The week before Deepawali saw me out of Bangalore on a weeklong solo trip into various places in north Karnataka. The Thunderbird had run about 600kms and had the first service the day I headed out of Bangalore. It was still running in, so it was obvious that this was going to be a relaxed ride.
The ride was mainly concentrated in and around the Uttara Kannada district as it has my dad’s hometown, Chipageri and I have a lot of relatives whom I’d not met in a long time. The total distance covered was about 1300kms.
Got up early on Monday and headed straight to the service station for the service and hung around at my mechanic’s place till late noon when my bike was ready. The day I headed out of Bangalore, there were showers and was prepared for a wet ride. But luckily the only showers I ever caught during the ride were in Bangalore! Not a single drop of rain anywhere else!! I decided to skip lunch, to get out of Bangalore to avoid the increased traffic levels. So, once out on the highway, I rode till I reached the Tumkur Toll Road. I decided to take a snap of the bike fully loaded with the Cramster gear but didn’t find my camera. A quick call home confirmed that I’d left it there! So, I just had to make use of the lousy camera in the phone for the rest of the trip. Rode on for another 100 km’s before stopping for a late lunch. The bike seemed perfect and very comfortable. The really low rpm’s at which it chugs along make it very relaxing.
Some distance before Davanagere, I happened to catch up with a couple of riders. They turned out to be from the Mumbai bullet club called the InddieThumpers. One of them was riding an Eliminator and the other on a Thunderbird350. Decided to stop at Davanagere for a small chat, but due to a lot of confusion with the ongoing construction work on NH4 a part of the Golden Quadrilateral, I lost track of them. If you guys happen to read this give me a shout!
I stopped next only at Haveri and decided to crash out there for the night, since it was already 2230 and the rest of the trip to my hometown would comprise of smaller inner roads whose state I had no clue about.
The next day, had break fast and rode out to Chipageri and was happy as I didn’t go in the night as I would have either lost my way or got fed up with the pothole ridden roads. Finally reached and spent the time till evening over there. Other than an overnight trip to Hubli to visit some family friends, I spent all my time till Saturday in and around Chipageri. The roads there are all mostly dirt and I was surprised that the Thunderbird was not all that difficult to ride on this rough terrain despite not looking up to the part. I even took my cousin out to search for a male buffalo that had lost it’s way in the jungle, LoL!!!! The bike stood up to everything and was pretty manageable there. Other than the odd outing like this I was mainly involved in the festivities of Deepavali and didn’t get to ride all that much.
Gave the bike a good wash on Saturday morning and finally managed to convince the people that I needed to carry on since I had plans of going to Om Beach near Gokarna. Left for Om beach immediately after lunch since the plan was to meet a few friends from office there. The ride to Om beach was pretty interesting. Discounting the first 15-20kms the roads were beautifully done up. Wide, no potholes and neatly marked with white lines. I happened to ride to Arbail Ghat on the way between Yellapur and Arbail. It’s a nice piece of ghat section and not very twisty. It has long sweeping corners and with high visibility. A road not to be missed if you’re in that part of Karnataka. Did the ~150kms ride in under 3hrs and joined the rest of the gang. Dumped the luggage in the rooms that had been booked and headed out straight to the beach. After chilling out there for a while headed back to the rooms and stayed up late in the night. Even managed to watch a Ladakhi movie called Samsara.
The excellent wash from the previous day was wasted due to the terrain out there. The red sand had formed a nice film over every exposed surface. Got one of the workers at the resort to clean it, which he did very thoroughly. A word of caution to guys going there, if you can avoid taking your vehicles out near the beach do it. The cleaning part of it is painful and not worth it.
Started out from there after a brunch and headed towards Sagar through Jog Falls. The route was beautiful and ghat section though not very wide had very less traffic. But, Jog in itself was a letdown. There was hardly any water flowing and looked pathetic. Didn’t stop there for long and just headed out to some relatives’ places around Sagar. Stayed in a village near there for the night.
The last day of my trip was pretty uneventful. A straight ride back to Bangalore with only a couple of stops for lunch and chai. Reached at about 1700 and straight in to a hot shower! Luckily I didn’t have to make use of the raingear, tools or the puncture kit even once on this ride.
Some photos from the ride: Looking for the lousy snaps still.