Ride of many firsts

Life at 115 kmph is fast, freak and bloody awesome if done responsibly. That’s one of the firsts here , riding at that speed , another was Pulsar AS 200 and another was wifey joining me on her first overnight ride.

The ride started with many doubts, how will the bike perform? is it comfortable for the pillion? Can it take the cramster saddle bag? and many , all were pity well answered , the bike performed beautifully , the new age engines are so refined and coming from the stable of royal Enfield smooth engines are something which I was not used to , the AS 200 as said earlier was a great highway performer , but does the AS200 does justice for its tag of a AS(Adventure Sport) , I beg to differ , handling of the bike in bad roads is difficult , with the seating position there is a huge pressure on the hands specially on the palms when doing downhill , but the positive to are the great MRF tyres it comes with and also a very effective disk brakes.

We started our ride on the Independence day , living up to the tradition am following from 2009 and am glad it all started with my 2009 ride to Chikmagaloor , when I look back I feel extremely happy that what in 2009 started as a one of jolly bike ride has grown into a deep routed passion , 2009 independence day ride was followed by 2010 Kudremukh , 2011 Danushkodi , 2012 NH17 , 2013 LEH , 2014 Vagamon and 2015 Chikmagaloor again. The only change was from Std 350 to AS 200.


The ride started early at sharp 6 , the cramster saddle bag fitted perfectly and off we went. We fuelled up at the shell near Jalahalli and took the Nelmangala-Hassan-Belur-Chikmagaloor route to reach Chikmagaloor. The beautifully laid out Bangalore - Hassan NH is a pleasure to ride , I kept a good pace and we were zooming past many cars effortlessly, we reached Chikmagaloor by 11.30am and did not stop at the town as we were expecting to stay at any one of the many homestays there , we inquired more than a couple of homestays on the way to Mullaynagiri but unfortunately all the homestays were prior booked and we were forced to come back and book a room in the town .

We booked a room in the town ,unsaddled had lunch and a little rest and headed to Mullayanagiri , there was a huge traffic congestion on the way up and the roads were patchy , here's where I felt a royal enfield would have done better , we reached the Mullayanagiri top and the excitement in aashu's face was something I cherish , what travelling specially biking does is something only to be experienced , we went to the small temple on the hill top , it rained for sometime when we were at the temple , we descended Mullayngiri and headed to the beautiful Hirekolale lake .

A small temple @ Seetalayyanagiri Top

View Of Hirekolale Lake from Mullayanagiri Top

View from Mullayanagiri

Just to find out that it’s near the same lake we had stayed on my first ride I did way back in 2009 with RTMC , the lake is in midst of lush green chain of hills we spent a good 3 hrs near the lake clicking a few pics and we headed back to our room , a quick dinner at 8pm and zzzzzz for the day.

Hirekolale Lake

We got up around 7am on Sunday , breakfast and headed back home , we started at 9am and 1.15 we were home. What a ride! Nextride on the 2nd 3rd and 4th of October , will be back with my blog. Be happy , god bless

ಗಂಡಿಕೋಟ ಭಾರತದ ಗ್ರಾಂಡ್ ಕ್ಯಾನ್ಯನ್

ಸ್ನೇಹಿತರೆ ಇಂದಿನ ನನ್ನ ಪ್ರವಾಸ ಕಥನ ನಾನು  ಇತ್ತೀಚಿಗೆ ಗಂಡಿಕೋಟ ಎಂಬ ಆಂದ್ರ ಪ್ರದೇಶದ ಹಳ್ಳಿ ಗೆ ಮಾಡಿದ ಬೈಕ್ ಸವಾರಿ . ಜನವರಿ ೨೪, ೨೫ ಹಾಗು ೨೬ ರಜಾ ದಿನಗಳಾಗಿದ್ದರಿಂದ ನಾನು ನನ್ನ ಮಡದಿ ಮೈಸೂರಿನ ಗೋಪಾಲ ಸ್ವಾಮಿ ಬೆಟ್ಟಕ್ಕೆ ಬೈಕ್  ರೈಡ್  ಹೋಗಣ ಎಂದು ವಿಚಾರಿಸಿದ್ದೆವು ಆದರೆ ಕಾರಣ ವಶಾತ್ ನನ್ನ ಮಡದಿಗೆ ಬರಲಾಗದ  ಕಾರಣ ಹಾಗು ನಾನು ಗೋಪಾಲಸ್ವಾಮಿ ಬೆಟ್ಟವನು ಹಲವಾರು ಬಾರಿ ನೋಡಿದ್ದರಿಂದ  ನಾನು ಆಂದ್ರ ಪ್ರದೇಶದ ಗಂಡಿಕೋಟ ಹಳ್ಳಿ ಗೆ ಹೋಗಲು ಮುಂದಾದೆ .

ರಮಣೀಯ ಗಂಡಿಕೋಟ 

ಬೆಂಗಳೂರಿಂದ ೨೭೦ ಕಿಲೋಮೀಟರು ದೂರದಲ್ಲಿ ಇರುವ ಈ ಒಂದು ಪುಟ್ಟ ಹಳ್ಳಿ ಒಂದು ಅದ್ಬುತವಾದ ಪ್ರಕೃತಿ ಬಂಡಾರವನ್ನೇ ಹೊಂದಿದೆ. ಪೆನ್ನಾರ್ ಎಂಬ ನದಿಯ ದಡದಲ್ಲಿ ಇರುವ ಈ ಹಳ್ಳಿ ಭಾರತದ ಗ್ರಾಂಡ್ ಕ್ಯಾನ್ಯನ್ ಎಂದು ಪ್ರಿಸಿದ್ದಿ . ಚಂಬಲ್ ಕಣಿವೆ ಯಂತೆ ಕೋಟ್ಯಂತರ ವರುಷಗಳಿಂದ ಬಂಡೆಯನ್ನು ನೀರು ಕೊರೆದು ಕಣಿವೆಯು ಸೃಷ್ಟಿ ಯಾದಂತಿದೆ.

ಬೆಳಿಗ್ಗೆ ೬. ೩೦ಕೆ ಹೊರಟು  ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು ಹೈದರಾಬಾದ್ ಹೆದ್ದಾರಿ NH ೭ ರಲ್ಲಿ ಬರುವ ಕಾಮತ ಅಲ್ಲಿ ರುಚಿಯಾದ ತಿಂಡಿ ಮುಗಿಸಿ , ಲೇಪಾಕ್ಷಿಯನ್ನು ದಾಟಿ , ಪುಟ್ಟಪರ್ತಿ ಕಡೆ ಹೋಗುವ ದಾರಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಸಾಗಿ  ಮತ್ತೆ ಗೊರಂತ್ಲ ಎಂಬ ಹಳ್ಳಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಬಲಕ್ಕೆ ತಿರುಗಿ ಕದರಿ , ಮುದ್ದನೂರು ಮುಕಾಂತರ ಗಂಡಿಕೋಟಕ್ಕೆ ತಲುಪಿದೆ.

ಸೂರ್ಯಕಾಂತಿ 

ನನ್ನ ರಾಯಲ್ ಎನ್ಫ಼ಿಎಲ್ದ್

ಗಂಡಿಕೋಟವನ್ನು ಸುಮಾರು ೧೨. ೩೦ ಮದ್ಯಾನ ತಲುಪಿದೆ. ಆಂದ್ರ ಪ್ರದೇಶದ ಸರಕಾರ ನಡೆಸುವ ರೆಸಾರ್ಟ್ ನಲ್ಲಿ ಇರಲು ರೂಂ ಕೇಳಲು ಹೋದೆ , ಆದರೆ ಅಲ್ಲಿ ರೂಂ ಇರಲಿಲ್ಲ , ಬೈಕ್ ನಲ್ಲಿ ಒಬ್ಬಂಟಿಯಾಗಿ ಬಂದ ನನ್ನನು ನೋಡಿ ರೆಸಾರ್ಟ್ ಮ್ಯಾನೇಜರ್ ರಾತ್ರಿ ಮಲಗಲು ಜಾಗ ಕೊಡಲು ಒಪ್ಪಿದರು. ನಾನು ನನ್ನ ಜಾಕೆಟ್ , ಬ್ಯಾಗ್ ಎಲ್ಲವನ್ನು ರೆಸಾರ್ಟ್ ನಲ್ಲಿ ಬಿಟ್ಟು ಕ್ಯಾಮೆರಾ ವನ್ನು ಹೊತ್ತು ಊಟ ಮುಗಿಸಿ ಟ್ರೆಕಿಂಗ್ ಗೆ ಹೊರಟೆ .

ನಾನು ಗಂಡಿಕೋಟಕ್ಕೆ ಹೋಗುವ ಮುನ್ನ ಕೆಲವು ಛಾಯಾ ಚಿತ್ರ ಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಗಂಡಿಕೋಟವನ್ನು ನೋಡಿದ್ದೇ ,ಆದರೆ ಈ ಪ್ರಕೃತಿಯ ವಿಸ್ಮಯ ವನ್ನು ಕಣ್ಣಾರೆ ನೋಡುವುದೇ ಒಂದು ಆನಂದ . ನಾನು ಟ್ರೆಕಿಂಗ್ ಮಾಡಿ ಬಂಡೆಗಳ ಮೇಲೆ ಹತ್ತಿ ಒಂದು ಬಂಡೆಯಮೇಲೆ ಕುಳಿತು ವಿಶ್ರಮಿಸಿದೆ . ನೋಟ ವಿಹಂಗಮವಾಗಿತ್ತು ಗಾಳಿ ಮುಕಕ್ಕೆ ಬಡಿದು ಬೈಕ್ ಸವಾರಿಯ ಶ್ರಮವೆಲ್ಲ ದೂರವಯ್ತು 

ಬಂಡೆಯಮೇಲೆ ವಿಶ್ರಮಿಸಿದ ಸ್ಥಳ

ಮೂರು ಗಂಟೆಗಳ ಕಾಲ ಅಲ್ಲೇ ಕಾಲ ಕಳೆದು ನಂತರ ಅಲ್ಲೇ ಪಕ್ಕದಲ್ಲಿದ್ದ ಒಂದು ಪಾಳು  ಬಿದ್ದ ದೇಗುಲಕ್ಕೆ ಹೋಗಿ ಅಲ್ಲಿ ಕೆಲವು ಛಾಯಾಚಿತ್ರ ಗಳನ್ನು  ತೆಗೆದು ಅಲ್ಲಿಂದ ರೆಸಾರ್ಟ್ ಗೆ ತಲುಪಿದೆ , ಅಲ್ಲೇ ರಾತ್ರಿಯ ಊಟ ಮಾಡಿ ಮ್ಯಾನೇಜರ್ ಕೊಟ್ಟ ಕೊಣೆ ಯಲ್ಲಿ ನಿದ್ರಿಸಿದೆ 

ಪಾಳು ಬಿದ್ದಿರುವ ದೇಗುಲ 

ವಿಹಂಗಮ ಸೂರ್ಯಾಸ್ಥ

ಮುಂಜಾನೆ ೫ ಗಂಟೆಗೆ ಎದ್ದು ಮತ್ತೆ ಸೂರ್ಯೋದಯದ ಛಾಯಾಚಿತ್ರ ತೆಗೆಯಲು ೬ ಗಂಟೆ ಸುಮಾರಿಗೆ ಗಂಡಿಕೋಟಕ್ಕೆ ಹೊರಟೆ , ಮೈ ಜುಮ್ಮೆನಿಸುವ ಸೂರ್ಯೋದಯವನ್ನು ಕಂಡೆ , ಪ್ರಕೃತಿಯ ಸೊಬಗನ್ನು ವರ್ಣಿಸಲು ಪದಪುಂಜಗಳು ಸಾಲದು , ದಿನಪನ ಈ ಕರುಣೆಯನ್ನು ಪೋಗಳಲು ಒಂದು ಜನುಮ ಸಾಲದು. ಪುಳ ಕಿತ ಗೊಂಡ ನಾನು ಅಲ್ಲಿಂದ ಪಕ್ಕದಲ್ಲೇ ಇದ್ದ ಜುಮ್ಮಾ ಮಸೀದಿ ಗೆ ಹೊದೆ. 

ವಿಹಂಗಮ ಸೂರ್ಯೋದಯ 

ಜುಮ್ಮಾ ಮಸೀದಿ

ಸುಂದರವಾದ ಜುಮ್ಮಾ ಮಸೀದಿಯನ್ನು ಕಂಡು ಅಲ್ಲಿಂದ ಹಿಂದಿರುಗಿ ಸುಮಾರು ಸಂಜೆ ೩ ಗಂಟೆಗೆ ಬೆಂಗಳೂರಿನ ನನ್ನ ಮನೆಗೆ ಬಂದು ಸೆರಿದೆ. 

ಪ್ರಯಾಣದ ಒಟ್ಟು ವೆಚ್ಹ : ೧೫೦೦ ರೂ  . 
ರೆಸಾರ್ಟ್ ಗೆ ಮೊಬೈಲ್ ಸಂಖ್ಯೆ  : ೦-೭೩೮೨೨-೩೭೩೮೦
ಪ್ರಯಾಣದ ಒಟ್ಟು ಮೈಲಿ : ೬೦೦ ಕೆಎಂ 

ಶುಭವಾಗಲಿ, ಬಗವಂತ ನಿಮ್ಮೊಂದಿಗಿರಲಿ . 

ಇಂತಿ 
ನಿಮ್ಮ ಗೆಳೆಯ , ಸಂತೋಷ 

The Blue Beauty... Andamans

Hei folks , am back with my photo blog of my recent trip to the stunning Andaman's. In this blog I will try to take you through the 7 night 8 day trip to the Andaman , sharing with you a few photographs I clicked on my trip. So here we go , hope you are with me.

I and my wife decided to go to the Andaman's in the month of December and I planned my vacation a good 2 months before the actual journey. As I was travelling with my wife I decided to take a package trip and for this I approached Travel 4 seasons , my package included 2 days in Havelock, 1 day at the Neil island , 3 days in Port Blair including a day journey to Baratang Island. My travel date was  December 6th and I took the Air Asia flight from Bangalore to Chennai , Spice Jet from Chennai to Port Blair. I flew from Bangalore to Chennai on the 6th morning. Chennai to Port Blair is a 2 hour flight and we reached the Veer Savarkar International Airport at Port Blair at around 12pm.

View of one of the Islands of Andaman's from above

As I had booked a packaged tour a driver was waiting for us at the airport and he soon took us to our hotel located at the heart of Port Blair City . Hotel Aparupa was a decent hotel with basic amenities though I thought the space was little cramped, they made it up with their excellent service. We were told by our driver that he would come back to the hotel @ 4 PM to drive us to the nearest beach and the much anticipated light show at the Andaman Central Jail. We rested for a file after a good lunch and sharp @ 4 the car was ready to pick us up and he took us to the beautiful Corbyn's Cove Beach we spent a good 1 hour there at the beach clicking a few photographs.

Corbyn's Cove Beach , Port Blair

Evening View of the Corbyn's Cove Beach

Sharp at 5 we left to Cellular Jail for the Sound and Light show , frankly speaking the light show was disappointing , though it was heart wrenching to know the sacrifice our freedom fighters did and proud to be associated with such a proud history , the light show itself could have been better. After the light show we went back to our hotel and we were instructed to be ready by 8 AM the next day , we were off to the stunning Havelock which is a 2 hour cruise from Portblair , we took the Mak cruise which was scheduled at 9AM in the morning , it was a pity interesting ride but as per the rules we were not allowed to venture into the dock area which would have made the ride more beautiful. 

We reached Havelock by around 11.30AM and checked into our beach resort The Holiday Inn on the Vijaynagar Beach by around 12PM. Its a decent resort with good clean rooms and luckily by room was just 50mts walk from the stunning Vijayanagar beach .

Vijaynagar Beach

A Cloudy Evening at Vijaynagar Beach

Food was decent and staff were very helpful. After a good lunch we left to the much talked Radhanagar Beach , it rained that day and the conditions were overcast that meant we may miss the gorgeous sunset on the beach , as expected the long beach was a stunner , the first thing which came to mind when i saw the beach was "oh i missed the sunset" but me and my wife who also loves photography did a lot of experiments with light and it was fun.The blue hour had set in and everything around looked beautiful.

A Fossil remain in Radhanagar Beach

Radhanagar Beach

The next day we left to the elephant beach, elephant beach is another island in the Havelock and its a 20min boat ride from Havelock , elephant beach was just beautiful , I and my wife did snorkeling there at the beach and also played few water games , we get to spend a maximum of 3 hours on the elephant beach and with fossils of loads of fallen trees and crystal clear beach its a beautiful place to visit.

The Stunning Elephant Beach

From the elephant beach we came back to our room in Havelock and as we were taking rest something stuck my mind , the weather was beautiful that day and clouds were clear and that meant possibility of photographing the sunset , I quickly booked a two wheeler on rent ( just like Goa we get two wheeler mainly activa for rent on daily basis for 300INR)  and we went to Radhanagar beach again , and the beautiful sunset just made our day , we could feel the blessing of nature in that beach that day. We came back happy from the beach and the next day we were to leave to the Neil Island.

Sunset @ the Radhanagar Beach

The Leap

The next day i got up early at 4AM4to photograph the sunrise , the shallow shores of Vijayanagar beach I had heard is a great place to see sunrise , but how great?! can only be experienced , can I say breathtaking or magical , sometimes words fail. You getup at 4 in the morning when everybody else is sleeping , get into the water , get dirty and when you get to see the sunrise which you can remember for life and get to photograph it is what make travelling a philosophical experience.

Sunrise Vijaynagar Beach

Sunrise Vijaynagar Beach

Our cruise to Neil island was at 11AM0, we again took the Mak cruise to Neil island and reached the shores of Neil around 12PM. Neil Island is a very chilled out place , it has three beaches Bharathpur , Seetapur and Lakshmanpur beach , Bharathpur beach has loads of water bound activities and have heard that its one of the favorite destination for divers with loads of live corals in the beach , Seetapur beach is famous for is
sunrise and Lakshmanpur beach for its sunset. Personally I did'n like this place as much as I liked the Havelock , the beaches were not as clean as it was at the Havelock or the elephant beach and it looked like any other beach of southindia. 

Shores of Seetapur Beach

Romantic Sunset at Lakshmanpur Beach

Mangrove Settling s at Bharathpur Beach

The next day we took the cruise from Neil Island back to Portblair and checked into hotel aparupa. Post lunch we went for a city tour in Port blair , we went to archaeological museum and again to cellular jail , to see the cell where Veer Savarkar was imprisoned for 10 years was a real humbling experience , and we came  back to our room all set for sea walk at the northbay island the next day.

The next day we took a cruise to the Ross island , Ross island was a British colony and we can see a few remains in that island , but Ross was one of the most affected island during the tsunami , and nothing much to say. After spending a good 2 hours at the Ross island we then went to the Northbay island , Northbay Island sports the famous lighthouse which can be seen in the 20rupee note and is a hub for water sport activity in Portblair , Northbay has live corals and also has abundance of aquatic life. We had option of doing seawalk or scuba at Northbay but considering scuba is available in Murudeshwar in Karnataka and in Goa we decided to go for seawalk , 

Seawalk as the name says is walking on the sea bed , you will be given a astronaut type of a helmet and will be guided to the seabed inside a marked boundary , it was very exiting as we witnessed amazing life inside the sea , its a whole new world inside the water , it has to experienced to understand.

The next was our trip to Baratang famous for its mangrove forest and limestone cave , its a 2 hour drive from portbliar via the Jarava Tribe area , inside the Jarava tribe area lone vehicles are not allowed , vehicles inside the area are allowed in a interval of 3 hours to 4 hours once and all the vehicles have to go as a convey. Once we reach the Baratang island we have to take a 20 min speed boat to and trek for 1.5kms to reach the limestone cave , I felt more than the cave the journey was interesting , 

After Baratang we reached our hotel and got ready for our flight for the next day. We took the spice jet from Port blair to Chennei and the Air Asia from Chennai to Bangalore and reached home by 8PM.

So here ends a exiting journey to andaman, long overdue but finally done. Havelock was the best and I felt there was lot more to explore in Baratang and a day spent in Neil could have been used there , nevertheless a journey worth remembering. Hope you liked it. Photos were taken by me using a CANON 600D and I use a CANON 18-135 mm, CANON 10-18 mm ,CANON 50 mm and SIGMA 70-300 mm for my photography.

Until next time , be well and God bless. 

Info:
Bangalore to Chennai and Chennai to Bangalore- Air Asia  - 3300 INR/Person
Chennai to Port Blair and Port Blair to Chennai - Spice Jet - 15050 INR/Person
Stay and Travel Charges @ Andaman for 7days and 8 Nights - 3500 INR /Person/Day

Contacts :
Travel 4 Seasons : 0-7022028511

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.