25) Melkote : (28/11/10)

Place: Melkote.

Distance: 150 x 2 = 300kms.

Directions: Bengaluroo > Ramnagara > Mandya > After mandya Right turn > Melukote.

Bikes: GS 150 > Pulsar 150.

Participants: Manohar > Karthik.

Previous Visit: Manchinbele – The epic Ride back.

PLAN:

28th November 09 , exact one year back we had been to maddur our first trip… completing this trip would mean exact 25 trips in one year \m/

After asking their call on the trip… It was only 3 of us who were ready to go( Manu , Mithul & me)

Next day morning , went near college at about 6 am… sat on the footpath , then get a BAD news… Mithul`s dropped out… But Manu didn’t give up on the trip.. he came at about 6 : 15 am.

Ok ok “BR hills on one bike?” I exclaimed.. but Manu said he also wanted to ride his bike.. so decided to go to Balmuri Falls as it was a pretty close and we hadn’t seen it. So morning 6:30 am we left To Balmuri falls on SH 17 , Mysore road.

RIDE:

SH17… one of my favorite Roads...we cruised along at a decent pace , covering ground. As it was a Sunday we spotted arount 10-15 super bikes zooming at full speed. As we entered Chenpatna about 10 eagles flying only about 8 feet above the ground as the sun rise began… whew tat was an amazing Sight .. within 1 to 1.5 hours we reached maddur Tiffany`s for break fast.

MADDUR TIFFANY`S :

MAddur Tiffany`s our Adda :) , Had hot hot Idli vada & excellent coffee , spent a good 30mins at tiffany`s and left towards Balmuri.

WRONG TURN HEAVEN:

Mandya is about 25 kms from Maddur , a 4-lane SH 17 , helped us to cover distance at a decent rate.. the new spotted a board “ Melkote à 38kms “ .

I stopped in front of the board & so did manu… haha yep !! Put Balmuri on HOLD until some other time.. only Melkote was on our mind .

New Destination : Melkote.

ROAD TO HEAVEN:

Surface wise the road was not as good as Mekedat road… but surrounding was just brilliant.. Greenery everywhere , 12-10 feet grass on both sides of the roads. We stopped once or twice just to enjoy the beautiful Green fields.

As we headed further we could finad a lot of “Aaale mane” ( Jaggery preparation houses) , we drove a bit slow and reached the bottom of the hill after 45 mins or so…

Next 3-4 kms was ghat section which would lead us to the main palce & the temple. As we ascended we saw an auto fall on a womens leg… horrible it was… we continued further to complete the mini-ghat and reach the top.

MELKOTE:

Entering melkote , parked our bikes and visted Kalyani , then we wanted a good aerial view of the places surrounding Melkote. We saw small steps so decided to follow it thinking tat it would lead us to the top.. but it was the steps which would lead us down :x, but we weren’t disappointed because it lead us to a beautiful place.

Greenery was everywhere , with a very large number of ponds & lakes some near , some far . It was indeed a very beautiful sight.

TEMPLE:

Then we thought of trekking our way up through the bushes and Trees , but realized we would have to counter the Huge walls of the temple ( They call it Melu – Kote for a reason Haha!!

So we headed in the normal route and reached the temple. The steps of the temple are kind of steep , goes to show how old the temple is. The aerial view from the temple is something I can never forget… about 200 lakes & ponds surround this palce…. At one glance we could easily spot 30-40 of them.

Then as were leaving the temple , we had “Puliyogre” believe me it is one of the “NOT TO MISS” things at this place… it was very tasty , gave us the extra energy we required , bought bottles of juice and started towards our bikes.

RIDE BACK:

After spending an hour so enjoying the surroundings decided to head back to Namma bengaluroo. On our way back we stopped at a beautiful pond in the middle of the forest. It was very similar to our Kanva reservoir – our favorite spot. Spent somequality time here also & left…. Stopped at a few Aale mane enquiring about the prices etc… and finally we reached SH 17.

As we headed towards Maddur tiffany`s for lunch we saw something that shook us to our boots… Blood all over the road , a car stuck on the divider , a CD100 bike torn to parts… Man , lady & a young kid fallen down.. people were just rushing in… stopped there for sometime .. & left towards MT.

MADDUR TIFFANY`S:

After a decent lunch we were sitting outside. A lot of young kids were roaming outside the hotel as there was some function. Ok thought of checking my weight… Manu stood first 90kks.. hmm.. the kids didn’t wanna mess around with him. When I stood 50 kgs…. Damn !! The kids started running all over the place yelling … then caught them and made them sit on our bikes to shut them up.

RIDE BACK:

Then we finally left towards Bengaluroo , completing the next 80 kms was formality . A small stop after Ramnagara & we were back to our homes.

This trip was something special , had completed 25 trips in year , and moreover it was unplanned like the first one . Melkote - the perfect trip though everything was unplanned. And yes shravanabelogola is just 30kms from melukote… so can cover that also .

Until Next time \m/

WIKI LINK:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melukote

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