Winter Ride - Dec 22, 23 of 2013

It was the 1st official ride for Unexplored Holidays and the day had finally arrived. Motorcycle touring has always been a passion for us and now was the time to spread the 'riding virus' among like minded people. We had announced the destination as 'Masinagudi' about a month in advance and had received an overwhelming response. Confirmations were flooding on Facebook. Yes, people who wish to travel the country on their motocycles indeed exist :-)

More often than not some individuals with this passion never go on a ride, because they dont have people who share similar interest in their friends community. Well, some solo riders do, but very few. This is the very reason we decided to organize group rides, thus creating a good forum for people to join and ride together. It gives a great opportunity to meet new people, learn new things. These group rides will give that chance to individual riders who wouldn't have ridden alone otherwise.

Day 1:
It was a cold winter morning and the common assembly point was 'NICE road'. We being the organizers had to be there 1st and receive everyone, but we had one very enthusiastic rider already waiting for us. Almost everyone assembled but for one rider. We got a call from him and he says " My bike has a flat tyre" and it was still 6:20 am. The 1st hurdle was here! No puncture shops were open and we sensed a huge delay ahead. While this rider prompted us to start riding, claiming he will catch us soon at the breakfast place, we were not convinced, especially this being his 1st ever ride. We must admit the fellow riders were understanding and proposed we wait untill the last rider joins us before we start. It was very frustrating to see tons of vehicles hurrying past us to get out of the city this being the holiday season. The morning chillness was not helping either with no tea shops around that area. It was finally 9:30 am by the time we could actucally roll. Naveen Rajappa took the lead and Spandan Ghosh opted to take the tail. Now the 2 organizers were well in control of the group riding in the middle. We got all the riders to keep their 'Head Lamps' on and suggested they do that for the entire ride.

After the long wait, everyone were happy cruising on the highway. It was still cold being a winter morning and the ride upto the breakfast place was amazing. The plan for breakfast was 'Kamat Lokaruchi' as it always been on the Mysore road. They have a buffet for breakfast on weekends here. The spread was good with idly wrapped in plantain leaf, vada, dosas, rava upma, pulav, akki roti, hot jalebis, pongal, cut fruits, fresh fruit juice, hot coffee & tea. All of us batted out of our skin to get a good return on investment and to say we did it successfully is an understatement.

We started off from Kamat and the progress was a bit slow this time, blame it on the solid breakfast. But as many of us would have experienced if the start is delayed, most of the journey would seem slow. As we entered Mandya, we hit heavy traffic and the group split for a short while. We the lead riders stopped as the lights from the rest of the group dissappeared from the RVMs. Shankar just rode past us, we still couldnt see the rest and slowly started to bother us a bit. What could have happened? Heavy traffic, an argument or a fight on the road, or the worse a crash? Panic seemed to creep in and we started calling them on  their cell phones and no response. Tried many times and the answer was no different. Just when i thought of taking a U-turn, i got a call and oops - one of our riders almost had a fall. But i was releived to learn he had managed not to fall after being skidded off the main road. We waited for them to join us and then started rolling again. The sun was beating down heavily on us inspite of it being a winter noon. The others had parked on the ORR near Mysore waiting for us. On reaching Columbia Asia, we deviated to the left as the ring road towards the right was being repaired. A nice 7 Km tarmac took us to the far end of the city and then turned right to by pass the main town of Mysore. We cruised past the Lalitha Mahal, Zoo, Chamundi Hills and soon joined the Nanjangud highway. This stretch of Mysore - Nanjangud has always been a risky road with onward traffic coming on you all the time. The state buses KSRTC have mistaken this road to have been laid by their fathers, yes thats how they drive. I have seen some gory accidents on this stretch many a time in the past. Spandan did well to shield the 1st time rider very well for the entire ride. We were all back in the line, all the motorcycles one behind the other with head lamps on cruising at 70 KMPH. It must have been a sight to behold. From here on the progress was smoother and faster. We reached Gundlupet in good time. A quick pitstop to pick up the beverages for the riders and were back on the road again. The Bandipur check post was wide open and vehicles were zooming past it. We entered the national park and instantly slowed down to 30 KMPH, yes we all love the wildlife and didnt want to miss a chance to sight an elephant or more optimistically a Leopard or a Tiger. But its annoying to see many vehicles ( Cars, Buses, Trucks, Motorcycles ) driving like they had to catch a flight. These are ones resonsible for animal kills on the roads :-(  We could only see a lone elephant before we reached Mudumalai but this was still good enough. Soon we were riding over the narrow bridge at Thepakadu enroute Masinagudi.

The 8kms ride to Masinagudi was eventless We took right from the fork and rode towards 'SINGARA'. We had the escort vehicle waiting at the Singara check post. It was a Maruti Gypsy and it gave me a fair idea of the roads ahead ;-) Yes the driver threw us the caution to ride slow and carefully for the next 3 kms offroad. The entry was adventurous as we saw no roads actually. It was all pebbles, stones, small boulders, sand and absolutely no signs of tarmac. The ride was bumpy and rough, throwing us off the seat many times and the need to do the balancing act was very frequent. We crossed a small stream as well and it looked like elephant country around. I must admit it was one hell of a ride to the resort / cottage we had booked. Yes we were finally here at the ' Whistling Woods Estate' without much damage. We were supposed to reach for lunch and it was 5 PM now. The delayed start was the culprit. 'Arun' was our host and he was considerate enough to preserve our lunch. We unmounted the Saddles from our steeds and checked in like a breeze. Our motorcycles needed the well deserved rest. A quick refresh and we were at the table for a late lunch. Even the cold lunch tasted heavenly! Soon after, we are sitting in the porch to observe the wild. Arun had told us about the sightings and we had seen a few videos of Leopards, elephants in touching distance from the estate. But this being a weekend during the holiday time ( Christmas round the corner ), there were many guests in the estate and they were noisy i must admit. This ruled out any sighting for us.
We just took some lazy walks to the fringe of the bushes and soon it was dark. Yes the days during winter are indeed short. The bon fire was up & running by 7:30 and the glasses starting shining like stars in every guests' hand. Our cruising cowboys were no different. The temperature had dropped down quite considerably too and it made all the more sense for those magic liquids to take centre stage. A few swigs with good starters around the fire was a cloud nine expereience. The chatter boxes in everyone came alive. The topics covered were Wild encounters, back breaking rides, adventures, cricket, politics, Nirbhaya, spirits and what not with everyone at their free flowing best. It was like Yuvraj Singh in top form batting at both ends. The fire slowly started going down around 10 ish and we were called upon to have dinner. The spread was Biryani, Rotis, Dal fry, Barbeque chicken, Chicken 65, some vegetables, rice, rasam, pappads etc. The stomach seemed to be bottomless that night. After all the damage, 15 mins at the porch to see if some elephants came for a stroll and then we called it a day.

Day 2:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spandan works better than the alarm as he was up by 5 am and was pushing the fellow riders to wake up for the early morning ride up the Kalhatty ghats. Some good hot chai did the trick as everyone started getting off the bed and finally @ 7:30 we left for the ride. The morning breeze was crisp and fresh. It was rejuvenating ride that morning. It was 8 ish by the time we took the 1st hair pin on the steep 'Kalhatty' ghats. A total of 36 bends awaited us and our concern was the 1st timer, but he seemed to have caught up and everyone were eating up those hair pins like a piece of cake. This ghat is so steep that some transport vehicles like Jeeps, pick up vans will have to climb backwards in the reverse gear as they fall short of torque in the forward ones. This was the main event for us and everyone seemed to enjoy this ride up to Ooty. The hair pins are any riders delight and Kalhatty ghat didnt disappoint us. The temperature dropped further as we climbed up and finally when we entered the Ooty town, it must have been a single digit. We tanked up our motorcycles in the BP pump. The hill fuel is supposed to be good for the engines as they have the decarbonisation quality. Pressures in the tyres checked too and we soon we were in the heart of the town in Garden road looking for a good tea shop. We found one but the tea wasnt that great, but the chocolates were! Yes who would miss shopping for home made Ooty chocolates here. We picked up quite some cocoa and decided to climb down to our base camp. Climbing down is always risky on a steep ghat. One has to keep the vehicle in lower gear and use minimal brakes. Switching off the engine is suicidal. The brakes get heated easily as most people use them a lot and this can fail the brakes putting you in a terrible situation. So it was mostly 2nd gear, occasionally 3rd , with very minimal usage of brake and soon we had gobbled up the 36 twisties again. It was 11:30 by the time we reached the estate. This was supposed to be the check out time, but since we know Arun fairly well, he gave us some extra time to shower up and check out. It was a quick shower and a late breakfast ( or should i call it brunch ), a quick photo session and we were off on our return journey.

The ride through Singara, Masinagudi, Mudumalai was eventless. We saw a baby elephant with its mother in the Bandipur limits very close to the road. A few vehicles were panicking and we quietly led the way past. But it was scary to see people in cars pull over by the elephant to take photogrpahs and to show their little ones. People tend to forget that they are not their pets and often under estimate the speed of the elephant. I bet a lot of you will agree if i say, " Elephant is the most dangerous animal in the Indian jungles". We shooed those people away and continued the ride. Motorcyle touring is seen as a crazy, senseless, risky thing by most people who dont practice it. But one has to feel the wind and experience the freedom while riding a motorcylce on the highways to know why exactly some nomads do this and practice it like a religion. One single pile all the motorcycles with their head lamps on and cruising must have been wierd for many people in the oncoming vehicles. But i must confess we made all heads turn whether they were in a Bus, Truck, Maruti 800, Santro, Swift, Audi, BMW or a Merc. It was an amazing feeling to see people looking at you and nod their heads some in agreement some in shock and some in fascination.

A quick pit stop in Gundlupet for a smoke break for a fellow rider and were soon rolling again This time the progress was fast and we reached the outskirts of Mysore in good time. By passed the town through the same route and soon we were out of the crowds and back on open highways again. It was nice to open the throttle once in a while, but responsibly and we reached 'The Empire' just after Maddur for a late lunch or rather an early dinner. Mutton Raan, Coin Paratas, Butter chicken, kebabs, biryani occupied our tables and soon went missing into our stomach. It was nice heavy dinner and chai was a perfect finisher to wash the oils off.

It was quick dash to Bangalore from there. We all pulled over at the NICE road to bid adieu. A round of hugs, hand shakes, high fives to celebrate the ride and we were soon off to our own abodes. A quick dash from here and we were home safe & sound richer with experience.

Guess what was the main topic in this huddle? " When is the next ride mate? " :-) haha thats how riders are.

"Kids race & Men ride" is our slogan and we did exactly that through out the ride.

Yes guys, Don't race while on the public roads, ride responsibly and never ever forget your helmet, please remember helmets were never made for your elbows!

Untill we see you in the next ride, pls take care and keep munching miles!

 

From the file - Ride de Kemmangundi

It was on the 7th of feb-2005 that me n ma frens decided that we start trekking again.
i had always been a regular trekker in school .me having studied in TVS Academy had a lotsa exposure to trekking,wildlife,adventures etc. but after school ,during ma college dayz didn't have the oppurtunity to trek, in the sense that i didn't have like minded ppl for company ,coz all ma frens were studying in different locations and that meant all of us didn't have holidays at once.
so even i was longing to go on a trek. ma frend n i were brushing our teeth , when Spandan(ma frend) said "hey navin lets go on a trek this weekend,lets chill out............. wat say?" and the obvious answer from me was a big YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS........!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
in no time we were discussing places,possible guys joining us and stuff like that. we called up Sandy and he readily agreed ,but now we were three of us and needed another guy to join us to go on two bikes. just when we were scratching our heads , we saw Rajan comin out of his house and we shouted at him "hey rajan we r goin on a trek,would u join us?" and he shouted back "i would luv to................." and thats it, there was no lookin back. i was browsing my memory to decide on a good trekking destination. and vat came to my mind was kemmanagundi in chickmagalur district. i had been there while in school .
so the next day i told them about this place , but rajan wanted to go to coorg and after a lot a discussion and arguement we froze on kemmanagundi. spandan n I put up the budget and informed others. spandan was getting his brand new PULSAR DTS-i and i offered to get ma splendour , but sandy wanted to get his CT-100 brand new again, so it was decided that we were biking to kemmanagundi.but unexpectedly sandy was not able to get his bike for the trek and i had given ma bike for service, but there waz spandan for the rescue, he offered his (hamara)bajaj.so both bikes belonged to spandan on this trip.
It was on the 11-feb-05 at around 2:00am in the early morning ,we hit the road............................ the road to kemmanagundi. we were all singing , shouting as the road belonged only to us at the part of the night.......
We Went through Tumkur,tiptur,arsikere,birur and reached kemmanagundi the next day morning at around 11:30am. we had reserved accomodation at the KR hillstation maintained by the horticultural dept of karnataka.we had reserved 2 cottages and surprisingly they charged us just 150 bucks per cottage. two guys could stay in one.
Then we had our lunch at around 12:00noon. Even though we were very tired we made up our minds to go on a major trek the same day.In the next 15mins we were on our way to the hebbe falls ,the major attraction at k'gundi.There were 2 ways to reach there,one by jeeps andthe other was to trek. And our unanimous choice was trekking.We were welcomed into the jungle by the chirping of the birds and the noise made by the crickets.It was adventurous getting into the forest, because the first step into it was itself was very risky and steep.As we didn't know the exact route to the hebbe,all the guys risked my memory which dated back to 7yrs.The total distance was around 22 kms both ways.As went deeper we came across some coffee plantations which were occupied by the fellow humans.We were so tired we had to search for some water and luckily we did find a water pipe which was from hebbe to the coffee plantations.We quenched our thirst by drinking water to our hearts content.Then as we continued i made a wrong move when my memory gave in.We took a right turn which did look like a way but which wasn't.We realised this as we went quite some distance.Then we decided to continue hoping to find the way as we heard the water gushing from the HEBBE where water drops from around 275feet.That's a majesticone, trust me.......... Again we lost our way,this time it was even worse coz we met the dead end of the way which we chose.Then we had to climb down a steep place which was almost vertical at the end of it was a cliff.So it was some kind of aVERTICAL LIMITstunt. But sandy showed the way by climbing down.Then i followed and suceeded.Then it was the turn of spandan who was almost horror struck.We all could make out from his face that he was verymuch frightened .But still he made it with a gr8 difficulty.And then came Rajan who almost climbed down like a TARZAN.We carried on and finally we realised we were lost again but this time it was a serious concern.I tried to recall but i wasn't able to.We could hear a bike zoom some where in the distance. It seemd like we were very near to the falls. But it was not to be. Still we heard the water gushing, but when we tried to search for a way we realised that it was a broken water pipe.
With just an hour left for the sun to set it was a issue to think about.We tried finding the way out,where on our way we saw some really deep caves .Certainly some looked like they belonged to panthers and bears. certainly scary...... we felt thirsty again and luckily found a stream.We quenched our thirst by drinking water from a stream.We were all quiet and were trying to find the way out of this ‘SCARY TRAIL’,and sandy did it again, he found the way back to the main jeep track. We were very much relieved to be out of the jungle. We kept walking along the jeep trail and after some distance, we saw another trekking trail taking a right turn into the forest and this time I recalled this is the one in which we had to go.So we descended down and mind u it was a pretty steep one.As we climbed down the sound of the water gushing down became very loud. And this time we could also feel the water droplets on our faces. I was damn sure that we were just around 1km from the ‘hebbe’.But the clock struck 5, and we had to hurry things up and we almost ran to the falls, but again the descend to the foot of the falls was scary and dangerously slippery.And there it was the ‘MAJESTIC HEBBE’………….Shouts of “wow,wonderful,majestic,marvelous…..”And all the possible adjectives echoed ……………. We shouted at the top of our voices. And w couldn’t wait to get to into the water. And freakkkkkk, the water was damn cold. But that couldn’t stop the trekfreaks from jumping into the water. Though it was February and there were no leeches around this time,the rocks had thick algae covers and it was very slippery. That meant we had to watch our steps. But Spandan was not going to listen and he wanted to go right beneath the falls and he dared to do it. We were all lost in our own worlds,splashing water on each other, take a cold dip every now and then and suddenly we found that spandan is missing ,and when we looked around for him……. We saw him slide down the rock, right at the foot of the falls and he vanished. Boyyyyyy we were all scared and shouted at him, and just when I took a step ahead to find him, there he came from the back of that rock, had actually slipped and suffered some minor bruises. And again we were playing around , we had a nice time or rather a CHILL time.hehehehehe………..

And just when we came out of the water , we realized we had to walk back to the KR hill station and that was a gud 11 kms . We were all tired and had no more gas to walk back. How we wished we had our tents and sleeping gears with us at that moment. But the matter of fact was , we had to get back to our cottages. Lil did we know that this trek would strip us off our energy , which normally is very high. We had rode our bikes the whole night and without even a nap, we had started trekking.But we had an option , we knew that the last jeep which picks up ppl from the estate would leave by 6:30pm and we had 15 mins to make up the 1 km from the falls to the estate. We had sum biscuits and apples left wid us, we hogged them and our batteries were recharged, atleast mine…………….. we then started jogging and I was carrying the rugsack, coz everyone else were dragging their feet- literally. We were almost near the estate when we heard the jeep start its engine, ghosh if we missed it we had it, coz we didn’t even have torches with us and we missed the trail in the broad daylight, boyyy my heart missed a beat, when I imagined all this.We heard the jeep move and all our guys lost hope of making it to the jeep. And then I had no other option than to unleash my athletic skills, though I was a marathon runner, I had to sprint this time and it was for a serious reason and guess vat,………………?????????I did it man!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I caught the jeep and had it waiting for the guys to arrive and they were all saying “ooooooooohhhhhhhhhhh, thank god”,and all those kinda sigh of relief stuff.We got into the jeep and were shocked to see a 16yr old guy driving the jeep. He stated the engine and vroomed into the thickets of the jungle. It was 6:45 pm and it was almost dark. Sandy n I were sitting in the front. And we started questioning the driver , for how many years he is driving , who taught him to drive, wasn’t it illegal to drive b4 18.?????? And that guy asked me for my coolers(Oakley) , it was actually a dull orange shade and he wanted to wear it and drive. We thought , he should have gone nuts…. Coz it was difficult to see with naked eyes itself. But he wanted to try and I had to give it to him. Lemme tell u, he is one hellova driver, he knew exactly what he was doin and those steep curves , especially when the track is loaded with pebbles it makes it even more tougher to drive, but he was experienced, that gives u a fair idea as to how many years he was driving , yes !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!He started driving ever since he was 10, so he had 6 yrs of driving experience under his belt. His cleaner was around 10 yrs old… er….. young.
It was a nice jolting drive , thru thick bush and just when we were nearing the cottage, the jeep failed to climb a steep terrain and guess vat the cleaner did????????He had two big stones handy with him, he alighted from the vehicle and kept those stones right behind the rear wheels, so the driver had some cushion to move the vehicle up , even then it was difficult, so we alighted from the jeep as well so that he could mov the jeep easily. After a lot of attempts they managed to get the jeep up the hill . and the cottage was just 100mtrs away, so we gave him the money- 50 bucks per head and thanked him. From there we walked with our eyes closed till the cottage.It was around 8pm and we had to order for food. There s a decent restraint there, but we get only veg food readily available. But we wanted to eat chicken and he offered to cook any one dish(wid chicken) and also demanded that we need to take one full chicken. We readily agreed coz we were reallyyyyyyyyyyyyyy hungryyyyyyyyyyyy.We ordered rotis(25 of them) and chillichicken wid gravy. They promised to deliver within 9:30pm. So we had to control our hunger wid the left over snacks.
The doorbell rang , it was just 9pm and to our pleasant surprise , the dinner arrived to our cottage it self.Probably this is the only instance I can recall where something in INDIA has been delivered on/before time. And we didn’t waste any time b4 we got our hands on the hot rotis and the spicy chillichicken. Nobody talked for about 20 mins , it was totally silent. The silence was occasionally broken with a “wow, aaahhhhh, tasty” …..We hogged our dinner and were just talking about the IF’s and but’s had we lost our way….The clock struck 11 and the shutters on our eyes automatically closed coz we had not slept for more than 24 hrs. ……….
We were awake the next day by 6 in the morning and after answering our nature calls, we were on our way to the Z-point . It was a view point around 3kms from the KR hill station. The view from Z-point was breathtaking. We felt as if we were on the top of this world. We had hoisted the tri-coloured flag when we had been here the last time from school. After recalling all those sweet memories at the top, we left back to our cottages. The view from the top was a treat to our eyes………………Back in the cottage, we packed our bags and it was time to say bye bye to kemmanagundi for now………..Soon we were on our way back, sandy & I on the PULSAR and spandan and rajan on (hamara) BAJAJ.I was enjoying my ride down and the josh machine(pulsar) was responding well. Spandan & rajan were trying to catch up with us and trust me bajaj exceeded our expectations, it was almost keeping pace with the pulsar. I was at a good pace at around 70kmph and there was a hairpin bend, I managed to control the bike , but spandan following me closely almost went down the cliff, coz bajaj has small tyres and and that made braking very difficult . After a small piece of advice ,rather instructions from sandy , we started our engines again. We decided to come back via chikamagalur. The road was awesome and sandy’s piece of advice was lost in air as we were ripping , closing the throttle. We paid a visit to the temples at belur & halebid and were back on track again. We felt damn hungry and we were searching for a nice dhaba. We decided to cover maximum distance before it gets dark. coz the Bangalore-mangalore road is very dangerous for two wheelers, especially at night. It was almost 6pm and we had to stop coz hunger overtook time………….Luckily we found a nice dhaba, it was clean and seemed like just the right place. We settled down to eat and it was our 1st priority at that moment. It was around 8pm by the time we finished our lunner(lunch + dinner).We were about 130 kms from Bangalore , we exchanged lil bit of caution and hit the road again. we had to get back home , coz the next day was Monday and we had to get back to business. We stopped for tea at gubbi at 10pm, we had been riding slow and steady. The stretch from hassan to gubbi was more prone to accidents. Nothing to blame on the road though. We washed our faces, sipped tea and were back on track again. At around 00:30 we reached our homes and the long ride had taken its toll on our backs.The next day, when we printed the photos and shared the experience with other friends and family , it was worth it. We felt refreshed , rejuvenated and got back to our daily stuff with a lotsa energy……………And guess vat ????????????We were planning for the next trip ……………….

UH ON 2-WHEELS - MONSOON 2012

ROMANCE WITH MONSOON

RIDE ROUTE: BANGALORE - GOA - BANGALORE DATE: 29/JUNE/2012 - 7/JULY/2012 # OF RIDERS: 2 MACHINES: ROYAL ENFIELD ELECTRA TWINSPARK & HERO HONDA CBZ

We (myself & Naveen)have been doing a lot of weekend rides over the years and had covered most part of southern India. The riding bug within us was restless to head beyond South and initiate the fist step towards living our dream of touring entire India on the BULL. Thus, we decided to do a monsoon ride, a perfect launchpad for our dream ride and will also test our skill as a long-distance rider. For monsoon ride nothing would have been more perfect than western ghats and thus we locked on GOA as our destination. When we shared our monsoon ride plan with few of our friends who share the same passion, we were discouraged to go ahead with the idea as it was a very risky proposition and were advised to drop the plan. But unfortunately, for us once decided it stays decided. As planned, we acquired all requisites for the ride. My wife, a great bike riding enthusiast and one of my biggest support and motivator behind all my rides, helped me pack my saddle and packed it immaculately with plastic covers so that the saddle remains dry during heavy rain. I joined Naveen on Bannerghatta road @ 5pm on 29-June-2012. We started our ride with our night halt destination as Hubli. We knew it was gonna be tough but wanted to give it a try. We took the following route from Bangalore to Goa- Bangalore - Tumkur - Davangere - Hubli - Ankola - Karwar - Margoa - Panjim - Anjuna We took our first break @ Tumkur for tea and a glance at our watch told us that we were behind schedule. We decided to give our best to reach Hubli and crash for the nite. The ride was amazing under the sparkling sky and through the cool breeze. While closing on Chitradurga we realized that the entier day's work had already started taking a toll on us and we were already starving. We took a dinner break at on of the roadside dhaba and post dinner we decided to crash at Davangere instead of Hubli.Till now we didnt have any rendezvous with the rain as expected but as we moved closer to Davangere, the rain god welcomed us with brief but strong shower and made riding extremely difficult on the highway but we carried on. We reached Davangere and found most the hotels full and finally checked into a decent hotel after a good search and crashed @ 1 am. Next day morning we were up by 7 am and departed from Davangere by 9 am after feasting on some delicious Benne Dosa. The morning looked bright and we wanted to make the most of it before having the next rendezvous with the showers. We rode on through the extremely windy freeway and reached Hubli by 11:30 am, where we topped up our fuel tanks and took a well deserved tea break.The skies had been kind till now and blessed us with bright sun at times playing hide & seek with the clouds. Post the tea break we decided to take a lunch break at Karwar and feast on some Fish Curry Meals. As we branched off the highway and took the ghat road to Karwar the scenic beauty got us mesmerized and we felt as if we got completely cut-out from the urban world and landed straight in the lap of mother-nature. The sky was no more bright and was painted all over with grey and black clouds which promised a tough but beautiful ride ahead. As we moved a lil further, the scenic beauty jus got better and better and within no time the rain god embraced us with open arms thereby justifying the ride's name "ROMANCE WITH MONSOON". The shower soon turned into a downpour thereby making our ride extremely exciting and all the stranded commuters whom we passed by seemed to have been struck by a common question "WHO ARE THESE FOOLS RIDING IN THIS DOWNPOUR?". The DUCKBACK rain-gears did a wonderful job of keeping us dry amidst the downpour. We were enjoying every bit of the ride and completely forgot to keep pace with time. After a good 90 mins ride through the ghats we stopped for some hot tea to pump up the body temperature and realized that we need to take a lunch break much before Karwar as we were behind schedule. We finished our tea and rode off through the pristine landscape and finally settled down for fish curry meals at a restaurant closer to Ankola. Re-energized with Fish meals we started on our journey amidst the rain. The lunch was kinda heavy but the showers kept us awake and helped us to enjoy the scenic splendor. As we got closer to Karwar the skies started clearing off as preparing for a perfect monsoon evening. A lil ahead of the foyer to Karwar we overlooked the ghats and got the glimpse of the aquatic. It was so very splendid that we were forced to halt our machine to capture the scenic beauty in our mechanical as well as physical lens. Surprisingly, the mighty aquatic was calm and resembled a beautiful lass who is drenched in rain and standing quietly at a corner. We brought back our machines to life and rode off towards our destination with a target to reach Anjuna by 7pm and relax for a while before getting ready for Satday nite @ Goa. We took couple more tea breaks before reaching Banyan Soul @ Anjuna where our accommodation was booked. During our ride from Karwar we were lashed by rains at Margoa and Panjim respectively but kept riding on and reached Anjuna by 8pm. Even though the accommodation didn’t meet the expectation set by the hyped reviews, we checked in and relaxed for a while before setting out to meet a few ol frens and live the night life @ GOA. Next few days @ Goa was bliss. It was a great feeling meeting up with few ol frens, partying all night long, makin some new & beautiful frens, getting high on spirits and laughing heart out. I wish we all live this life till we rest in peace but the irony is that this ecstatic life is short-lived and eventually we all need to return to reality where we seldom manage time to laugh our heart out. Well, that’s life and I am not complaining. This was the first time that we were in Goa during monsoon and believe me we have not seen Goa more beautiful ever before. So, next few days we rode around Goa, freaked out on sea food, got our spirits high and tried living every bit of this bliss. Anyone visiting Goa and willing to treat your taste buds with some delicious and luscious “Goan Seafood Cuisine” then please visit RITZ @ Panjim, believe us u will not repent the visit. On the evening of 3rd-July we got bitten by the riding bug and decided to make the most of this opportunity and planned to ride off to OM Beach and settle there for couple of days before riding back to Bangalore through the scenic stretch of Sirsi and pay a visit to JOG to witness its grandeur during monsoon. This was the perfect plan to conclude a monsoon ride. Our excitement to ride to OM woke us up early. The sky looked clear after the overnight downpour. We packed up and got ourselves ready for the ride. After feasting on some delicious continental breakfast @ Mango Tree (our usual hang out place near Vagator) we headed off to OM beach. Everything was goin as planned until we reach Panjim and my Electra stopped. A close scanning revealed the battery wire has melted off and thus I got that fixed myself and was happy that we can resume our journey but unfortunately that didn’t happen and I was forced to take the bike to the RE showroom at Panjim. In spite of the busy schedule Mr. Rafique(the mechanic) attended my Electra and found that a few wire from the wiring kit had snapped off. I realized my mistake of not changing the wiring kit in spite of having got closer to 40000 KM. I got the wiring replaced and that took us couple of hours. By the time my bike got ready it was already lunch time and we decided to feast on some fish curry meals @ RITZ before heading off to OM beach. After out lunch we got back our machines to life and I was happy to see my Electra roaring back to life. We headed off to Gokarna riding through the rain lashed ghat and reached OM by 7:30pm. Namaste Café has been our usual check-in place @ OM. We checked in and relaxed for a while before moving to the beach café for a drink. After the daylong rain the sky had cleared up and we could see a few stars peeping out from the partial cloud clad sky. We headed off to the beach and sat there hearing the sea roar while we sipped on our spirited beverage. “Magic” is the only word that could describe this moment. It was a sear bliss that we were experiencing and wished that it never concludes. Our next glance at our watch indicated that it was 2 am and we decided to take a slumber and rest our body. We relaxed @ OM till 6th-July evening and planned to set off to Bangalore on 7th-July early morning. As planned, we got ready to ride back to Bangalore on 7th morning and were greeted with heavy drizzle. We started off amidst the drizzle. We took quite a few breaks on the way and Naveen being an amateur photographer kept on capturing the mesmerizing scenic grandeur in his lens. We reached JOG and were spellbound witnessing its might and splendor. We moved on and enjoyed every bit of the ride in spite of bad roads in patches. From Sagara we decided to hit the highway again and thus headed off to Davangare. Monsoon kept us company till we were closing on Davangere. A little beyond Davangere the monsoon bid us adieu and almost after a week we got the feeling of dry landscape. We took few more breaks before taking the nice road and heading off to Hosur, the place we reside. After a day long ride we reached Hosur , we took a final halt, hugged each other and clasped our palms for successfully completing another ride and reminding each other of our next long ride to Madhya Pradesh in the winters of 2013 we headed off to our HOME SWEET HOME.