[TheRedPaladin]

Hi Team-bhp’ians


This is my first travelogue of a very short trip to Kudremukh. After some busy days of work in final year of college, we friends needed to head out somewhere for a refresher. We were thinking of locations for a day or two at max. Even though I hail from manipal area, and study in NIT-K Surathkal, the college doesn’t allow us to keep bikes in hostels, hence, we rent bikes if we need to go out for trips. So, ten of us decided to go out for the road trip, but the question was how?


Well, I was always into browsing internet (team-bhp especially) for locations for weekend get-aways. I opined to goto Kudremukh and the crowd agreed. We guys went and rented bikes for the day from a local bike rental shop. Next day morning, we started off at 6 am, and after quick breakfast at padubidri, we headed towards karkala, and from the karkala by-pass headed off to Kudremukh. I was cruising at a steady 70-80 kmph on F-zee. With lots of stops for photo and enjoying the beauty of nature we reached the Kudremukh check post. After getting a slip from them, we entered the Kudremukh area. It was cold, compared to the coastal areas as we were climbing up the hills. The roads were really awesome to go at a steady speed without much fluctuation. Occasional heavy weight trucks carrying loads were met, and very very few buses.


Some pics of roads enroute to Kudremukh.













We encountered some mini waterfalls, and many breathtaking sceneries, one of my favorite was near Hanumangundi falls, just 2-3 kms from the gate to the falls. We didn’t proceed to hanumangundi falls because we had already been there as a part of class trip before.


Mini waterfall on the roadside.







A part of the breath-taking scenary near-by hanuman gundi falls. The photo doesn't do justic to the real beauty.





From here we proceeded to the main town, before going we stopped at ganga-moola, only to realize that, there was some suicide case few days before we went there, hence entrance to it was banned. We then headed to Lakhya dam. The looks of this place is amazing. It’s huge and you can see the hills that were mined and also an old mining structure still in place.


Lakhya Dam view - Photography prohibited, but I couldn't resist.





We were hungry by now, and we proceeded forward to the main city. We expected to see the city with people, and shops, but, we were shocked to see hardly any shops open and hardly any people around , and no petrol bunks for public in the entire area except for the one owned by KIOCL, for which you need to take the special permission from the Administrators. There was a Kendriya vidyalaya school, and a bank which seemed to be open without any people in them.


We were told by localites about a nearby guest house which serves food. We had set dosa for 25 rupees and a good tea. After a round of fag and rest, we headed towards shringeri, which was around 25 kms. After darshan at the temple, we went to sirimane falls.


Shringeri Temple:








From the road there is a deviation as you near shringeri from Kudremukh, to the left. Its 13kms from this turn. The road is not in good shape, but motorable. After reaching the falls, we see that the water is not so much as it was not the rainy season. But, we had enough water to play and get ourselves wet under the Ice cold water to the fullest satisfaction.
















From here, we headed back in the same road back to Mangalore, returned the Bikes and headed off to Hostel in bus. Overall it was a very refreshing trip, most needed when we were too much bugged with the academic assignments and projects.

Route:- Surathkal - Padubidri - Karkala - Kudremukh - Shringeri - Sirimane falls

Regards
~TheRedPaladin a.k.a Karthik

[vineethvazhayil]

Good pictures there!
Been to Kudremukh for camping and visited the Hanuman Gundi falls too.. We drove from Mysore to Kudremukh and back.

Pictures made me nostalgic, it was nearly 6 years back. Thanks for sharing.

[HorsPwr]

Originally Posted by TheRedPaladin

Hi Team-bhp’ians

Route:- Surathkal - Padubidri - Karkala - Kudremukh - Shringeri - Sirimane falls

Regards
~TheRedPaladin a.k.a Karthik

Nice pictures !! Why didnt you include some pics of your rides ?. I have some memories of Hanumangundi falls, had been to that place long ago. Which were the bikes you people were riding apart from your FZ ?

[mayankjha1806]

I was bit confused, the route you mentioned, i tried plotting that on google maps and its ~600 odd Kms. Doing this on a one day trip on bike would be a tough task, until i realized you went to Mangalore on Bus and from there you rented bikes to get to the falls.

If one chooses to drive straight then its ~300 odd kms via Hassan-Belur-Chikmangalur-Sringeri.

Lovely pictures especially the road full of trees. On the Lakhya Dam view, picture there isn't any dam in the picture nor there is water (did not get the pun)?

[libranof1987]

Wonderful TL.

Kudremukh was a favorite when it came to bike trips while I was in Manipal. I've been there 4 times; all during the monsoon and it is heavenly to say the least. The lush greenery, the chilly winds and the winding roads make for a splendid ride.

I'm glad there's greenery even in summer.

Btw, did you go thru' the Agumbe route or thru' Karkala?

Originally Posted by mayankjha1806

Lovely pictures especially the road full of trees. On the Lakhya Dam view, picture there isn't any dam in the picture nor there is water (did not get the pun)?

The entire Kudremukh area was once a hot spot for mining until it was shut down.

The Lakhya dam is actually a private dam built only for the KIOCL operations. Even in peak monsoon, the dam doesn't have much water. But it looks majestic.

Given the fact that it's a mining region, photography is prohibited in a lot of areas.

[funkykar]

Where did you stay in Kudremukh? I am planning to travel to Kudremukh shortly and the info will help me a lot.

[TheRedPaladin]

Thanks everyone for appreciating my TL and pics.

Originally Posted by funkykar

Where did you stay in Kudremukh? I am planning to travel to Kudremukh shortly and the info will help me a lot.

Well, we have not stayed there. It was a one day trip. We went there early morning and came back by night. You have only one option, that is, the Guest house. But I feel, you better move to either Kalasa or Sringeri to stay overnight. Sadly, Kudremukh has nothing much to offer when it comes to staying.

Originally Posted by libranof1987

Btw, did you go thru' the Agumbe route or thru' Karkala?

We went through the Karkala route, agumbe makes the distance a bit longer by 30-40 kms I guess, and we were having constraints of time and rent for extra kilometers . Will try it next time when I buy a new bike in August.

Originally Posted by mayankjha1806

I was bit confused, the route you mentioned, i tried plotting that on google maps and its ~600 odd Kms. Doing this on a one day trip on bike would be a tough task, until i realized you went to Mangalore on Bus and from there you rented bikes to get to the falls.

If one chooses to drive straight then its ~300 odd kms via Hassan-Belur-Chikmangalur-Sringeri.

Lovely pictures especially the road full of trees. On the Lakhya Dam view, picture there isn't any dam in the picture nor there is water (did not get the pun)?

Well, I am afraid you must have missed something. Let me make it clear to you.

We started from my college, NITK, surathkal and headed towards padubidri, from there we took a left and headed straight to karkala, navodaya circle (bypass it is), and headed straight towards Kudremkh. I am posting the google map snapshot for your reference.

Originally Posted by vineethvazhayil

Good pictures there!
Been to Kudremukh for camping and visited the Hanuman Gundi falls too.. We drove from Mysore to Kudremukh and back.

Pictures made me nostalgic, it was nearly 6 years back. Thanks for sharing.

@Vineeth - Thanks

Originally Posted by HorsPwr

Nice pictures !! Why didnt you include some pics of your rides ?. I have some memories of Hanumangundi falls, had been to that place long ago. Which were the bikes you people were riding apart from your FZ ?

Thanks. We had 1 Fzee, 2 pulsars, 1 twister, 1 caliber/ The condition of the bikes were poor except for fzee and pulsar, so I didnt upload pics.