It’s been almost 2 months since I purchased thunderbird, but never got a chance to took it on the highway.I was planning to make a trip sometime somewhere just to feel the bullet ride.
I left my family in my native place after attending my younger brother’s marriage and headed back to bangalore alone.
Now I need to do something in the weekend to kill the boredom. Then I asked one of my friend to go to Bandipur, but still it was not finalized.
On thursday he called and asked can we head towards Kemmannugundi as there are more people interested in that place and more one of our friend is working there.
So plan finalized, we’ll be heading towards Kemmannugundi from Bangalore on Saturday morning and leaving back on Sunday afternoon.
Preparation:
Nothing much except filling up the petrol tank, pressure check.
There was little noise coming from the front wheel, checked the bullet in service center, but they said it will take at least one day to allign the wheel. I asked them is there any issue if I ride 700kms, they said no. So took the bullet with me without fixing it.
Packed little stuff in my hiking bag and then moved to the meeting point(izipura)where 6 of them stayed. Had some cigarete, tea, little chit chat. Then Me and my friend started in my Bike and they all in a qualis. 3 of our friends already left friday afternoon in a Getz and they were waiting for us there in Kemmannugundi.
Since we start at 8AM, it took almost 2 hour to move out of Bangalore. Had some idli, sambar, cig and took beear and whisky from Penya. Then covered the distance with almost the peek 80-90-100 kmph. Couple of breaks for cig and drinking green coconut water. The road till chikmagalur is in good condition and the riding was un eventfull but pretty enjoyble as we were riding a bullet.We reached chikmagalur at 2:30PM. There we thought we are almost done, but there we realized it’s almost 60 kms away from there. After lunch I thought it’ll be again same monotonous road which may be boaring, but I was wrong. The ride from chikmagalur to Kemmannugundi was the best one between bangalore to Kemmannugundi. The hilly road, the coffee estates, deep forest and riding a bullet on this way it’s awesome experience. One thing to consider if you drive during night time, be careful about the sharp turns, go slow while descending down the hill. We reached at Kemmannugundi at around 4:30PM. There our friend(Rajesh) was waiting and he was also crazy to ride bullet, so instead coming in the Qualis he came with me in the bike and my other pillion rider friend(Deepak) need to move to Qualis. Rajesh guided us to the place which he arranged for us.
Then it’s party time now in the lonely forest guest house. The hospitality was quite good. We started with chicken pakodas, fish frys, shrimps and tea. Then played some badminton and little chit chat. ONe thing all of us liked was the guest house was located in mountain and forest location. View was awesome from there. Now it’s dark and we started bonfire, it was quite cold over there during night. Opened the beer and whisky bottles and started boozing and enjoyed delicious food untill 2AM. Then played cards for some time and slept.
Next day Went for some trekking and bath in spring water. Then headed back to guest house, had lunch and then it’s time to return to Bangalore.
I strongly recommend this place instead of going to OOty or Coorg.