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 6th 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/
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