[KarthikK]

Thanks to all those who attended the Team-BHP overnight meetup and drive to Bhadra wildlife reserve this past weekend. Fantastic organization and coordination singe-handedly by RSudarsanan sir from start to end, and big kudos to him for making sure every attendee and family member had a great time! Thanks also to all the family members who attended this meet, it wouldn't have been as lively and complete without you all!

A few teaser photos from me while I am still processing the full set of the event on film!

Answering the call of the wild - Bhadra beckons!!





Watchful eyes!



Serene waters of the Bhadra reservoir



Look whom we managed to spot - the King of the jungle!



The full team-BHP group!



Delicious food!



Exciting cars!


Full report with accompanying photos to roll out in installments, beginning tonight! Others who brought your cameras along, please post your pictures on this thread. I didn't want the trip report to merge into the main Bangalore meets thread since it was an overnighter, hence created a separate thread.

[raajks]

I will have to agree to Karthik's every letter

• The drive was fabulous
• Brilliantly organized by Ravi (RSudarsan), For the next drive organized by this great man! We as a family of 4 are in by default
• Scenic routes
• Forest safari
• Excellent stay provided by JLR, RiverTern
• Excellent food at all the well-thought out break-out points
• Convoy driving
• Amazing people to meet and greet from the Team-BHP fold
• And to top it a all, An eye to eye session with the King of the jungle

[micrographics]

When this meet was planned as I never received any notification from organizers.

Mods : For such meetings, I suggest, there should be separate section in the Forum.

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by micrographics

When this meet was planned as I never received any notification from organizers.

Mods : For such meetings, I suggest, there should be separate section in the Forum.

There is a separate section on the forum for meet planning and there is a separate thread for this meet also.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/team-bhp-meet-section/

[mpksuhas]

Great start. Do keep the pics coming. Hopefully will be able to make it for the next meet.

Originally Posted by micrographics

For such meetings, I suggest, there should be separate section in the

Micrographics there is a forum for all TBHP meets here

[KarthikK]

Originally Posted by micrographics

When this meet was planned as I never received any notification from organizers.

Mods : For such meetings, I suggest, there should be separate section in the Forum.

micrographics, this being a huge community, notifying each member will turn out to be quite tedious and is not feasible. Please do subscribe to these 2 threads below and keep a tab - occasionally plans do spring up and get kickstarted . When you are able to attend a meet being planned up, you'll have to post in those threads and confirm your participation, that is about it! Personal details such as mobile number, etc will all be collected offline via PM.

This thread is for single day / quick meets:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/team-b...bangalore.html

And this thread is for planning overnight trips / meets:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/team-b...ight-meet.html

Generally when there are overnight meets or mega meets with huge participation, almost all the attendees carry cameras so the volume of photos and posts are a little higher than for small meetups. To ensure these 'major' meets enjoy exclusivity and avoid the meet reports getting 'lost' in the main planning thread itself, we create separate meet / travelogue threads for overnighters or mega-meets; examples being this Bhadra meet or the Mumbai Kaas meet in September.

Looking forward to seeing you at the next meet

[micrographics]

Post deleted by the Team-BHP Support : Please do NOT post messages that add little or no informational value to the thread. We need your co-operation to maintain the quality of this forum.

Please read our rules before proceeding any further. We request you to post ONLY when you have something substantial to add to a discussion.

[KarthikK]

Day 1: 09 September, Saturday, 06:50 AM

It was a typical Bangalorean winter morning when I set out to the meet point, cold, foggy and pitch dark even at 6. I had to pickup my friend Mohan who was accompanying me on this drive. Accompanied by some spirited trance playing in the background, we soon steered through the annoying traffic to reach Agarwal Bhawan on NH 4 at roughly 6:45 AM. This was Ravi sir's planned initial meeting point for breakfast and meet-and-greet sessions. We were still well ahead of the designated meeting time (7 AM), so for a change I was actually the first person to reach the meeting spot.

The sun rises at Agarwal Bhawan.



First customers to greet the rather surprised staff here.



The day gets brighter, and the BHPians started to arrive one by one



Time to hog lip smacking south Indian delicacies for breakfast



raajks' brand new Polo 1.6 GT TDI basks in the sun! This car is a looker!



Meanwhile the service road got busy with traffic as we got ready to leave



Post-breakfast, the cars line up to form the departure convoy and resume the journey to Bhadra. Sorry for these next few washed out photos, I goofed up some settings in the camera absent-mindedly.



Akshay_s in his Fiesta



Meanwhile the Abarth gets to the head of the pack thanks to a convenient parking position





The chief gets ready to hit the tarmac, and away we go!!



Convoy, in hind-sight, literally!



Diesel_convert eager to hit the inviting roads on NH4 with his Rapid



And away he darts!



The Pajero with pganapathy and his friends, follows suit



NH4 from Agarwal Bhawan until the turn-off to NH-206 had pretty sparse traffic, allowing all our cars to comfortably cruise



Roughly 40 minutes after we left the breakfast point, there was a small re-group at the NH-206 turn-off, lest some members miss the deviation and continue straight on NH4. The re-group was a brief chit-chat session while we waited for all the cars to arrive.

Regroup session at the NH-206 turnoff towards Bhadra forest





Remember to behave and follow the numero uno car in this group



Diesel_convert and brraj thought that was a joke



raajks and brraj both had the same car in the same color - Polo GT 1.6 TDI. So hard for us to make out which car was whose. Brraj returned home after accompanying us till the NH206 turnoff point



raajks joins the main group chit-chat on cars, food, wildlife and what not



ratsharm joins Rsudarsanan in the banter session, not sure how many people they targeted in this trip totally *winks*



Timeless legend owned by Praveen_balan, now pete's tuned!



Last few minutes of the chit-chat before we resumed the journey again, the time was roughly 11:30 AM when we left this place.



VAG masterpieces in the mirror!



NH-206 has always been a fantastic highway to drive on. The roads are superb, very wide although single-lane, and there are tons of trees and eye-candy green scenic spots along the roads.



These 2 men were running on a desolate stretch of the highway, god knows why!!



More of NH-206 until the next stop-over at Tiptur cross, which was roughly 180 km from Bangalore



To be continued....

[swiftnfurious]

Hey.. NOT happening !! Just when this got interesting, the thread halts!! You have some awesome pics man!!

I request you get this to the assembly section, finish your stuff and then roll it out for the rest. It's a pain to be hitting F5 too often!

[subs]

Karthikk

Very nice start to the travelogue. It is quite a task arranging such a meet among such a large community, but kudos to all who helped arrange this. I am going to subscribe to that 'meet' thread and hope there is another meet planned up, whenever I am in India next.

Keep it going Team BHP!!

Subs

[ankan.m.blr]

Hi Karthik, very nice photos and lovely narration. Makes me feel as if I was there with you guys. A request: please upload the route in G-Maps that you guys travelled; the roads seem so wonderful I am getting tempted to drive through the same route.

[joe1980]

What a big convoy. Looks like you guys had an awesome get-together! The pictures tell the story. Waiting to see more!

[RSUDARSANAN]

Bhadra - the experience:

At the outset, "Not-so-fine-print": Poor picture quality of photos in my posts are solely due to incompetence of the respective photographers, sorry camera-wielders.

That said, let me ramble on...

I enjoyed "setting up" the drive meet and feel amply rewarded that those who joined the trip enjoyed the "set up".

09 Nov:

Opposite KSCA stadium, waiting for Nikhil to arrive


Breakfast at Agarwal Bhawan




The post breakfast drive to Bhadra, exiting NH 4 at Tumkur, on to NH 206, two lane notwithstanding, smooth as silk, was sheer bliss as were the vistas
we sped through.






Regroup at Tiptur cross




Back on the road






Arrived at Preethi Canteen too late for their famed dosas. Nevertheless, their maddur wadas were equally scrumptious washed down with piping hot coffee








Almost there


The home stretch


Arrived


The picturesque trek to our accomodation






View from the hanging bridge








The Cottages


Cosy interior


Balcony view


Loo view


To be contd...jungle safari

[RSUDARSANAN]

Originally Posted by ankan.m.blr

Hi Karthik, very nice photos and lovely narration. Makes me feel as if I was there with you guys. A request: please upload the route in G-Maps that you guys travelled; the roads seem so wonderful I am getting tempted to drive through the same route.

Here it is:

The drive: http://goo.gl/maps/jFFTa

[KarthikK]

Awesome pictures Ravi sir! Bring them on, its nice recollecting the fun we had during this drive.

I couldn't post yesternight thanks to a hectic work schedule. I'll compensate by posting 2 sections tonight.

Teaser of what is to come:

Originally Posted by swiftnfurious

Hey.. NOT happening !! Just when this got interesting, the thread halts!! You have some awesome pics man!!

I request you get this to the assembly section, finish your stuff and then roll it out for the rest. It's a pain to be hitting F5 too often!

Haha, I would have done that, but this is going to be a collaborative travelogue by all those who took photos there, so it is only going to be done up in stages. The inconvenience caused is regretted