RIDE TO BALMURI FALLS

Contact:
+917204774545 for any information.

This is a day trip along with my friend Sravan, buddy who is always ready for short rides with me.
The Chikmagalore trip with him was a memorable one which is published at: Ride to Chikmagalore.

Team: Me (Vijay Kishore) and Sravan Chand Jyoti.
Date: 16th July, 2017 - Sunday.
Contact: +917204774545 for any information.
Distance: 150 Kms Approximately
Ride Duration: 3 Hours (1-way) including breaks.
Road Condition: Very good
Roue: https://goo.gl/STbXJ1


Details:

This is a one day ride over the weekend. Actual plan was to visit Balmuri Falls and Chamundi Hills. The day when we went was Chamundi Devi's birthday. So it was too crowded and they were not allowing the private vehicles to the hill including bikes. So, KSRTC have arranged FREE buses from Mysore to Chamundi hills. But since it was over-crowded we didn't visit Chamundi hills. We thought we will ride back to Bangalore, because the return traffic on Mysore-Bangalore road will be heavy on Sundays. Details of the trip follows:
     On the way back we visited RASTA CAFE, which was in my list from last 4 years.

We started at 5.30 AM in the morning as we wanted to. No much delays this time.
The most interesting part of this ride for me was the usage of SJCAM 4000 WiFi Action Camera which I bought recently just for my rides/drives. Will upload the review of the camera in sometime. But the videos recorded with this are uploaded in my channel in youtube - BIRDVIEW (startup).

Here are the photos captured and the trip details.

My friend took this and the next one.. Can see the SJCAM on the helmet

Waterfalls - walkway

Another side of the falls

Best buddy - always in for rides

Myself

Sravan's photography

At the NICE road in return journey

RESORT - with loads of memories which was visited with colleagues couple of years back

FALLS - View

FALLS - Little Closer

FALLS - Closest view of that step

RASTA Cafe - Entrance

RASTA Cafe MENU outer cover

MY BIRD back at home

That's the end of the short ride with lots of memories and happiness.

RIDE TO MALE MAHADESHWARA BETTA (MM HILLS)

This is yet another Solo Trip. My bike is there with me always and all ways.

Coming to the trip details.

Route:

https://goo.gl/e6YKrd

The route for me starts from Vijaya Bank Layout near Arekere. But I am giving the directions from Silkboard. Take the Kanakapura road if you are riding bike. If it’s car and want to drive in highways, there are two options: 1. Highway towards Mysore and 2. Highway towards Hosur.

But finally you have to join at Kollegal. Kanakapura road is the shortest and has some breathtaking views which makes us saisfied about the trip. But be careful as it is just a 2-lane highway, not the 4-lane.

Take the NICE road and get down to the Kanakapura road.

The complete route is as follows (as suggested in MAPS):

Home -> Kanakapura -> Sathanuru -> Malavalli (Take a left from here) -> Sargur -> Kollegal (Left from here) -> Hanur (Left side road here) -> Kowdhalli -> Male Mahadeshwara Betta.

The route back to Home is also same. Need not take any other route.

Precautions:

1. Make sure you bike is in condition.
2. Be prepared for around 40 kms of hard ride as the road is horrible for few kms after Kollegal.

Nothing much to be taken care as it is a short trip. Can find small hotels in village enroute MM Betta. The first 100 kms of ride was awesome as the climate was in full support for the ride.

NICE ROAD:

I rode/drove through NICE road many times, but always felt that it’s just a highway ride. But this time it’s a different feeling. I started from home around 5.30 AM. So I could see the beauty of NICE road just before the sunrise. Have a look at the photos below, to see the beauty of NICE road:

GOOGLE PHOTOS APP ADDED EFFECTS

NICE-1

NICE-2

PURVA GOLD IN NICE ROAD - 1

PURVA GOLD IN NICE ROAD - 2

MALAVALLI LAKE:

After reaching Malavalli I found a lake in the MAPS. For MM Hills you have to take left at Malavalli junction, but for the lake you have to take a right and ride for around 1 Km. Surrounding the lake is a path for walking. The lake was good and scenic. But the people were using it for other purposes. It was very badly smelling there. I suggest not to go to this place.

The pics are shown here:

Bike in the walk-lane surrounding the lake

LAKE-1

LAKE-2

Temple near the lake

Lake-3

Lake-4

Lake-5

Lake-6

BREAKFAST AT KONGARAHALLI:

This hotel is a local one. And I was very happy to find this one. My stomach started asking for food. I haven’t found much of the hotels after Kollegal. And found this one. It was little crowded as well, but did not take a risk of going further. Ordered a Dosa and it was very good. Had two and left to MM Hills. This is the pic of Dosa:

Tasty dosa with Palya and Chutney

MALE MAHADESHWARA BETTA:

At the entrance we find many hotels. And many stalls. Had tea there and took a water bottle. Then started climbing upwards. This stretch was good. The road conditions were good and around 14 hair-pin bends made the ride little interesting after a stretch of 40 kms uneven road. Reached the destination at around 11.30 AM after so many stops.

                People call you at the place where we park the bikes. And you will be asked to keep your luggages so that they will look after it. They will force to buy some Pooja-Set including coconut and all or a Garland. It’s your wish to buy or not. But they keep the luggage and jacket etc. Make sure you warn them to take care of all the belongings.

                There will be some Pooja at 12 PM everyday. So the queue was stopped and after 12.15 PM they started the queue for God’s Darsan and then it hardly takes 30-45 mins. I did not expect the temple to be so big and the maintenance was good. It was very clean. And once your Darsan is over, after coming out immediately there will be a guy sitting who sells Prasadam (Rs. 100/-). This is little costly. I suggest you not to buy here. There is a separate PRASADAM COUNTER just at the temple surrounding. Ask for that and buy there.

                That Rs. 100/- set includes 1-Coconut, 2 Laddus, Sugar Candy Packet (LKalakanda) and around 100 ml of holy water which they claim are used for worshipping the Idol. Not sure how true it is.

Anyways that’s the end of this trip one side.

And then I returned to Bangalore in the same way and did not find anything special. It rained for a while at 3 PM and the climate became rider friendly. I was expecting a heavy rain enroute but I was lucky enough to reach the home without drenching.

Kaveri River near Shivanasamudra Falls

Ghat Starts from here

Temple-1

Temple-2

Temple-3

Google photos App added effects - Temple-4

MYSELF

AND here comes my LOVE ROYAL ENFIELD Thunderbird which never let me alone.
BIKE IS NOT A MACHINE, IT'S AN EMOTION ❤💗💗

My <3 Bird

RE - THE SYMBOL OF BIKING

RIDE to YERCAUD

My Contact: +917204774545 - For any information...

This trip includes a typical route to Yercaud from Bangalore. It's not the usual highway route while going to Yercaud which made the ride more interesting. It's through the forest.

Date of Ride: April 22, 2017

Precautions to be taken for the trip:

1. The first thing is to plan the number of days you want to use for the trip. Maximum is 2 days if you want a relaxed visit of all the places. In a single day, you have to hurry. As the ride was our first priority and due to some other commitments we had to plan for one-day trip.

2. If you are taking the forest route, be careful in the forest. Stop for photo shoots just after a village or just before a village as there will be few people.

3. Take an extra pair of clothes if you want to get into the waterfalls.

4. Heard that walking back from Kiliyur falls is hectic and strenuous. Be prepared for this.

And our trip starts a day before with taking the gear for rent. :-)

We took the riding gear for rent in GearNRide which is located in HN Towers, HSR Layout on the way from Bommanahalli to HSR Layout.

See the details of the store here. Can be navigated using GPS.

About GearNRide - gearnride.in/

Some photos of the store for identification:

Night Mode click of the store

HN Towers in which the store is located

The Logo

Waiting for my friend at the store

Riding Gear that was taken for rent

                                                     

Route:

Home to Yercaud:

Home -> Hosur -> Andevanapalli, Tamil Nadu -> Anchetty -> Hoganakkal -> Pennagram -> Dharmapuri -> Bangalore Salem Highway (NH44) for around 20 kms -> Diversion to Left near Kadayampatti -> Danishpet -> Kanavaipudur -> Yercaud.

Yercaud to Home:

Yercaud -> Kanavaipudur -> Danishpet -> Dharmapuri -> Krishnagiri -> Hosur -> Home

The complete link for the route is as follows:

https://www.google.co.in/maps/dir/Vijaya+Bank+Layout,+Bommanahalli,+Bengaluru,+Karnataka+560076,+India/Hosur,+Tamil+Nadu/Hoganakkal,+Tamil+Nadu/Danishpet,+Tamil+Nadu+636354/Yercaud,+Tamil+Nadu/Vijaya+Bank+Layout,+Bommanahalli,+Bengaluru,+Karnataka+560076,+India/@12.3322799,77.3573408,9z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m38!4m37!1m5!1m1!1s0x3bae14d8461fcbb3:0xb38503963822dabb!2m2!1d77.6092188!2d12.8902208!1m5!1m1!1s0x3bae70c883f728a3:0xd71a6bc0275ac9be!2m2!1d77.8252923!2d12.7409127!1m5!1m1!1s0x3baea2e79f110f11:0xf9fcc8ca3dc277df!2m2!1d77.7781069!2d12.1183374!1m5!1m1!1s0x3bac08561d511117:0xb6bcdd8b62da45cd!2m2!1d78.1372016!2d11.8584507!1m5!1m1!1s0x3babf42b4747d5eb:0x1d3ccd9945d5e7ee!2m2!1d78.2092576!2d11.775251!1m5!1m1!1s0x3bae14d8461fcbb3:0xb38503963822dabb!2m2!1d77.6092188!2d12.8902208!3e0?hl=en

Shevaroy Temple:

This temple is located at the highest point in Yercaud. The entrance to see the God is a small cave (very small infact - just about 5 to 10 mts) and you can't walk straight away, you have to bend and go to see the idol. It's very peaceful inside, but we just spent around 5 mins inside as we had a lot to cover before returning from Yercaud.

You can spend some half an hour of time here. Nothing special other than being an old temple. There are eatables outside like Cut pieces of Green Mangoes, Chat items and few things which kids like to buy.

    And there is entry ticket for vehicles (Bike/Car). I think it's Rs. 5/- for bike and Rs. 10/- for car. This tickets are common everywhere. In each and every place you visit in Yercaud, we have to take the entry tickets (minimum amount though).

Sri Chakra Maha Meru Temple:

This was initially not in our plan. But, we saw a board saying World's Biggest Temple Sri Chakra Maha Meru Temple showing 4 kms. So, we paid a visit. There was nothing big there. When we asked the priest, he said GOPURAM is the biggest one here. So we had to come back without any word. Not as expected, but the temple was so clean and peaceful. It was well maintained and the calm/peaceful surroundings makes you to relax for a while.

Statue at the entrance of temple <3

The direction to the temple as this is in a small street, around 50 mts inside

Lady's Seat:

This is treated as the best view point in Yercaud and is quite crowded as well. The view point is good. Worth a visit and there is snacks available near the view point. This is mainly known for experiencing the sunset. We were not lucky enough to see the sunset as it was raining by the time we reached there. But the snacks we had here was so mouth-watering especially the Bread-Omelette for that climate. Spending an hour of time here is worth.

Text written on the rock is so true. Please be careful at the tip.

Ghat Road Visibility. It was covered with clouds. Sorry for the photo clarity as that was taken without much care.

Helmet rested for an hour when we were busy having snacks under the tents in rain .

Gent's Seat and Children's Seat:

These were just okay. These are just another views of the same location which was seen from Lady's seat. And these are just 450 mts from Lady's seat. Entry fees will be collected for these as well. Not so great, but if you have time, you can relax for a while.

Yercaud Lake:

This is treated as the best place in Yercaud, Located at the heart of the town, this is really a great place for spending time with family with the activities like boating. I have seen kids enjoying the boat ride, we did not experience it though. This was wide spread lake surrounded with parks on two sides. Ask for boat-house and then you can get to the starting point where the boat rides start. And there is parking fee here as well.

Partial View of Yercaud from DEER Park entrance

Better View of Yercaud Lake surrounded with Trees

Anna Park:

This is the best place to relax in the afternoon. And people get the food in boxes and eat here. It reminds you about the VANA BHOJANALU which used to happen in our childhood days in 90s. We used to go to a forest at the river side in our home town along with the food items prepared at home and have there. Memorable days. The same can be seen here in this Anna park. But please keep the premises clean as this park is maintained well and it's our duty as well to make sure it is clean. This park is on one side of the lake.

Entrance - ANNA PARK

Deer Park:

This is the second best park for relaxing. And I observed the same concept of getting the food in boxes and eating here. And there are several birds also along with Deers. This park is full of Greenery and we had a small nap of 15 mins here as we were too tired of riding in hot sun.

No other pic taken here :-D

32-kms Loop Road:

This road offered the best ride in the trip. Do not go with high expectations after reading the reviews. You will enjoy it. We had good time with photos here. See the photos below for an idea on how it looks:

Big Bamboo tree - not sure why it's captured, but it's posted in many sites

:-) :-) NC

Relaxing at Lush Green

Trees along the road

The road view. Not a wider road but good enough for two cars. Ours was bike, so had no issues.

Places which we couldn't cover due to time-constraint:

Kiliyur Falls - Must-visit place.

Karadiyur View Point - This can be ignored.

Pagoda Point - visit if time permits. We forgot this even after including in the list.

Rose Garden - Not sure how much we would have enjoyed visiting these, but couples can try visiting.

In the entire trip the best part is the route we chose. The link mentioned in the beginning has the clear route. Just follow it. Thanks to my friend for choosing this route. If it was only me, I would have gone in highway.

The best part in this route is we could discover a river (Kaveri river). I have to thank my friend here again. He was the who saw this as a pillion. This is Kaveri river and when we observed it in the map after coming this was the border between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. So this is what the two states are fighting for. :-D. Just kidding.

Look at the photos which are clicked at multiple places and each photo is added a caption which describes the location.

My Friend - First stop immediately after Attibele toll for tea

Myself :-)

Diverted from the Highway to the above mentioned route

In the middle of the forest. Warnings signs of animals were hoarded everywhere. Take care.

Tried to be creative. Telugu dialogue - Idi naa Pogaru (This is my pride)

Eastern ghats view <3 <3

The Kaveri river which we discovered on the way

Feeling the flow of water

Breakfast at Pennagram village - Loved it

My picks from the trip:

-> The forest route we diverted to after Hosur.

-> 32-Kms loop Road

-> Yercaud Lake

-> Lady's Seat

The following is the complete Yercaud map which can be seen at the entrance of ANNA PARK.

Source for Image

Thanks to my bird  for adding more memories <3 💓💗🚲.