Fiat Adventure - Monsoon Road Trip This trip i unertook was on the anvil for 3 years.
Guess I was destained to do it in my adventure. The
basic intention of this road trip was to visit the
hills,farests and the seas during vigarous mansoon
activity.
I did a mansoon road trip in Karnataka. I left
Bangalore (Alone) on Friday (6th July) at 12:00 noon
to Dharwad. I had to attend a friend's wedding the
next day. I sort of broke my personal record of
Bangalore - Hubli (400 Kms). My previous best was
6hrs. This time I reached Hubli in flat 5 hrs. That
was indeed some drive.
I was joined by a friend from Dharwad. We left Dharwad
on Saturday at 3pm. We reached Dandeli(60 kms) at
about 4:30 pm. From Dandeli we left for Karwar (100
kms). This drive is through probably one of the the
densest forest in India. There are very fever wildlife
in Dandeli Reserve Forest Range and I know now as to
why? Where is the place for the animals to stay? The
forest is extremely dense. We drove in belting rain
through this forest. This road is not used, even by
buses, during night, as the route can get dangerous.
The roads were pretty descent to my surprise. We
halted at Karwar, which we reached by 7 pm.
Next morning we drove on NH 17 and reached Kundapur
(about 200 kms). NH 17 is badly maintained. May be
because of the excess rainfall, but that is no excuse
at all. From Kundapur, we deviated towards Agumbe (60
Kms). The drive on the agumbe Ghat was a dream come
true. This place has the second highest rainfall
recorded in India (11,000mm) after Chirapunji (Now
renamed Sohra). True to its nature, the rainfall here
was extremely heavy. There was also a thick cloud
blanket engulfing the hill. Had to drive with my fog
lamps on. From Agumbe we drove to the temple town of
Srigeri (22 kms). We halted at Sringeri. Since we had
time, we drove some 20 kms from Sringeri towards
Mangalore. Here, due to the rain fury, the rivulets
were flowing on the road. It was pouring non stop. The
Bhadra river that flows here was in spate.
Nest day, from Sringeri we came to Chikkamagalur. This
drive was exciting, as the main road was cut off due
to a bridge collapse. We had to take a lengthier road
via Coffee estates (Cafe Coffee Day Estate is here) to
reach the state highway. From Chikkamagalur, we went
to Mullayanagiri (30 kms from Chikkamagulur) , the
highest peak in Karnataka. The road goes right up to
the top of the hill. This road is very exciting to
drive. It was scary too, narrow road, extremely misty,
and the drop is sheer on one side. We could not stay
for more than 10 mins on the peak. The wind speeds
here was more than 100kmph and completely cloud
covered. Also very chilly. The wind was rocking my
adventure, that must give you some idea.
We left Chikkamagalur (250 kms from Bangalore)at 1:30
pm and reached Bangalore at 5:50 pm. We halted at
Hassan (184kms rom Bangalore) for lunch. Hassan
Bangalore I covered in 2.5 Hrs. My personal best.
Overall I covered 1300 kms in 4 days. My adventure was
a sheer delight as expected. The car enjoys good roads
and feasts on bad roads. I love my car more and
more!!! I have videographed the whole trip and will
post it on youtube after editing. I have shot my car
whenever I switched on the camcoder. |