The morning of June 09th, found me riding alongside Screech heading fast for Maddur. Due to some personal glitches, I was running a little late and we reached University gate on Mysore a bit late and the group had started towards our first pit stop which was to be at The Coffee Day before Maddur. I filled up gas at University Gate and saw Omi followed by Nikki going past. I was riding a little slow and Screech came up and asked me to speed up. I got out of my reverie and my post sleep mode, and throttled up. In a little while we reached Café Coffee Day and we spotted the group having breakfast at Indradhanush Restaurant and joined them.
After the usual idly/vada, kesaribath and coffee routine, we headed out towards Maddur and the deviation to Malavalli, we reached Maddur and turned left towards Baba’s Farm in Borapura which we did in FSR #4. On the way to Borapura, the Machismo fluttered and completely died on me, man I thought “phinish”, that’s it. Mats pulled up behind me and I discovered that the Spark Plug connector had come out and was hanging. Whew, that was a huge relief, I connected it back on and started the bike and was soon thumping merrily along. The roads on this stretch were not so great, we reached Malavalli and passed this dusty town. The roads were getting better and we were heading towards Kollegal, we passed the turn-off to Shimsha and headed straight on. We saw a small dam on the left and a little ahead we saw the gang had pulled up and we stopped there.
The place was lovely with shady trees, the river flowing into the dam in a huge curve and a small shop which was not open. We decided to wait for Indi “Flintstone“ Reddy at this place, we called Indi up and he said that he was en route and would join us in about an hours time. We chilled out at this lovely place, it was great on the riverbank I could hundreds of fish in the shallows and some pretty big whoppers too. It was a peaceful time and we were soon sitting around swapping stories and jokes.
It was 2 hours and Flinty had still not arrived and we called him and he said that he was in Maddur and would reach in another half hour. It was really hot and there was a unanimous descision to go & get some “chilled ones”, Omi knew a place called Sunita Bar, a kilometer and a half away over the bridge. Omi and Screech valiantly volunteered to go, and pretty soon they were back and we were quaffing down some much needed ale.
As we finished Flinty landed up and after much cursing, we started out. Flinty hadn’t had as much as a drop of ale as we had finished everything by the time he arrived so the first stop was Sunita Bar where all the bikes pulled up and Flinty had to buy us all a round of chilled ones for making us wait for so long. As we were ordering the beers we saw Santosh go on ahead without seeing us. We assumed that he would wait up near Kollegal when we didn’t show up, we started off promptly and came up to Kollegal Town.
From Kollegal we turned left and started belting on the road atop a Tank bund and missed the turn off to Odeyarapalya, Omi caught up with us and asked us to head back, he was the only one who knew the route, we turned back and headed back until we came upon a mud road with a sign proclaiming the turn-off to Gundal Jalashaya(Gundal Waterfall ) - 9 Kms. This was a mud road initially and it became a little better a few kms down, the other were lost to sight and pretty soon it was Mats, Aditya and me, the roads were not all the good but we could maintain a constant 60kmph in some stretches, the scenery was lovely with fields on both sides and hills flanking us on both sides on the horizon. We kept checking with by-passers and locals all along the way that this was the route to Odeyarapalya, we finally came upon the others who were waiting for us, near the turn off to Dhongdengling, we decided to go into the settlement and then onto Wild Valley. Omi had to meet Bryan, a relative of Omi’s who works in the SBM in the settlement. The settlement was lovely with gompas all over the place and one with a Huge Prayer Bell which looked awesome. The whole area was surrounded by lush green hills which we were later told were deciduous forests with some peaks having lush green clearings.
The roads in the settlement were undergoing a makeover, so we had to travel on some pretty rough patches, so after we met Bryan, we headed into Odeyarapalya to pick up much needed “munitions/supplies” for the night. So after stocking up with “supplies” we headed towards the Karnataka Forest Check post which we passed and then we hit a small hill/ghat section. The weather all this time had become colder, the sky was filled with gray rain laden clouds and we could see rain falling in the distance and we were riding towards it. On the hill the roads were lovely with a lot of twisties and we were gaining altitude, not by any great height, but the twisties were really nice, I did all I could from going “WHEEEEE!!!!” and then we passed a small section that connected to the adjoining hill and again the twisties, wow this was a Double Whammy, it was nice but pretty soon we had crossed the border into Tamil Nadu and we were at the Germalam Village checkpost. We turned left here and headed to Wild Valley, it had started to drizzle and a few twisties later we came upon a sign saying Wild Valley Farm, and turned in the mud-road there and pretty soon we were parking in the thatched shelter which Santosh was sitting under when we arrived. We got introduced to our host, Mr.Daniel who owns and runs Wild Valley Farm who called us all for lunch as it was past 4:00 when we had arrived.
Santosh headed here straight when he missed us at Kollegal, and had arrived an half an hour earlier and had finished with lunch. Whew, this was a nice ride, it was a tight fit in the shelter but at least all the bikes were out of the rain. We just chucked our bags in the tents and headed off for lunch as soon as we had demolished the last of the chilled ones.
Lunch was simple but awesome, rice, dal, rasam, curd and some Chicken Fry which was really nice, we tucked into lunch and headed back to the tents to generally relax.
I didn’t feel like sleeping, so Indi, Rajesh, Santosh and me decided to chill out in another Tiled Shelter, as it was still drizzling. Man the scenery was great, and the rain added another dimension, it looked ethereal. The greenery, the silence puntuated by sounds of the surrounding forest, sometimes accompanied by Flinty’s peacock mating calls, were all we could hear. After a while, Bryan joined us, riding up on his Suzuki Samurai, unofficially starting off the revels on his own ;-), to which the boys responded after a different fashion but nevertheless on the same plane.
Bryan kept us all entertained with stories about the forest and the hills surrounding the place, and the local Flora and Fauna and the surrounding places, like Bannari Temple about 40 Kms from here. It was pretty good, just lazing around and taking in the place. The guys started waking up one by one, and joining us in the Gol Ghar(as per JLR semantics J ) and we soon had a Full House. It was dark by now and we ordered for Chai and Bajjis, which were promptly demolished and it was past 8:00 and we decided to move the revels up another notch as the sun was long past the yardarm.
Well the booze was brought out and the party had started in earnest, nightfall had brought with it, billions of stars, and I’ve never seen a sky like this in the city, I was mesmerized and stood gaping for a long time at the stars, until it was time to refill my drink again ;-).
Mats got out his trusty Canon EOS with his tripod and was taking pictures of the night sky. By this time, the Wild Valley Staff had got a bonfire going and we all took out our chairs to go out and sit around it. Mats went for dinner around 10:00 and since the dining hall was on the other side of the Farm we didn’t have any snacks, but Mats decided to play Good Samaritan and brought back a plate filled with Chicken, which was immediately wolfed.
The drinking and the fun continued till the wee hours, then we had dinner and most of the group decided to hit the sack. Santoago and Nikki had already hit the sack way before dinner. Omi, Indi, Screech, Aravind, Rajesh , Bryan and me were awake till the wee hours and man, was it fun or what. Some cobra dancing, Peacock Calls and some sing song.
By about 3:00 am, we were too bushed and we hit the sack, putting an end to a great day, good ride and a fun filled evening.
Woke up to the sun streaming into the tent and the sound of our noisy neighbors in the tents, well they all got some good shut-eye, I suppose, even with our wild antics the night before J. But anyway, it was a little too early for me, but it seemed like a glorious day and I slowly crept out, had a wash and ordered coffee. The gang was gathering at the Gol Garh with coffees and ciggis, the morning was glorious as can be verified by the photos. Santosh was missing as he had woken up early and had gone for a ride, he landed up and showed us a photo of a Sloth Bear that he had clicked in the early morning as it was foraging for food by the roadside in the forest. That was real lucky and he raved about the route, we actually thought of taking that route via Hasanur, Nanjanagud and back through Mysore.
The others were slowly emerging, one by one, we all had breakfast and started getting ready to head back. Omi had decided to leave early as he had to be in town for a wedding by 4:00 pm, and he started about 15 mins ahead of us with Mats and Nikesh.
By popular consensus we decided to go back the way we had come instead of the long detour through Mysore. We all waited for Santosh to settle the bill with our host, and we started riding back. The ride through the 2 hill was fantastic and I was really sending it and as we reached the Karnataka border checkpost we saw some of our bike bikes parked there and we pulled up. Omi had a fall as some wire had got caught in his side-stand and unfortunately he wasn’t wearing his gloves. The injuries were minor and Omi decided to head back with us at a more leisurely pace. We stopped at Dhongdengling to pick up Bryan who was coming to Bangalore as Omi’s pillion and we started towards Kollegal, the route was fantastic and soon we were all spaced out, with the riders in front over the horizon and the riders behind barely being seen in the mirror.
I was at peace, in 7th heaven actually, as I had a straight road ahead of me, the bike thumping at a steady 90kmph, green fields on either sides, the Eastern Ghats on my right and the Western Ghats on my left. This was euphoria and it just felt right, this was too good to last and we finally reached Kollegal where we filled up gas, I actually didn’t need any but filled up a coupla litres anyways because I was in the bunk.
It was past noon and the sun was shining relentlessly, we decided to stop at the same point on the Shimsha bank. We all rode past Kollegal, stopped at Sunita Bar, picked up a few chilled ones and headed to the Shimsha Bank, but it was a Sunday and the place was packed with devotees cooking food on the bank.
We decided to go ahead and a Kilometer further was a small mud road heading towards the canal, we turned into it crossed the bridge over the Canal and parked under a shady tree. We chilled out at this lovely spot for about an hour, downing the beers and yakking about everything from bikes to Legal Ethics (not joking, check with Aravind and Indi) and we got a demo from Bryan with his patented (or.. patent pending) Cricket bat.Sam and Santosh had blasted off on their Beamers and they were already at Coffee Day, so we told them to head on. Aditya also left for Bangalore as he was already late.
We decided to hit it to Maddur and find a place for lunch, the ride from Shimsha Bank to Maddur was the same boring state highway and it was getting hotter. We reached Maddur and as we were regrouping, Omi shouted out to Baba, who was just turning towards Borapura in his Bolero. We all went to Nandini or was it Nisarga on the Bangalore- Mysore highway for lunch, with Baba in tow. Lunch was nice there and after lunch, Omi decided to head back to town with Bryan as he was already late.
We all decided to hit it slow as Screech had a broken clutch worm and couldn’t do anything with his clutch, we all agreed. Mats and me were ahead of Screech and Rajesh was following him and we agreed to maintain around 70-80kmph on the highway. Indi(had to see a man about a dog ) and Aravind (needed a café latte) decided to stop at coffee day and catch up with us at University Gate on Mysore Road. It was a peaceful ride back even though there was traffic heading towards Bangalore and we finally reached University gate at around 7:00. It was already dark and in about 10-15 mins both Aravind and Indi caught up with us.
Whew, another ride nailed and what a ride it was, awesome and superb were understatements, the right place, the right people and the right bikes … huh :-) ?What say, guys?
Cheers,
Suru
Riders Line-up
1. Aditya - RD 350
2. Aravind - RD 350
3. Screech - RD 350
4. Rajesh - RD 350
5. Mats - Royal Enfield Bullet 500
6.Satsosh - BMW 650
7. Omi - RD 350
8. Indi - BMW 650
9.Samarth - BMW 650
10.Nikesh - Hero Honda Karizma
11. Suru - Royal Enfield Machismo 350
