Team-Bhp Monsoon Meet 2.0 - Thirthahalli

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.

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Team-Bhp Monsoon Meet 2.0 - Thirthahall

It’s the month of July, and it's time for our annual monsoon meeting. 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 I 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, a 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.

Video

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 that stuck with me at the last moment just before I was leaving Mangalore for the meet.

Badge of Honour

I 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 our 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 for 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!

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