We had planned to ride during the long Ugaadi weekend, from 5th to 7th April, a month earlier. Abhi and I took a day off from office, on the 4th of April hoping for a peaceful ride out of the city before the holiday and weekend crowd started to choke the highway. A cousin’s wedding reception that ended late and the last minute packing left us only with three hours of sleep. Managed to drag ourselves out of the bed, and within a hour we hit the road.
Bangalore – Tumkur – Shimoga – Sagar:
We headed towards Tumkur where we stopped for breakfast at Kamat Upchar. The name Kamat makes one think of delicious Idli – vadas and steaming hot Sambar with fresh spicy coconut chutney. But all we got here was bad food and the worst Tea! Situated 20kms from Tumkur, Gubbi, a small busy town was the birth place of a famous Kannada theater artist, Veeranna. Subsequently christened Gubbi Veeranna, he started the Gubbi Veeranna Nataka Company, where Dr. Rajkumar was an artist and later went to become the Kannada movie idol that he is today.
Riding on we crossed Nittur and Tiptur after which it got a bit greener around. It was getting hotter as the day progressed and it got really warm inside the Frank Thomas riding jacket. ‘Welcome to the Municipal Corporation of Bad Roads!’ Abhi said as we entered Arsikere. We were forewarned before leaving for this ride that the roads from Arsikere were messed up. But then as we rode, we were surprised that the roads dint really look all that bad except for a few bad patches here and there. Both of us weren’t really hungry because of the late breakfast. We decided to take advantage of the sparse traffic during lunch time and cover as much distance as possible. It was blistering hot and the freshly laid tarmac looked dark grey. The only respite was the green carpet of grass that followed the road on the either side. Untimely rains all over Karnataka over the past week seemed to have had a positive side to it.
Cruised through Kadur, Birur, Tarikere and Bhadravati and by around 4 in the evening we reached Shimoga, now rechristened Shivamogga. At one place, Iron Ore from Kemmanagundi that was being transported to Bhardavati through electric trolleys, crossed directly above the road. These electric lines can easily be mistaken for normal power lines in the absence of these trolleys. Very efficient I thought.
I was quite hungry and Abhi remembered that last time he had stopped at restaurant in Shimoga on the way to a (yet another!) cousin’s wedding; dint remember the name, but remembered the direction to the place. It turned out to be ‘Hotel Ashoka Delux’, pretty decent place, with a huge parking lot.
The best part about the place is that they don’t bother you too much even if you stay put for long and the only time the waiters were around us were when we called them to place an order. We rested there for almost an hour and continued towards Sagar.
The next 65 kms of riding to Sagar was pure pleasure. With lush green jungles, beautiful winding wide roads and pleasant evenings, Malnad holds a different charm altogether. We had planned to stay over at a relative’s place at Kogod, a few kms off Sagar. It was almost dark when we got to Kogod and after some asking around, a short eerie ride through the forest in the dark with some off-road thrown in, we reached the house. Exchanged niceties and freshened up.
After a nice simple dinner, uncle tempted us to a small trek up a hill the next morning, promising a beautiful view. We dint want to miss that for anything, and so decided to call it a night.
Early next morning we were off with uncle to the small hill. Drove a couple of kilometers and then trekked up the hill. The higher we got, the better the view was. Mist covered valleys of the Western Ghats and miles of greenery all around, it was a breathtaking sight. Got to the top of hill to find that the view on the river Sharavati side of the hill was completely covered by the mist and clouds. We had climbed well above the clouds and it felt like heaven on earth! The mist had begun to rise and if we had waited we would have probably got to see the river. Due to the lack of time, we got going, promising to be back to spend more time. Got back to the house, packed and bid goodbye to the hosts.
Sagar – Jog – Sirsi – Umachagi – Chippagere:
A ride on winding roads of around 30 kms from Sagar took us to the gates of Jog which read ‘Welcome to the World Famous Jog Falls’ 
This would be my first visit and I was looking forward to it. But as we rode over the bridge across the gate, the chances of existence of a waterfall looked very bleak: the water level in Sharavati was low. Abhi even thought of turning back, but then since it was only a couple of more kms, we rode on. We got to the view point and lo! the river split into four parts and rushed down 900 feet of rugged rocks to form the famous ‘Raja’, ‘Rani, ‘Roarer’ and Rocket’. During the monsoons, the river swells, merging all the four into one very huge waterfall and also sometimes not much can be seen because of the mist. In fact, if one wants to see Jog and the famous 4, this is better. The waterfall looks so fantastic and peaceful that no photograph can capture its beauty. We spent one cool hour sitting right in front of it, and had to will ourselves to get going.
We hit the Sagar–Sirsi highway and by afternoon we were in Sirsi. Had a not so great lunch at Hotel Panchavati (not recommended) and headed back into town to pick up some fruits and munchies for the relatives at Chippagere. As we got ready to leave, the bike refused to start. It was a persistent problem that’s cropping up every time we stopped and this time no matter how many times Abhi tried, it did not budge 
We then looked for a repair shop, found one ‘Chaitra Garage’. It looked liked the there was an airlock in the tank because of the tank bag and the problem seemed to be fixed. The owner of the garage chatted with us for a while about the bike, where we’re riding from etc, and finally refused to take any money. With a nice thought that nothing can match the huge hearts of our village folks , we rode on and by evening we reached Ummachagi, took a deviation and rode towards our Grandma’s house in Chippagere. We stayed here for Ugaadi celebrations, visiting relatives’ homes amidst sprawling Arecanut plantations and paddy fields. For the next two days, we were being doted on and it felt like a luxury just to be doing nothing!
Chippagere – Yellapur – Arbail – Gokarna:
Since we were relatively closer to the west coast, we decided to spend a day at Gokarna before heading back home. Started early after a quick breakfast, since we were told that the route till the Bedti river bridge was not that great. The roads were pathetic till we got out of Yellapur and we were hoping that the previous night’s confirmation about Arbail Ghats being freshly tarred was true. It was! The climb down was neat with curvy roads lined by scenic ghats. We couldn’t really do great speeds since we had slow down often to let the load carrying lorries and trucks to climb up. As we descended a joker on a Pulsar with a messenger bag started to race with us. We had a good time egging him on till it got to a point where his riding and overtaking the other vehicles got really dangerous. We thought we’d not risk and let him be with his antics!
We continued on the Kumta road with the view of Aghanashini river here and there. We could smell the sea breeze as we neared the coast. Closer to Gokarna, the coastal backwaters could be seen, many of them serving as prawn/shrimp farms. By afternoon that day, crossing Balale, Madangeri and Torke, we reached Gokarna. Called a few friends to figure out the stay for the night and decided to check out the IB guest house or Om Beach Resort. Got to the IB Guest house, only to be told that the place was not open due to elections. We then rode towards the Om Beach Resort which is run by Jungle Lodges, which we initially missed due a disappearing directions on the board. Stopped near a fancy looking place very close to the beach and thought we’ll check that out just for the heck of it; turned out that it was exorbitantly priced as we had guessed. We finally found the resort, checked in and spent a relaxed, chilled-out day.
Gokarna – Kumta – Honnavar – Gerusoppa – Sagar – Shimoga – Tumkur – Bangalore:
We were to ride back to Bangalore today. To make the ‘riding-home-blues’ ease out a bit, we rode towards the Sharavati Valley. A ride of about an hour took us to the midst of thick tropical forests of western ghats. The jungles start where the road ends on either side; The gigantic trees thick canopy cuts out most of the sunlight and the forest look dark even in the midday sun. The air was so pure and filled scents from the wild, that in this bit of the ride, I had my visor open and cared a damn about the sun burn or dust in my eyes. Crossed the Gerusoppa dam and after a fantastic climb and reached the watch tower. What we saw from the tower was heaven itself: towering western Ghats with unending dense forest and the majestic Sharavati flowing through the valley. What a sight! It was so overwhelming looking at the superlative beauty that lay in front of me that I felt small and insignificant. We stood in the watch tower, quiet and mesmerized taking in the view and there was absolute peace since we were the only two around. After a while, some travelers stopped at the tower and it was time for us to leave.
We rode non-stop to Sagar and had lunch at a relative’s place in Varadamula. Rested for a while and rode back to Bangalore with a brief stop for tea at Shimoga and later some snacks at Arsikere. Reached home before midnight and we had done ~1200 kms. Of all the places we visited, the view of the Sharavati valley from the Gerusoppa watch tower will stay with us for a very long time.
Where are these places?
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