Deepu: "OK. But in my bike"
Me: "So where are we going?"
Deepu:"Pondi...?"
Me: "Its summer and i prefer karnataka coast. How about Gokarna?"
Deepu: "Road is not good. Driving will not be fun. Lets go to Tadiyandamol"
Me: " I had been there once but four years back. So not a problem. What about you?"
Deepu: "5 times"
Me: " Did you say 5"
Deepu: "Yes"
Me: "Are you sure you want to make that 6"
Deepu: "Why Not?"
Me: "OK Lets Do it. What time we will start?"
Deepu: "tom morning 5"
Me: " OK then tomorrow morning 5, my place"
Deepu: "Done"
So with a two minute conversation we have decided on place and time, though i was not sure whether we will be able to start at 5 in morning.
Morning 4,30: My alarm goes off. I called up deepu to make sure he has started on time. No Response. I called him up 5 times but ended up getting no response. So this guy is still sleeping. I also went to bed for a small nap.
Morning 5.00: I got a call from deepu.
Me: "Where are you man?"
Deepu: "Outside your house. Are you still sleeping?"
Me: " Just give me 10 minutes."
Morning 5.45: We were racing in empty roads of bangalore city which was just waking up in a festive mood.
It was a easy driving in city roads at 60 till we reach our first stop after kengeri for fuel. Within couple of minutes Avenger's tank swallowed 14 litres of petrol. We opted for a full tank. From there it was my turn to ride the bike. It was my first date with avenger. So i preferred driving at slow pace till i get good control of bike. Its an awesome experience driving Avenger on bangalore mysore highway. After Bidadi it was time to push accelerator. We were just cruising around 100 and never felt that we are hitting 100. We took first piss stop after mandya and there goes a red car with couple of babes in it. Now Deepu wants to chase it so he takes control of riding.He was just ripping it at 120, overtaking everything on way. In Srirangapatna we went past red car and there was a smile on Deepu's face. Around 8.00 we reached GTR in Mysore for breakfast where PC our host and sponsor er for breakfast was waiting for us.
After eating masla dosa, idli vada, uppitu and kesaribath one plate each, we started off from GTR. PC told that he will follow us till vijayanagrar. But I did not see him after one km from GTR. Our next stop was hunsur some 50km from Mysore. Deepu has spent all his childhood in this town. So he showed me couple of places, his school and started with his childhood stories. He showed a hill which he used to climb alone and sit on top of that and enjoy.
By the time his stories approach a end we were racing inside Rajiv Gandi National park. I was curious to see some animals in national park. But we were able to see only dozens of monkeys, couple of peacocks, a elephant and lot of birds which i have never seen before.
We reached Virajpete at 11. So we were ahead of our plans. Thanks to some ripping from Deepu. This is the last town we will be getting, so we did a quick shopping of food and beverages :). Now I started feeling hungry and we have already left virajpet and there are no more hotels ahead. Deepu came up with this idea of visiting Iguthapa temple where prasada will be served till 1. He told that it was a remote temple and no one will be there. I did not see any other options so we headed towards temple around 10 km from our base camp. It was a remote place and I thought no one will be there. But for our surprise it was Ugadi and some 150 people were there in traditional madikeri outfits. My God! Girls really look sexy in madikeri style of dressing. After a quick lunch we started towards our base camp. Now I got a call from home and i told sis that i came to madikeri in a bike. For a while she thought i am kidding.
Tammaya - friend of deepu and owner of room where we are going to stay in base camp.
We reached Tammaya's house and luckily rooms were empty. After some rest we went for a walk. It was cloudy so we decided to trek next day morning. After thirty minutes of walk we reached the base of mountain from where actual climb begins. Now i can see bunch of bangalore engineering students climbing ahead of us. They had left base camp almost a hour before us. Deepu wanted to reach top before them and i thought its very difficult as they are way ahead of us. So we decided to give it a shot. We started to climb very quickly and went past that group in less than thirty minutes. It was still 4 in evening and was getting very cloudy. So after some climbing we reached the top. The whole top was covered with clouds and visibility was less than 10 meters.
After some time students group reached top and they were very excited. They were planning to camp on top all night. One of them had a chat with deepu and was thrilled to know that we came in a avenger all the way from bangalore and this is deepu's sixth visit. It started raining and i just felt sorry for these guys because i am sure they will not find any firewood here and it will be very cold in night. Deepu gave them some instructions and we left the place after wishing them good luck and started to climb down. For our surprise it was raining only on top of mountain.
After reaching room it was time to do some preparations for night. We lit up a fire and sat in front of that before it gets dark. Then it was just chatting couple of hours before we finish cup noodles and biscuits. After 280km of drive and trek i was really tired. So wanted to have a nice sleep.
Next day i thought Deepu will not wake up before 9 ( i am sure you can guess why ???). But he woke up before me and we started off early in morning. We took a break in virajpet for breakfast and i got second call from home My mom was bit furious about this whole trip thing. I just explained that i am fine and had fun. Its an awesome experience to drive in empty roads of madkeri covered by green estates. Actually Deepu had some work so plan was to reach bangalore as early as possible. So just took one break in Maddur Macdonalds for lunch and by 2 we were back in bangalore.
The problem with Avenger is pillow rider seat is very hard and small. So if roads are not good then bottom is going to get some nice beating.
Overall it was a very new experience for me because it is the first time i travelled such long distance in bike. There was no gang and we were only two people, so decisions were quicker and were more crazy than before.I just hope that it is the beginning of a new ride.
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