134) Bettamugilalam & Aiyur Forest : (7/8/2016)

Place: Bettamugilalam & Aiyur Forest

Distance: 100kms x 2 = 200kms

Directions: Bangalore > Hosur > Denkankottai > Bettamugilalam

Krew: Gowrish (Gorisha) > Karthik (Sp)

Bikes: Pulsar

Previous Visit: Rayakottai Trek.

Budget: Rs 200/head

IN LESS THAN 50 WORDS:

Bettamugilalam is one of the lesser known hill stations of Tamil Nadu and trust me, the ride to the place is the best part of it. Our trip was so unplanned that everything fell into its own place with complete acceptance. Also, this place popped out of nowhere and next thing you know, you have a new place under your belt! Feels good right?

INTRO & PLAN:

On the 6^th of August, an union of office friends was planned at Markonahalli as it been 4months since we rode together to Shettihalli Church & Gorur Dam. But due to some unavoidable circumstances we couldn’t pull that through. So, I called up Gowrish and asked him about the plan for Sunday. When he said he was good for a trip, lots of places flushed through my mind. But my primary intention was some place on Hosur road, as it would be easy to drop him back.

TIME: 22:00 (6/7/2016)

ASSEMBLE & LEAVE:

Oh yeah woke up at 04:00, did a few push-ups & sit-ups, had a sip of coffee & was all set to go! I had to pick up Gow from Bommnahalli, so took off from my home at about 05:30. Again like last time I rode through the city in the early hours of the day and trust me it was cold. I was getting used to the city riding by now. Reached Gow’s place by 06:00, usually Gow wore a thick leather jacket in the mornings but it used be off no use post 10AM once the sun started blazing. But this time he didn’t wear it assuming the obvious and guess what happened? :P

TIME: 06:00

RIDE 1: (Bangalore – Hosur – Denkankottai - Aiyur Forest - Betamugilalam)

So, this was a 120kms one way ride to Bettamugilalam with an intermediate breakfast stop at Denkankottai. So, as we left Bangalore towards Attibele, I turned around and asked Gow as to where we were heading. He looked at me totally confused and then I said “Yes, that’s the exact look I wanted to see. Because then I would have company”. As we headed further this place called Bettamugilalam I had heard few years back near Denkankottai, so thought of checking it out!

We rode till Hosur and asking people for directions we spotted the good old route Zethu & myself had taken on our rides to Yercaud, Hogenekkal & Panchapalli. It had been 4+ years since I had ridden on this route, so it was kind of nostalgic. Also it had been just two weeks since we visited Rayakottai on the same stretch.

As we reached Denkankottai, we pulled over at Sri Sarvana Bhavan for some tasty breakfast. Tamil Nadu, well I would bet on Dosas & Pongal!

TIME: 08:00

Once we were done with a yummy breakfast we stepped out and a funny incident happened with a very old man who had just come to the hotel. He called me and I went near him, the conversation went something like this but in Kannada/Tamil mix

Old man – “ hi, finished?”

Me – “ Yeah”

Oldman – “ How was it?”

Me – “ Yeah, awesome!, you should try it to”

Oldman – “ Water was there?”

Me – “ :/ “

This point I was wondering what the hell was he talking about! I turned to Gow and he was laughing his ass off. The old man was asking about Hogenekkal and I was telling him about the Pongal I had just eaten. Hahahaha!

We had a good laugh and continued further and visited the Betarayanswamy temple in Denkankottai. Afterwhich I realised it was the Panchapalli road, then asking the locals for the right direction, we joined back the original route to head towards Bettalmugilalam.

TIME: 09:30

Bettamugilalam Ride:

The temperature of the air began to dip as we proceeded. And the bamboo suggested that the forest premise was near. Since there were no guards at the checkpost we entered the forest roads on our own. The ride began to turn into an awesome glide as we proceeded further. Thick bamboos existed on both side of the road and as we pulled over at the place, we could hear the bamboos rub each other with utmost clarity. Also, we could hear a lot of bird’s chirpings all around us.

One must visit place on the way is called “Sami Eari” which is basically a pond amidst the thick forest. It reminded me of the similar looking one at BR hills. Usually animals come down here to quench their thirst.

Gow, told me he looked like a retired army colonel and I looked like a rookie who was under him for training purpose. I slowly turned behind with a poker face and pulled over the bike. Thinking that it was a break he got down. Once he got down, I took off leaving him in the forest :P

The last stretch consisted of sweet hair pain curves which were executed with joy and basically I sang my way through the entire stretch.

TIME: 11:00

BETTAMUGILALAM:

Once we reached the top, it was a hill station no doubt. The fresh air, the plantations, the cold weather everything made us feel we were totally in far off hill station. As a place, one can just live there and admire the beauty of the gorgeous hills which surround the place. We loafed around a bit, and saw the church which is present on the top. After which I realised my bike console’s display was dead, we had no clue as to how much petrol the bike had :P. Finally after fooling around for a little while we decided to head back.

TIME: 11:30

RIDE 2: (Bettamugilalam – Denakonakottai – Hosur – E-City- Nagarbhavi -E-city -Nayandhalli)

Call it crazy, what had to be a 100kms ride back home turned out to be 200+kms. As we left, the ride back was a quick one. Riding down the hair pin curves amidst the forest is something that actually gets me high. Gliding my bike across the tunes of my mind we made to “Sami Eari” in no time .Here we pulled over again and for taking in the entire ambience. After which we reached back Denkankottai, and from there we proceeded in the interior roads for the next 25kms or so to hear back the highway at Hosur.

Once we reached back Hosur, we continued and as we entered Attibele, we called up Nitya and asked his call on sitting at our regular dhaba at Nagarbhavi. Once Nitya agreed, Gow and me took the NICE road to Mysore road and reached the Dhaba. Nitya from Tumkur road, came to the same place as well.

TIME: 12:30

After fooling around for about 3-4hours, talking about work basically and our time to together as GET’s :P, we left the dhaba afloat. Nitya proceeded towards his home, where as Gow and me took the NICE road back to Hosur road. I dropped Gow back home as he was recovering from an accident. Then I took the city route, when all hell broke loose. I think I didn’t risk much but I made it back to Devegowda petrol bunk in 25mins from Bomnahalli hehe.

I directly went to the service centre and started yelling at the people, saying bike’s becoming worse week by week, see the console, blah blah. As I kept swearing at him, a guy came opened the seat, replaced the burnt fuse within a minute and said my bike’s console is ready. I had not even completed half the swearing’s I had in mind :P Hehe! Anyways I reached back home happy to have completed a new place unexpectedly.

TIME: 17:00

CONCLUSION:

“This was another amazing chapter to another new place in Tamil Nadu. Liked the trip mainly because it was unplanned and we were just riding into the unknown. Bettamugilalam was something I had heard very long back, and all off a sudden to pull off a trip was a damn nice feeling!”

Until next time, Cia \m/