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Vavul Mala Trek Its been two long years since my first trek to Vellarimala and I was waiting for another go @ these hill ranges to climb Vavul Mala / Vavulmala. At about 2339m, it is the tallest peak in North Kerala and arguably the toughest climb in South India. While actively planning for this, my spirit took a beating when I heard that Josettan along with Arun and co could not make it to the peak even by 6'O clock on the second day ... more» Shivaganga Trek Shivaganga is one of those many trekking spots I missed, inspite of being so close to Bengaluru. Guess, once you are a regular in Western ghats, its hard to even consider the 'betta's around Bengaluru. Apart from Shivaganga, we have many more trekkable 'betta's to visit around Bengaluru, including the famed Skandagiri aka Kalavaarahalli Betta. Coming back to Shivaganga, it is about 56kms from Bengaluru, with an altitude of 1368m. It has a famous 'Shiva' temple @ its foothills and a holy spring called 'Olakallu Theertha' ... more» Hampi Trip Its been almost a year, since I went for a road trip, barring the frequent drives home, along Mysuru / Mysore road to Kozhikode. So, during a 5-day long weekend involving Gandhi Jayanthi and Ramzan, we had an opportunity and couldnt let it go Yercaud Trek I've been watching Peter's Chennai Trekkers for a while now. Having missed the Kodai - Munnar, Venkatagiri and Tada treks, I was keen to join at least this one. But, alas ... the trek to Yercaud was meant to be a four day and I was not sure if I could take days off from office. Luckily, everything worked out in the last minute, I was headed to the satellite bus station in Mysore / Mysuru road on the eve of a long weekend and hopped on to a Salem bound bus ... more» Meenmutty Trek Though, I drive thro' Wayanad almost every month and have seen the sign boards talking about Meenmutty, the first time I heard in detail about the place was last year from Arun. He and couple of friends (including Prabul) had trekked and camped there. After, seeing the pics I wanted to go there ... more» Kudremukh Trek Kudremukh is one of the first names I heard, ever since I started showing any interest in trekking. Then why didnt I do this trek all this time?
Pakshipathalam Trek Thirunelli is one of the most beautiful places I've been. The first time I went there during last year's monsoon, I was mesmerized by its beauty. A beautiful temple with a beautiful backdrop provided by mist covered green hills on three sides. But, monsoon was not a good time to trek in those hills and I had to come back post monsoon. Even before this, I had scaled Brahmagiri from the Iruppu side and heard stories about the mesmerizing trek from the Thirunelli side ... more» Mukurthi Trek After the hyperactive traveller bug which bit me post Meesapulimala Trek, the next in line was Kudremukh. The place had been marred by naxals recently and it was always risky to go there. Besides, there was a question of feasibility. So, the gang was downsized to just a few. Rajeev and Jamshy were ready to come and Pappan gave a 'conditional yes'. Just a couple of days before the actual date, I could get hold of the Kudremukh range officer's phone number and the trek plan bombed. Permissions to trek till Kudremukh peak was not being given and I was in no mood to go to the nearby waterfalls Subramanya Trek I really have a bad knack of ending up with the busiest and most packed up travel plans! Most of the trips/treks we've planned and done had almost zero buffer time and most of the time, its been enjoyable and trurned out to be time effective ;) This time was no different, when on thursday evening, I felt we cud drive upto Subramanya on saturday afternoon, trek from Subramanya road to Shiribagilu and drive back to Bengaluru by sunday night ... more» Kodaikanal Trip Sabitha's engagement @ Elamgulam (midway between Ponkunnam and Palai in Kerala) was a very good excuse to make another trip. Especially when I was granted a couple of days leave from the otherwise hectic work schedule :) One can think of numerous routes between Elamgulam and Bengaluru, the most obvious one being the chartered waters thro' Salem, Dindigul, Teni and Kumily, but we had other ideas ... more» Delhi Trip Pappan's sister is getting married @ Gwalior and we had to go. Pachu suggested that we take a few day's leave, book flight tickets and check up places around Gwalior. Plan sounded good, since, none of us had been to any places north of Mumbai and this was a good excuse. Well ... the whole picture changed when Shabbo sent us a map of Madhya Pradesh marked Bengaluru - Gwalior = ~ 1700kms ... thro' the heart of Andhra and Madhya Pradesh ... isnt it best to drive ???? ... more» Yana Trek After the amazing trek to Kumaraparvatha, it took us some time to come up with a new plan and bring together most people in the group - almost four months and it finally happened in the end of October. This time, the plan was for a milder trek and Yana was chosen. Yana's major attraction is a pair of tall, ponited rock formations, called Mohini Shikhara and Bhairava Shikhara. There is a legend behind these rocks attributed to the destruction of Bhairavasura induced by Mohini ... more» Kumaraparvatha Trek Many has told me that a trek to Kumaraparvatha is the most strenuous in Karnataka making this beautiful mountain in the Western ghats so enticing to me. Finally, on a friday evening - the first in June when the monsoon had just begun - we (a gang of 13) booked our tickets with KSRTC and started towards Subramanya ... more» Visakhapatnam Trip Whenever I would look at a South India map, there was a big gap towards the North East. Me and my bike had never been there!!! Hence, Visakhapatnam was marked as the last in my list of places to bike. Also, it turned out to be the furthest from Bengaluru. Pavan and my CBZ was ready as ever and we started planning from Oct 2004 ... more» Goa Trip It was a four wheel drive again ... in my Maruti Versa on a long weekend due to Diwali holidays. We decided on the Tumakuru - Shivamogga - Honnavar - Karwar route to Goa and return via Hubballi. Starting on a thursday early morning (this was the earliest I ever did - 3 AM), we hit the Tumakuru road (NH4) as early as 4'O clock. At Tumakuru we took the NH206 and sped towards Shivamogga ... more» Karwar Trip Karwar is the north - west point in Karnataka, just couple of KMs away from Goa. The most obvious route to Karwar is via NH4 (Bengaluru - Tumakuru), NH206 (Tumakuru - Shivamogga - Sagar - Honnavar) and NH17 (Honnavar, Gokarna, Karwar) with a total distance of about 521 KMs. And we had grand plans ... 7 of us in 5 bikes - 5 forcians (now motorolans) and 2 ex-forcians (still, ex forcians) ... more» Pondicherry Trip Time for another bike trip and this time I decided to visit the beaches of Pondicherry and take a ride along the rest of East Cost Road (ECR). The stretch from Mahabalipuram to Chennai was explored during the Chennai Trip. So I was to drive along ECR up till Mahabalipuram, while coming back ... more» Mangaluru Trip Managaluru is 352 kms from Bengaluru (according to the milestones i.e.) along the NH48. Once again, my trusted CBZ was with me, along with another friend. We hit the Tumakuru Road by around 4.00 on a Friday evening. Even at this time the traffic is messy in this area. But, once you go some distance in the NH4, it eases out ... more» Ooty Trip Ooty trip was a huge endurance test for my car (Maruti Versa). The Masinagudi route via the Sigur ghat was really hard on it. With 36 hair bends to climb around 1500m in just over 14 kms, this route is deemed as highly avoidable, but then its a beautiful experience for a guy behind the wheel ... more» Kanyakumari Trip Well ... this one was being planned for a long ... long time ... and visiting the land's end seemed to be a big 'project' for me. Not that I didnt try ... I did ... last december ... had to come back due to a minor accident, totally spoiling Soorji's Fiero and an SLR camera ... more» Hyderabad Trip Wow !!! this was a big one. Alone in my CBZ, around 575 kms, through the National Highway 7, amidst of picturesque landscape. I started of on a friday early morning with leaves on monday and tentatively on tuesday ... more» Pookot Lake Pookot lake (also spelled Pookode or Pookodu) is situated in Wayanad amidst of the picturesque western ghats. Around 3 hours drive from Kozhikode, this was another trip by car. This time with Ashish, Aravind and Ashi's cousin ... more» Thadiyandamol Trek About 250 kms. from Bengaluru, situated in the Western Ghats, lies Coorg, also known as Kodagu. It is sometimes called the Scotland of India, probably for its misty green slopes and lush forests. Thadiyandamol is the highest peak in Coorg at an elevation of 1750 meters ... more» Kodachadri Trek Kodachadri is in Shivamogga district, 1343 meters above sea level. A beatific hill abode that overlooks the panoramic Western Ghats. It is clothed with splendid evergreen forests. The place is 115 kilometers from Shivamogga city and very near to the famous temple town of Kollur ... more» Palakkad Trip Palakkad (formerly Palghat) is around 400 kilometers from Bengaluru. The route includes two national highways. NH7 from Bengaluru to Salem and NH47 from Salem to Palakkad ... more» Kozhikode Trip The wind blowing on the face @ full throttle was too much of an adrenalin rush and I got addicted within a few months of buying my CBZ. Our gang had already gone for a bike trip to Nandi Hills, but the 60kms to Nandi hills was nothing compared to what was being planned. With the 'Vishu' approaching, I had two weeks leave to be at Kozhikode, our home town, and Ashi agreed to make this 354kms distance together in my CBZ ... more» |
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