Roadies to Mookanamane falls and Bisle view point

Roadies to Mookanamane falls and Bisle  view point 

We all got geared up for a 2 days and 1 night trip in Bikes.

It was October 12th 2013 , Saturday early morning 4 o clock and we guys (18 members with 10 bikes) decided to go on a long ride in bike .It is about 550km over all trip. 4 bikes started from Electronic City, 3 from Hoskote , 1 from Malleswaram and rest from Vijayanagar. So guys from Electronic City(Vinith,Ravi,Deepu,Punith,Jithu,Raghu,Abhi) met us(Me and Deepu raja) in Malleshwaram.  We headed towards Nelamangala  to catch up rest of the guys. After a 40 mins of ride to Nelamangala we all got merged up with the guys (Dilip,Sumanth,Adith,Sharath,Karthik,Nishanth,Ravi,Rajesh,Ashwin) from Hoskote and Vijayanagar. Atlast we all got together and many were new to us and as usual formalities we got introduced to one another. We all had a sip of tea by chatting few things like rules to be followed whenever the Jackie(Punith) speaks  and other stuffs then started the journey, In the chilled weather all the bikes were on track. Vroomm Vrooommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm….

After an hour, Vinith’s bike suddenly got turned off on the highway and we stopped at the roadside and and inspected few things but couldn’t make out what exactly went wrong with the bike. Again the bike started up surprisingly without fixing anything. We again continued with the journey and next stop was in some hotel suggested by Sharath in Channarayapatana. But unfortunately that hotel was closed so went to Kamat hotel in NH48. We all were dying out of hunger and we had the breakfast like street doggies. Hotel’s Servicing was horrible and few guys went to self service side of the hotel and had breakfast nicely. Meanwhile we were waiting for Mangalore buns, we saw two buns but it was in next table so not reachable and we dint even try to have that bun ;)

After having breakfast Vinith left early to Hassan to get his bike repaired and we all went thru Hassan bypass and were waiting in Sakaleshpur road for him.

After one and half an hour he came and before we got up and get onto bike one mini local bus gave a choke to Vinith which caused him to come onto sand track and we all started shouting at him. Our next stop was in one place named Balupet, we enquired about the route for Mukkanamane falls but they told that if take right which will lead us to Abbe falls(Madikeri) and we were not interested in it as we had seen it. So we took Sakaleshpur route and carried on with our ride. 

Our next stop was near Manjarabad fort deviating road in Sakaleshpur ghat section.  We took the Manjarabad fort road but dint visit the fort. From here the road was too horrible. We stopped at Hethur for lunch but only one veg hotel and non veg hotel was opened. We all decided to go green and went to veg hotel and ordered 18 meals for parcel, as our plan was to have it in the Mookanamane falls river bank. But unfortunately no meals was there for 18 members so they started to cook for us after taking our order (Once you cross Sakaleshpur then in almost all the places you have to wait until they cook if you are going 10+ ppl).  So we waited they for around 2 hours for lunch, time was already near to 4pm. We got food packed and headed towards the falls in terribly worst road.

 Finally we got the small steep mud road which takes us to waterfall and all our bikes got queued up and began to ride it(Guys if you plan to visit this place in bike park it in the road side and go by walk). As it is rainy reason bikes were skidding  heavily. All went fine with till some point and it got more steeper and it was very much riskier to ride it beyond that point but I thought of taking the risk and asked my pillion Raghu to got down and went thru. By looking at me 2 more riders took a chance Ravi and Vinith. We successfully rode it with out any mess and parked the bikes almost near falls rest parked the bikes at this point.

 Now all the guys were too hungry and waiting to reach the falls and start having the food. Twist was that small trek was to be done to reach the falls by carrying their helmet & food. We reached the falls and that nature’s beauty made us to forget our hunger and we immediatedly jumped into the river and played for sometime and again food came to our mind and we had food on the river bank and started from there.

Now the challenge was to ride the bike up the hill. We discussed about it and thought of giving ten minutes gap for each bike so that if anything goes wrong let that be with a single rider and that wouldn’t affect the one who is coming behind. Vinith went on first with his bullet and failed on the 1^st attempt and again came back and with the help of few of our guys he reached the place where other bikes were parked followed by Ravi. Now its my turn with pulsar 220cc, things went fine but at one part bikes back wheel got stuck on mud and somehow I managed to balance the bike and guys helped me too take out the back wheel and we all stopped on the roadside and started to plan about the next destination. Time was already 6pm and it was getting dark and also it started to rain slowly. While going we had seen a lake surrounded by Grassland and thought of putting the tents there and went to that place.

 We had a look around the place where the land should be flat so that after putting the tents it will easy for us to sleep. Also place should be covered so that the wind will be less else which makes empty tent more stable. Few people were there near the lake so when we asked them about that is this place safe for putting tents, they told here Elephants will be keep on coming as the lake is present. I saw a nice place to pitch the tents but it was a graveyard. So we selected the grassland which was opposite to graveyard and started to put on the tents, it was already 6:30pm and rain was getting heavier slowly. In a hurry which pitched all the tents(Three T3 tents and two T2 tents).

 Two of the local residents came in bike and by looking at us they told that the place in which we had pitched the tents was also graveyard and we have travelled a long distance in bike which made us very tired and was ready to sleep on graveyard itself.  One among those two was the real hero Ananda Gowda(local resident) without him that night would gone for a toss. He showed us a superb place to keep the tents and he took us to one home and asked them to prepare food for us. We ordered the meals by 7pm and he asked us to collect by 9pm. Food costs too less in this region. Now we needed some other stuffs. For that also Gowdru came with us in bike for around 20kms to get us the stuffs.

Now the time is 9’o clock. Jithu and Dilip went to get the food and Gowdru arranged the firewoods and gave us the kerosene to put camp fire in front the tents. He only lit the camp fire and food came by that rain got heavier. Everyone got into the tents and those who were having stuffs(10) got into one T3 tent. In that congested place we all had the stuffs were enjoying that with ultimate killing dialogues from Jackie and rain stopped again we lit back the camp fire, had food.

 Everyone went to sleep in the tent soon after having the food except me,vinith,ravi,deepu,jithu and nishanth. We played the music in our smartphones and started dance around the camp fire. By 11:30 we also got into our tents and I was not getting sleep so was shouting and making fun for a while and slept off.

Sunday Morning, 7am

“Histories repeat again and again" came to my mind when I took a water bottle and went for morning body relief programme. It was continuously raining and we all dint care about it, carried on with our activities by getting wet. Now 1^st victim for leach was Karthik and slowly almost everyone got the bite from leaches. We packed the tents and told thanks and good bye to our Anand gowda and started towards the Bisle view point, again the road was the same old worst thing to be rode on.  We reached the Bisle ghat view point. View point itself was covered by clouds and we were standing inside the clouds and we had no chance to see the mountain valleys and the waterfalls on them. After 20 mins, clouds started to clear up slowly which made us to have a look at the Valleys and took some snaps and thought of going to Kukke Subramanya which was only 25kms from there. But the road was so irritating that getting back to Bangalore was a big task so we skipped it.

We started back to Bangalore. All of us thought of taking one more road in athihalli instead of going back in same road. This road was better than that route and also it saved us around 50kms which connects us to Shanivarasanthe. Our next pit stop was Holenarasipura. Few of the guys took Mysore road instead of joining the Bangalore bypass which made us to wait for almost one hour, it was bit confusing for me as well to take which route takes us to reach Bangalore highway but I kept asking for the routes with the localites. Guys went in Mysore road took a U turn and joined us. We all started to ride again and our next stop was Chennarayapatana where we had tea and other snacks.

Finally our trip was getting ended up before we needed to take group photo so went onto the nearby lay bye and parked all our 10 bikes and we sat on road and took snaps.  All got dispatched after that and went back to their home.

Interesting facts about INDIA

1.      The world’s first granite temple is the Brihadeswara Temple at Tanjavur, Tamil Nadu. It was started in 1004 AD and is made from 130 000 tons of granite.

2.      India is about 1/3 the size of the United States, yet it is the second most populous country in the world, with a population of 1,166,079,217. India is the seventh largest country in the world, at 1.27 million square miles.

3.      India is the largest democracy in the world.

4.      The Kumbh Mela (or Grand Pitcher Festival) is a huge Hindu religious festival that takes place in India every 12 years. In 2001, 60 million people attended, breaking the record for the world’s biggest gathering. The mass of people was photographed from space by a satellite

5.      Many Indians find toilet paper repellent and consider it cleaner to splash water with the left hand in the appropriate direction. Consequently, the left hand is considered unclean and is never used for eating.

6.      To avoid polluting the elements (fire, earth, water, air), followers of Zoroastrianism in India don’t bury their dead, but instead leave bodies in buildings called “Towers of Silence” for the vultures to pick clean. After the bones dry, they are swept into a central well.

7.      It is illegal to take Indian currency (rupees) out of India.

8.      India leads the world with the most murders (32,719), with Russia taking second at 28,904 murders per year.

9.      India has one of the world’s highest rates of abortion

10.  More than a million Indians are millionaires, yet most Indians live on less than two dollars a day. An estimated 35% of India’s population lives below the poverty line.

11.  Cows can be found freely wandering the streets of India’s cities. They are considered sacred and will often wear a tilak, a Hindu symbol of good fortune. Cows are considered one of humankind’s seven mothers because they offer milk as does one’s natural mother.

12.  Dancing is one of India’s most highly developed arts and was an integral part of worship in the inner shrines of every temple. It is notable for its expressive hand movements.

13.  Rabies is endemic in India. Additionally, “Delhi Belly” or diarrhea is commonplace due to contaminated drinking water.

14.  Many Indian wives will never say their husband’s name aloud, as it is a sign of disrespect. When addressing him, the wife will use several indirect references, such as “ji” or “look here” or “hello,” or even refer to him as the father of her child.

15.  A widow is considered bad luck—otherwise, her husband wouldn’t have died. Elderly women in the village might call a widow “the one who ate her husband.” In some orthodox families, widows are not allowed near newlyweds or welcomed at social gatherings.

16.  India is the birthplace of chess. The original word for “chess” is the Sanskrit chaturanga, meaning “four members of an army”—which were mostly likely elephants, horses, chariots, and foot soldiers

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17.  The Indian flag has three horizontal bands of color: saffron for courage and sacrifice, white for truth and peace, and green for faith, fertility, and chivalry. An emblem of a wheel spinning used to be in the center of the white band, but when India gained independence, a Buddhist dharma chakra, or wheel of life, replaced the spinning wheel.

18.  The temples of Khajuraho are famous for their erotic sculptures and are one of the most popular tourist attractions in India. Scholars still debate the purpose of such explicit portrayals of sexual intercourse, which sometimes involve animals.

19.  The earliest cotton in the world was spun and woven in India. Roman emperors would wear delicate cotton from India that they would call “woven winds.” Mogul emperors called the fabrics “morning dew” and “cloth of running water”.

20.  In ancient and medieval India, suttees, in which a recently widowed woman would immolate herself on her husband’s funeral pyre, were common.

21.  The Himalayas—from the Sanskrit hima, meaning “snow,” and alaya, meaning “abode”—are found in the north of India. They extend 1,500 miles and are slowly growing taller, by almost an inch (2.5 cm) a year. Several ancient Indian monasteries are found nestled in the grandeur of these mountains.

22.  India is the world’s largest producer of dried beans, such as kidney beans and chickpeas. It also leads the world in banana exports; Brazil is second.

23.  In India, the fold and color of clothing are viewed as important markers of social classification. Additionally, a woman will be viewed as either a prostitute or a holy person depending on the manner in which she parts her hair.

24.  With 150,000 post offices, India has the largest postal network in the world. However, it is not unusual for a letter to take two weeks to travel just 30 miles.

25.  In India, grasping one’s ears signifies repentance or sincerity.

26.  The Bengal tiger is India’s national animal. It was once ubiquitous throughout the country, but now there are fewer than 4,000 wild tigers left.

27.  Indians hold prominent places both internationally and in the United States. For example, the co-founder of Sun Microsystems (Vinod Khosla), the creator of the Pentium chip (Vinod Dahm), the founder/creator of Hotmail (Sabeer Bhatia), and the GM of Hewlett-Packard (Rajiv Gupta) are all Indian.

28.  Alexander the Great of Macedon (356-323 B.C.) was one of the first important figures to bring India into contact with the West. After his death, a link between Europe and the East would not be restored until Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama (1460-1524) landed in Calicut, India, in 1498.

29.  The British Raj, or British rule, lasted from 1858 to 1947 (although they had a strong presence in India since the 1700s). British influence is still seen in Indian architecture, education system, transportation, and politics. Many of India’s worst famines are associated with British rule in India.

30.  Every major world religion is represented in India. Additionally, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism all originated in India.

31.  About 80% of Indians are Hindu. Muslims are the largest minority in India and form approximately 13% of the country’s population. In fact, India has the third largest population of Muslims in the world, after Indonesia and Pakistan.

32.  India has the world’s largest movie industry, based in the city of Mumbai (known as the “City of Dreams”). The B in “Bollywood” comes from Bombay, the former name for Mumbai. Almost all Bollywood movies are musicals.

33.  Mumbai (Bombay) is India’s largest city, with a population of 15 million. In 1661, British engineers built a causeway uniting all seven original islands of Bombay into a single landmass.

34.  Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) is known around the world as Mahatma, which is an honorific title meaning “Great Soul” in the ancient Indian language of Sanskrit. He devoted his life to free India from British rule peacefully and based his campaign on civil disobedience. His birthday, October 2, is a national holiday. He was assassinated in 1948.

35.  The lotus is sacred to both Hindus and Buddhists. The Baha’i house of worship in Delhi, known as the “Lotus Temple,” is shaped like a lotus flower with 27 gigantic “petals” that are covered in marble.

36.  The banyan, or Indian fig tree, is considered a symbol of immortality and is mentioned in many Indian myths and legends. This self-renewing plant is India’s national tree.

37.  Marigold flowers are used as decoration for Hindu marriages and are a symbol of good fortune and happiness.

38.  The official name of India is the Republic of India. The name “India” derives from the River Indus, which most likely is derived from the Sanskrit sindhu, meaning “river.” The official Sanskrit name of India is Bharat, after the legendary king in the epic Mahabharata.

39.  Introduced by the British, cricket is India’s most popular sport. Hockey is considered the national sport, and the Indian field hockey team proudly won Olympic gold in 1928.

40.  Indians made significant contributions to calculus, trigonometry, and algebra. The decimal system was invented in India in 100 B.C. The concept of zero as a number is also attributed to India.

41.  The national fruit of India is the mango. The national bird is the peacock, which was initially bred for food.

42.  Most historians agree that the first recorded account of plastic surgery is found in ancient Indian Sanskrit texts.

43.  Hindi and English are the official languages of India. The government also recognizes 17 other languages (Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Nepali, Manipuri, Konkani, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu). Apart from these languages, about 1,652 dialects are spoken in the country.

44.  India’s pastoral communities are largely dependent on dairy and have made India the largest milk-producing country in the world.

45.  India has the world’s third largest road network at 1.9 million miles. It also has the world’s second largest rail network, which is the world’s largest civilian employer with 16 million workers.

46.  Rivers have played a vital role in India’s popular culture and folklore - they have been worshipped as goddesses because they bring water to an otherwise dry land. Bathing in the Ganges in particular is thought to take away a person’s sins. It is not unusual to spread a loved one’s ashes in the Ganges.

47.  Raziya Sultana (1205-1240) was the first woman leader of India. She was considered a great leader, though she ruled for only three years before being murdered.

48.  Most Indians rinse their hands, legs, and face before eating a meal. It is considered polite to eat with the right hand, and women eat after everyone is finished. Wasting food is considered a sin.

49.  During the Vedic era in India, horse sacrifice sanctioned the sovereignty of the king.

50.  It is traditional to wear white, not black, to a funeral in India. Widows will often wear white in contrast to the colorful clothes of married or single women.

51.  All of India is under a single time zone.

52.  On India’s Independence Day, August 15, 1947, the country was split into India and Pakistan. The partition displaced 1.27 million people and resulted in the death of several hundred thousand to a million people.

53.  In recent years, Indian authors have made a mark on the world with such novels as Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses (1988), Vikram Seth’s Suitable Boy (1993), and Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things (1997).

54.  India experiences six seasons: summer, autumn, winter, spring, summer monsoon, and winter monsoon.

55.  India is the world’s largest tea producer, and tea (chai) is its most popular beverage.

56.  The Taj Mahal (“crown palace”) was built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan (1592-1666) for his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal (1593-1631). This architectural beauty has been called “marbled embroidery” for its intricate workmanship. It took 22,000 workmen 22 years to complete it.

57.  The first and greatest civilization in ancient India developed around the valley of the Indus River (now Pakistan) around 3000 B.C. Called the Indus Valley civilization, this early empire was larger than any other empire, including Egypt and Mesopotamia.

58.  After the great Indus Civilization collapsed in 2000 B.C., groups of Indo-Europeans called Aryans (“noble ones”) traveled to northwest India and reigned during what is called the Vedic age. The mingling of ideas from the Aryan and Indus Valley religions formed the basis of Hinduism, and the gods Shiva, Kali, and Brahma all have their roots in Aryan civilization. The Aryans also recorded the Vedas, the first Hindu scriptures, and introduced a caste system based on ethnicity and occupation.

59.  Alexander the Great invaded India partly because he wanted to solve the mystery of the “ocean,” which he had been told was a huge, continuous sea that flowed in a circle around the land. When he reached the Indian Ocean, he sacrificed some bulls to Poseidon for leading him to his goal.

60.  Greek sculpture strongly influenced many portrayals of Indian gods and goddesses, particularly after the conquest of Alexander the Great around 330 B.C. In fact, early Indian gods had Greek features and only later did distinct Indian styles emerge.

61.  Chandragupta Maurya (340-290 B.C.), a leader in India who established the Mauryan Empire (321-185 B.C.), was guarded by a band of women on horseback.

62.  When the first independent prime minister of India, pacifist Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964), was featured in Vogue, his distinctive close fitting, single-breasted jacket briefly became an important fashion statement for the Mod movement in the West. Named the Nehru jacket, the prime minister’s coat was popularized by the Beatles and worn by such famous people as Johnny Carson (1925-2005) and Sammy Davis Jr. (1925-1990).

63.  India has the 3rd largest military force in the world, yet the country has never in its history invaded another country.