Categories: driving

Riding on a Bullet Thunderbird: Bangalore – Coorg – Kasaragod

On a sunny afternoon, in a time when winter was just making way to the hotter days, I took off from Bangalore on a bulky and noisy Bullet Thunderbird and headed towards Madikeri. Making my way slowly through the city traffic – thankfully I live at the edge of the town – I progressed towards Mysore Road in anticipation of the long ride ahead.


View Bengalore – Coorg – Kasargod in a larger map
Map and driving directions: Bangalore to Coorg and Kasaragod

Everyone tested my patience for the first fifteen minutes – the hot afternoon sun, the long waits at the signal, noise from the engines of BMTC buses that waited after me, the honking of impatient drivers in yellow numbered cabs and the auto-rickshaws that cut into my lane. I struggled past the crowds, balancing the huge bike that weighed three times my body. In the days of agile modern bikes that slipped through the traffic, getting on the Bullet felt like riding an ancient giant that has refused to come of age. It is supposed to be an ultimate symbol of manhood and make you feel macho and cool etc etc etc, but for someone who weighs 60 kilos and is used to going around in a lesser automobile, it is more like riding a bull gone out of control. And when the time comes to park on a rushed road that requires lot of squeezing in very small parking spaces, I am a worried man. But then, for this long journey I was about to make, there wasn’t much of choice but to endure the bull or suffer backaches and fatigue in a smaller metal horse. I chose the bull.

My first pit stop came quicker than I expected on sighting a tender coconut vendor. As I parked next to him and asked for the sweet water, a quick conversation ensued with another man with a brand new Thunderbird who had stopped to buy tender coconut and found some brotherhood in a fellow rider. Toys often help make friends. “Going on a trip..? Where..? By yourself..? Good! I am totally bored, I need to do something..” – “full bejaaragogide saar..”

Soon after filling up with tender coconut, I was off on wide roads without much traffic, cruising past Kanakapura Road, past the smooth toll road that links with Mysore road, past an accident that created a temporary traffic jam at Kengeri, and then Bidadi and Ramanagar. The uneventful ride on the two lane highway must have lasted less than an hour before it was lunch time. Lunch happened at Kamat Lokaruchi – the much appreciated and sought after place on the Bangalore – Mysore highway. Only five years back, Kamat was the only decent restaurant in the 140km long stretch. There must be hundred places now, but Kamat continues to draw crowds like then always did. I ordered their trademark Jolada Rotti Oota – the delicacy of North Karnataka – for lunch and followed up with ice-cream dipped Basundi for desserts. Delicious!

Another long and stretch of tide followed, taking me through Mandya and Maddur to Srirangapatna through the monotony of the plains. The rewards of the ride started showing up when I turned off from the highway after Srirangapatna, where fresh green saplings of paddy painted the earth pretty. It was beyond 4pm and I had much of the road to cover before evening, but the superb greenery would not let me go past without a short break for some pictures.

Turning off from Bangalore – Mysore highway, the road gets smaller and emptier for next 20 minutes. The small road has a lot more excitement and life built into it with its lush green fields, farmers treading back and forth in bullock carts and waterways of irrigation channels crisscrossing the landscape. Further on, it is back to a wide four-lane road on the Mysore – Coorg road that recreates the monotony and hurriedness of the highway from Bangalore. I wished for the wide well built roads to end soon and let me into the variety of the countryside that hasn’t lost a personal touch. To answer my wish, the four lanes converged into two before Hunsur and undulations started showing up in landscape as I moved closer to Coorg. The vegetation got richer as I rode ahead, and tall trees dominated the landscape beyond Piriyapatna.

It was sunset hour when I was nearing Kushalanagar. The hills of western ghats were becoming visible on the road ahead, and the road gently sloped up and down every now and then. The sun, now a beautiful red ball, went past a small hill to declare the end of the day. But he was back again for me to see when I rode past the hill the next minute, and disappeared for yet another brief moment when the road plunged into a depression.

I was hoping to get to Madikeri before sundown but fell short by an hour, and just made it to Kushalagar. Surprisingly, the 230km journey had not drained much of my energy. A mild pain in the back that nagged me for most of the day disappeared as soon as I got off the bike, and a quick shower refreshed me well enough that I barely felt any fatigue from the ride. Heavy bikes do have their benefits.

Kushalnagar was decorated that day with prayer flags, banners and posters to welcome His Holiness Dalai Lama who had arrived earlier. He was spending a few days at Bylakuppe to attend Losar – the Tiebtan new year festival. I was contemplating on a visit to the village, but the likelihood of big crowds and heavy security made me change plans.

The next morning, I woke up early and took off to Madikeri, up the western ghats and further ahead down the hills towards the sea, to Kasargod. The road, surrounded by thick greenery, started climbing up soon after Kushalangar. This part of the ride was pleasant – spotted doves wandered by the roadside pecking god-knows-what, and a few Rose Ringed Parakeets made quick flights as I drove through the forest. Occasional dazzle of red flowers of ‘flame of the forest’ created a distraction from continuous greenery. Once in a while the dense cover of the forest made some clearing to display the hills and valleys of the Sahyadris around me. After an hour’s ride, Madikeri emerged suddenly out of the greenery, and I was in the middle of the town before I knew it.

Stopping briefly for breakfast, I continued towards Kasargod. The winding road descended steadily through the forest, demanding little effort in acceleration. The next one hour took me through perpetual greenery and ridges that ran parallel to the road, with few villages and very little traffic. The landscape flattened and roads improved after Sampaje, a small town 30km from Madikeri. Now treading on easy roads with smooth tarmac, I lost my concentration on the road and day dreamed through most of my way.

The next break came in Sullya, somewhere close to the border of Kerala and Karnataka. The landscape turned hilly and picturesque again as I descended further towards coast, with the road forming a tunnel amidst thick vegetation that kept the hot sun away. Payaswini river skirted the road now and then, suddenly appearing as a flash of opening in the forest. Occasional opening in the forest opened up to vista of the rolling hills.

The arrival of Kerala was marked by a burst in political activism. Banners and logos covered the walls of bus stops, electric poles and compounds. Roads and trees were not spared either. Digital printing revolution has proliferated large posters with pictures of the self proclaimed leaders eager to uplift the human species.

There is a sudden demographic change on entering the national highway 17 at Cherkala, 10 kilometers ahead Kasargod. Now I was riding past dense population and the most unruly drivers on the way who seemed to find it a virtue to drive on the right lane, and believe that two wheelers do not deserve an identity. Thankfully it was a short ride from here, and I arrived at Kasargod at 2pm to end the long ride.


Categories: driving

Self Drive Car Rentals

My first ever tryst with self driven rented car was on a longish trip to Goa. Since then I have stuck to personal cars and have never bothered renting one. But a lot of people love to take a bigger car on rent and go on multi-day trips. Shrinidhi has a detailed post that answers all the basic questions for the first timer. Is it economical? How much do they cost? What are the risks? etc,..

Santro, Indica: Rs 1300-1500/Day, Getz/Swift: Rs 1800-2000 per day, Ford Ikon, Accent: Rs 2000-2200 per day, Ford Fiesta, Honda City: Rs 2200-2500 per day, Civic, Skoda Octavia, Toyota Corolla, Chevy Optra, Scorpio, Innova: Rs 3000-4000 per day. (note: A security deposit ranging between Rs 5000-20000 will be payable..

Read Self Drive rentals: cost comparison, procedures and more. He has many more stories on self driven rental cars. The post has links to all of them.


Driving to Shimla; Chail and Kufri

Travelling in Himachal in June – 2007
Shimla >> Manali >> Rohtang >> Chandratal >> Ki/Kibber/Tabo >> Kalpa >> Shimla
+ Previous: Giri River Camp
+ Next: A Day in Shimla
+ Go to beginning of the story or index page

Four of us left Giri River Camp and drove towards Shimla, taking a detour via the deodar forests of Chail and Kufri.

Winding mountain roads took us through pine forests interspersed with villages and small towns. We drove through them slowly and gently at speeds varying from 20kph to a high of forty plus. It was often narrow, and dangerous at blind curves and a moment unaware could immediately take us a few hundred feet down into the valley. But it is not as bad it appears and the road is more scenic than fearsome. I did not get behind the wheels, but for me, love is driving in the mountains and I have done many thousand kilometers of it down south. Nothing to beat the might of the Himalayas though; where in the world can you find mountains so tall and steep and yet so well connected and inhabited?

The other folks in the car were veterans of Himachal who gave me plenty of dope on the local way of life, culture, people and places as we drove on. There were hilarious stories to know about rich folks of Kinnaur with excessive obsession to alcohol, about the kindness of people in the high mountains, richly beautiful landscapes of Spiti, of landslides blocking the roads every now and then and so on. Apparently public transport can sometimes be faster than your own vehicle in Himachal’s roads frequently affected by landslides; in case of a landslide you can just walk across the slide and hop into a bus waiting on the other side.

We drove via Solan town on the Shimla highway and turned towards Chail at Kandaghat. Initially a vegetation of stout trees and shrubs with a generally dry atmosphere, things started changing as we climbed up towards Chail village. A small village it may be, but not undiscovered by Delhi’s footloose population trying to escape from the summer heat. Resorts and hotels litter the way and giant ad-hoardings welcome you to their properties in Chail. But thankfully, Chail village itself is unspoilt as the region around it has been declared a reserve forest and no construction permitted. The village is tiny and is marked by an old palace of the Maharaja of Patiala(now a hotel, Rs.10 for visitors to see) and the world’s highest full size cricket ground(no entry for visitors, but you can manage a sneak peek) owned by a school managed by the army. It was a moment of nostalgia for one of my friends in the car who did his schooling here and went on saying ‘this was our dormitory.. this was our classroom..’.

Chail
Deodar Forests of Chail

Chail is a different world and demarcates itself from the rest with sudden surge of deodar trees. They grow densely with little space left between trees, climbing higher and higher in search of more sunlight. But for a few rays of the mid-day sun escaping the branches and falling on the tarmac, sunlight never makes it to the ground. The temperature dips considerably on approach to the village and you have to look hard to find a place to bask in the shine. The thick vegetation occasionally gives out in steep slopes, revealing the gigantic Himalayan valleys and waves of mountain peaks beyond them. The same tall trees also hide the concrete resorts and hotels on the road approaching the village.

The one main road on the village is littered with restaurants and shops, giving an unlikely feeling of a busy town. But it is hardly a hundred meter long and in a sudden twist, makes way for the prolific deodars. Chail is the quintessential Himalayan village perfect for travel brochures; an ideal retreat that has hardly changed much within its borders.

Chail near Shimla
Chail’s main road, stretching no more than a 100 meters

We drove on from here towards Kufri and eventually to Shimla. The road to Kufri continues to be narrow and without much traffic. Soon after we descended from Chail, deodars disappeared and gave way to shorter trees. The valleys here were deeper and the peaks taller, time and again reminding me that we are amidst the Himlayan ranges. An hour of drive took us to the famous Hindustan-Tibet highway and eventually to Kufri where deodar trees made a comeback.

Road from Chail to Shimla
On the road from Chail to Shimla..

‘Kufri’s arrival is marked by horse shit,’ remarked one of my friends as he drove towards it. Sure enough, Kufri is crowded with horses meant to give joyride to tourists and we started seeing them miles before we reached Kufri. In the center of the village stood the horses and many drivers in a manner very similar to auto-rickshaws waiting for passengers in bus stands. Kufri also has a small zoo and an amusement park but none of them are worth the effort. But a walk along Kufri’s road, among the deodars at a height with vistas of the green valleys below makes being there worthwhile.

Before we hit Shimla, we stopped briefly at the tiny village of Mashobra, which hosted the famous Wildflower hall and offered views of Shali Tibba, the highest peak around Shimla. Sun had just set when we finally arrived at Shimla where I parted from my friends and walked in search of a hotel.

More Information

Chail is a little more than an hour away from Shimla and is well connected by buses. Roads are decent, and if you are used to mountain roads it is worthwhile driving. Chail village itself has no more than 2-3 hotels, but the road from Chail to Kandaghat is littered with resorts. There isn’t much to do in Chail except to walk around the deodar forest, but this is sufficient attraction to get there.

Kufri is 30 minutes away from Shimla on the same road that leads to Chail. It has some nice views and Deodar forests. You can go on horse rides and visit some tourist attractions like the zoo. Kufri is littered with resorts all around it.

Mashorba, which falls on the same road too is little more than 10km from Shimla. Although I haven’t seen any, the place is said to have a few guesthouses. There are a few restaurants along the main road. The attraction of Mashorba is similar – vistas of the mountains and deodar forest.

If you are driving and not planning to stay in any of these places, it should be possible to cover all these place in single day.

Continued at A Day in Shimla