“God forbid” Jungle Road Trip in Kerala,Karnataka

We took an another Freaky Adventure Road Trip, through Kerala, Karnataka National Parks and WildLife Sanctuaries and Beaches…

JUST THE STATS – Simple!

ROUTE

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OOTY   -  MASINAGUDI  -  MUDUMALAI NATIONAL PARK  - BANDHIPUR NATIONAL PARK  -  GUNDLUPET    -  MADDUR -   MUTHUNGA WLS  -   SULTAN BATHERY  -  KALPETTA  -   KURUVA ISLAND  -  MANANTHAVADY  – THOLPETTY WLS   -   KUTTA   -   NAGARAHOLE NATIONAL PARK   -   KUTTA – IRPU FALLS   -    SRI MANGALA   -   VIRAJPET    -   SIDDAPUR   -    KUSHAL NAGAR   -   MADIKERI   -   SULYA   -KASARAGOD    -    BEKAL FORT    -   KANHANGAD    -    TELLICHERRY   -     MAHE   -    MADAPPALLY-KOZHIKODE   -    MALAPURAM   -    PALGHAT -    ERODE

LEGEND

TAMIL NADU

KARNATAKA

KERALA

DISTANCE

1200 KMS approx

DAYS

3 [8-6-2009 to 11-6-2009]

BIKES

2 PULSAR 150 CC DTSi

1 CBZ XTREME

FUEL

20 Litres approx(my bike-pulsar 150 CC-2004 Model)

STAY

DAY 1 NIGHT-Mananthavady

DAY 2 NIGHT-Sulliya

NATIONAL PARKS

Mudumalai National Park

Bandipur National Park

Nagarahole National Park (hired local jeep)

Silent Valley National Park

WILD LIFE SANTUARIES

Muthunga(or Wayanad) WildLife Sanctuary

Tholpetty WildLife Sanctuary

BEACHES

Kasaragod Beach

Mappila Beach

Kappil Beach

Kappad Beach

Kozhikode Beach

Some Backwaters

NATIONAL HIGHWAYS

NH 47

NH 67

NH 212

NH 17

NH 213

DAY 1

We started from Erode at 2 AM and started to climb the road to Ooty … We spotted one elephant on the road eating some branches of a tree … that’s weird , bcoz , the roads lead to steep slopes … Also we spotted one deer ,alone …        We stopped by at a small shop for tea , near to coonor …We then reached Ooty at around 6 in the morning …

We then descended down through Kalhatty Ghat Road (36 hair pin bends) to reach masinagudi … We took snaps at a small river over a bridge … Then we had our breakfast in Masinagudi … Once again we hit the roads to mudumalai , we saw herds and herds of deers and chitals … One interesting thing happened on the road , when we stopped to piss … That is ,

a 100 meters away , one deer crossed the road , at first … We were happy to spot it and took photo … And then the deers crossing increased in numbers and a few mins after , we realized , we have atleast seen some 200 deers crossing by the road … its really fun … There were also some languars sitting on the trunks of the trees along the roadside…

We didn’t stop at Mudumalai or Bandipur bcoz we were many a times here before … We continued to Gundlupet and turned left to Sultan Bathery via mulehole or maddur … After some 15 kms in that road in the plains , we once again entered the roods and a board said , we are now in Muthunga or Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary … But we did spot only deers there … no elephants… Then we reached Sulthan Bathery and continued to Kalpetta …

When Kalpetta was only2 kms away , we took right to Kuruva Island ,45 kms from there … We thereby skipped kalpetta , bcoz we dont want to end up in fatigue by trekking those caves and falls ,since this is ought to be a fanatical road trip

So we went to kuruva and spent some time there .. And the Island by 5 pm which is the closing time … 4 guys in our team wanted to leave home ,bcoz they some urgent things to attend to … So we bade goodbye to them and we continued to mananthavady … As we were already exhausted , then we decided to stay there …

DAY 2

We wake early in the nest morning and continued our journey to kutta … We then stopped at Tholpetty WLS , to go for some safari … But due to recent rains , they were closed at the time …

So we decided to check at Nagarahole National Park for safari inside the park … So once we reached kutta , we parked our bikes and hires a jeep to drop us at Nagarahole,since bikes aren’t allowed to enter the NP … We were highly disappointed , bcoz we missed the last bus going into NP by 20 mins … Our frustration only heightened , when the guys , who went inside the National Park told us ,they spotted a tiger … We then made up our mind and vowed to come back some time soon … We then commuted through the NP bus to kutta and had our breakfast and picked our bikes …

Once again , we were on the wheels to Irpu falls … The falls had only small amount of water … But the place was good and we took pictures and continued to kushal nagar … We then reached kushal nagar and went to Tibetan University cum golden Temple … It was awesome buildings in gold and we had really felt the tibet inside the temple … we chatted with a guy who is a student there …. Again we left the place to Nisaragadhama Dam and spent some time there …

From kushal nagar , we made straight to Madikeri through very bad roads for some 30 kms … We did only stop at Madikeri for taking some pictures and we continued our journey to the west coast … Our plan was to reach Mangalore … But the guys are really beat up after some 700 km bike ride from home almost continuously through two days … so we stayed at suliya

DAY 3

We again woke early the next day and hit the roads to kasaragod … from suliya , the road goes straight to mangalore and but then as we were exhausted we decided to skip it … And so took the left from a check post to kasaragod …

We reached kasaragod ,at 5.30 in the morning and spend some time in the beach … We then went to bekal fort …

It was such a lovely place to hang out … The fort had some great views from it …. one view to the coast , another to the rocks and sea along its other sides and another view of the fort itself … we took a plenty of pictues in the fort as we did in the golden temple … and then we hit the roads … Forget to tell you about , how amazing we felt ,when we saw the sea , after two days of riding in the mountains and jungles … It was an amazing feeling and felt that we discovered the sea by ourselves … the beaches along the coast like bekal beach,kappil beach and kappad beach are very lonely and refreshing and clean … we found the kappad beach to be very good and the better of all these beaches …

Then again we also saw a light house and it was quite lovely and nicely painted … We took pictures from all these places and again hit the NH 17 coastal highways to kozhikode .. in the middle ,we had our breakfast in a small shop near a petrol bunk … but the food was nice … Then reached kozhikode and rested for some time in the beach and we then hit the roads to palghat … The road to palghat NH 213 was very crowdy by all the schools and autos and buses in the roads … once we reached malapuram , we were in the mountain road s again which lies in the silent valley national park ..

We then contined to palghat and sent off my friend on an air bus to nagerkovil … Then remnant of us hit the roads again to erode via NH47 …We reached our happy home by midnite… That’s the end to this amazing god-forbid bike trip through the jungles ,forests and beaches of three states TN,Kerala, karnataka spanning over 1200 kms in distance …

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For more photos of this trip , mail me @ zoomie999@gmail.com