This was not a trip of Heroic deeds, but to feel the the raw intensity, brute magnetism, wild passion and to sense the unbridled power being exuded by the very air around.
For long I have been planning for this trip. Anhsu gone to Mauritius and Shankar busy with his packing for USA, I decided to do this trip with Suneet (my office mate). When I asked him he was ready in the first place. On April 12th, 2008 , we started our journey. We decided to commence by morning 5:30AM. But damm Suneet and his sleep. We could only start by 7:00 AM. I packed my tents, sleeping bag and new cramster bag in my bike. We met at MG road. Reached Yaswanthpura and started rolling towards Tumkur Road. Advice for others please try to avoid this road, instead, if possible get on the Nice Road which joins to Tumkur Road. From Neelamangala take the left turn (NH48) towards Hasan. The roads were good. We kept on driving at 90-100kph. Reached Kunigal by 10Am. Had Katte Idli in our breakfast. We started again, the sun was high and there was a sense of humidity in the air due to the recent rains. It was all green around. And riding through that was quite magnificent. We reached Hasan by 11:30AM. From Hasan the road diverts to Chikmaglur. We got little bit confused in Hasan on getting the right road. Anyway we reached Chikmaglur by 1:00PM. Had lunch there only. It was really hot by the afternoon. We tried to call the Horticulture Guest House, Kemenagundi. But it seemed all the rooms got full.
We decided to keep moving. As soon as we left Chikmaglur and reached the foot hills of Baba-budan giri the wind became really heavy on me and my avenger. But still I was able to make it to the hills. As soon as we were in the dense woods there wind got stopped. The sense of the majestic hills in front mesmerized both of us. The more we drove, the more we wanted to drive. The beauty was never ending and never repeating. There was always new to sense, feel and see. Every turn was hidden with its own splendor views. On the one side of hill it was dense woods and on the other whole moutain was fully covered wit green grasses only. The road then divided into two. The left goes to Kemenagundi and right to Baba Budan Giri. Baba Budan Giri was really really steep climb. We made it till Baba Budan Giri by 4:30PM. We decided to climb further till the Menaka Dhara. Some 6kms more from Baba Budan peeth. After we reached Menaka Dhara I made myself clear that I need to be here. It was not that I was tired of driving but the view really made me to fall in love with. When I told this to Suneet he was little depressed since he wanted to explore more and spend the night time in Kemenagundi. But I choose not to drive in the night.
We asked local shop walas and they were ready to help us with our dinner needs etc. We kept our bags and everything in the shop. Parked our bikes. And did some trekking. Man the wind was. I felt as if I had little lesser wight I could have been overthrown from the ground. It was tremendous, barbaric. The existence of only grasses in the top of the hill is very easy to understand, its the wind that doesn't allow trees to grow big. The biggest adventure in our trip was when we noticed a dead buffalo half eaten up by tiger. Suneet was on his cloud number 9. He was more thrilled to be there than me. We put our tents near the shops since the wind didnt allow us to do elsewhere. By night it grew chilly at the hill top. Asraf family took the whole responsibility of helping us. Sitting on the top of hill, seeing the twinkling millions of stars above our head and the glittering chikmaglur city lights down the hills, Mr Asraf brought cups of tea for us. Woha what else do we need. After a while me and Suneet were having our OH sessions when we met the forest ranger Lalu. He came to check the corpse of half eaten Buffalo. He said Tigers generally come back to their feed. So we needed to be little careful since the corpse was hardly one and half kms away. With the OH gulping throug our throats we heard his stories about the jungle and the tiger. The dinner was ready. Parothas, aalu ki sabji and omlettes. After dinner again a cup of tea before we go to sleep. While both of us were in tent we could sense the majestic feel of the nature. The wind grew more and both were wondering to see us flying high when we woke up :).
The next morning was inexplicable. It was superb view. Suneet was busy enjoying the scene. Mr Asraf prepared the tea. And we had idis in our breakfast. All the stuff for idlis an chatnis were grinded by hand only. We packed our stuff and were back on the road again. The breathtaking view was never ending. We were back on Kemenagundi road and driving through the dense dense forest. Some small water stream were worth to stop for a while and enjoy its chillness. Then suddenly we came out of the serene dense forest and high moutains stood with their pride covered all with grass in front of us. We reached Kemenagundi by 10:30AM. We did a trek till Z-point. It was really shocking to see Kemenagundi, my idea of Kemenagundi was similar to that of Ooty. But the place is still untouched by humans and its nutural beauty is still kept intact. By 12:00 noon we decided to get driving to reach Bangalore. We covered Kalhatti falls while coming back. We decided on taking the Birur, Tumkur NH206 on our way back. The roads are in good condition. Quite a ride we had.
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