Today after lunch we wanted to go somewhere
on-road as part of running-in our new GV. Then we decided on Agumbe sun-set point, it is only 46Kms from our home. Since my wife's brother and sis-in-law were visiting, they too joined in, and we left our older son home and took only the baby on the child seat. Two people can sit very comfortably even with the child seat in the middle, this used to be very tight in the Baleno.
As road till Hebri was mostly fine with some sudden potholes showing up in unexpected places. But with GV, that was not a concern, it was fun to watch cars on our back suddenly fall back when we rode on with little inconvenience.
But the road after Hebri was pathetic as expected, the tarmac part of the road was barely 12 feet wide, and there was a 6 inch difference from tar to mud surface. This is one of the most ridiculous thing I have seen. Any bigger vehicle will force you to get down from the road. Later I even saw smaller vehicles forcing me down. Reason, the right of way belongs to the one who cares least about damage to side mirrors. After an Omni and a Sumo almost took off with my side mirror, I decided to yield first.
In just 50 minutes we were at the base of the Agumbe hills. Meanwhile everybody else in the car (except the baby) made a surprising discovery that I have never been on this road. Crazy, I know. Living so close and all, somehow I have never taken this route to Bangalore or anywhere, never needed to until now.
Oh boy, what a road. This is one road where buses and trucks are banned and they can't bribe their way through the cops. Nope, nothing to do honest cops or law abiding drivers, perish that thought. This road that 14 hairpin bends that are impossible to negotiate by bigger buses and trucks. Therefore mini-buses and tempo travelers are the biggest vehicles on this route.
Check the 3rd hairpin curve, the only curve where we found parking spot.
Quickly I realised this was a bad destination for running-in considering that I had to often resort to 1st or 2nd gear at most hairpin curves. It was also one of the most scenic place I have driven through.
After going through 14 hairpin curves we finally reached the sunset point. Not much hope for sunset viewing considering the fog and the time, it was still around 4:15PM. After some snaps, we turned back.
On the way back we decided to drop-in at the Sita river nature camp, it was exactly an year since we visited here. Their fee had gone up, 40 bucks for adults and 50 bucks for the car. After paying 210 bucks, we just walked around the river.
Then we got see a rare sight right above our head, a Malabar giant squirrel, at least two foot long nose to tail end. Because of the bad light, I couldn't do any better. After all Olympus E-500 is weak in low light conditions.
Then we turned back and drove back into civilization.
The parting shot...