Ride to Hosdurga and Kemmangundi

Let me first introduce myself. I am Prashanth. V, working as a software engineer at SLK software services in Bangalore. Needless to say, I have an unquenchable thirst for riding on my Bullet. I own a Bullet Machismo, a birthday present from my brother in June 2003. Since then I have been on a few rides. The latest one was my ride to central Karnataka and the Western Ghats. It was more of an educational tour than a pleasure ride, as we witnessed the dichotomy of grand history on one side and the harsh realities faced by villagers and farmers of the same region, on the other. It was my friend Alok's idea to go on a ride as he had taken a compulsory week off from work. As both of us own a Bullet, we had to decide which one to take. Finally we decided to take Alok's, as his bike was the newer of the two. It was a Bullet 350 Standard. The route that we embarked on was decided on the basis of our interests and the purpose of the ride. The following graphic shows the places we visited with distances. Day 1: We were supposed to start at 8:00 in the morning. But due to last minute hiccups at Alok's place, we could start only by 10:30. Sort of darling (if I could call a 90 kg 6 ft 1 inch mortal so) of the house and not allowed to take 'risks' like biking for long distances. So he had to lie and make an excuse to be away for three days. The reason he came up with was 'Official Training at Hyderabad', which was quite convincing but risky as well. Anyway now they still believe that he was off for training. There was more as part of our preparation for 'Training'. Alok had parked his bike at my place the previous day, so that I could pick him up from near his place before leaving. So at around 10:00 I picked him up two lanes from his house and landed at my place. Alok was very eager to ride his bike. The 'Bull' was revved up for some time and then she roared to life. We enjoyed this royal roar for the next three days unflinchingly. We reached the tollgate at the NH 4 by 11:30. The view of the road widening at the tollgate came as a pleasant surprise. So to cherish our 'surprise' we took a snap of our Bullet, with the tollgate in the background. What an experience it was to ride on the quality 4-lane highway! Kudos to Vajpayee and his team. But he has been thanked enough already by way of big hoardings of himself with his hand aloft, every 5 kms or so. Though the highway is well built, it never means that it is ought to be used by vehicles only. There were enough stray dogs, jaywalkers and cattle on the road to tarnish the feeling of riding on a 4-lane highway. But this is India. I love it the way it is. We reached Tumkur around 12:30. But by that time I had suffered quite a lot without a helmet. Alok had literally snatched mine. Though he had promised that he would buy one on the way, he actually never did. I should have doubted his claim. The pillion was without a helmet during the whole ride, but I suffered the most as Alok rode the bike for almost 75% of the ride. I still curse him for this. Efforts to find a helmet store on the Tumkur main road resulted in vain. We then decided to have lunch at a Kamat hotel. We refreshed ourselves before we started again. We had to find a route out of Tumkur towards Hosdurga in Chitradurga district. It took some time before we were optimistic of the directions given. The road from Tumkur to Hosdurga via Huliyara and intermittent arterial roads are proof of improving road conditions in India's countryside. We could easily top with 80-90 kmph, as there was hardly any traffic. A small pocket of dry forest in between made the ride a pleasant bit, amid the hot fuming sun. Though we were at crossroads at times, we found our way to Hosdurga by 4:00 in the evening, enquiring with anyone and everyone for the right route. My God! What a vista! Hosdurga is a place of historical and religious importance. The panoramic view of the 16th century fort atop a hill and small hill ranges beyond it makes Hosdurga a darling of the connoisseur vision of India's villages. But the town as such resembles the sleepy Malgudi of R K Narayan's folklore. Crowed streets, loudly honking buses and other vehicles, street vendors, unkempt footpaths, bumpy roads, zigzag driving is the order here. Despite all this there is an intrinsic feeling of oneness akin to the imaginary village of Malgudi, which makes you like this place rather than despise it. We checked in to a hotel for Rs.120/day. Then it was time to visit the Haalu-Raameshwara temple, 8 kms from Hosdurga. On the way what we saw reminded us of the luxury of a city life. Private transporters are the lifeline of these towns and villages. But the way they hoard people onto the bus is beyond our cognitive abilities. People hang from windows, doors and rear ladders. We took a snap of this spectacle that made the posers visually so happy. But what reflected in my mind were the hardships these people face likened with our luxury of two-wheelers and four wheelers and the neglect of the administration to their needs. Haalu-Raameshwara temple is an old temple, which the locals regard with utmost respect. An age-old practice in the temple is to make a wish at the rivulet flowing underneath the temple and wait for the response from the deity. The response is in the form of the offerings the devotees have offered to the God earlier. Rice grains, a plantain, a coconut that surfaces on the water indicates the success of your wish. Alok's wish resulted in a rice grain. Alok's father funded a small Shiva temple next to the main deity in the same premises in the 80's. Since then their family has been regularly visiting this temple. We were back in Hosdurga by 7:00 pm. We then went around town, had snacks and then dinner. We were back at the hotel by 9:30. Incidentally the owner of the hotel also owned a Bullet. This revelation led to the usual discussion of around 1/2 an hour. Comparisons were made, improvements were suggested, best ways to maintain were discussed but none have been implemented thus far. The TV in the room entertained us till 11:00 in the night. Planning for the next part of the trip was marked by innumerous changes in the route to be taken. After planning for a dozen places to visit, we finally decided to visit Chitradurga only and then plan further. We planned to leave Hosdurga by 7:00 next morning with the idea of waking at 6:00 playing at the back of our minds. Day 2: Surprisingly we were quite on time. We checked out of the room by 7:30 and finished our breakfast at a near by hotel by 8:00. Other than visiting the fort in Chitradurga, we had not planned anything for the day. The distance of 62 kms via Holalkere was covered in 60 minutes flat. Intermittent photo stops marked the ride. It seemed as though our vehicle was the only one throughout the route. Beautiful landscapes throughout made it a memorable ride. We were at the fort premises by 9:30. The fort itself is intimidating for a first time visitor, made more prominent by the wandering guides who promise to take us around the fort in two hours, which else if taken on our own could take two days to discover. Exorbitant rates charged by the guides made us to decide to take the risk and try to cover as much of the fort as possible in as much less time. Once we embarked on a pathway readily built inside the fort, we understood the importance of a guide. Never mind we carried on, until the desperation to know at least few details brought us to a guide who gave a standing lecture about the place for about 15 minutes. We paid him handsomely and caught up with our own path. But frankly one needs a guide to understand the complicate 7-circled fort. We bought a map of the fort from the priest of a temple inside the fort and followed one of the various paths indicated. We sincerely felt that one requires at least two days to understand and cover the fort in detail. Anyways we spent around three hours in the fort and visited the major spots like 'Obavvana Kindi', 'Akka Thangi Bhavi', 'Tankasale', etc. Our putter like effort to take a snap at the famous 'Obavvana Kindi' was memorable. We left the fort at around 12:30 and decided to have lunch and in the meantime to decide on the future course of the ride. Our Bullet had to be refilled and we went in search of a good bunk. After the Bullet's turn it was our turn to fill up. We sat for lunch at a nearby restaurant and decided to ride to Kemmangundi. After lunch we spent sometime in deciding the best route to Kemmangundi. We had to ride back to Hosdurga and then detour towards Kemmangundi. Had we first come to Chitradurga and then to Hosdurga, we could have avoided the retracing of our route. But any distance on a Bullet is small. Without any qualms about our decision, we began the ride back to Hosdurga and then to Kemmangundi. The ride to Kemmangundi was uneventful except for a few enquiries about the route. We rode to Hosdurga, then to Ajampur then to Berur and to Lingadhalli, which is at the foothills of Kemmangundi. A stop to have cool drinks at Ajampur resulted in a group of curious locals enthusiastically enquiring about the Bullet, as if we were its salespersons on a sales tour. Anyway we enjoyed the uncalled-for attention and made the most of the moment to 'educate' people about a "Bullet". We reached the ghats of Kemmangundi by 4:00 pm. We overshot the road to 'Kallatgiri' falls and had to come back around 5 kms. We did not actually enjoy our visit to the falls as it was very poorly maintained. It showed the stoic reactions of tourists to keep the nature green and pristine. We had to trace our path to a place where there was lesser human involvement. We took a bath at the falls; assuming that there was no one above us ca-caing the water. We then left the place and started towards Kemmangundi Hill Station, which was around 8 kms away. The road was so bad that we took almost an hour to reach the bungalows and guesthouses. We checked in to a room and freshened up. There is a walkway all the way up to the sunset point also called the ‘Z’ point, which is the topmost spot here. A view of the Ghats from here will surely take anyone's breath away. We did a little bit of trekking to find a vantage point to get a better view of the sunset. Getting Alok up along was a Herculean task. After dark a long walk along the road is all that we did. Food is a problem if you visit Kemmangundi off-season or during weekdays. We managed to get a plateful of dinner from an hotelier there. As usual after dinner it was time to decide for the next day. We decided to follow the most common route to Bangalore from here i.e. to Chikmagalaur then to Hassan and then Bangalore. We were tired to a fault after all that trekking and walking and decided to retire for the day. Day 3: My dream of riding on the highest motorable road in India may not come true in the near future, but we had to satisfy ourselves with riding on the highest motorable road in Karnataka i.e. the road from Kemmangundi to Chikmagalaur via Bababudan range of hills. We started at around 7:30 from Kemmangundi, after checking out of the guesthouse. No breakfast at any of the hotels here meant that we had to cover the distance to Chikmagalaur as early as possible to answer our growling stomachs. But the hunger dissipated with the breathtaking and panoramic view of the Western Ghats throughout the ride. A couple of photo stops with the Bullet at the center stage took some time. Mullayyanagiri temple at the top adds to the beauty of the landscape. It is also the highest point in Karnataka. But civilization and farming even at this height startled us. We were not sure how right it was to have allowed civilization here. But what we knew for sure was that the nature was being exploited excessively due to the burgeoning human population. We reached Chikmagalaur around 9:30. We finally had our breakfast at a decent hotel, after going round and round in search of one. We then decided to visit Belur and Helebid temples on the way back. Several visits to these temples earlier did not dampen our spirits to visit them once again. That is the charisma of the temples of Belur and Helebid. But this time we decided to go around without a guide, as our pockets were immensely strained. The least to be said about these temples will take at least a booklet, which cannot be accommodated here. The grandeur of the intricately built temples speak for themselves. We departed from Helebid, our last prime spot, towards Bangalore at around 1:00 pm. It was as if a speed demon was upon Alok, he started to ride like mad from Helebid. The speedometer never clocked below 80. NH 48 was also the culprit. Nobody drops below 80 or 90 on this highway. We reached Kamat Yatrinivas, 13 kms from Channarayapatanna for lunch within an hour of departure from Helebid. After a sumptuous lunch (which is why I always come here on this route) we left for Bangalore by around 2:30 pm. We reached Bangalore by 5:45 and my home by 6:30. Back to Bangalore meant back to overcrowded roads, deafening noise and pollution, the right opposite of what we had experienced for the past three days. A memorable ride had come to an end. Indeed these are memories to cherish for a very long time. But after this ride, my belief in the Bullet was immensely augmented. The luxury it offers its riders is nonpareil. Hail Bullet! Hail Royal Enfield! Let the Bullet tribe increase.