8 Days 2187KM Ride Part-1: BLR to Shimoga

The Beginning :

Route  :  Bangalore - Shimoga - Sirsi - Goa - Gokarna- Murudeshwar- Shimoga - Bangalore
Distance Covered : 2187 KM
Trip Dates : Aug 15 - Aug 22

Bike : Thunderbird 350
Riders : Me & Srikanth

Stats:
          Distance Traveled : 2187 KM
          Petrol Cost : (62.5 Liters ): 3980/-
          Mileage Achieved: ~37 Kmpl (2270 KM total)

Things carried:
                         First aid kit
                         Spare Clutch & Accelerator cable
                         Cramster Stallion Saddle bag & Plastic roap (spare)
                         Knight Hood Gloves
                         Studds 3G twin visor helmet
                         Moto G3 mobile for GPS
                         MI power bank
                         Rynox Mobile mount for navigation
                         Nikon DSLR

               Myself and Srikanth planning for some trip either by bus or bike to be free from the office life. My project got finished 3 weeks back and so we decided to go on Aug-15th. We decided to go by Bike so that we can enjoy more and cover more places. we have selected two routes to finalize 1) Goa 2) Munnar and decided to go for GOA, as Munnar is only greenery not much fun included, where as Goa route is mixed of both greenary and fun. Rainy season is generally off season for GOA, so accommodation is dead cheap but we miss water sports and real Goa beach fun. We never been to Goa, so we finalized the Goa route.

              Instead of directly going to Goa and return back we decided to halt at Shimoga & Sirsi and Murudeshwar. So we did advance booking for Shimoga & Goa stay and booked directly at Sirsi & Murudeshwar on the day itself.

             Srikanth reached my place on 14th morning from Hyd. Srikanth having experience of bike trips but not more than 400 KM, so its a big challenge for his fitness. We both applied for 1 week leave and did shopping for all required stuff including Tri-color flag for tomorrows independence day.



Part-1: Bangalore to Shimoga

Route  :  Bangalore - Shravanabelagola - Shimoga
Distance Covered : 338 KM (368 KM including Shimoga local)
Time : Aug 15 2014; 12:30 AM (midnight) to  7:30 AM.

       We have decided to start early morning at 3 AM, so that we can reach Shimoga by 8 AM and cover all tourist places in day time. Before sleeping, packed all stuff in saddle bag and alarm set to 2 AM and we are set to sleep at 10 PM. I am trying so hard to sleep, but no use....tried and tried...no use. Srikanth slept somehow after a struggle but woke-up with a neighbors noise. We laughed each other and decided to start the ride now itself. Took bath and fixed saddle bag to bike. Took some time to fix the Rynox mobile mount as I am using it for first time.  Taped Tri-color flag at front side of ODO meter.


         At 12:30 AM :    Tyre's check .... OK
                                   Lights/horn check .... OK
                                   Luggage balance check .... OK
                                   Start Engine.. Idling...Steady.. ready... set.. go..


All set for the epic ride:

BLR-Shimoga route map:

           Moving slowly into the wind of whispers, with a slowly rising heat of machine. At 12:30 AM also roads are not completely empty due to tomorrows independence day preparations. There is sign of rain and anyhow we have fully prepared to move on in rains too.  We have decided to go through Hassan route, as we come to know there is some road work going on between chitradurga to shimoga.

Enitre road is in good condition though it is a single road. till  Channarayapatna, road is mostly straight and good for night journey at 80+ speeds. After Channarayapatna, roads are completely with turns with full of greenery, we cant go at high speed but good thing is roads are complete empty. (hope no attackers in that route at least we don't face any). 

         I gave the handle to Srikanth on highways and rest all in my hands, as he is new to Enfield weight and also night ride. Since we started 2 Hrs early, we expected to reach Shimoga by 5AM and hotel check-in may not possible. Spent longer breaks nearly 1 Hr including train-crossings, but unexpectedly due to the curve roads of last 150+ KM, we were riding at @60 only and finally reached Hotel by 7:30 AM. Hotel check-in done smoothly (hotel is fine, but not so luxury as the name and pics shown in sites), with in 30 mins we were out on roads for elephant camp. Due to Independence day, all roads jammed with students rally. carefully crossed all the jams and reached elephant camp around 9 AM.

Elephant camp Timings : 8:30 AM to 11:30 AM. But the ticket counter will be closed before 11 AM.
Ticket cost : 30/- per person and no charge for camera. No Elephant ride.

Two parts : 1) Till ~9:45 AM, Elephant bathing 2) Elephants photo session with us in different styles.

Elephant camp pics:

          For me its first time touching the Elephants and I enjoyed a lot. This is the only best thing in Shimoga other than trekking. Elephant camp is good place for some landscape photography too.  We had lot of fun and photography till 10:45 AM.  We saw a Tunga Dam just before elephant camp, so we thought of have a look there. we ride back to Dam, no entree fee but paid 5/- parking fee. We can see the DAM from back side, but not allowed to walk over the dam bridge. To see the Dam outflow, we have to walk 15 mins down the DAM through a junk land with full of rocks and mud. We spent nearly 1 hr in total at Dam.

       Before going to Shimoga, I was expecting continuous rains and it will be very chilly in day time also, but I am complete wrong. No rains at all and also weather is too hot if we are in direct sun, all our energy came out as sweats by walking in direct sun at this Dam, moreover we didn't sleep at all night.

Dam back side view from road:

Dam inside entrance:

Three gate open:

           We decided to go Hotel and have a nice sleep till afternoon, and then thought of visiting the ZOO and Bhadra dam for sunset. Had lunch at hotel and fell on the cozy beds...that's all day over :)...Nothing  else visited in Shimoga. Night had a city walk for 20 mins and found a good place for non-veg hotels. Interestingly all non-veg shops are in a single road arranged by Govt and this place is just little opposite to my stay, enjoyed the food. Chicken is not so great but kuska is mouth watering tasty.

           Day-1 is over with partial visiting in Shimoga but elephant camp is worth satisfaction for the day. we packed all stuff and set alarm to 5 AM for the mighty Jog falls and Sirsi ride.

Read Part-2 For jog falls!

BAHUBALI - Ride to Shravanabelagola

Route : Bellandur - Nelamangala - kunigal - Shravanabelagola - kunigal -Nelamangala  -Bellandur 

Round Trip :  339 KM  

Time : July 26th  2015; 6:00 AM - 3:00 PM

Riders :
              Me on Thunderbird 350
              Sathish on Thunderbird 350

Places to Visit:
              Shravanabelagola (Vindhyagiri & Chandragiri hills)

             I should say: it is one of my dream place from many months. Many times thought of visiting this place, recently released Bahubali movie made my thoughts stronger. Finally today got the chance to visit with Sathish. We have already planned to go for a trip 3 weeks back, but my project is at last stage and I had been working on weekends too.  Finally my project is finished and we ready for the trip. Sathish ready for any place, so I suggested my dream place for stress relief ride after 2 months of continuous work.

                Yesterday only I got it serviced my bike, it is very inconvenient to go to bike service every 3K KM or 3 months duration. I wish feature bikes need servicing only after 1 year gap or 10K KM like in new cars. In rainy season we must do bike wash frequently, otherwise lot of dirt accumulates at the counter sprocket.

Brief History about Gommateshvara statue:

                  Gommateshvara Bahubali statue located on Vindhyagiri hill is the main attraction and also the Jain temple on Chandragiri hill (both hills are in walk-able distance). Bahubali statue built by the Ganga dynasty minister and commander Chamundaraya, it is a 57-foot (17 m) monolith.  It was built in around 983 A.D. and is one of the largest free standing statues in the world and Asia's biggest monolith.

                  Based on reviews I understand, no Shoes allowed to top of hill and so we have to decided to go early and come back by afternoon. Started at morning 6 AM and joined Sathish at Marthahalli. Small drizzle started exactly when we started but blues are clear, so we have not worried much about rain. using mobile GPS we have successfully reached to Tumakur highway, from here on-words no GPS needed as clear sign board available. We have stopped for a small break at the tumakur road toll gate. We have witnessed group(10+) of Super bikes thrilling rives. After a 10 mins break, we have resumed the ride and decided to stop at Kunigal for the famous Thatte idli.

               We don't find a decent hotel on the highway near kunigal, it seems we have to go inside the village (10km diversion from Highway) for Thatte idli. We had breakfast near yadiyur and then continued ride without any breaks. At 9:30 AM reached to final diversion at Hirisave and stopped for few mins, next is 20 KM village route. Though its  village route, well maintained and mainly no speed bumps and lot of curves. Reached destination by 10 AM. 

              For bikes special parking space available and car parking is on road side's. No parking fee for 2-wheeler but seems collecting for 4-wheeler. Parking is exactly adjacent to the big pond which is between the two hills.Walked into the main hill and we can see the line of carved steps to the top of the hill. Dropped our shoes at counter (3/- for pair) and with socks moved on to hill climbing.  In summers generally it will be so hot that we cant walk on bear foot. good that hawkers selling socks and hats and also "dolis" available to carry old people to the top of hill. 

Doli service:

                We started climbing and taking pics randomly, steps are so steep at some places. we stopped for a minute at two places and reached to the first stage of temple in 20 mins. Still the statue is not visible and we are confused weather are we on the right hill or not. From here, we can see the opposite Chandragiri hill clearly and there is no statue on it either. later we understand there is lot to go further. We have seen some ancient sculptures writings protected by glass protection from Govt. though we don't understand anything from it, captured into few snaps.

Map details:

600+ steps:

Inscriptions:

               After entering into the main temple compound, we can see the top of the Bahubali statue, now we are happy. Not much crowded on weekend also. Priest's still doing poojas and tourist busy with photography. No entrance fee for temple and camera. We both also took the priest blessing and then started our photography. Really master piece of art made by the kings era, now-a-days we cant see such a well crafted design being made. Each curve is well crafted like machine made design. we can see the broad and pumped chest looks so powerful and yet face looks so peaceful doing the meditation. Statue is really Marvaless and everyone should see this . After 30 mins of photography at 11:30 AM we have decided to leave. Drinking water facility is available on top of the hill (not sure how much hygienic).

Mighty Bahubali :

               We had tender coconut (20/-) near the shoe counter. Coconuts are so fresh and with full of water, after drinking about 2 mins, we looked each other wondered how much more water inside, dude believe or not we finished it very hard even with full thirsty. There are many shops selling small Bahubali statue models and thought of buying one. All models are actually made with machine press with some kind of stone clay not the hand made. small piece is around 30/-. Near the bike parking, old lady selling the hand made stone models, but those are not small ones. I have bargained and brought below one for 100/-. 

               We have decided to skip the Chandragiri hill and started return journey. Thought of having food near Grand Adigas, but we reached there by around 12:30 PM and we are not so hungry, so we decided to have lunch in Bangalore. Took another break to have some corn. Traffic near Yeswanthpur entrance is very bad, better to take NICE road next time. luckily we escaped the heavy traffic and reached Marthahalli around 3 PM and decided to have food at home only. We signaled bye-bye to each other and landed at home with in 10 mins.  That's how we finished yet another great BAHUBALI ride.

Random pictures at different places:

Pond between two hills:

Temple on Chandragiri hill :