27) Chamundi Hills (Mysore) & Balmuri Falls : (5/1/11)

Place: Chamundi Hills & Balmuri Falls.

Distance: 350kms in total.

Directions: Bengaluru > Maddur > Srirangpatna > Straight – Mysore

> Right – Balmuri Falls.

Participants: Manohar(Manu) > Arun(Slowpoke) > Karthik(Sp).

Bikes: GS > Unicorn > Pulsar.

Previous visit: BR hills – Coldest ride from Bangalore since 117 years.

Basic Description: Balmuri falls in < 5 minutes.

PLAN:

4^th January , Arun & myself were walking on the college cricket ground, when Arun suggested the wonderful idea to visit Airport at morning 4 am .. After a few minutes of discussion the destination was changed to Balmuri falls & Srirangapatna as we had skipped it on Melkote trip.

So called up others to ask their call on the trip& it was only Manu who was ready to hit the road like always \m/. So Arun and me had dinner near college went back to our respective houses to get some sleep as we had to hit the road at 04:00hrs.

TIME: 20:30hrs

RIDE I: ( Bangalore – Maddur CCD)

Morning 2:30 am I was up and got ready. It was a New Year... And the biggest shocker already took place... Arun arrived at my place at 4 am sharp…ha-ha!!! After a few minutes Manu also joined us & we departed at 4:30am on 3 bikes.

As it was dark we started of at 40kmphr and went at this place for about 20kms to get used to the conditions then. After a while we were cruising at 70-80kmphr and reached Maddur CCD.

TIME: 05:30hrs

MADDUR CCD:

Well I have been to CCD only once before this, and Arun wanted have coffee at this place from a long time so it was something special for all of us. Manu & me ordered hot coffee... Arun unique as always ordered cold coffee even though it was cold outside. We spent a hour at the CCD and left towards Balmuri.

TIME: 06:30hrs

RIDE II : (Maddur CCD – SriRangapatna)

The Sun was up & shining ,Balmuri falls is about 60kms from maddur , good SH-17 roads offered very less resistance. When we reached Srirangapatna , a right deviation would lead us to Balmuri falls.. but just then we spotted a board “ Chamundi Hills “ .

Manu wanted to go to this magnificent hills, and so we kept Balmuri ON HOLD again as in melkote trip and proceeded towards Mysore.

TIME: 07:00hrs

RIDE III: (Srirangapatna – Chamundi hills)

4 lane road made our job simple… kept a decent pace of 60’s to reach The Heritage city – Mysore … Zooming through the lanes of Mysore in a matter of minutes we were out of the town and on chamundi hills road.

Chamundi hills didn’t offer any difficult uphill climb, but it was a pleasure to ride on those roads, 3 bikes going uphill at a time when most of the people are still asleep is something awesome. After cruising uphill we reached the temple and very happy to see that it was not at all crowded.

TIME:07:45hrs

CHAMUNDI HILLS:

It was Arun’s and his family’s sacred place ,so he was overjoyed in visiting the same. We got a very good pooja done and spent a good 30minutes on top of the hill. When we were just about to leave we spotted a Rolls Royce- Ghost, Manu – a car freak, went crazy and wanted to stay there till it left… ha-ha!! So we captured snaps of the car & the famous Maheeshasura Demon … Staying there for some more time we left the place...

TIME: 08:45hrs

RIDE IV: (Chamundi-Giant Nandi)

From the temple its hardly a ten minutes ride, but we stopped at many places to get the wonderful aerial view of the Mysore. When we reached the giant Nandi we spent 10 minutes got the pooja done and left the place.

TIME: 09:00hrs

RIDE V: (Giant Nandi – Balmuri Falls)

Balmuri falls is 30kms from Chamundi hills, so we ode downhill at a decent pace , negotiating the curves cautiously . Manu & Arun lead the way to Mysore to reach SH-17. We reached Srirangpatna in a very short time. From here it was 15kms , and the roads turned to worst… It was horrible road and we had to slow down to 30-40kmphr. We came across canals carrying water to the falls. After a some slow riding avoiding pot holes and patches we reached Balmuri falls.

TIME: 10:00hrs

BALMURI FALLS:

Believe me we were shocked to the core because every time I picture this falls in my head , it would always be associated with about 10-20 taxis , few private cars , families , few bikes … basically lot of crowd.

But nothing of such was there, only we 3 with our bikes were at the place. We got a great chance to have the place for ourselves.

The falls was at its very best, great force, clear water, it looked marvelous. Please have a look at the snaps it always expresses way better.

We walked to the other side of the falls, we also observed the unique way the edges were at this place which made the falling water have a unique grain like pattern. It was beautiful but was packing a lot of force.

Balmuri is not a big falls in terms of ‘head’ ( Ha-ha turbo-machines) i.e. the height through which the water falls. But it is a very wide water fall. We washed our faces and walked on the bund lifting our legs up for every step we took.

We spent an hour or so at his wonderful place enjoying the tranquility listening to the water fall and cooling ourselves down. Finally we left towards Bengaluru… we realized that this trip was so good we had forgotten about food, so Maddur Tifany`s stop was confirmed.

TIME: 11:30hrs

RIDE V: (Balmuri – Maddur Tiffany’s)

The ride back to Mysore road (SH-17) was a slow one again; my bike’s fuel was almost empty I was only hoping it could pull it till the main road so that I could re-fuel. We reached SH-17 and cruised on it to reach Maddur in no time, fuel was totally empty. We had excellent Masala Dosa & coffee and came out and took rest on the swing. Gave our bikes sufficient time to rest as it had rode 270 kms and still 80km to go. We went to the petrol bunk and re-fueled our tanks and were ready to hit the road again.

TIME:13:00hrs

RIDE VI: (Maddur Tiffany’s- Bengaluru)

Next 80 kilometers was just formality, Mysore road good 4-lane road, all we had to do was "stay awake" ha-ha!! Rode at a pretty decent pace to reach Bangalore .

TIME: 14:30hrs

Overall it was a Classic trip, never had expected Balmuri to be so empty when it was flowing at its best and well 3 people on 3 bikes – Heaven !!

Before ending this article, here are some of our best runs (Or what we think are the best out of the first 50 runs) Hope you enjoy reading them :

[1] Maddur – The Origin.

[3] Mekedatu – Destination danger.

[4] Nandi Hills – Quick Return Mechanism.

[17] Skandagiri night trek – Misty death trek.

[18] Kanva Resevoir – Mechanix ride.

[21] Pearl Valley – Jungle walk.

[22] Talakadu – Come one, come all. (11bikes, 21 participants)

[26] BR hills – Foggy forest cruise. (Coldest ride since 117 years)

[27]Chamundi Hills & Balmuri falls – Classic Flawless ride.

[28] Kabbaladurga Trek – Hello death!! (NDE – Near death experience)

[29] Himvadgopalswamy Betta – Hot oven ride.

[37] Chitradurga fort & Vani Vilas Dam – Time travel into ancient heaven.

[38] MM hills, BR hills, Gaganchukki,Barachukki – Twin hills and falls ride.( 600kms one day)

[40] Markonahalli dam, Melukote, TonnurKere – Old School fun ride.

[44] Mahadevpura – Explore that sanctuary.

[45] Hogenekkal – Blood filled memories on road. (Must read)

[47] Mekedatu & Sangama – Adventure on!! (15kms forest walk)

[48] Coorg(Madikeri) – Big finish to ‘11.

[49] Yercaud – back on the streets. (580kms 1-day ride)

[50] Panchapalli dam – 50^th chapter complete :)

Until next time – Ciao \m/

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