well and without getting tired. Just hope my bones too last that long After we reached the main site we saw people walking even higher, so with FOMO riding on my neck, I followed them and found out that the next "site" was the north side parking !!

Yana Hill:


I quickly came down and informed my uncle to get back, and we started our return trip to the parking. At the entrance we had kokum juice which was quite refreshing after sweating it out during the
hike. Reached the car and changed the soaking wet clothes to find 3 buses blocking our return path, and the drivers absconding. Then started the ordeal of waiting for the buses drivers to come and make way for the
vehicles to exit. These drivers stupidly parked their buses in the middle of the road leaving not an inch of space for vehicles to return.

Wasting close to 30-40 mins there finally the buses moved and then we started our drive towards sirsi.

Sirsi-Jog-falls -> Kargal -> Nagavalli -> Bhatkal

Post the ordeal with the Yana parking, I was extremely happy to drive the broken roads to Sirsi, after which the road conditions improved a lot, we drove straight to the Jog falls, and reached the
Jog falls site at 4 pm. After taking a few quick snaps and enjoying the view we drove through the wonderful ghat road from Jog falls to Bhatkal via Kargal and Nagavalli. The corners were fast and roads
were wonderful.

Sirsi To Jog-falls:








From Bhatkal to Baindur it was a regular highway drive and reached the hotel at around 7 pm and crashed after a meal of fish currry, rice, tandoori chicken and thumsup. Sleep was peaceful and again we were to
start the day early. Finally we decided that we will push for Bangalore the next day and will also visit the Mookambika temple in Kollur.




31st Dec (Baindur-Mookambika-Tirthalli-Agumbe-Hebri-Karkala-KIOCL-Banakal-BLR) - 551 kms [5:40 am - 9 pm]
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For 31st we planned to return to BLR, as visiting Mengaluru for the Fish Meals and Ice Cream would have meant that we need to reach to BLR on 1st, which would require my uncle to ride the bus again to HYD same day, so to avoid back to back travel on the same day we planned this.

Todays ghat roads were to be:
1. Baindur -> Kollur -> Nittur -> Nagara -> Tirthalli
2. Tirthalli -> Agumbe -> Hebri
3. Karkala -> Kudremukha Township (KIOCL) -> Kalasa -> Banakal

Baindur -> Kollur -> Nittur -> Nagara -> Tirthalli:
So we started early morning when everything was dark and windshield fogged up. This was needed as the plan was to visit the Mookambika Temple and as usual any temple visit means rush. So we started at 5:40 am towards Kollur. I parked the Aspire at the Mookambika parking and removed my shoes and socks in the car itself and walked to the temple where there was a long queue, we being naive thought we can manage this and stood in the queue, around 20 mins later when we were spewed out the other end where we observed there was another huge snaking queue to visit the goddess inner sanctum.
Kollur to Teerthalli:


Watching this second queue we chickened out and headed straight to the prasadam counter, and promptly bought 2 packets of the same. I am a laddoo fan be it boondi or besan or gond I can have them all day After collecting the prasadam we went out and had a nice breakfast of idli vada at the numerous eateries outside. Topped it off with a nice coffee and headed to the car where I gobbled up a laddu too.

Turned the key and with probably with the goddesses blessing I had a bright smile on my face as I was going to visit the Malgudi Days home today, growing up in 80s and 90s that used to be one of the most memorable TV shows and I was an avid watcher of the series. I watch it from time to time even now. So it was nothing sort of fan moment for me. So we started the drive towards Teerthalli.

Tirthalli -> Agumbe -> Hebri:
Now being too much excited I let my guard down and let google drag me to one of it's "shortcuts" a.k.a a white road (which is non-yellow), Thus breaking my rule of the yellow roads. This road looked like some private road and it meandered through some quaint areas and so narrow that a U turn at that place would need something sort or J-turn or handbrake turn, it gave me the memories of following a "school-road" tagged road in Munnar. Which was of similar nature and it was just keeping on going narrower and narrower. In munnar I had made a U turn but here I just rode my luck ahead.

Finally saw a yellow road in my google maps and I found relief, then started on the awesome road to agumbe. For drivers I would suggest to mark teerthalli as intermediate stop, otherwise google will try to optimize and push you through these weird short cuts. We reached agumbe and parked in front of the Malgudi days home (aka Doddamane, I suppose thats what it is called). Clicked a few snaps, had coconut water and tea and then headed on our way to Hebri.
Malgudi Days Home:


At the sunset point after agumbe saw cops making quick bucks from tourists by asking them to park illegally and then asking for 10-20 bucks when they were driving off.

Agumbe Sunset point:



After agumbe we reached Hebri and from there took the SH1 to Karkala, this road is void of much traffic and is fun to drive.

SH1 Hebri-Karkala:



We finally reached the checkpost for entering the kudremukh area, where you have to collect a slip for showing at the exit check post. They allot a time period within which you need to cross the exit post. We collected the slip and moved on to the KIOCL area passing through the beautiful valley. This place is close to my heart as I have done numerous treks here and have too many fond memories. Tarmac is broken with potholes within the 2 checkposts, but the views overcompensate this minor irritant.

Kudremukh reserve forest:


Karkala -> Kudremukha Township (KIOCL) -> Kalasa -> Banakal:
We finally reached the exit post just 15 mins before we had the alloted time. From this point onwards roads are beautiful with scenic vistas. We tried our hands to try to listen to the K-band BTS which is too much popular with youngsters, but 10 mins of their songs made our ears hurt, and started Backstreet Boys which was the boy band when we were in college. My uncle agreed that Backstreet Boys was much better than BTS. I felt that I was sort of being like "In my time <music/people/food/etc etc> used to be much better, and todays <variable> is so tasteless !!", and had an epiphany when we used to hear such stuff from our elders when growing up. We started discussing about Bruce Springsteen and Neil <something>. Both of which I have to hear more of, and made a point to download them for my next drive.

To flush out BTS from the system I started Godsmack and pressed the accelerator a bit more till we reached Fresh Bean cafe and ordered "coffee, tea & lemon soda" all at once, from my last trip I think the waiter had realized there are people like me so this time they didn't ask me twice. Next time I may add in milk shake too to my order, who knows
So had my sandwich and fries and started the drive back to BLR.

This was a non-stop drive and since I avoid night driving, I had to be more careful as the darkness grew. When the Nelamangala toll came I was in all practicality was in BLR. So drove back home at 9 pm and ordered pizza for the night.

This concluded the 1245 KM ghat roads trip ushering in the new year. Just to welcome in the new year in style, I clocked a 15km run which eventually was my PB in the next morning (1st Jan). So with a PB run and wonderful ghat drive I had a great new year celebration !!

[Sheel]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[ajaycv2k]

Is half a day enough time to spend in Kudremukha?

[masterChief007]

Originally Posted by ajaycv2k

Is half a day enough time to spend in Kudremukha?

I would say yes and no, if only purpose is to visit the abandoned town and couple of waterfalls yes. But if you want to really explore you need to do a trek to any of the multitude of peaks during the monsoon season or post monsoon when it is green. For a trek assume 10-12 hrs time if you do the kudremukha peak.