[RAHS]

@Dr.AD,

Excellent travelogue and great photos as always!

Property looks good, specially with that backwater theme

Wayanad is one place which I would love to visit on any weekend. Nice scenic drive through the forest and lots of stay options depending on your taste and budget.

Our last visit to Wayanad was during this Monsoon (July) with lush greenery all around. We stayed in a 100 years old Estate Bungalow and it was a nice experience. Here is a photo just for the memory.

Cheers,
RAHS

[CosmicWizard]

Great property indeed, had stayed there in August. A little smallish though, you can walk the entire length of the trail by the lake in 5-10 minutes and that does rule out taking long jogs/walks within the property (unlike Taj Madikeri or Tamara)

We went out and drove to Vythiri and that is a very scenic and twisty route, passing though many tea plantations. Wanted to visit the dam also but learnt at the reception that it is like a fish market that day due to Onam time.

[zpekter]

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

It is a indeed a nice property. And it is brand new (about a year old at max). The restaurants offer great food and even better views. So overall not just the stay part, but the dining part was good too.

However, it is not a very large resort. It is certainly not as large as some of the other luxury resorts in similar price range. The whole property is on a small hill surrounded by water, and that limits the spread. It is a smallish resort in size, but a lovely place nevertheless.

You are right that it is not cheap. We paid Rs. 21k per room per night (including breakfast only). Some of the more expensive cottages there are about Rs. 30k per room per night.

The route we took was this:

Attachment 2546242

Here is the Google Maps link: https://maps.app.goo.gl/qtoeBwkA1HGpUDse7

This is the fastest and the best route (Ignore any other suggestions or shortcuts Google gives. Stick to this route and it is all fine and smooth road). We took a coffee break at Cafe Coffee Day at Gundlupet (marked in the route link above). This is our usual place for coffee break on this route. This also has clean restrooms.

Of course, one could stop at one of the fine hotels in Mysore too, but it would be time-consuming to enter Mysore and drive through the city traffic. Instead, we prefer to bypass Mysore via Mysore Outer Ring Road and then stop at this CCD.

Overall it took us about 5 hours of driving time each way, excluding the breaks. Including a 30 minutes break at CCD, I would say the total time was about 5.5 hours.

The roads are all good, except for the frequent and annoying speed-breakers through the forest section. But even that section is so scenic that it makes me forget the pain of the frequent speed-breakers. Also, the speed-breakers are well marked and not random. So that helps too.

I'm from Wayanad, infact very near to this Taj property, can confirm that the prices are on the higher side. However, the views are amazing and there's another resort which is a bit cheaper with the same view. This Taj property made an impact on the resort scenes in Wayanad and offer the best luxury offering around this area.

The route you've taken is the right one compared to the shortest one through Kabani/Bavali and I'm a frequent traveller between my hometown and Bangalore. That alternate road is completely borken for a good 10+Kms inside the forest and I usually avoid it even though it's a good 50kms shorter for me.

For those who need any information in Wayanad do reach out to me, happy to help .

[maddy42]

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

It is a indeed a nice property. And it is brand new (about a year old at max). The restaurants offer great food and even better views. So overall not just the stay part, but the dining part was good too.

Did you try the boat ride on the banasura dam as it takes you deep into the backwaters of the dam and gets you the view of the other property in the backwaters called Mountain Shadow. I did stay in that resort and it was gorgeous to say the least but were lucky to get it under 15k on a weekday.

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by RAHS

Excellent travelogue and great photos as always!

Thank you very much, RAHS!

Our last visit to Wayanad was during this Monsoon (July) with lush greenery all around. We stayed in a 100 years old Estate Bungalow and it was a nice experience. Here is a photo just for the memory.

Nice! Your Fortuner looks perfect next to that Bungalow!

Originally Posted by zpekter

The route you've taken is the right one compared to the shortest one through Kabani/Bavali and I'm a frequent traveller between my hometown and Bangalore. That alternate road is completely borken for a good 10+Kms inside the forest and I usually avoid it even though it's a good 50kms shorter for me.

True. That "shortcut" often suggested by Google Maps is quite bad. I have driven there last year when I stayed in JLR Kings Sanctuary and was just exploring roads around that. That section of road is only fit for the JLR Safari vehicles. But for private vehicles, it is a big struggle.

Therefore, although Google Maps still keeps suggesting that route, I always take the route via Gundlupet and I recommend the same to anyone driving to Wayanad.

Originally Posted by maddy42

Did you try the boat ride on the banasura dam as it takes you deep into the backwaters of the dam and gets you the view of the other property in the backwaters called Mountain Shadow. I did stay in that resort and it was gorgeous to say the least but were lucky to get it under 15k on a weekday.

No, not this time. But in the past, we have taken boat rides there. We also visited Mountain Shadow last year (did not stay there, but checked it out) when we had that Team-BHP overnight meet at another resort right next to Mountain Shadow.

We have been to Wayanad many times and explored most of the roads and activities there multiple times in the past. Therefore, this time, the agenda was just to chill in Taj Wayanad and just enjoy the views, the food, and the quiet ambiance there, and not to spend time in any other activities.

[ex-innova-guy]

Apologies Dr.AD for hijacking your thread.

Saw a beautiful 320d in my society today and how tastefully it has been done!




Notice the current 3 series alloys.


Carbon fibre strip with the M badging in the headlights.
Owner’s signature; he is a biker too and has a Z900.


Blackened roof.


Boot lip spoiler.


Akrapovič exhaust tips


His Red knight?

[Dr.AD]

Road Trips, Maintenance, and more Road Trips!

My last update in this thread was in December. It has been three months since then and I somehow lost track of updating this thread. So decided to catch up on the backlog, and update the thread with events since December.

In January, I did a few long drives in my Thar 4x4, and used my 320d only for a few short drives, like this impromptu drive to Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary.

Again in February, I did a few short drives, and then one long drive across Karnataka with a few fellow bhpian friends.

Although there is a separate travelogue of this drive (link given above), sharing a few pictures from that drive here just for the sake of completeness of this thread.

Our convoy posing next to the quintessential Hampi structures:



A solo shot:



On the backdrop of a Hampi sunset:



Hampi sunsets are always special:



One more photograph of the magical Hampi sunset:

Drive to JLR King's Sanctuary:

Another drive I did recently in 320d was a solo drive to JLR King's Sanctuary. I did two safaris there through Nagarhole Tiger Reserve. Unfortunately, I did not see anything special in the safaris, but had a good time enjoying the rides through dry summer forests anyways. Roads from Bangalore till JLR King's Sanctuary are very good now, and in the 320d, it was a very quick drive.

Entering JLR King's Sanctuary:



A quick photoshoot inside JLR campus:






Parked in the parking area in the forest:



I saw this Thar there in the parking area:


I just casually checked in our Bangalore bhpians' 4x4 group if this was one of us. And indeed it was. Turned out this Thar was of bhpian @turboNath. He and his father were there, and it was awesome to meet them and have dinner with them. Both @turboNath and his father are extremely nice persons, both travel a lot and have tons of travel stories to share. It was a great experience to meet them and exchange road trip stories with them. Their enthusiasm and passion for road trips was inspirational to say the least!

Coming to my jungle safaris there, as I mentioned above, I did not see anything special. But sharing a few photos I could manage to click there in our safaris through Nagarhole Tiger Reserve.

Monitor lizard:



A big tusker playing in water:



The tusker walking away in the sunset light:

Maintenance Updates:

Timely maintenance of the car is as important as driving hard and enjoying the road trips. A few maintenance updates since last report:

• High Security Number Plate (HSRP): Ordered my HSRP online and got it installed by the BMW dealer. Overall process was very smooth and streamlined.

• Front Brake Pads replaced: When I was about to drive to the service center to get my HSRP installed, the CBS notification popped up in iDrive that I need new front brake pads in 1900km. Once the brake pad life comes under 2000km, then it can decrease further very rapidly (it is a nonlinear drop in brake pads life). Further, I had two long drives planned in the following two weekends. Therefore, I decided not to wait for those 1900km, and not to jeopardize my two planned long drives. I asked my Service Advisor to replace the brake pads the same day when I went for HSRP, and I replaced brake pads 1900km in advance of the CBS indicated life. That ensured a peace of mind for the following long drives and also saved me one more trip to the service center soon.

• EGR Cooler Recall: During the same visit to the service center, my Service Advisor told me my VIN is under another round of recalls for EGR Cooler replacement. Luckily, they had the part in stock and the EGR Cooler in my car was replaced under this recall, free of cost to me. This was the second time my car's EGR Cooler was replaced under this long recall campaign running for many years now. Overall, my car's EGR system was inspected thrice under this recall so far, and twice the part was replaced as mandated in the recall policy. Related thread and discussions: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...ible-fire.html (BMW may recall over 1 million diesel cars globally due to EGR defect & possible fire!)

• Unsolved Issue (under watch) - Delayed engine start on hot starts: As the car's odometer is now touching 95,000km (in fact, I just recently crossed 95,000km), I do expect a few issues and niggles to pop out, and I am prepared to take care of those. The first "age-related" issue that has surfaced in last few drives is this: When I drive the car for a few hours in one go (say 3-4 hours) and then switch off the engine, and then for some reason try to start the engine immediately again (say within next 5 minutes or so), the engine does not start in the first crank. There is a noticeable delayed start, as if the battery was dead. The engine does start after a couple of cranking attempts. This is only observed under when these two conditions are met: 1. The car is run for a few hours together, AND 2. I try to restart the car very soon (within a 5 minute break) after shutting it down (basically hot start). Battery issues are ruled out since the car starts absolutely fine on cold starts. In fact, my car is often parked for a week (during the work-week) or sometimes two weeks (when I take my Thar for a weekend trip), and even after two weeks, the car starts absolutely fine in first crank. Thus, battery is fine. Also, my SA told me that when the battery voltage drops, I will get a notification on iDrive to replace the battery (this I have seen on other F30s too). So battery is fine for now. In fact, even on those hot starts, when the car struggles to start immediately, if I let it cool down for 30 minutes, the car starts again absolutely fine. So it is not a battery issue. Further, the engine temperature is all normal. Thus it is not engine overheating issue either. It is some mystical "hot start delay" issue. Incidentally, it is reported by many users in the international bimmerpost forum, and globally it is a somewhat common issue in F30 320d. The most common solution is to replace the starter motor. This is often a problem with starter motors with age. However, my Service Advisor checked everything and told me my starter motor was fine too. In summary, he could not find anything wrong and asked me to watch out if I get any other errors on iDrive soon before deciding on what to replace. So for now, I am living with this problem and watching out for some other symptoms or errors.

• Excellent service by Kun BMW: All the above were done at my usual service center, Kun BMW (earlier Navnit BMW, now taken over by Kin), and as always, I had an excellent service experience there. I am very happy with their service and support, and continue to have a great relationship with my Service Advisor and the service center in general.

With the maintenance taken care of, I did another long drive to Bekal, Kerala, and enjoyed a lovely 3-day trip there. Allow me to share that trip report in the next post below.

[Dr.AD]

Drive to Bekal, Kerala

On one of the recent log weekends, we (I and my better half) drove to Bekal, Kerala, for a 3-day trip. We stayed at "Lalit Resort and Spa, Bekal".

Bekal is a beautiful coastal town in North Kerala, and is famous for the historic sea fort there, known as "Bekal Fort". Lalit Resort and Spa, Bekal, is one of the few luxury resorts there, right next to the famous Taj Bekal. One more fine resort in that area is Neeleshwar Hermitage, where we stayed at in one of our previous drives, covered in this post. Since we had stayed both at Taj Bekal and Neeleshwar Hermitage in the past, we decided to try out Lalit this time.

While certainly not as good as Taj Bekal, Lalit Resort and Spa, Bekal, turned to be a very nice place anyways. It is a bit dated property, and needs a little better maintenance. But apart from that, it is a lovely place. The suites are big, spacious and nice, and landscaped gardens are nice, and the resort has all the facilities of a 5-star resort. Most importantly, it is located on the side of a river that merges into the sea, and thus has both river and beach access. The location is just wonderful. We had a great time walking around the scenic walkways around the resort, by the side of the river and to the beach.

This was the route map of our drive to Bekal:


The entire route from Madikeri (Coorg) to Bekal is a scenic road, crossing hills and forests, and is a lovely drive to enjoy a good sedan. I absolutely loved this drive.

After Madikeri, we drove to Sulia, and from there we took the small forest roads via Bandadka and Poinachi to Bekal (as you can see in the map above). These are lovely forest roads, and I had read about them having received a fresh coat of tar. I was looking forward to driving on these forest roads with fresh tar, and these roads did not disappoint me. Absolutely lovely forest drive this was!

Somewhere in the scenic forest roads:



Lovely roads and corners:



Enjoying the jungle drive:



Another shot to show the fantastic road (both the tarmac and the scenery were fantastic):



Arrived at Lalit Resort and Spa, Bekal:


In the evening, at the sunset time, we drove to the famous Bekal Fort and enjoyed great sunset views from the fort. This fort closes at 6pm, and last entry is at 5:30pm. We went there around 5:15pm, and had a nice time from about 5:15pm till 6pm. There was not too much crowd at this final hour of the day there, and we also got to see lovely sunset. Most importantly, the weather was good that hour with the evening sea breeze giving a pleasant feeling. This area was very hot through the day at this time of the year, and visiting this fort in the heat of the day would be a very bad idea. But the evening hour was perfect even weather wise.

At Bekal Fort, where I could not resist clicking a few photos in the parking lot before going inside the fort:



One more photo against the historic fort:



Views from inside the fort:



Setting sun against the ancient structures:



Gates and paths within the fort:



Sunset views from the western end of the fort:



Boats sailing into the sunset:



Sunset against the fortifications of the fort:



One more sunset photograph at the fort:



A peacock on the fort enjoying the sunset views:



Parting shot of the car at the fort:


The next day we just enjoyed the surrounding areas and relaxed in the resort. Utilized the gym and spa there, and in the evening, we walked around the river and the beach enjoying the sunset at the resort. Unfortunately the beach itself was not very clean (it had a lot of debris flowing out of the sea and landing on the sand), but the river and the landscapes within the resort premises were very clean and scenic!

Beautiful pathways within the resort, by the side of the river:



Another view of the scenic paths by the side of the river:



Spots to sit and enjoy the river views:



Scenic pathways leading to the beach:



Sunset where the river meets the sea:



A typical "Instagram spot" in the resort:



"Bridge to the Sunset" (a small wooden bridge across the river to reach the beach):



The reverse direction view of the bridge:



Parting shot of the sunset at the beach:


This was a simple and short 3-day vacation. Lovely roads that I enjoyed driving on, a nice relaxing time in the resort, and these scenic sunsets mentioned above summarize this trip experience.

That is all for now. Thank you very much for reading!

[RAHS]

@Dr.AD,

Excellent travelogue and lovely photos as always!

The Resort looks cool alongside the river and specially loved the "Bridge to the Sunset" concept

I have never been to Bekal. Adding to my list.

Looking forward to your next travelogue

Cheers,
RAHS

[Malliketh]

Love your updates and all the new places you explore, doc. Had read your entire ownership thread end to end before purchasing a pre-owned f30. Extremely helpful.

I have three queries -
1. Are you worried about the n20 timing chain failure issue? Any plan to proactively replace it? This is the only know global issue that bothers me.

2. How much is the full service costing you at Kun? My understanding is BMW offers discounts on older models.

3. What camera are you using to shoot the animals and birds? The shot clarity is amazing

[ampere]

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

This was a simple and short 3-day vacation. Lovely roads that I enjoyed driving on, a nice relaxing time in the resort, and these scenic sunsets mentioned above summarize this trip experience.

Earlier I would have disagreed on a 3-day vacation to Bekal. You at least would need 3 nights. Because it usually ended up as an 8+ hour drive one way, thanks to winding roads post Coorg or beyond Gundya (if you go via Hassan). And with that timing 2-nights its not fun. Before you start enjoying, its time to pack-up (Well there is not much to see around but just chill out).

Now with Mysore Expressway you cut at least 2 hours. Once the 4-lane comes up with till Madikeri, this would be even faster.

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by RAHS

Excellent travelogue and lovely photos as always!

Thank you very much, RAHS!

Originally Posted by Malliketh

Love your updates and all the new places you explore, doc. Had read your entire ownership thread end to end before purchasing a pre-owned f30. Extremely helpful.

Thank you very much, and congratulations on your F30!

1. Are you worried about the n20 timing chain failure issue? Any plan to proactively replace it? This is the only know global issue that bothers me.

My car does not have N20 engine. N20 was the petrol engine in early generation F30 328i. The corresponding diesel engine in those early generation F30 was N47. However, in F30 LCI (2015-16), the engine was ungraded to new B47 engine which is much more reliable and has this timing chain issue solved. Mine is this LCI with B47 engine and I do not have to worry about those old timing chain issues.

2. How much is the full service costing you at Kun? My understanding is BMW offers discounts on older models.

Yes, BMW gives discounts on standard parts and labour charges for older cars. My car currently gets 16% discount.

However, there is nothing called a "full service" in BMW. It is all Condition Based Servicing (CBS), and each time, only the specific maintenance action is done as per CBS.

I have already explained the costs in various previous posts in this thread, but to give you an idea, just the oil change and filter change costs about Rs. 20k. Brake pads change (which is a frequent thing since brake pads usually last only about 20k km), can cost about Rs. 22k for either front set or rear set (or Rs. 44k in total). And brake discs, which usually last 2 sets of brake pads change, can cost somewhere between Rs. 20k to 25k for one pair. So you get an idea.

3. What camera are you using to shoot the animals and birds? The shot clarity is amazing

Thanks. I have two camera bodies and multiple lenses. I use Nikon Z5 (full-frame, mirrorless) with Nikon Z 24-200mm f/4-6.3 VR lens for regular travel photos, and sometimes with Nikon Z 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3 VR lens for bird photography (this is what I used in Old Magazine House). However, since this is a heavy system, I often use my old APSC DSLR, which is Nikon D3500 with the lightweight and compact Nikon AF-P DX 70-300mm f/4.5-6.3 VR lens. This is a super light and compact system. The bird photos in Ranganathittu as well as the King's Sanctuary safari photos shared above were shot with this DX system.

But almost all photos shared from the Bekal trip above are taken with my mobile phone. Almost all car photos on the road are taken with a simple mobile phone because it is much easier to jump out of the car with a mobile in hand, take a quick photo, and then jump back in and continue driving. Taking out bulky camera and lenses from the car in the middle of the drive is something I avoid.

Originally Posted by ampere

Earlier I would have disagreed on a 3-day vacation to Bekal. You at least would need 3 nights. Because it usually ended up as an 8+ hour drive one way, thanks to winding roads post Coorg or beyond Gundya (if you go via Hassan). And with that timing 2-nights its not fun. Before you start enjoying, its time to pack-up (Well there is not much to see around but just chill out).

Hahaha. I would have to disagree with this. Both I and my wife (and most of my regular driving buddies) love "driving time and road time", and we love long full day drives. We actually get bored sitting in a resort. In fact, we often like just 2-day trips more because we get long drives on both the days and minimize "idle time at the resort". Recently in Coorg, we spent 3 days in a nice resort and got absolutely bored on 2nd day.

So often if we have a 3-day trip, we like to drive again on Day 2 and move on to a new place for Day 2 night. We rarely spend multiple days at the same place. We do multiple day drives too, but then we drive to multiple destinations through that trip. We love driving time lot more than resort time. We were worried about spending 3 days in Bekal too (we thought we would get bored), but for a change, we managed to enjoy Day 2 there too and did not get bored. But this was more of an exception than a rule. Else we were considering a coastal drive towards Gokarna side on Day 2 and returning from Gokarna to Bangalore on Day 3.

For example, recently we spent 5 days in a road trip in Sri Lanka, and stayed in some very nice resorts (Hilton Weerawila was awesome, and Taj Bentota was good too), but we spent only 1 night in each place and drove to a new place every day. Thus, each day we had some driving and road time, explored new landscapes, reached a new place in the evening, and experienced a new resort. But second day at the same place, however nice, gets boring for us. So next morning we had a nice leisurely breakfast, and then moved on to explore new places. We absolutely loved that experience and that is our ideal multi-day vacation.

I usually like 500km driving on each day, and this Bekal drive was also a bit too short. Would have loved about 100km more drive each way.

I guess "different strokes for different folks" is all I can say.

Now with Mysore Expressway you cut at least 2 hours. Once the 4-lane comes up with till Madikeri, this would be even faster.

True. We reached Bekal in only 6 hours (and took the same time for return). This was again a very short drive in very quick times, thanks to all great roads!

[ssjr0498]

As usual, beautiful pictures and travelogue! Never realized that the fort is so beautiful when I was there!

Regarding your issue, if your alternator and starter motor have been deemed fit, you will need to check the cranking voltage across the terminals when the car is hot! Also, just because the voltage shows up as normal, doesn't indicate that the battery is good, have the SA check the amperage. The low amperage will not show up on the iDrive either.
I have experienced the same issue on my Superbike and my Jetta.. also had solved this issue on a 530d for a friend.

Cheers,
Shrey

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

Battery issues are ruled out since the car starts absolutely fine on cold starts.

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by ssjr0498

As usual, beautiful pictures and travelogue! Never realized that the fort is so beautiful when I was there!

Thank you very much. The key is to visit such places in "Golden Hour", and when crowds are less. I have been to this fort in the past during daytime and it did not look so good either that time.

Regarding your issue, if your alternator and starter motor have been deemed fit, you will need to check the cranking voltage across the terminals when the car is hot! Also, just because the voltage shows up as normal, doesn't indicate that the battery is good, have the SA check the amperage. The low amperage will not show up on the iDrive either.

Thanks a lot. Yes will get battery health checked next. I am thinking of getting a new battery anyways since this one is now more than 6 years old and has done 95,000km. So first step is to get a new battery and then recheck other things if this still happens again. Thanks again for the tips!

[Dr.AD]

Weekend Drive to Ooty and Kotagiri with BHPian Friends

We did a weekend drive to the hills in the Nilgiris, specifically to Kotaigri (Tamil Nadu) via Ooty. This was with my close friends from our driving group: @praveenbalan (in his White BMW 330i M Sports), @KarthikK (on his Kawasaki Ninja 1000) and @graaja (in his famous Blue BMW 330i GT).

The plan was masterminded and executed flawlessly by @praveenbalan and @KarthikK. Thanks to them for the amazing planning and location find. And thanks to our close friend and "coach" (because he is always an inspiration and motivation in so many fields), @graaja for his wonderful company. It was a great experience to spend the weekend driving through the hills with this gang, and then spending the evening and night in a lovely bungalow in the middle of tea estates, discussing numerous road trip stories with friends.

The place we stayed at, find of @praveenbalan, was "Raven's Nest by Ama Stays & Trails, Kotagiri", a beautiful bungalow in the middle of a tea estate. It was a huge bungalow with spacious gardens and premises, with more than enough space and view points and facilities than just the four of us could ever use. The hospitality, service and food preparation by the staff there was all top notch! Ama Stays is owned by Taj group, and Taj touches were evident in their service and food preparations. We loved our weekend there.

I did not take many photos of the bungalow and the lovely food there, because that was left to the expert in the group for such kind of photography, @KarthikK. I am hoping that @KarthikK will soon write his trademark trip report full of amazing photos of the location and the food, and we are all eagerly waiting for that.

While I am waiting for his report, in the meantime, I could not resist sharing a few photos from my side. Please think of this as just a preview. Please wait for his full report coming out soon.


Ninja 1000 leading us through the forests and hills:



Another view of the three vehicles driving up to Ooty en route to Kotagiri:


We took a quick "coffee and desserts" break at Ooty at a beautiful cafe called "Le Cafe". This was a find by our expert in finding such places, @KarthikK. It turned out that our good friend @RakishRam was also in Ooty that day, vacationing there with his friends and family group. He also dropped by at "Le Cafe" to meet us there over coffee, and it was great to meet him and his Davit Grey BMW M340i there (which seems to be the most popular BMW color going by the car colors thread on the forum today).

@RakishRam's Davit Grey M340i at Le Cafe in Ooty:



Amazingly delicious blueberry cheescakes at Le Cafe, Ooty:


At Kotagiri, we were greeted by @graaja, who drove straight there from Coimbatore. His Blue BMW 3GT joined our cars there.

Posing with the famous 3GT in the parking space of the bungalow:



A group photo of all four vehicles there:



And their keys :



A random shot of the two 3-series sedans parked next to each other:



The fastest vehicle in the group (and that too by a big margin; this is one crazy fast rocket!):



Morning shot of our cars and the superbike parked there in the bungalow:



As usual, we did a round of "solo" car and bike photoshoot too there, and here are a few samples:

One of the most famous cars on the forum, the 330i GT of @graaja:



One more shot of the famous 3GT, with flowers on the bonnet from overnight parking:



The stunning and sleek white 330i M Sports of @praveenbalan:



And here is probably the most famous superbike on the forum with its famous Ninja rider, @KarthikK:



And finally, a solo shot of my humble BMW 320d:


It was a great weekend trip. Motoring around with friends who love motoring and share the same passion as you about driving and road tripping is a magical experience! Thanks for my motoring friends for this amazing weekend.

That is all from my side. Thank you for reading this, and please stay tuned for a full report by @KarthikK in his superbike thread!