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-   -   Fun & Frolic with Family: A Sojourn at Vihangama (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travelogues/49084-fun-frolic-family-sojourn-vihangama.html)

A few Team-BHP families had Fun & Frolic this weekend at Vihangama Holiday Retreat in Thirthahalli.

Roving reporter reporting from Thirthahalli

Yours truly travelled 80+ Kms to Thirthahalli to get a 2 hour glimpse of Team-BHP Fun and Frolic meet. Since the main participants want to do major part of the reporting themselves, I have been asked to just start a placeholder where participants can start uploading reports and pictures.

This was the place


And this is what they did...and more.


Let the uploading begin...

Mr samurai,
you have posted just glimpse of the fun featuring Akroy that is teaser.
now, participants of the fun, post the pics asap.

Good teaser, Samurai! :)

Come on guys, out with the photos!

@Akroy: knock knock....

Thats good meet in best place! Have fun guys :) Please update on road conditions too once you are back.

Ravi.

Wow, that was real fun. We will have the reports comng in few hours. Meanwhile, have this glimpse.

We were very late yesturday due to some unforeseen issue which proved again, that Team-BHP is such a great team to be with. Details will be in the last.

@ravibhat, it was a excellent drive, except for the Agumbe stretch. But for that, it was zoooom!!!

Ha, come on, no one can stop us!


Umm, more work for me!

Agumbe stretch. Road? Who said.



Watch the eyes watching you watching them!!!

HEART, that stole my heart!

Sun trying to Hide...

Ha, got you man, where are you hiding? Umm.

Camp fire...


Khan, getting a comfortable position!

Group pics please.

3 Cheers... Oops... 3 Chevys

And here come My Love!



Contd...

The photos are very nice. Wish if we could have something like this for Pune.

That was one helluva family meet. Will post the details later. All members, family and kids enjoyed. We were out of touch with this world for 1 day. thanks for guys who made arrangements for this and excellent meet. :)

MJ: You already started buddy?

what do you think about mahabaleshwar meet in near future?

Awaiting for the rest of the report. Sorry couldn't make it for the "family" (any bachelors?) meet. Pics look promising.

YES. I loved this :D

Started with few pics. But Abhi said he will put the travelogue by today once he is back from Office. Lets see.

Bangalore – Vihangama – Bangalore

Members:
1) Hari (LukeSkywalker), wife, Mom, nephew, niece in Optra LT
2) Deepak (Bombatt), wife in Sparky
3) Perez (Perez), GF in M800
4) Vaseem (Vaseem), wife, in-Laws in SX4 ZXi
5) Shahnawaz (Khan_sultan), wife in Palio
6) Mahesh (Mjothi), wife and 2 kids in Aveo LT
7) Srinivas (Snaronikar), wife and 2kids in Ikon Flair
8) Abhi (Akroy), wife and kid in AltoLXi

It just happened a few weeks back that Hari calls me one Friday morning and tells me that his wife has some work in Shimoga so we plan to halt at Vihangama. Do you want to join? But I couldn’t join him. But we decided we would make it together some day. Whomever we shared the idea wanted to join and a nice weekend trip with family was planned. Entire resort at Vihangama was booked and with some changes in dates we finally fixed the trip 15th Nov. Hari also called up Samurai and invited his family to join us in the evening from Manipal.

Day1 (15th Nov): Bangalore – Yelahanka – Dodaballapur – Dobspet – Tumkur – Gubbi – Tiptur – Arsikere – Kadur – Birur - Shimoga – Gajanur Dam – Vihangama Resort (near Tirthahalli)

Preparing an infant for long drive is always a challenge and my wife is getting well aquainted with it. It took her an evening for the kid and half-an-hour for us to pack up. Alarm rings at 3:30AM. After a nice bath and few SMSes to the gang we start from home at 4:35AM. Meet Mahesh at ORR and proceed to Yelahanka to meet up Hari and Vaseem. As planned, the South Bangaloreans will take the NICE road and we (East & North Bangaloreans) will join NH4 at Dobbspet.

By 5:15AM, we start from Yelahanka. It was an excellent early morning drive. We were all set to reach Pavithra Hotel @ Tumkur at 6AM as planned but got stuck in the Railway crossings (both for 15min each). Somehow, We did very good speeds to cover empty NH207. Once onto NH4, everybody was doing 130kmph. My car touched 135kmph and didn’t realize it as I was following the SX4 thanks to the Michelins which has excellent handling plus the tyre noise was same as it was in 90-100kmph.

Pic at Rail gate between Dodaballapur - Dobbspet


We meet up the rest of the gang at Pavithra Hotel. We had a sumptuous breakfast with hot Thatte Idli and vada followed by tea / coffee.

About 7:30AM we start from pavithra and hit NH206. As planned, Hari will be the lead car and Khan bhai will be the last car of the group. We did not want Perez 17yr old M800 to be the last car in the entire trip.

Once onto NH206, the road was not so crowded and we did cover the distances fast knowing very well that some stretch near Tarikere can slow us down. Within no time we passed Gubbi and by 8:30AM into Tiptur. Tiptur – Arsikere was better and Arsikere – Kadur the best stretch of NH206 till Shimoga. We touched speeds of 120kmph in this stretch. Once past Kadur, we had a small water cum photo session and again start the journey. Bhadravati Bypass was the best bypass we encountered in the trip. It was before noon that we hit Shimoga.

After Kadur


After reassembling at Shimoga, we took the left turn for Gajanur Dam (Yes, that is the direction to follow to go to Tirthahalli bypassing Shimoga). This straight road goes to Tirthahalli via Gajanur Dam.

Reservoir at Gajanur Dam


At Forest before Tirthahalli (near maddagadde bird sanctuary)


After a brief stopover at Gajanur dam and small stop inside the forest for photography, We finally reached Vihangama Holiday Retreat at 2PM. The resort is inside a huge estate at the bank of the river Tunga. The estate has coffee and supari plantations and looking the ambience we were in no doubt that the evening will turn out to be a remarkable one. Everyone was very excited. The best part in the estate was that none of the mobiles had signals so it was time to switch off the phones and cut off from the world for a day.

After taking the keys of the respective cottages we had a sumptuous lunch (malnad style). I particularly liked the Rasam, it was the best I had in Karnataka.

Beach Time: After lunch we all headed towards the Tunga river. The bank was full of sand resembling a beach. All of us hit the ice cold water within no time. Once into water, everyone went back to their childhood and started to throw water and play around. It was indeed fun.

Samurai arrives: In another 15min Sharath arrives with his family (and afcourse his camera, lens kit) to the beach. He took some nice snaps and also got opportunity to use all his lenses to capture the various objects. By 6PM we started to return back to our cottages. Although boat ride was planned for the next day but since sharath was there we decided to have a ride. So, Mahesh and Samurai alongwith their families took the ride that evening.

Samurai San


Finally it was tea time. We had nice discussion with Samurai on various aspects child seat, safety, off roading etc. Also got to check the GV in person. It was around 7PM Samurai and family left us as they had to travel 2 hours of ghat road to reach home in the darkness. We thank Sharath and family for taking and evening out with us. It was indeed very nice to meet him and his family.

Bonfire: After tea and snacks, all of assembled around a bonfire and played DumbC. The team was ladies versus gents. The ladies tried all tricks but couldn’t succeed. We also had another round of Antakshari before moving out for dinner at 9PM.

Dinner was a simple homely food. After dinner, we all hit the bed by 10PM. End of an exciting day.

Trip meter : 362km (home to resort)

Day2 (16th Nov): Vihangama Resort – Tirthahalli – Kuppa – Jaypura - Balehonnur – Aldur – Chikamagalur – Belur – Hassan – Kunigal – Neelamangala – Yeswanthpur - Bangalore

Myself, Mahesh and Srini were neighbours. All of us got together at 6AM in front of our lawns. Clicked some pics and saw the previous day pics on tea.

Our Cottage


Then after packing up we headed for boating to the natural cave about 15min row upstream from estate. It was altogether a great experience. The kids enjoyed the boating and the caves very much.



Caves


After boating we all assembled for a nice breakfast consisting of Akki roti chutney, bread, butter, jam, sweet, juice and omlette.

After some photography we finally left the resort at 11AM. The idea was a leisure drive with some nice stops for photography. It was a pleasure driving on the ghat roads from Tirthahalli to Jayapura. Road were uneven from Jayapura to Balehonnur and kept on improving till Chikamagalur. The drive was breathtaking and very scenic. Western ghats looked very green.

After a brief photography halt we reached Hotel Planters Court for lunch. After a late lunch of Roti and paneer masala, we left hotel by 3PM. Soon left Chikamagalur and had a fuel fill at IOC Belur road.

It was already dark before we hit the beautiful Belur – Hassan stretch. Hassan – Neelamangala was nothing to talk about. As it was night traffic was less. Also it started to rain after hassan which slowed us considerably. Finally we reached back Neelamangala and headed back home by midnight.

This was my side of the story in brief. I am sure other members will add their share of the trip as well. Keep the pics flowing !!

Total distance travelled: 733kms (home to home)

Signing off
Abhijit Kumar Roy

I didn't realise you all came in a convoy, that's really great. Must be a first in Team-BHP, generally people take-off in whatever speed they can and there is no convoy left.:)

That is not Agumbe stretch, then you would have been travelling away from Bangalore. I came via Agumbe ghats, that would take you to the coast.

We too enjoyed a lot even though our stay was brief, we left half-hearted, I had a meeting to attend, there was a major release scheduled for the weekend.

I'll process rest of the photos today, I was awaiting your report.

Aye nice triplog there, sharath those teasers aint any good for a few of us here. You live just about 80kms from heaven and show us teasers.

Also regarding the convoy, they tend to break off when you have too many cars running FFE's and other mods everyone tends to redline.In this meet I don't think we have any cars with atleast stage 1 mods.

Riju, whatever mod be it. When in a group, one should always be with the group/convoy. Only then all can enjoy the most. Group drives are different than individual drives. It is not a rule that when you have a MOD you should redline.
I am sure an Optra doesnt require a MOD to take on a 800/Alto. Khan bhai's Palio doesnt require MOD to overtake a 17yr old 800. He was just executing the plan which the team prepared before starting and kept on tailing the 800.

On a personal front, I prefer nonstop drives but here we stopped many place and took our own time. Chit-chat, timepass, unplanned photography, waiting for the remaining herd to join etc. but I am not complaining as Group drives has it own set of charm.

Abhi

You right. That was my mistake :Frustrati. It was suppose to be the between Jayapura and Balehonnur.

Waiting for the pics.