Gods Own Private Garden - VAGAMON

Hello there, as promised in my previous blog am back with my blog on my motorcycle ride to Vagamon during the Independence Day weekend.

4th straight year that am doing the longest ride of the year around August 15.Year 2011 rode to Rameshwaram/Danushkodi , 2012 did the NH 17 Goa-Ratnagiri,Last year was at Leh and this year it’s Vagamon. Though Leh holds a very special place in my heart for the sheer beauty the nature unfolds, Vagamon is no less, if Kerala is Gods Own Country then may be Vagamon is his personal garden. Such is the sheer beauty of this place. Over the next few paragraphs I will try to run through my itinerary and also share a few photographs of this amazing wonder of nature. Hope you are with me.

A five day ride was cut short by a day as I had some important assignments at office. I had never heard about Vagamon and my friend and riding partner Karthik gottu know about this via a post in Facebook by

the Mysore Bulls Motorcycle Club and after a few Google checks we decided to ride to Vagamon.Vagamon is in the state of Kerala in Idukki district started on the 15th of Aug at 4 in the morning and caught up with Kande around 4.45 am near the Devegowda Petrol Bunk and road towards the Hosur Road. The weather was good and we decided to take the longer route to Vagamon, the route we took was Bangalore-Hosur-Krishnagiri-Salem-Coimbatore-Thrissur-Chalakudy-Muvattupuzha-Vagamon.Our first stop was at 100kms from Bangalore at the Saravana Bhavan hotel 2kms before Krishnagiri. We had breakfast at Saravana Bhavana and out next chai stop was after 125kms at Salem. We had tea at Salem and targeted Coimbatore as our next stop 140kms from Salem. We stopped at Coimbatore for tea and snacks and time was 12 noon we had covered 380kms and almost half way to Vagamon. Once we crossed Vagamon the buttery smooth road till now gave way to bad pot hole filled dusty roads .The road from Coimbatore to Trissur via Palakkad is a pain in the a** with bad roads and also heavy truck traffic. Our speed got significantly cut due to this and we took around 150mins to do an 110kms odd stretch with 2 breaks until we stopped for our lunch at Trissur at 2.30. Post lunch we had another 130odd kms to cover and we road via the state highway and reached the deviation to Vagamon. But we had a great struggle to reach till there as we both don’t speak or understand Malayalam and people in that part of Kerala or may be the people I chose to ask the route knew only Malayalam. Finally around 430 pm, may be time the college got over I caught up with a  person who knew decent English , phew he told Vagamon was 18 kms from there and the elusive Vagamon was just a 45min ride away.

As we took the deviation towards Vagamon it looked as if we entered a new world. Everything under the sky looked green and beautiful. At one moment we saw lush greenery and the next moment everything was covered by thick fog. "Wow! Beautiful" that’s what we said. After taking a few photographs we reached the Vagamon town by around 5.30pm booked a home stay which was our home for the next day as well. 630kms of day 1 ride ended with dinner at a place which was not so great, and Vagamon being a small town cannot expect more.

Day 2 we decided to check out a few places around heavenly looking Vagamon. The first of which was just outside our room. The previous day when we boarded to our room in the homestay called the lake view Karthik remarked “bloody! It’s called the Lakeview there is no lake around" and actually we did not see anything beyond our homestay as it was covered with thick fog. But the next day morning when we got up we gottu know why it’s called the Lakeview. Our homestay gave a lovely view of a gorgeous lake overlooking the lush green mountains. 

We went there and took some nice photographs of the place and we went up to our owner to ask for places around Vagamon. He gave a detailed route map of the places of interest around and all these places were around the radius of 15odd kms. First we visited the Pine Forest. It’s a nice place for photography and also just to sit and relax. From there we visited the "Suicide Point ”, this place is possibly  the most beautiful place I have seen, the photos below does absolutely no justice to the beauty of this place. The lush green landscape was covered with thick fog in  matter of seconds and made us wonder "WOW" .

After spending a good half hour here taking a few pictures we went to Kabakad Falls , such a serene gorgeous waterfall. Though it does not have the beauty of the atirapally or the ferociousness of the Jog or the Hogenakkal, this waterfall was so beautiful and the ride to the falls was also good with steep incline and in midst of lush green.

After the waterfall we decided to go to Vagamon Tunnel , and the much awaited rain was here , it poured and we waited for it to stop but it vein , it was around 2.30pm then and we were hungry , so we decided to skip the tunnel and headed to town to have our lunch. One thinks of improvement which needs to be done in is that there is no decent hotel in Vagamon and all the hotels serve Beef. Beef is a taboo among many Indians and I believe there is  need to set up a decent Veg serving hotel at this place.  I being a traveler am used to such places and I had curd rice and Karthik had his usual Kerala Parota .

After lunch we headed to our room and there was thick fog all around and it started pouring. No better invitation was for some sound sleep . Later in the evening we spent some time deciding about our ride plan for the next day and we decided to head straight  to Periyar Wildlife Reserve at Tekkedy . We skipped our dinner as we knew we would not get anything other than parota and had some fruits before sleep and zzzzzz.

Day 3 started early and we started at 6 in the morning. The ride from Vagamon to Kumily is breathtaking. The 54 km ride is an absolute bliss with stunning landscapes and lovely twisties. The roads were so good I didn’t even stop to take a photograph. Just was cruising through the twisties and I especially love riding in the twisties it’s such an aderline rush. We reached the Periyar Lake which is inside the beautiful Periyar Wildlife Reserve which is abundant with its vegetation and animals . The cruise ride in the periyar lake is organized by the Kerala Forest Department is a must , but unfortunately we couldn’t go as all the seats were booked and we did not have enough time to wait for the next cruise(cruise timings are 8.30am , 11.30am,1.45pm,3.30pm) . After a good hour spent at the reserve we rode to our destination for the day Dinidgul which is around 135kms from Thekkady . The road from Thekkady to Dindigul via Theni is decent and we reached Dindihul by around 1.30pm and booked a room at a lodge near the Dindigul Bus stand and we badly wanted to have a good lunch as we were tired of the Kerala Parata , we went to a restaurant called Balaji Bhavan to eat some yummy Butter Roties , dal and Fried Rice and spent the rest of the day in dindigul watching avatar movie and basically discussing about my marriage preparations , upcoming rides etc etc…  

 Day 4 was our ride back to Bangalore from Dindigul which was 380 odd Kms , we stared at 6am in the morning and did good speeds , the road from Dindigul to Bangalore via Salem which is the AH43 is a masterpiece , the silky smooth highway makes you feel “One Way- Highway” slogan so true . We stopped at Namakkal which is 125kms from Dindigul  for breakfast  . After Namakkal we stopped at Krishnagiri which is 165kms from Namakkal for some tender Coconut and a much needed butt and back rest . From Krishnagiri me and Karthik rode together till the E-City flyover , Karthik who stays at Banashankari took the E-City Flyover and I bid adieu to him and rode further and took the Nice Road and reached home by 1.30pm . After A hot shower and some yummy homemade food I was on the bed  cherishing the fantastic 1250km Road Trip.

Thanks for your time for reading this , will be back with my travel/photo blogs soon, till then Be Well and God Bless.

Kabini - You Beauty!!

Another weekend , another destination and this time it was better. Kabini it was and the nature was at her full splendor following a great monsoon around the kabini river bed.

The hectic month end was over and my friends wanted to go on a trip from long, the last we went was during the last monsoon to Doodhsagar and just couldn't get another opportunity to go out with these guys, owing to the number of people and also their priorities . So me Sree and Midhun decided that we gonna go to Agumbe and enjoy the rain.As per the plan the tickets were booked using redbus to agumbe for  Friday night (Aug 1st)journey , and the first bad news struck on the Thursday night, my faience who had gone on a vacation to her hometown which is 15kms from Agumbe told me that due to heavy rains the roads are blocked and advised us not to come. The advice sounded a bit like an order and dare I take any chances;-). So the tickets were cancelled and the place was fixed as Kabini and we decided to drive out early Saturday morning the 2nd of August.

Selfieee :) Me Sree and Midhun

We were going to Kabini a part of the Rajiv Gandhi National Park also known as the Nagarahole Tiger Reserve and at 5.30am on Saturday an apt rigntone made me wake up, ringtone of chirping of birds. I caught up with Midhun near Ramurthynagar and picked Sree near Mahadevpura and we set for the drive after a quick chai break at our regular cheta shop near our office.

The weather was beautiful and we drove via silk board to reach Bommanahalli and took the nice road to reach the Mysore road. 2nd being a Saturday the traffic on the Mysore road was busy as expected but few boy talks and some Atif,Sonu and Rahat songs made the drive beautiful all along. We stopped for breakfast at the Kamath next to the Janapada loka a few kms before Kengal and had the customary moode idli(the idli barter is wrapped in a leaf and baked and will be in the shape of a cone) vada and the yummy akki rotti one thing you should n miss when you at Kamath. After the breakfast we continued in the Mysore road till we reached the ring road junction which is 10kms from Srirangapattina, we took the ring road and followed the route which leads to H D Kote and reached H D Kote by around 12 in the afternoon. Kabini dam is 18kms from HD Kote and the Jungle Lodges is 33kms from there as we had not booked the Jungle Lodges we stayed at in a lodge called the Aranya International. We checked-in to the lodge and after lunch we drove to the Kabini Dam. With overcast sky in the background the dam looked stunning. We took a few photographs around the dam (Kapila Jalashaya or Kapila Dam) and wanted to do a safari so headed to forest office which is some 15 kms from the dam on the way to jungle lodges. We went to the forest office and were happy to see the the forest office vehicle standing and were exited about it, but when inquired about the safari we were told that the safari has been cancelled due to rain around the forest area. 

The Stunning Back Waters Of Kabini

Boat Resting on a Overcast Morning

The Stunning Back Waters Of Kabini

The Watchtower Overlooking the early morning clouds

We went to jungle lodges to try our luck which is around 18 kms from the forest office , on the way we saw the beauty of Kabini opening up, the spectacular backwater bordered by thickly vegetated forests and the gorgeous sky line made us look stunned. It looked it may rain at any moment and just as we thought that the clouds opened up the sun would peek in.

We reached the jungle lodges and we were told that the safari facility is available  for only the ones who stay at the lodges so we decided to park our car and went on a walk around the jungle lodges and for our surprise reached the backwater, god!! How beautiful it was we spent a good 45mins at the back water taking photographs and videos and came back to our lodge and had a good dinner watching the pro kabaddi matches and at 10pm we dozed of zzzzzz.

Relaxing at the Backwaters

Ideal Holiday

That's Green

Clouds..Waves..Grass..Holiday

Golden Hour and the Sun setting in

On the Sunday morning we started early at 6.15 am and after a lovely early morning tea again went to the dam.

We were on a holiday, but for some it was normal day at work

We were on a holiday, but for some it was normal day at work

We guys had sooper fun taking some nice photographs and shooting some fun videos and after spending some 45 mins we headed back. 

Ready For Some Action

Hero Is Born :-)

Had our breakfast at a hotel near Mysore and again stopped by the Kamath on the way to have some yummy halva and reached home by 1pm.

KABINI  a must visit during the monsoons. Hope you liked the photographs and had

good time reading. Until next time till I come back with ride photographs of my bike trip to Vagamon which I did from 15th-18th Aug, be safe , keep clicking and travelling. God Bless☺

PS:If you liked my photographs or have any suggestions to give please leave a comment.

A Lovely Day Ride

Its been 8 years now that I have moved into MS Palya and seldom I knew that my neighborhood was so beautiful. I had heard a lot about the cycling expedition to Hesarghatta Lake and the nearby GrassLand and also to the Nruthyagrama but never been able to do one, 29th being an holiday on occasion of EID I decided to have a saddle burn.

Its been a perfect EID to me , an early morning Cycle ride , fantastic weather , great music playing on my phone and my standby mobile camera acting as my primary lens helping me take some nice shots.My earlier plan was to leave at 7am in the morning but the lazy bum couldn wake-up and I started the ride as late as 8.30 in the morning , its an 18 odd km ride from my place and the roads are in perfect condition for a cycle ride.

Ride Through The Horticultural lands

After peddling for about 14kms I reached the Hesarghatta Lake , the wast lake was a reservoir built across the Arkavathy River , now its a dry lake and reportedly it was last found full way back in 1994 . More about the lake in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesaraghatta_Lake

Dry Hesarghatta lake

After visiting the lake , I headed towards the grasslands , from the lake its a 5km ride to the grasslands with no signboards , its better to esquire the locals the way to Nruthyagrama and the Hesarghatta Grassland is just 200mts before the nruthyagrama.

In reached the grassland , rested for a while , took a few photographs and also met a few students who had come there to shoot a film.

The Hesarghatta Grassland is a 300acre stretch and is the last left grassland in Bangalore.There were a few proposals from the government to convert this grassland into a state of the art film studio and a Golf Course , but the High Court of Karnataka has halted the construction plans. And its the need of the hour to save this wast grassland.

More Information on this :http://www.sanctuaryasia.com/campaigns/9182-keep-off-the-hesaraghatta-grassland.html

A Small Off Road trial before the grasslands

My Ride Resting @ the grassland

My Ride Resting @ the grassland

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After spending sometime at the Grassland I rode further to Nruthyagrama , though I did not enter the place but found it quite interesting and would for visit the place soon. From Nruthyagrama I headed straight to my home and gave my ass and back a much needed rest.

So with Cycling , photographing , editing , catching up with friends and blogging this was a EID holiday well.
spent , shall be back with more photographs and writing till then be well and god bless.

PS: All photos are taken from Galaxy Note 2

A Monsoon Ride To Lepakshi

52 days , a long time without a ride considering the last time I rode was a short ride , not that the ride I did this time was longer or i had been to a place which i never visited , but still this ride was different majorly because as the name suggests it was a monsoon ride we started at 7 in the morning and point being esteem mall. As always Kande (Karthik) was on time and we left sharp at 7. Did i mention that it was an unplanned ride,oh yes it was , we decided that we shall meet near esteem mall at 7 and we shall ride on. Firstly when we met we thought we shall ride to penkonda fort and by breakfast which we had at Kamath on the NH7 it was decided we gonna ride to Lepakshi.

Entrance Of the Veerabhadra Temple

The weather was at its best, drizzle and breeze , what a fine combination for an ideal ride. As we rode along the NH7 and passed the Nandi hills bypass the hillocks along the NH7 were just breathtaking , the fog filled hills made me to stop by and take a few photographs. 

A Misty Morning

Few kms from there was our breakfast point and we had a quick idli vada and lime tea. Kamath Yatrinivas along the NH7 is a recommended place for breakfast , the food is tasty and the service is quick. As mentioned earlier it was here we decided the destination as Lepakshi as against our initial plan of Penukonda fort.

50kms we rode along beautifully laid NH7 we reached the junction were we have to take left towards lepakshi , there is a AP tourism building there and also a signboard and an arch indicating the route towards Lepakshi. From this point Lepakshi is 16 kms ride with well laid down but narrow roads. We reached Lepakshi around 10.30 am , stopped for a few minutes near the nandi which happens to be the biggest monolithic nandi sclpture in India and reached the main temple which is a 200 mts from there.The Nandi has been positioned such that it faces the shivalinga shielded by a huge serpent inside the temple.

Shivalinga Shielded by serpant

Shivalinga Shielded by serpant

Lepakshi is a small village located in the Anantapur District, in Andhra Pradesh .Lepakshi is historically and archaeologically significant with three shrines dedicated to Shiva, Vishnu and Virabhadra  built by a ministers of Vijayanagara Empire called Veeranna and Viroopanna , the residing deity of the temple is Veerabhadra Swamy an associate of Lord Shiva according to hindu mythology who happens to be the family deity of Veeranna . the temple complex along with 3 lingas , Lord Vishnu also has Lord Ganesha , Godess Kali and Goddess Durga , the huge complex around the temple has beautiful carvings in according to the vijayanagara style.

Half Completed Mantap

Half Completed Mantap

Half Completed Mantap

Vijayanagar Style Architecture

Vijayanagar Style Architecture

Wide Angle of the beautiful incomplete mantap

We spent a good 2hrs at the temple clicking photographs , the ride back was beautiful with a lite drizzle all the way till home . A Sunday well spent . That’s it with this blog , hope u like the photographs , until next time when I ride to Hogenakkal falls , be well.