Ride to the pinnacle of South India - Mullayanagiri!

Crew members: Dilip, Shyam and myself!

Duration: 2.5 days.

Expense: ~3000 per head.

Date: 15th, 16th and 17th of August 2014.

Round Trip: 640 Kms.

Bikes: RE Electra 350 and RE Classic 350.

Abstract: Trip to the highest and oldest of Karnataka!

This road trip again got initiated as one of our MS batch mate invited us for her marriage at Tumkur. My mind was set to go for Valparai ride as the destination. But the wedding being in Tumkur and the function being on the Friday of a long weekend, it was a perfect combo for an escape to Chikamaglur which is just ~180 kms from Tumkur.

I got immediate response from Dilip as he himself was desperate to go for a ride! We didn't plan to include any pillion riders and neither did we ask around in our usual group as we were to start from Tumkur post the function. Tour preparations began a month before the dates! I got my bike serviced and Dilip changed his Goldie silencer to Wild Boar! I also bought a two sided water resistant saddle bag from Sandhya Motors, JC Road!

Finally, the day, Aug 14th came up and we both were on our toes! We decided to have Dabaspet as our rendezvous point as Dilip is coming from Doddaballapur. Shyam had called me up on 13th and asked me for a ride till Tumkur for the marriage. Myself and Shyam started from Domlur at 5 PM with all the luggage loaded! By the time we crossed Yeshwantpur railway station and entered Tumkur road, it was 6:15 PM and we called up Dilip to make him start from his house! The ride till Dabaspet was awesome! Sky was all cloudy and at a distance on our left hand side we could clearly make out clouds pouring! Shivaganga hill was almost invisible in rains! Cold wind was blowing because of the rain hardly a kilometer away on our left side. I was a little worried of getting drenched even before the ride actually started. Luckilly, we had to confront only a little drizzle and that added to the pleasure! I maintained a consistent 80 kmph to reach Dabaspet by 7 PM. Dilip had already reached our catch up point - CCD. Had one mango shot each from the CCD and headed to Tumkur. Checked-in to our lodge, attended the function and late night chats went long and it was 2:30 AM by time myself and Dilip slept!

Day 1:

I woke up at 6 AM when one of our friends banged on our door. I got freshened up first and headed to the marriage hall early. Dilip and Shyam got up a bit late and I got a call by around 8 AM saying they hit flat tire on the way to marriage hall and finding a puncture guy at that time on Independence day was a pain. Some how they managed to find one guy who claimed his shop remains open 24 hours a day. Since bike was ridden till there, tube was torn and we had buy a new one. We bought an extra one for just in case. We went to the marriage hall, had breakfast and decided to leave as it was already an hour late of our planned departure time. We had to put little effort to force Shyam in to the trip. Shyam was made Dilip's pillion and I tied Dilip's bag behind my bike, filled our tanks and the ride started by 10:45 AM.

Our first pit stop was decided to be Tiptur. We were riding on an average of 80 kmph and some where near Nittur Dilip's bike fell behind and I thought they'll catch up didn't bother to slow down! Few minutes later, I get this call from Shyam asking me ride back as they have issues with the bike. Bike's chain sprocket area was smoking and we thought we got busted. Dilip also complained he wasn't able to go above 70 kmph! So we decided to go to the nearest mechanic which was 3 kms away. He could debug the issue in no time and the issue was with rear brake! The puncture guy did some goof up while fixing the tire back!

Road was smooth and we decided to take up this road as we were least interested in 2 lane highway where the riding gets boring. The route which we decided to take up was Tumkur > Tiptur > Arsikere > Lingadahalli > Kemmengundi. We had to stop couple of times before hitting Arsikere as pillion riding for such long distance isn't an easy task! We didn't have anything since breakfast and it was 2 PM the time we crossed Arsikere and reached Kadur. We stopped by a bakery and had some 4 slices of Dilpasand and couple of masala bread and hydrated ourselves. The shopkeeper gave us clear directions to goto Lingadahalli and then to Kallathigiri and to Kemmengundi. Kallathigiri was in our schedule anyway. Since it is enroute Kemmengundi, we decided to visit the Kallathigiri temple and then ride to destination for the day. We left Kadur and we were supposed to take a left deviation from Lingadahalli. But Dilip who was riding ahead missed the left turn and drove straight ahead to Tarikere route and I had no option left but to follow and catch up with them. There is a route from Tarikere to Kallathigiri whose scenic beauty was praised in some blogs. So we didn't bother to ride back. Just as blogs said, the route was amazing! It was drizzling slightly and we continued riding. I almost wished that stretch of road never ended! Lush greenery vegetation and trees on either sides of the road and slight drizzle. It was heavenly! Closer we went to Kemmengundi, colder it got! Shyam and Dilip switched in between and we rode till Kallathigiri and by 3:20 PM we entered Kallathigiri premises. We had to pay 10 Rs per bike as entry fee there and by then drizzling had stopped! We dropped our luggage with the foot wear stall and I got my camera out. Kallathigiri was one of a kind falls where there are shrines in the middle of the falls! Place was crowded and it was difficult to get some good shots.

One could climb up the falls to a point where there is a taller water falls. The climb was extremely slippery and swampy! But the beauty of the falls is worthy enough to get through the tough slippery patch!

We didn't waste much time there and got ourselves packed and started our uphill ride to Kemmengundi! Ride was good except for 1 or 2 kilometers where the roads where extremely bad. It was very cold and rich green. View of the valley was extremely beautiful!

We had detailed photo sessions enroute as we were gonna crash at Kemmengundi for the day and we had ample time left!

We reached the Kemmemngundi peak and to our surprise, there were no stay options there! The peak consisted of only the view point named Raj Bhavan and we were dumbstruck! We asked around with the tourists, who all said its better to ride back to Kallathigiri and find a lodge there! The understanding we had about the place was totally out of place. Kemmengundi is just a peak and there are couple of stay options with the Horticulture department which for our misfortune were under renovation! It was already past 5 and was getting dark. So we decided to ride back to Kallathigiri! On the way we were all thinking of alternatives and we came up with this brilliant plan of directly heading to Chikamaglur instead of staying at Kallathigiri as our plan for next day was morning ride to Mullayanagairi. We didn't bother to think further. Kemmengundi waved a colorful good bye to us!

We didn't have to go back to Lingadahalli to goto Chikamaglur as we could find an alternate route near Kallathigiri which was one of the best roads I drove. It was curvy, uphill and downhill stretch of 43 kms and I just loved driving and was playing around all the curves to make as sharp bends as possible! Sunset was magnificent with all hills and thick clouds and green plain lands!

Soon it got dark and we stopped by a tuck shop to have some snacks. We were almost shivering closer we got to Mullayanagiri. We had some nice big Nipattu and Kodebale! Kaimara circle, where the Mullayangiri ride starts was 21 kms from the tuck shop and Chikamaglur is another 6 kms from Kaimara. We could reach Chikamaglur by 7:30 PM. We started inquiring rooms and by 8:30 PM we must have check with at least 7 lodges and learned almost all the lodges in Chikamaglur are occupied! Some receptionists even told us there is no point in wandering for rooms as there are no rooms available across the town and tourists were walking in search of rooms since evening! Luckily, we met two girls who were also wandering for rooms! There were couple of guys as well with them - Aarushi, Seema, Mohit and Himanshu! So, now we were a group of seven with four bikes! Finally we went to a lodge named Benaka Residency and they agreed to give their staff's hall to four of them for the night as there were girls among them. They asked us to join them in the hall and that was luxury for us! We had to bargain a little and settled the tariff at 250 Rs per head and by 9 PM, we had a roof to sleep below! I checked the distance covered in day 1 and it was 280 kms! The whole lodge finding thing was nightmare and learned a lesson there - If the trip destination is Chikamaglur and it is a long weekend, room reservations should be made at least a week in prior!

Hall had just a toilet and no bathroom! Chikamaglur town sleeps at 11 PM and no shops would be open beyond that point of time! At 10 PM, we had to roam a lot to find a hotel! We had our dinner and got back and by then the lodge staff had arranged the beds for us in the two corners of the room! We slept off as soon as we crashed in the beds!

Day 2:

We woke up at 8 when our friend Manish called from Thailand! We checked with our lodge uncle and he agreed to give us two rooms with hot water to get fresh! We thus had time till 10 AM to take a hot shower and vacate! We were ready by 9:30 AM and we said good bye to the Mohit and Himanshu. Lodge uncle let us leave our luggage at the reception and we agreed to take it back once we are done with Mullayanagiri!

We had some hot idlis, dosa and pulav and started ride to our prime destination! We hit Kaimara circle in 10 mins and we payed 5 Rs per bike to the check post as entry fee. Awesome hairpin curves waited us since there! We swifted through driving past almost all the vehicles we confronted. 

We could drive on an average of 60 kmph and we reached the view point Sitaliyangiri. Place was sick crowded and it was a lush green climb beside road all covered with fog! Uphill road to Mullayanagiri peak from Sitaliyangiri was narrower and was covered with fog!

Soon the visibility reduced and was limited to hardly 4-5 feet! Vehicles had their headlights on and it was a bit dangerous stretch with no barricade to stop vehicles from getting off the edge! It seemed like we were the only RE riders there at the point and everyone were staring at us! We parked our bikes at the highest point where the vehicles can go. There was a small tuck shop from where we thought of having some hot beverage. Soon couple of guys and girls around rushed to our bikes and wanted to take pics with the RE! Wanna explain how an RE owner feels seeing that? :D

We checked with the security and he directed us to the climbing point to go to the pinnacle of South India. Without his directions, it would have been practically impossible to find the climbing point which was all covered with fog!

It was 400 stairs and I was totally on my adrenalin! We reached the peak by 11:30 AM and realized we were above 6300 ft above sea level! I was ecstatic and felt proud of myself! ;)

We clicked pics around and visited the Shiva temple. People were waiting for the shrine to open and the priest said he'll open the temple in 10 mins. We waited and payed our offerings to highest located SHiva temple I've ever been to. Soon we decided to go back as we had a tight schedule for the day. It was 12 PM and the place looked like as if it was 6 AM. We soon got back to our bulls and started our downhill ride. Buses and tempo vans plying on this narrow road created bad traffic blocks and 15-20 mins got wasted waiting for the traffic to get cleared. Bikers were allowed to go through the gaps in between and I couldn't imagine how long the cars would have taken to get out of that long queue!

We reached our lodge by 1:15 PM. Dilip's rear brake started giving a weird sound and we decide to get it rectified before leaving the town. We made Shyam to sit and order the lunch and we went in search of a RE mechanic! After 20-30 mins of struggle, we could find a guy who knows RE work around. It was again some rear wheel nut loose issue and he fixed it instantaneously! By 2:30 PM, we tied our luggage and bided adieu to Chikamaglur! Our plan was to visit Belur and Halebidu and find a place of stay at one of these places or to head to Shravanabelagola. Belur was 30 kms away from Chikamaglur and we could nail that in 30 mins.

Since we didn't want to take the pain of removing the luggage and tying it back, Shyam was made to take the first watch and myself and Dilip went in. From the pics of Belur and Halebidu I saw in internet, I was expecting some thing that is similar to Somnathpura temple near Mysore. Even the architecture of the main shrine was quite similar, but the beauty of Belur temple is beyond what words can explain! The sculptures were so damn detailed and rich! One could spend a whole day there going through the sculptures!

Inside the main shrine beside the Garbhagriha, there is a glass box which carried a pair of huge leather slippers. Myself and Dilip were wondering what it was and an old woman explained to us. Apparently, that is a pair of slippers that God is believed to wear when he steps out of temple during night time! The slipper gets torn 7 times a year and cobblers fix them it seems. And this happens every year she said!

Dilip stepped out and replaced Shyam to take over the watch. I was roaming around and was waiting for people to clear out of the frame to get some shots.

After a very detailed photo session and roam around, we stepped out of the temple. Dilip was sitting with a bronze statue vendor and was buying some tiny bronze statues which he quoted 120 Rs and we bargained it down to 100 Rs. Dilip bought two dancing Shiva statues. I bought one dancing Ganesha and a dancing Shiva. Shyam bought 2 as well! To our surprise, the vendor suddenly gets a call and he talks in Urdu! When we enquired with him, he said he is a Muslim! We were shocked at his business and that he knew every single God's name! India is obviously full of surprises.

We learned from him that Halebidu temple closes by 6:30 PM and he have an hour left to reach there! We drove as fast as we could. The road connecting Belur and Halebidu is not a very good one. But there is an alternate route that take one to Halebidu which goes through a place named Agara. But that is 15 kms longer than the direct route. We decided to take up the direct route and in 45 mins we could reach Halebidu! There again were this Bronze statue vendors who came to us quoting 80 Rs per piece! We realized our mistake and successfully bargained it down to 50 Rs per piece! I bought out Nataraja pendant and Shyam bought couple more pieces! Myself and Dilip again went in first and captured some shots around. Halebidu temple isn't as big as the Belur one. More over Halebidu had just one main shrine where as Belure had multiple shrines spread across a wider area. Covering Halebidu temple did not cost us much time.

We returned and Shyam went in for his exploration. We sat outside and had some chat with the local vendors. During the Mughal ruling period, when Mughals came to attack Halebidu and were destroying the statues, locals some how managed to get this news to Belur and on getting this advance notice, people in Belur covered the entire temple with sand and protected the temple it seems! Halebidu temple is famous for its exterior beauty and thus it closes by 6:30 PM. Where as, Belur temple is famous for it interior magnificence and hence it remains open till 7:30 PM with all the lighting setup inside!

Shyam wanted to get back to Bangalore by 17th afternoon for some family emergency. Because of which we dropped our Shravanabelagola plan and decided to crash at Hassan for the day! Hassan was 45 Kms away from Halebidu and it was a proper high way where we could clock consistent 80 kmph! We reached Hassan town in 30 mins and roamed around for a reasonable lodge with parking facility! We ended up finding Vaishnavi Lodge near Sahayadri Theatre! He charged us 370 Rs for a double room and 80 Rs for extra bed! Lodge was decent enough and had ample parking space! Decided to end our 140 Kms ride of the day there! Parked our bikes, dropped all our luggage in the room and stepped out for some eatables and time pass! We bought some snacks and had chats!

We got back to room, switched on TV and were discussing about the day's ride! Day 1 was a bit disappointing and Day 2 was amazing! We came across Lagan movie in TV and decided to watch! That should be 7th or 8th time I'm watching it! :D

At around 9:30PM Dilip got a call from Aarushi of previous night and they were checking with us on our plans. Apparently they went to Mudigere from Mullayanagiri and got lost there. They wanted to get info about some close by place to crash! We had no idea about the place and we asked them to come off to Hassan if they can. Hassam was ~73 kms ride for them and they said they'll call us if they are to reach Hassan. In another hour we got call from them asking our lodge details, we directed them and they reached our lodge by 11 PM. They appeared shocked hearing the cheap room tariff and were given rooms adjacent to us. I was glad we could return them a favor! We informed them about our plan on leaving Hassan as early as possible the next day!

We got back to our room and Shyam slept off immediately! Pillion rider was more tired than the riders apparently! :D

Myself and Dilip were chatting and watching Pirate of Caribbean  Part - I. I dozed off some where in between!

Day 3:

Myself and Dilip woke up when Shyam pulled each of ours spreadsheets away! It was 7 AM and we took hot shower and had breakfast from adjacent hotel! We had to wake Mohit up to ask them to pay for their rooms. Check out formalities didn't require much time and we were on our way by 8:30 AM. We could hit highway in another 20 mins and the drive was smooth. 15 kms from Hassan, we came up to an accident spot where a bike was bashed up by a car and the local people were in a tight quarrel with the car driver! They broke the car's wind shield. We went to bike rider and he was in deep agony and was crying out loud! He was bleeding all over and there were deep wound in his face and legs. We gave away our water bottle, the least we could do. Ambulances came in another 10 mins and we left soon. That was a kind of reminder for us to drive safe! We clocked consistent 80-90 kmph and by 10:30 AM, we reached Kunigal. I wanted to go via Tumkur to get the famous Ragi buscuits and so we did. We reached Tumkur by 11:30 AM and bought half a kilo of Ragi biscuits from Nanjundeshwara Bakery! Believe me, it is delicious! Then we headed to Pyara Punjabi Dhaba at Dabaspet! Had a pitcher lassi costing 100 Rs and rottis and Dal makhani! I decided to make this place my regular place for food every time I ride form Tumkur to Bangalore. Dilip was to take Doddaballapur road from Dabaspet and we untied his luggage from my bike and went to in two ways!

Myself and Shyam rode to Bangalore and could reach Yeshwantpur railway station in 30 mins. I dropped him near to his house in Malleshwaram and I went on with my last stretch to Domlur! Third day ride was 230 Kms long!

Do's:

1. One can either take up Tumkur > Hassan > Chikamaglur route or Tumkur > Tiptur > Kadur > Lingadahalli > Chikamaglur route. I would personally recommend the second one for the scenic beauty.

2. If it is RE rides, keep a spare tube and a clutch wire in hand!

3. Make reservations at lodges before hand or better carry a tent! :D

Don'ts:

1. Kemmengundi and Mullayangiri are maintained clean! Mind your garbages!

Things to remember:

1. Belur temple closes by 7:30 PM and Halebidu by 6:30 PM.

2. If you are planning to buy anything around these places, try your best bargaining skills!

Our group pic: