83) Balmuri Falls & Mysore: (1/9/2013)

Place: Balmuri Falls & Mysore.

Distance: 150 x 2 = 300kms.

Directions: Bengaluru – Ramnagar – Maddur -  Mandya - Mysore

Participants:  Ashok (K350) > Madhu (k.) > Karthik (Sp).

Bikes: Unicorn > Pulsar.

Previous visit: Savandurga Trek.

IN LESS THAN 50 WORDS:

This chapter was one of the unusual ones. We rode this one to attend a marriage & finally ended up at Balmuri falls. The place was pretty crowded as it was a Sunday, but we found a very tranquil place to crash.

INTRO & PLAN:

Evening of 28^th August 2013, most of us met at bakery. We all received an invitation from our good friend Isro to his brother’s wedding which was scheduled to happen at Mysore. So riding to Mysore on our bikes was not of any doubt, but who all were going to accompany was in question. After a lot of discussion the crew was fixed to 3 of us, Madhu, Ashok & me.

TIME: 22:00 (31/8/2013)

ASSEMBLE:

Yeah I was up at around 05:00hrs, had some coffee, did a few push ups and sit ups. Ashok came to my place & we left to bakery where Madhu was scheduled to join us. We 3 sat at the bakery for about30mins as it had been atleast a month since Madhu & I had met Ashok. After having some hot tea we left Bangalore.

TIME: 07:00

 

RIDE 1: (Bangalore – Ramnagar – Maddur)

This was an 80kms stretch of pure cruising on our home ground SH-17 (Mysore Road). The riding was old school like our first days. After reaching Bidadi we had a short chat & decided to have breakfast at Maddur.

As we reached Ramnagar a very funny incident took place.Ashok who was riding was all set to take some wrong deviation which lead to the town, it was like a repetition of our Coorg ride. Madhu & I looked at each other & burst into laughter. It was good to know he hadn’t changed one bit, lost as always. We called him and pulled him back on track. After about 30mins of riding we reached Maddur Tifany’s.

TIME: 08:30

MADDUR TIFANY’S:

Ah, yes! We parked our bikes entered the hotel & began munching down. The breakfast was light one followed by a hot coffee which like always tasted brilliant. After the breakfast we went to the Handicrafts store outside to buy some gifts as we learnt it was polite that way. To us,all these, very newcustoms and to be frank, handicrafts store isn’t that bad a place to be. I bought that fist and forehand work out device first and then began searching for the gifts. Once the gifts were packed we left Maddur.

TIME: 09:45

RIDE 2: (Maddur – Mandya - Mysore)

This was the second stretch of the first half of the journey. It was for about 70kms again on SH-17. The second half was again neither aggressive nor passive, it was plain blank (as Ashok can get :P) After about 1.5 hrs of constant cruising we reached Mysore.

TIME: 12:00

MYSORE:

We reached Mysore when the sun was overhead. The wedding place was very well decorated & the search for Isro began. Once we met up he took us inside the marriage hall. 5 mins passed inside the hall, after which we ran out and sat at some bakery near by :P

As we entered the hall, we could see everybody were all very neatly dressed & there we were in our regular riding dresses. Even some of our friends had come very well dressed.

Sitting at the bakery I, trust me was completely shivering. It was my first time at a marriage; I had not experienced such an atmosphere before.

TIME: 12:15

LUNCH:

Yeah, when it was lunch time we got a call from inside asking to come for lunch. At first I thought we would skip, but then we went inside making up a few silly rules for the next hour or so. We went inside with a wavery smile & head bent low, not like regular selves. We sat down and finished off our lunch in less than 15-20mins and off we were back to bakery. Then we met Isro to thank him for inviting us and we departed Mysore.

TIME: 13:30

RIDE 3: (Mysore – Balmuri Falls)

This was hardly a 20kms stretch. After telling Isro to meet us at the dhaba the next week, we were on road towards the Balmuri. This stretch we took from Mysore to Balmuri falls was very good as it was mostly beside the canals carrying waters to the falls. As we were approaching Balmuri, I spotted people selling some “strong coconut water” inside a farm, I called back the other two and we bought 2 litres of it and reached Balmuri.

TIME: 14:15

BALMURI FALLS:

Once we reached Balmuri falls, we were little disappointed that the place was little croweded unlike our last visit. But we parked our bikes near a hotel and started exploring the farmlands, where the water flowed pleasantly like backwaters. We put down our bags, sat on coconut trees & began sipping on the coconut water & drifting away with the soft waters which was flowing in front of us. We spent about an hour this way.

TIME: 15:30

RIDE 4: (Balmuri Falls - Maddur)

This was roughly 60kms stretch. The roads until the highway, SH-17 was a bumpy one. After which it was back to some old school sailing to zoom past Mandya to reach back our Maddur Tifany’s.

TIME: 17:00

 

MADDUR TIFANY’S:

This time we ordered 3 coffees and took it outside sat on our bikes sipping at a very slow rate enjoying the weakening of the sun’s rays. Then we called up Arun who was in Chennai and spoke to him. It was very unusual of Madhu to call up Arun like this because we always call him from the dhaba near home:P After about 30mins we left MT.

TIME: 17:30

RIDE 5: (Maddur – Ramnagar - Bangalore)

The last stretch was for about 80kms.The sun began to sink into the horizon as we left Maddur. The air turned icy cold as the darkness descended. But we rode non-stop to reach bakery for some hot tea. After a short duration talk we left to our respective homes.

TIME: 19:00

 

CONCLUSION:

“This chapter, had to be one of the different ones. It was filled with fun and laughter and moreover the most important thing being meeting friends and spending some quality time with them, sitting on coconut trees with cold waters flowing below us was just fantastic”

Until Next time Cia \m/

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