Mangalore-Bekalfort-Calicut-Waynad

God's own country kerala - this was my third innings there from december and couldn't get enough of the twisty roads there! It all started with sachin and me planning our second innings in waynad as our last ride had to be cut short. Floated around the idea to few guys and Manas confimed, kartik joined in at the last moment along with his friend balaji and his pillion santosh and thus formed the waynad riders.


First the stats: Ride duration: 4 days (28th April 07 (Saturday) to 1st May 07 (Tuesday)
Bikes and Riders: 5 Bikes and 6 Guys.
Me - Silver Zma
Sachin Koppikar - Red Pulsar 150 Dts
iManas Saran - Red Avenger
Kartik Ayyar - Red Bullet Thunderbird
Balaji & Santosh (pillion) - Black Bullet Thunderbird

Total Kms covered: 1228 Kms
Route taken: Day1: Bangalore>Kunigal>Hassan>Sakleshpur>Bantwal>MangaloreDay 2: Mangalore>ThanneerBhaviBeach>Mangalore>Kasargood>Bekalfort>KannurDay3: Kannur>Mahe(pondicherry)>Pakkadbeach>calicut>Kalpetta>KuruvaIsland>KalpettaDay4:Kalpetta>Lakkidi View point>Tushaaragiri Falls>Kalpetta>SultanBathery>Gundlupet>Nanjangud>Mysore>Mandya>MaddurCfday>Bangalore

Retrospection of the ride: This was the best birthday gift to me, I got my riding gear before the ride (new lid, jacket and gloves) and went on this ride the very next day of my birthday.
Most hilarious ride of mine till date, thanks to funny bone tickler santosh and sachin. Did what ever i din't want to do in a ride - Night riding, riding in rain, offroading, offroading in rain, extending saddle time for more than a hour. But at the end of it, it was all worth it! My zma's battery conked off in this ride and had to manage with no horns, kick start (!!) and dim lights for 2 days.

Thanks to sachin's cam, this time too i could get quality pics.
My Pics : http://picasaweb.google.com/vaas2000/MangaloreBekalfortCalicutWaynadRide
Manas: http://picasaweb.google.com/manas.saran/SeaNHillsTourKerela
Kartik: http://picasaweb.google.com/kartik.ayyar/MangaloreCalicutKalpettaRide

Day1: 28th April 2007 Saturday:
All set to go, i was up and ready by 4.45 Am and i got a call from Sachin, it was any biker's worst nightmare (which l lived through once) informs me that he has a flat rear tyre. Now he's tense and has second thoughts about making it to the ride. I ride off to the meeting point (yeshwantpur Metro) and meet all other guys, i inform them about the problem and we all decide that we will wait for him after covering some distance. After informing sachin that we will wait after hassan, we start off towards NH4, Had breakfast in mayura hotel by 8 near channaraayapatna, Sachin was stuggling to get his flat tyre fixed, we decided that it would be better if we visited shravanabelagola and then proceeded to hassan, that way we would have seen an extra place while waiting for Sachin. On reaching the place, manas and me decided to guard the bikes loaded with cramster and tankbags so the remaining guys went off for sight seeing. Manas and me emptied few cigs, few bottles of cool drinks, tried few pics and got bored, by then it was past 11Am and the sun had come out to trouble us, it was getting damn hot, So once the guys returned from the hill climbing, we decided to push off. So we went off towards hassan and past hassan we stopped at a nice big tree, under the shade. It was 12.50 Pm and got update from sachin that he had started off from bangalore at 9.30 Am. So we decided to wait. It was a looong break, took lots of pics, cigs, soft drinks, got detailed introduction done with new riders balaji and Santosh. Finally at around 2 Pm, sachin joined us and after resting for sometime, we decided that it is better to skip belur - charmadi route as we had to reach mangalore by evening and decided to do the usual route of sakleshpur via shiradi ghats. The formation ride started with me being somewhere in the middle most of the times and sachin taking the lead. We hit shiradi ghats, the roads were patched up and very few stretched were totally screwed up, but it was horrible to ride on these roads, then the tarmac changed for better, soon we started enjoying the smooth tarmac and speeds increased.


Stopped at a curve for ciggy break and took few pics, pushed further ahead and stopped somewhere before uppinangadi for lunch at around 4ish. After hurried lunch, we started off towards mangalore. The nearer we got to mangalore, the traffic became insane! Local buses were being driven like autos by maniacs! taking lefts and rights and not giving way to overtake and most horrible, braking in the middle of the road! These guys were totally insane! Finally we reached mangalore entrance (circle) by 6.30 Pm, Stopped and asked for directions and moved on. We reached city and got confused by the oneways and the traffic. Sachin had the hotel details where we had to crash for the day, turns out that the hotel is deep inside the city and it was already dark. Then i remembered that I had Mangalore Xbhpian zahin's number, i called him to ask about decent hotels there, to our luck, Zahin went out of his way and asked our location and turned up with fellow xbhpian Sujay!.
Then they took the trouble of going around the town to find out about hotel details while we guys waited. They found a hotel and led us all there. We were so grateful to these guys for taking time off and helping us, dumped our stuff in hotel and discussed with zahin about beaches to visit the next day and they suggested thanneerbhaavi beach and they were willing to join us next day at 5 AM! we were so humbled by their help, after dinner at a hotel with zahin, we crashed out at the hotel, what a day!

Day2:29th April 2007 Sunday:
I was up by 4.30 and saw zahin's message, he was already downstairs waiting for us! Then all of us could move on only by 6Am.
On the way Sujay joined us and led us in his zma. We were there at the beach pretty early, parked the bikes in sand and took lots of group pics and line up pics


Then it was time to get in to the beach, all guys jumped in and we had a blast. Sachin and me tried out xbhp and BN poses too!


Later It was time for beach ride! Except two bullets, all three of us, sachin, me and manas got our bikes on to the beach shore and had a blast, i tried burnouts and riding, the sand was not so hard and i had a tough time keeping the bike in line, then while taking a U turn, waves came in and soaked the sand beneath the rear wheel and my zma got stuck in sand! Zahin helped me pull it out and it was back to riding in the beach, Kartik too tried out zma's beach riding capabilities :-) Now it was time to get back our bikes to the road and boy oh boy, was it tough! It was a huge circus to get the bikes back on road, thanks to zahin and sujay, we managed to bring out the bikes in one piece! I surveyed the beach riding damage, entire bike was full of sand, it need a wash real bad, so off we went to a service station and got all our bikes water washed. After breakfast party thrown in by zahin, we reached hotel and were able to move out of mangalore by 1 Pm, not before taking group pics with our hosts zahin and sujay and thanking them for all their help and time, we requested them to give us a chance to play hosts next time they are in bangalore. Discovered that my battery was dead so no more self start! back to hard ways of life! Kickstarting was major pain in the ass, also speedo was not working, i got worried, it turned out to be a loose speedo cable, cable tightened, problem fixed! but not before resetting my trip meter accidentally trying to self start! damn, this was gonna me my first ride with out trip meter pics :( We started off towards kasargood, the roads were crowded for some 20 kms and too many autos and trucks and what nots! It was damn humid and everyone was sweating like a pig! We reached kasargood and decided to go to bekalfort. some 15 kms from kasargood, we were in the fort, guys went in while me and sachin and manas guarded the bikes and lugguage and had our lunch, then we went in to explore the fort, it was a magnificient fort, built along the shore of the sea and offering great views of the coast line. This is the same fort where the song "tuhire" from film "bombay" was shot at. After our photography sessions, we moved out of bekal fort towards kannur at 4 Pm. We got amazing straight roads for a while and then short bursts of twisties, somehow manas went ahead of us and i managed to spot the guys ahead of me and after a quickie ciggy break, moved on and found manas waiting some 30 kms frm kannur. Poor chap had done saddle sore ride of 2 hrs thinking we were ahead of him! Calicut seemed far fetched at 90 change kms from the spot we were on, so we decided to land at kannur for the day. We reached the town by 7pm after horrible night ride and truck traffic, found a very good hotel at very cheap rate and crashed in after dinner, not before another round of laughter session thanks to sachin and santosh.

Day3:30th April 2007 Monday:All rose early and started off at 6 Am towards calicut, Me and sachin went ahead and took the great deviation towards calicut. We hit a railway crossing and made use of the waiting time with tea and ciggy break, other guys joined in. Then We had to ride through gulli roads (it was a NH!) never seen so many narrow National highways passing right through towns in front of houses and shops! in no time we were in pondicherry! (no no, not the east coast one, this one is Mahe on westcoast!) it was an union territory hardly 30 kms! Then we reached the kappad beach crossing. Balaji and kartik had gone ahead of us, so they had to return back to join us to kappad beach. We found a good beach resort for breakfast. For 150 bucks, had a royal buffet breakfast starting from southindian to north indian to continental stuff! all filled up to the brim and hit the beach for photography sessions. The beach was too good, isolated and virtually free of locals and crowds. Found a Bangalore scorpio with KA board, with it's rear wheel stuck deep in the sand, the guy had tried beach riding and got screwed badly! took lot of innovative pics like reflections from helmet visor and stuff, it was time to move on to kalpetta, waynad - the land of eternal twisties! We started off towards kalpetta, by the time we left, the scorpio was freed by localites from sand. It was boring ride under hot sun till calicut, after tanking up there, we took the deviation towards kalpetta, Twisties started! Last time me and sachin had been there, they were still tarring the twisties, now it was done and the freshly laid tarmac with broad shoulders for cornering welcomed us, we rode on! Everyone seemed hungry for twisties and ateup the curves thrown at them with good speeds, finally we reached our usually pitstop, a shack bang in the middle of a twisty, had lots of liquid intake to prevent dehydration and moved on, more twisties, enjoyed to the core and reached our usual hotel by 1 Pm. What a ride! Everyone was content with the amazing twisties we had gulped down so far, so it was decided that we move out at 3 pm to kuruva island, sort of a jungle island surrounded by river, 50kms from kalpetta as per the maps. So we took off again at 3pm. We went on and on, the roads were good, we had to deviate after 50 kms and found out that kuruva island was another good 20 kms! Narrow ghat section road! our idea of watching sunset at lakkidi view point was no brainer now, So we went on, sachin who was ahead of us got stopped by cops, later all of us reached the spot and cops let go of us telling that we were over speeding! So we decided to stick to 60s, Me and manas rode together and sachin. kartik and balaji went ahead of us and they missed a turn towards the island, so me and manas went off in the right direction, took some good pics in the woods, the road was isolated surrounded by woods, later moved on and the offroading stretch had to start. The damn island was till 4 more kms, it was like a jeep trial full of mud and stones surrounded by greenery, we stopped and waited for the guys, soon we head the bullets and the guys joined us. We did the offroading together, it was a test to the shock absorbers of the bikes and santosh the pillion on bullet was doing all kinds of acrobatic moves to avoid the bumps tranferring to his rear! We finally reached the place and got in after taking the tickets, it was greenery all around and just a walking path, took loads of pics and we knew as we walked towards the island that we had to ride back in dark some 70 kms to our hotel. We reached the river and found a rope tied to a tree on our side of the bank and another tree on the other side of the bank. a guy was standing on a raft made of bamboos and pulling himself and the raft towards us. Soon he reached our shore and we all got in, the moment we all got in, water got in! we had to precariously sit on the raft while the guy pulled himself and the raft using the rope to the other side of the bank, we reached the shore of the island. It was nice to be there secluded place, surrounded by greenery. Soon we hit dead end, there was the river at the end of it. After quicky fag break we decided to head back at it was already 6 pm. On our way back, it started to get cloudy and it started drizzling by the time we reached our bikes and it heaven opened up and started to rain cats and dogs! we took cover near a tree and as we were seeing the offroading muddy stretch soon became a trecherous pool of slushy mud and stones, rains didn't show any sign of slowing down, so we decided to push off in rain as we wanted to get out of the 4 km offroading stretch before darkness setin, so off we went in the rain, it was totally insane thing to do, offroading in rain that too with day light fading away, all our bikes were fishtailing and the rear of the bikes were swinging left to right, it was scary sometimes as it was getting real difficult to maintain the balance, my bike was skidding a lot as the tyres have almost worn out, some how we managed to get out of the ordeal after some 25 mins of hellish ride and we were relieved that we could get out of that stretch in one piece! took a fag break and rain stopped, it was getting dark and now we had to ride in formation coz the same twisties that exited us earlier will be bothersome now on as it had rained and cornering abilities will be goner, so with kartik and balaji leading, me in between (due to weak battery, pathetic headlight and no horns!) manas behind me and sachin tailing, we started the return back journey to hotel, it was 60kms of rain drenched, shivering riding in the dark experience, we maintained steady speeds of 50 - 60 kms (as per the cops earlier!) Sachin would race ahead and inform kartik to speed up or slow down if the formation was not intact, we noticed few trees had fallen down on the road due to the rain and that too at blind turns, it was good that we were doing moderate speeds. We stopped after 1 hour in total darkness in elephant infested area, kartik took group pic of all of us in total darkness and it came amazingly well, especially manas, his jacket's reflective layer shined like light due to the flash and he was looking like 80s disco dancer! After a fag /tea break we moved on, reached sultan bathery, had another break and managed to reach hotel finally after 2.5 hours from the time we started from the island. We all congratulated eachother for amazing discipline through out the night ride. After a quickie dinner, gulped down much required beer and whisky and everyone crashed in their rooms one after another, me, balaji and manas were up late and talking about all things under the sun, balaji gave insight on his experience in jeddah, saudi arabia.

Day4:1st May 2007 Tuesday:Started off early by 5, our schedule for the day was Tushaaragiri falls, some 50 kms from kalpetta via lakkidi view point. Sachin and me went ahead and reached lakkidi view point by half and hour and what a sight it was! Clouds covered the gaps between mountains below and it looked like we were looking at the himalayas! I went click happy, soon other guys joined in and started the photography sessions. The usally crowded view point was virtually deserted that early morning, there were loads of monkeys accompanying us, no humans! took awesome pics of scenery below and it was time for our orkut snaps! Pics of guys taking the twisties with their bikes, So first up was manas, kartik, balaji and me postioned ourselves and santosh was the signalling guy :) We were ready and santosh signalled manas, who made a good entry and exit of the curve and got captured in our cams. Next up was yours truly, this was gonna be my first set of bending pics, so off i went and got signal and came towards the entry, bent the zma and went out of the exit curve, Kartik and sachin couldn't it properly, so there was a second run and this time they got it. Similarly balaji and sachin got their pics taken. Now it was time to move on, Me and sachin informed others that now the roads leading to falls will get narrower and it will be very steep, so with me leading we went down the same twisties that we had done the previous day while coming in to kalpetta, had breakfast near the deviation from NH to get in to tusharagiri waterfall and moved on, the ghat roads were hardly 3 feet wide and were having some 50 degree inclination, zma took on the inclinations with ease and as we began enjoying the mini narrow ghats, we missed a turn and we went ahead, the ghat road ended and i stopped and enquired, we had to turn back so off we came the same steep inclination and sachin took the lead and we landed up in tushaaragiri waterfall. This time too the falls had very less water flowing but consolation was we were first and no tourists had flocked there, so water was clean, it was time to dive in and all guys jumped in except manas, who was chasing a butterfly to get a macro shot (or matrimondial shot? ) finally he managed to get good shots of the butterfly, while the rest of us enjoyed the dip in in water. We moved out and started riding back to hotel, reached hotel around 12 after butt breaks in between, the narrow ghat roads near the falls were just amazing to drive through, kerala has amazing road quality for the kind of terrain and rain fall they get, it's a very good achievement. Had heavy lunch and we could push out of hotel only by 3.30pm. We knew that we had to hit mysore before darkness, else get stuck in single lane NH at night (nightmare!) We did good speeds and made it a point to take a butt break after every 50 kms. We hit bandipur forest stretch, amazingly even this road was tarred this time! It was a pleasure to ride on, as soon as we crossed in to karnataka, a big pothole welcomed us, later the road got better, i saw balaji honking and signalling to me and we stopped to find kartik was no where to be seen, since he was the last guy, we waited, then kartik comes in and says that he saw elephants in the forests and shows up snaps, damn, we were so engrossed on road, we had missed the jumbo herd, so we decided ride real slow through out the bandipur stretch to see if we can sight any animals, to our luck we did, found a car parked on the road side and people looking in to the jungle, we all stopped and right there some 20 feet frm us was a big herd of around 15 elephants, just walking around. We silently observed them for a while and soon the place got crowded, so the jumbos got disturbed and they retreated inside the forest. We moved on with sachin leading the pack and we hit junction at mysore at 6.30 Pm. It was the beginning of four lane mysore - blore road, all guys went beserk and became throttle happy, with me leading the pack, it was such a joy to ride in wide 4 laned slightly curvy road, in no time i saw the srirangapatna board, so slowed down, rest of the guys formed the formation again and we started to ride with usual speeds till there was day light, as darkness set in we rode again in formation with kartik and balaji leading and sachin me and manas tailing. We hit maddur coffee day at 8 pm. Ordered stuff, it was time for maths class from my santosh, he did lot of calculations and told each of us owe X amount to such and such guy and in the end, we all ended up paying all the cash to santosh :) Pushed off from maddur coffee day, again rode in formation, maintaining constant speed of 80 and signalling eachother and others for overtaking, changing lanes etc. We reached Bangalore university campus junction by 10 pm. Had our last fag break together, congratulated each other for a ride successfully completed, did a quick retrospection, bid good byes to eachother and split up, not before initiating planning for our next ride! :)