Monsoon creates the itch in me to ride to the green places and to hit the hill stations,
but this time i chose to ride to sea shore, however the hills pulled me to them later the ride.
My first destination was Bekal in Kerala.
Some info about place.-- Bekal is a small town on the eastern shore of Kerala state, South India Giant keyhole shaped fort, the golden expanse of a beautiful beach surrounding the fort, backwaters and hill destinations and water sport facilities nearby.Kasaragod is a beautiful town poised at the Northern extreme of Kerala State.16 km south of the town on the National Highway, is the largest and best preserved fort in the whole of Kerala, bordered by a splendid beach. Shaped like a giant keyhole, the historic Bekal Fort offers a superb view of the Arabian Sea from its tall observation towers, which were occupied by huge cannons, couple of centuries ago __ source : Wikipedia.
Early sunday morning we were on the highway heading towards sakleshpura, it was me with Shashikiran on my bike and Chandramohan(Chippi) with Karthik(Kaarz) on his bike, soon rain gods showered there love on us to make us totally wet before we could wear our rain gear. The total highway was wet and we were not in mood to wait till rain stops, we just continued our ride and stopped for few photo breaks and later for breakfast.
We were doing pretty good speeds even in rain n mangaed to reach sakelshpura by 11, and we thought of visiting to a not soo famous but very nice waterfall near by sakleshpura which is in hanbal taluk. spent some time in clicking n posing.
later continued our ride on shiradi ghat , the wet roads with lots of curves and the oncoming traffic was quite tricky, need to get off from the road when few truck drivers were not in a mood to follow there line, stopped at uppinangadi for hot chai. yes it was very much required in the chill weather and nonstop rain.
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we reached Bekal fort by 4 30pm, it closes at 6 so we rushed in to the fort, it was well maintained and the visitor management was good. the splendid view of arabian sea from the top of the fort was amazing. and let the pictures tell the beauty of the place.
later we realised that by enjoying beauty of nature we skipped lunch, all were damn hungry so we decided to eat Lunner(lunch+ dinner) it was at 7 we had some rumaal roti and veg curry, and decided to check in to a hotel. later we got room 20kms away from bekal fort, pretty decent one with parking too.
Day2
Next day we got up early by 5 30 and plan was to go to beach for sunrise and spend some time in beach, unfortunately it was raining whole night and same continued for morning also, we reached beach by 6 am, no sunrise as it was cloudy and we dint play in beach also as it was not so neat.
spent few minutes beside beach and planned for what next. came back to room, got ready and had breakfast in near by hotel, took some kerala special pattu and savige. left to valiyamparabha backwaters which was 20kms away from our room.
when we reached valiyamparabha, we gottu know that it is a island in backwaters which is owned by some resort owner and we need to pre-book to visit there. just clicked few pics and left from there and took our way to wayanad.
after some 30 kms past kannur it started raining and there was a huge traffic piled at one of the city, in the traffic myself and shashi lost our way and kaarz and chippi went in different direction. after seeking localities help and with help of Google maps we managed to be on highway which leads to wayanad.
But both of us took different route to wayanad which we came to know later. it was 1 pm and 45kms away from wayanad i got a call from karthik saying he n chippi already reached wayanad and asking where to wait for us, they said we are at periya and told us no phone network if u come up the hill so we will be waiting here come soon. My self and Shashi started to climb the hilss with 11 hair pin curves rain and fog added to the beauty of western ghats. Shashi was very excited to experience the fog and the rain with whole lot of greenary surrounding. and after reaching a junction where there was a bus stop, we asked localities for perya, they showed the route which led to very small road and after some 8kms no roads only slush and mud , we managed not to fall with rear end of bike dancing n skidding, later we realized we are totally lost our way and decided to head back to the junction. no mobile network, language gap, we are not understanding what they are saying in Malayalam and they are not understanding any other language other than Malayalam.
luckily got a person who can understand and talk Hindi he called the shopkeeper where kaarz and chippi are waiting. they both spoke in Malayalam and after the call they told us to go to a place called Mananthavady, we headed there and again with the help of some auto drivers got in touch with that shopkeeper where karthik was waiting and told them we reached mananthavady, after that they only came to bus stop and at-last after 6 hrs we all met again. and then decided to go to Sulthan Bathery, it was already dark and we reached sulthan bathery after an hour and luckily got a good room for reasonable price, dumped all laguages and changed to dry clothes and had dinner at a near by restaurant and inquired about near by places to see and ended the day with sound sleep.
Day3:
We all got up at 5 30 and plan was to go to mathunga wildlife scantury, we were told that the scantury opens at 7am so at 6 30 we were all set to leave, but unfortunately chippi's rear tyre gone flat and we left with no option other than taking auto to 12 kms far place. we reached the scantury spot and found huge crowd, some collage took a batch of students for wild life scantury and to our bad luck all the tickets for the morning safari was booked. we tried to get someones help for getting 4 tickets but not enough lucky. we need to take the token for tickets at 5 am and for that token tickts will be issued at 7 am. ao anybody planning for a safari in mathunga wild life scantury make some homework before heading there.With disappointment, we got a KSRTC bus and headed back to Sulthan Bathery and fixed chippi's bike and headed towards Edakal caves, another disappointment due to Ghandi Jayanthi edakal caves also closed :( .
we decided to go to karnataka to balmuri falls, we took some kerala famous banana chips and headed towards mysore and by noon 1 30 we reached mysore balmuri falls, we had a good time in playing in falls, myself and karthik had a small fall it was hillarious how we fell, by evening 4 30 we left the falls and eveyone were damn hungry, we stopped at a daaba and had late lunch and left the daaba by 7 30 and return journey to bangalore was non stop, reached bangalore by 9 30.
Altogether it was wonderful ride in heavy rains, the flat roads, shiradi ghat and wayanad curves, kerala beach, backwaters and not to forget the wonderful company of friends who made this ride more beautiful.
thanks to Shashi, Karthik and Chandramohan.
The Road Never Ends ...Keep Riding... :)
but this time i chose to ride to sea shore, however the hills pulled me to them later the ride.
My first destination was Bekal in Kerala.
Some info about place.-- Bekal is a small town on the eastern shore of Kerala state, South India Giant keyhole shaped fort, the golden expanse of a beautiful beach surrounding the fort, backwaters and hill destinations and water sport facilities nearby.Kasaragod is a beautiful town poised at the Northern extreme of Kerala State.16 km south of the town on the National Highway, is the largest and best preserved fort in the whole of Kerala, bordered by a splendid beach. Shaped like a giant keyhole, the historic Bekal Fort offers a superb view of the Arabian Sea from its tall observation towers, which were occupied by huge cannons, couple of centuries ago __ source : Wikipedia.
Early sunday morning we were on the highway heading towards sakleshpura, it was me with Shashikiran on my bike and Chandramohan(Chippi) with Karthik(Kaarz) on his bike, soon rain gods showered there love on us to make us totally wet before we could wear our rain gear. The total highway was wet and we were not in mood to wait till rain stops, we just continued our ride and stopped for few photo breaks and later for breakfast.
We were doing pretty good speeds even in rain n mangaed to reach sakelshpura by 11, and we thought of visiting to a not soo famous but very nice waterfall near by sakleshpura which is in hanbal taluk. spent some time in clicking n posing.
later continued our ride on shiradi ghat , the wet roads with lots of curves and the oncoming traffic was quite tricky, need to get off from the road when few truck drivers were not in a mood to follow there line, stopped at uppinangadi for hot chai. yes it was very much required in the chill weather and nonstop rain.
we reached Bekal fort by 4 30pm, it closes at 6 so we rushed in to the fort, it was well maintained and the visitor management was good. the splendid view of arabian sea from the top of the fort was amazing. and let the pictures tell the beauty of the place.
later we realised that by enjoying beauty of nature we skipped lunch, all were damn hungry so we decided to eat Lunner(lunch+ dinner) it was at 7 we had some rumaal roti and veg curry, and decided to check in to a hotel. later we got room 20kms away from bekal fort, pretty decent one with parking too.
Day2
Next day we got up early by 5 30 and plan was to go to beach for sunrise and spend some time in beach, unfortunately it was raining whole night and same continued for morning also, we reached beach by 6 am, no sunrise as it was cloudy and we dint play in beach also as it was not so neat.
spent few minutes beside beach and planned for what next. came back to room, got ready and had breakfast in near by hotel, took some kerala special pattu and savige. left to valiyamparabha backwaters which was 20kms away from our room.
when we reached valiyamparabha, we gottu know that it is a island in backwaters which is owned by some resort owner and we need to pre-book to visit there. just clicked few pics and left from there and took our way to wayanad.
after some 30 kms past kannur it started raining and there was a huge traffic piled at one of the city, in the traffic myself and shashi lost our way and kaarz and chippi went in different direction. after seeking localities help and with help of Google maps we managed to be on highway which leads to wayanad.
But both of us took different route to wayanad which we came to know later. it was 1 pm and 45kms away from wayanad i got a call from karthik saying he n chippi already reached wayanad and asking where to wait for us, they said we are at periya and told us no phone network if u come up the hill so we will be waiting here come soon. My self and Shashi started to climb the hilss with 11 hair pin curves rain and fog added to the beauty of western ghats. Shashi was very excited to experience the fog and the rain with whole lot of greenary surrounding. and after reaching a junction where there was a bus stop, we asked localities for perya, they showed the route which led to very small road and after some 8kms no roads only slush and mud , we managed not to fall with rear end of bike dancing n skidding, later we realized we are totally lost our way and decided to head back to the junction. no mobile network, language gap, we are not understanding what they are saying in Malayalam and they are not understanding any other language other than Malayalam.
luckily got a person who can understand and talk Hindi he called the shopkeeper where kaarz and chippi are waiting. they both spoke in Malayalam and after the call they told us to go to a place called Mananthavady, we headed there and again with the help of some auto drivers got in touch with that shopkeeper where karthik was waiting and told them we reached mananthavady, after that they only came to bus stop and at-last after 6 hrs we all met again. and then decided to go to Sulthan Bathery, it was already dark and we reached sulthan bathery after an hour and luckily got a good room for reasonable price, dumped all laguages and changed to dry clothes and had dinner at a near by restaurant and inquired about near by places to see and ended the day with sound sleep.
Day3:
We all got up at 5 30 and plan was to go to mathunga wildlife scantury, we were told that the scantury opens at 7am so at 6 30 we were all set to leave, but unfortunately chippi's rear tyre gone flat and we left with no option other than taking auto to 12 kms far place. we reached the scantury spot and found huge crowd, some collage took a batch of students for wild life scantury and to our bad luck all the tickets for the morning safari was booked. we tried to get someones help for getting 4 tickets but not enough lucky. we need to take the token for tickets at 5 am and for that token tickts will be issued at 7 am. ao anybody planning for a safari in mathunga wild life scantury make some homework before heading there.With disappointment, we got a KSRTC bus and headed back to Sulthan Bathery and fixed chippi's bike and headed towards Edakal caves, another disappointment due to Ghandi Jayanthi edakal caves also closed :( .
we decided to go to karnataka to balmuri falls, we took some kerala famous banana chips and headed towards mysore and by noon 1 30 we reached mysore balmuri falls, we had a good time in playing in falls, myself and karthik had a small fall it was hillarious how we fell, by evening 4 30 we left the falls and eveyone were damn hungry, we stopped at a daaba and had late lunch and left the daaba by 7 30 and return journey to bangalore was non stop, reached bangalore by 9 30.
Altogether it was wonderful ride in heavy rains, the flat roads, shiradi ghat and wayanad curves, kerala beach, backwaters and not to forget the wonderful company of friends who made this ride more beautiful.
thanks to Shashi, Karthik and Chandramohan.
