The Loapers | 200+ Epic Road Trips & Treks in Karnataka, and Beyond

Saturday, October 16, 2010

The 300km Shivanasamudra Bluff Expedition: The 85km/hr Near-Miss, Rescuing Friends from the Waterfalls' Current, and the Rare Double Rainbow | Chapter 19 (Aug 28, 2010)

Place: Shivanasamudra = Gaganchukki + Barachukki.

Distance: 150 x 2 = 300kms.

Directions:

1) Bengaluroo > Kanakpura > Mallavali > Shivnasamudra

2) Bengaluroo > Maddur > Mallavali > Shivnasamudra.

Participants : DiLLi > Abhilash > Dhanush > "S" > Manu > Gauressh > Arvi >Sp .

Bikes : Gs150 >Royal Enfield Thunderbird > Apache150 >Pulsar .

Previous Visit: Kanva Mechanix Tour.

INTRO:

It was 7 days since the Kanva trip….. we wanted to hit the road. & hit big this time!! Last time it was 120kms…this time 300 kms :D…..YUP - Shivnasamudra and not to forget THE ISRO lake too :P .

Alrit on 27^th due to a lot of confusion and loads of texts …. The trip was cancelled… then we all started working out a plan at about 11pm… Dillip , Abhishek S (“s”) , Abhilash, ,Manu , and Gaureesh confirmed their spots !!! Arvi , Dany & myself stayed up late night till about 2 am …confirming the people and bikes and the place decided was Muthyala maduvu – pearlvalley !!!

Next day morning 6:30am…. Dany was the 1^st to arrive at my house!! Then Dillip , latter Gaureesh , “s” , abhilash…Manu turned up….after about 20 mins more arvi also joined us!!! Now the place was not yet decided….”s” was for pearl valley… Dany , Gau was for Shivna!! ARvi , manu , Abhilash, DilLi & me were ok with anything…. So fianlly Shivnasamudra was decided as it was at its best , i had visited it about 7 days prior to this trip.

WRONG TURN TO ISRO LAKE:

So we went to the petrol bunk 1^st… then after a long discussion it was Shivna :) … then arvi & me said NICE road was the best route to get to kanakpura road…. It would save us a lot of time … ( we had been to shivna on 14/3/10) But Dillli told he knew a shorter route to Kanakpura so we followed him & headed on mysore road we reached kengeri, from then it was only traffic filled, but after a lot of riding in the small roads with lots of pot holes we ended up in a water body called the ISRO lake. We were all furious , but yeah it was not a bad place at all, we had the privilege to see one of the best bird races ever witnessed . After spending some quality time there we left to the pre planned destination Shivanasamudra.

RIDE TO SHIVNA:

Finally we reached kanakpura road… and we were way behind the NICE road entry…so we hit it… and hit it hard….We reached a small dhaba …finished our breakfast ..and headed towards shivnasamudra… There was this incident.,, I was going at 85-90’s…. overtaking a bus…opposite side pulsar rushes in…squeezed between the two :O … the part of my jacket on left arm touchin the bus…and the one on right touchin that guys shirt at 80+km/hr… It was scary , but yeah dangerous at the same time !!

GAGANCHUKKI:

Finally we headed in full flow…the road to shivnasamudra is pure heaven!!! :) …reached kanakpura and headed further towards shivnasamudram… on the way the the place we saw many cyclists traveling after kankpura…. Then in a after a steady ride… we were at the 1^st part of shivna …Gaganchukki…. Here at this place we cant get down in water…we saw the waterfalls from a viewpoint. It was pretty full and one can never get tired of looking at it… it is the 2nd hydro-electric power station in Asia after shimshapura … and Gaganchukki belongs to Mandya district..whereas the 2^nd part barachukki belongs to chamrajnagar district…

BARACHUKKI:

Then we headed towards barachukki…. . its about a 10 km ride from gaganchukki…. With a 2km bumpy ride.!!! We reached barachukki ..parked our bikes ... we climbed down a long way to reach a small stream which packed super power…. As we were crossing it , Dilli slipped and the currents started dragging him away, but he was ale to pull himself back. After crossing the stream, we were right in front of the falls and this really tempted us to go one step further and sit below the power packed falls.

BELOW THE FALLS:

There was no stopping us… everybody got down into water …the water was pretty dangerous as the falls packed in a lot of power… I decided to stay back and take care of the bags… after sometime… I tried getting down in water… the power … It was intense.. then we stood right below the falls!!! Everybody else climbed on the rocks and started jumping from it :D …. The water falling on the rocks… man it was an amazing sight!!! :)

Then after about 2hrs … decided to head back… just then I turn back & see a monkey … it had opened my bag’s zip..kept my shirt , my documents, my towel all the things aside…and taken only 4 biscuits!!! Ha-ha

Then we decided to have something and head back to Bangalore…..again we had to cross the stream !!! Damn…. This time diLLi threw his shoes to the other side.. people arnd took shelter from the incoming shoe attack :P… evrbody crossed safely …. While crossing back Dany slipped and fell into the water…. I got down and caught his leg… and managed to pull him back… finally we crossed the stream.

Then we had to climb back all the way we came… believe me it was the hardest part!!! We took 2 pit stops… and finally made it back… had juice, churmuri, DilLi , arvi dany had fish.. etc etc… finally we headed back to Bangalore!!

TWO RAINBOWS: ( RIDE BACK)

It started raining and it was pretty heavy… we stopped at a small shop had tea ..and waited for the rain to slow down… once it reduced we continued….We stopped at a petrol bunk as manu wanted to refuel!! Well after tat…there was no stopping Dany…diLLi , manu & me stuck together..The drive back was kikass!!! Open shirts… Cool weather… and we looked up the sky to witeness a wonderful sight, there were 2 rainbows at the same time…it was my 1^st time seeing it :D… finally when we were a few kms from kankpura… Dany and abhilash were waiting for us since 15mins :D!!! Then arvi took over my bike and we headed further… we drove at a decent pace…and reached my place at 6:30 pm… and after that, It started pouring cats!!!...we had caape, tea , puff, etc etc… and watched the rain… :) :)

Finally we all headed back home!!!

WHEW!!! 300kms in day again was super awesome… the falls was at its best!! And we were right below it \m/

MAPS:

ALL PHOTOS:

⬅️ 18. Kanva Resevoir 20. Maddur ➡️

Sunday, October 10, 2010

The 120km Kanva Mechanixx Ride: 15 People, 8 Bikes, the Reservoir Rescue, and Cruising Through the Record Rainfall | Chapter 18 (Aug $21$, $2010$)

Place: Kanva.

Distance: 60 x 2 = 120 kms.
Directions: Bengaluroo > Ramnagara (right) > Kanva.
Participants : Arvi > Arun > Ashok > Kg >DiLLi > Dany >Anoop > MAdan > Madhu >Endu >"S" > Gaushi > Manu > Chinta >Sp .
Bikes: GS150 > RTR > Pulsar >Unicorn > Thunderbird > Fz 16 > RX > Pulsar .

Previous Visit: Night Trek at skandagiri.

After a month of trips with family ( to hogenekal , shivnasamudra ,BR hills, K.gudi , Ramnagar,Mysore,Mandya etc etc…) was totally bored!!! It was a picnic and not a battle to survive till end….

INTRO:

21/8/10 was THE DAY… (5 days after the commencement of 5^th semester ) we were going to Kanva!!! we planned the trip in the morning…and calculated the number of people coming , number of bikes etc etc as the class was going on :D ( we’r mechie’s and tat to us is more important :P)

WE =

Ashok ( ashokey)

Dhanush ( dany)

Anoop ( anupaa)

Gaureesh ( Gaushi)

Arvind ( Arvi)

Arun ( Mr.slowpoke)

Adithya ( KG!!)

Chaitnya ( ES)

Madan ( MAddy)

MAdhu ( Mr. Gundumani)

Manohar( Manu)

Dileep ( ISRO KING dillipa)

Chinta ( Gambler Chintu)

Abhishek S ( "S" )

Karthik ( Sp)

ROYAL RIDE:

10:15 am break, we all assembled at our bakery, and waited for Dilli and dany to join us. Finally when they joined us, hmmm well we owned the road!! :D … 8 bikes …15 people, nobody on the road ( including cops ) dared to stop us ( OK it was a lil OVER but hope u get the picture :D :D !!!!)

We traveled at a good pace… Gaushi and Dilli were long gone!!! Dany , Abhi S , Arvi , Chaitnya , Manu and me were going in a proper convoy!! Arun was about 15 min behind us as he had fill petrol!! Then from nowhere a Unicorm zoomed past us… latter we realized it was Arun :O . Dany on a thunderbird .. holy shit tat was a sight which tat to be captured…. It was like a huge mantis shredding the road !!! :D Tat was not all… when Chaitnya got on the thunderbird it was entertainment guaranteed… the way he played around with bike… hahaha!!! :D :D

Finally all 15 of us met at Ramnagar signal…and headed further towards Kanva… Gaushi me and Arun were together now… not for long though…Gaushi Zoomed away.. it was on only arun and me cruising… others were ripping at 90’s on a small gully road , making killer bends , with pants touchin the ground :O. ARun ( +kg) ,me(+Shok) chatted our way to kanva and took our own time…. And finally YUP!!!! All 15 of us were At KANVA \m/

KANVA:

It was a sight il never forget , had mechie written all over Kanva tat day !!!Then I went down near the water and inspected ...( hope they remb this :D) then when everything was OK…. It was a GO!!! Everbody got ready to get into the water except Chintu… we agreed ( cos we had other plans on our mind :P) we left Chinta and got into the super water of kanva!! :)

It was “S”’s b`day and bashing him up at KANVA was simply entertaining…. Well we also tried bashing up Gaushi , Gundu, Dany , Anoop but it didn’t quite work out… ( COMMONNN they’r power houses). Then all us went ashore … chinta was daydreaming…caught him and threw him into the water :D :D Hehe!!!! Finally all 15 of us were in the water Cooling our engines Down :P.

BYE BYE FOOTBALL:

Then dilli got a football, we started the throwball Games….it was real fun!!! But this didn’t go on for long… Anoop the powerhouse threw the ball … it hit Chinta’s head …. And kept going….going ….goin…and going :D . it was in the middle of the reservoir…ashok tried chasing it,,it got further away… but he kept going… it was Damn deep at tat part of the reservoir… we were really worried , we called him back.. we soon realized tat he was struggling to swim :( , then Arvi and gaushi went and dragged him back into shallow waters… and then I took him ashore and made sure tat he was alright!! Tat was one hell of a stunt he pulled off…

Then anoop and dany took my bike and went to the opposite side of kanva to check on the ball. Then came the real fun part!!! Madan , Madu , manu, Arun and myself started having swimming races .. it was more of a running race :D :D. After about 2 hrs we all decide to get out of the water… after getting out ..Arvi and Chaitnya made one big laughter marathon…. Dilli and dany went on the perimeter check… it took them abt 20-30 minutes :D ONE HUGE ROUND it was!!!

RIDE BACK: ( Heaviest Rainfall)

Then we checked whether everything was intact and headed back to Bangalore… it was a small road …8 bikes sticking together was simply amazing to watch….!!!! It started Drizzling..we saw a nice dhaba on Mysore road…. we had Excellent lunch!!! The cool weather and the drizzle made the Oota Super awesome :)

After lunch we left . here comes the bestseseessessttt part of the trip….Heavy rains!!! I mean reaLL heavy…. It was actually a record ( 38mm in 2hrs), and were driving in it!!! All bikes together cruising at 60’s..HOLY SHIT!!! Tat formation was simply kickass \m/

We had everybody in sight….and it was a drive to remember!!! Then we stopped at Bidadi and had tea and Zoomed back to Bangalore :)