29) HimvadGopalaswamy hills(himavad gopalaswamy hills) : (5/2/2011)

29) HimvadGopalaswamy hills : (5/2/2011)

Place: Himvadgopalaswamy Hills.

Distance: 250x2 = 500 kms.

Bikes: GS > Pulsar.

Participants: Manu > Arun > Sp.

Directions:

Banglore > Mysore > Nanjungud > Gundelpet > Himvadgopalswamy Hills.

Previous Visit : Kabbladurga trek

INTRO:

Well this was the first biggest trip out of the trips we had covered so far, about 14 hrs of riding. First time encountering a cobra in the wild. It is the tallest peak of Bandipur Forest, famous for its Elephant sightings. Its about 70-80 kms from mysore.

PLAN:

Okay the initial plan was Yercaud the famous hill station in Tamil Nadu , then it was a fix between Himvad & Yercaud. Only Manu , Arun & myself were ready this time. So we decided to meet up at my place 04:00hrs and then decide the destination.

TIME: 23:00 hrs (4/2/2011)

RIDE I : ( Bangalore – Ramnagara )

03:00hrs I was up… washed my face , got ready and did a few push ups and went outside at around 4am, Surprisingly Arun showed up at exact 4:15am , and parked his bike in my garage , 10mins latter manu also showed up , we decided to go to Himvad as manu could meet his younger brother in Mysore. We left my house at around 4:30am.

Sh-17 is a brilliant road no doubt... but it was dark & it was very cold... we kept a decent pace of 60’s … one scary incident took place on Sh17.. An Indica which was going at good speed all of a sudden stopped n the middle of the road and we were right behind, somehow managed to evade it.

It started becoming really cold and hands began to shiver , so we stopped in front of Ramnagar jail & the first thing we did was keep our hands on the exhausts of our bikes ha-ha !! Had some biscuits & buns.

TIME: 05:00 hrs

RIDE II: (Ramnagar – Maddur – Srirangapatna)

After having snacks , maddur was decided as the next destination . We followed a truck and kept a safe distance from it. We reached Maddur Tiffany’s & opened the shutter of the hotel and asked if there was anything available Ha-ha !!

TIME:06:00hrs

As the shooed us away we got back on our bikes and rode slowly in search of a hotel for tea/coffee . We kept riding and we reached Srirangapatna to witness on of the best sunrises till date.

TIME: 07:00hrs

RIDE III : (Srirangapatna – Mysore for Breakfast)

After spending about 30 mins on the highway wandering around we left for mysore. Mysore is about 20 kms from Srirangapatna.. we reached Mysore in about half an hour and found a decent hotel just before entering the Mysore – Nanjungud Road. had nice Idly Vada & Coffee And left towards nanjungud.

TIME:08:30hrs

RIDE IV: (Mysore – Gundelpet – Himvadgopalswamy hills)

Nanjungud is about 25 kms from mysore , the road is kind of okay with a few patches here and there. After we reached nanjungud.. the roads became very good again… and we reached Gundelpet which is about 60kms from mysore in a very short amount of time. A 10km right deviation from lead us to the foot of the himvadgopalaswamy hills, where we encountered a checkpost.

TIME:10:30hrs

RIDE V: ( Ghats Of Himvadgopalaswamy hills)

Well the entry prices had gone up nearly 10 times….

Cars: Rs50 to Rs500

Buses & Trucks : Rs200 to Rs2000

Bikes: Rs25 to Rs100

When enquired the police guard also said ... we couldn’t take no plastics to the top and there was more bummers

1) Could spend only one hour at the top.

2) Going beyond temple premises was banned.

3) Two boys went missing into the forest a few weeks back.

So we were put in a dilemma whether to go or no…Manu said Bandipur , I exclaimed Waynad… but yeah after coming so far.. it wouldn’t fair of us to skip this place , so decided to go up.

The ride after the checkpost is through the forest ghats , and believe me the road is very bad. The ghat was steep and over that patches in between… it was fun riding in this stretch. We kept going checking out the beautiful valley below us and getting some fresh oxygen at higher altitude ha-ha!! Finally after 20-30 mins we reached he top.

TIME:11:00hrs

TEMPLE:

At the top it was like a whole different world , it was so cool & breezy. We were a little disappointed that it wasn’t green , and no elephants could be sighted grazing around the temple. It’s usually very foggy and greenery prevails… truly a marvelous place.

We got the pooja done, and we could see the fog condensing as water on the walls … and we went outside and sat enjoying the tranquility and cool breezy wind. Then finally we left the temple after praying again for one last time.

TIME: 11:45hrs

RIDE VI : ( Temple – Check post ; Cobra encounter)

Okay we rode back as slow as possible down the ghats , negotiating the curves with caution. Then I spotted something move amidst the dried leaves… once I realized it was a huge snake I stopped my bike in excitement and switched off the engine and told Arun to help me catch the snake ( I’m not exaggerating this is exactly how it happened ha-ha!!)

Arun thought I had gone crazy caught my jacket and pulled me back … but I got down. Manu who had stopped ahead of us thought it was a small rat snake and came back to see , once he spotted it .. the change of expression in his face was amazing… he yelled tat it was charging at us.. I turned back to see it coming Arun pulled me back on the bike and we were off ( well he just saved my life :D).. reached the Check post and collected our things from the guards .

TIME:12:15hrs

RIDE VII: (Himvad – Mysore)

Once we got back down the hills , the temperature went up & the heat was unbearable. We thought of having lunch at mysore which was still an hour away so rode at a decent pace till najungud thanks to the good roads, and finally we stopped at beautiful lake nearMysoreoutskirts. Took a few mins break did a few stretches and were ready to ride.

TIME: 13:15hrs

As we entered Mysore the traffic was bad , and finding a hotel was difficult , finally we got a decent hotel sat down and had proper meals :D

TIME: 14:30 hrs

RIDE VIII: ( Mysore-Srirangapatna)

After the lunch we washed our faces and sat on the footpath, hanging around till manu’s brother phoned us. We went and picked him up from his hostel and headed towards Srirangapatna. SH 17 in the noon , so very less traffic it was easy riding we reached Srirangapatna in a very short span of time.

TIME:15:15hrs

SRIRANGAPATNA:

There are many places to visit at srirangapatna including tippu grave , sangama etc etc… but we went directly to the river sangama. We got our shoes off and kept our feet in the cold river water … whew that was a relief , we washed our faces & thought of having tea/coffee near by.. then we decided we would stop at maddur tifany’s to have something to eat . So we sat on the banks and relaxed for a good 30-40mins. Then we got our shoes back on and headed towards Maddur.

TIME:16:15hrs

RIDE IX : (Srirangapatna – Maddur)

Maddur is about 40 -50 kms from Srirangapatna , we requested Manu’s brother to join us till banglore , but he insisted that he had to get back to the hostel in mysore on the same day. So we dropped him off at the bus stop and we carried on to reach MT .

TIME:17:30hrs

MADDUR TIFFANY’s:

We had nice Masala dosa & Coffee and sat on the swing for 15mins and left MT .

TIME: 18:00hrs

RIDE X: (Maddur-Banglore)

The last 80 kilometers was just formality , good 4-lane road . The sun went down pretty fast , traffic got heavier , we could see train lights far away .. ha-ha !! those were all signs of a good finish to this wonderful trip… as we entered banglore TRAFFIC…. Got stuck for about 30-40 mins and finally we reached home and got some well deserved sleep :D

TIME:20:15hrs

Participants Check:

1) Manohar - Led the the way through the worse road and made us meet his younger brother .

2) Arun - Had come on time :P tats the greatest thing he could give.. ha-ha !! was sitting behind me all throughout the trip.

Ciao until next time \m/

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