Hola folks
Am back after a wonderful trip to coastal Karnataka. The whole trip was a mixed bag of events which never deterred us from promising to go back to
Coastal Karnataka for the unadulterated experience (minus the bad roads).
My banter
Day 1 : Friday the 22nd of August
Wake up by 4am and as decided the previous night after multiple calls with my friend Mallik we decide to leave Bangalore by 5 am. Apparently this never happens and we leave only by about 5:30am.
Hit NH-4 only to find its traffic clogged towards Bangalore and some of the revered drivers as usual end up using the wrong side of the road to beat the traffic.
We continue our drive cruising and cursing these imbeciles for their sheer ignorance towards traffic etiquette's.1st stop is for breakfast at
Kyatasandra for the
thatte idlis. Savor on the thatte idilis and we are off cruising on NH4 again.
With our bellies full we are enjoying the pleasure of the good roads with the breeze in our hair from Tumkur and beyond. Somewhere between Tumkur and Gubbi we hit the 1st obstacle in our journey.
The car hits a boulder which was left back by some moron whose vehicle had broken down. The stone was pretty well camouflaged with leaves strewn around. I hardly had time to react and avoid the boulder since a NHC had just cut across my path in an attempt to overtake me, he swerved to the right and managed to avoid the boulder.
We were at the receiving end and hit the stone real hard.(Please note I wasn’t tailing him).
Was left with a busted rim(rear left) and a bruised ego.Mallik and I walked back and cleared the boulder off the road, searched for the alloy lip and no luck. Got the spare tyre on and decided to continue with our journey. Deep down inside of me I was cursing the dude whoever left the boulder on the road.
Realized it was time let go off this mishap and continue our drive since our families were with us. Cut down on my speed and was hovering around 90-100kmph.
Further on in the journey we hit a bad a patch of road between Kadur and Tarikere.Its just a few kms and is manageable. Take it easy and you should be thru with the bad stretch without much problems.
Time for a few pictures
Yes we had good roads too.
Attachment 43526
During the drive called up
Ravi (ravibhat) asking for a shop where I could get a tube installed in the battered alloy. Ravi thanks much for your help buddy. I found a shop at
Shimoga called
MRT tyres and got the tube installed from there. Well our need for the hour was to find a well equipped shop that had the hydraulic machine to remove the tyre from the rim and install a tube.
(Dint wanna try any roadside shops since most of these chaps follow the crude method of separating the tire and alloy)
By 2pm our bellies were rumbling again and decided to have lunch at Ashoka in Shimoga town. Pretty good food and their restrooms were also pretty clean. Advisable to stop here if you are travelling this way.
Next stop was at the infamous
Talaguppa Railway Station before reaching jog.A few pictures from
Talaguppa Railway station and
Jog falls.
How I miss watching
Malgudi Days .Gave them a touch of Sepia to add that retro look.
After our stop at Jog we took the
Honnavar route to reach Murudeshwar. Landslides and fallen trees are in abundance on this route. So watch out and re-consider if you plan to night driving through this route.
Shot somewhere along the Honnavar -Murudeshwar stretch.
By about 6pm we are at
Murudeshwar and checked into
RNS Yatri Nivas, dinner was at Naveen Beach Resort. Hit the sack by about 11pm and call it a day since we planned to leave to Kundapur the next morning.
The car performed exceptionally without missing a single beat and yes occasionally we redlined her the moment we found a good patch. The sound of the free flow in the ghats when revved is to die for.
Route Taken : Bangalore-- Nelamangala--Tumkur--Gubbi--Tiptur--Arasikere--Kadur--Birur--Bhadravathi--Shimoga--Sagara--Jog--Honnavar--Murudeshwara.
Distance : 492kms.
to be continued …. My
Sojourn has only started
.