[rjstyles69]

maggie I thought you had a SD card of 4GB which was fulla pictures ? Honestly I never knew the road was bad beyond Karkala. I still remember we checked that route during our breakfast.

I will henceforth refer to Riju as Vijay in this travelog, for more reasons than one.

For this I will talk to you offline . BTW I just reached home last evening, covered a total of 1950 kms which included bekal,kannur and masinagudi since we parted on the 30th.
What do you have to say about this pic ?

[lohithrao]

Hey Maggie good one maga though after a long time...

Dint know you were visiting Mangalore, else we could have met.

@ arun, it is "Shiradi Ghat" and i guess the condition is the same, can say was a bit worse couple of years back and traffic jam on the ghat has become very common...

[s3va]

O Mag, I dont know how we missed spotting each other. I was in Kundapur too, in Koteshwar, at a beach resort called Sun Castle. I did spot Turtle bay while I was on the way to Marvanthe-Murudeshwar. I heard better reviews on Sun Castle and hence zeroed-in the place.

The resort that I stayed was on the Beejadi beach, it was a wonderful beach, absolute playable low tide beach ! Glad that you enjoyed your vacation. My family especially my son was freaking out on the beach. Nice log and pics.

@rjstyles69 : I was there at Bekal too during my return route from Kundapur to Calicut. Damn I missed that drive in beach which I came to know only after reaching Thalasery. I sadly wanted to return for which my wife wasnt game ! Good pic !

[kavesh55]

Originally Posted by theMAG

Day 1: Sunday, Dec 27, 2009:

The route plotted was Bangalore-Hassan-Belur-Chikmagalur-Aldur-Sringeri-Agumbe-Haladi-Kundapura; thanks to Sushrutha and Samurai. My roots are from Sringeri and I had shamefully never visited the place before this even once. So it was holistically important to me to do Sringeri during this trip. I realize I amexperiencing an early onset of mid-life crisis.

Great write up. Infact i hail from Kundapura itself, have not visited the place for quite some time. Plan to drive down sometime. Will write a pre and post event write up, then.

[theMAG]

Originally Posted by rjstyles69

maggie I thought you had a SD card of 4GB which was fulla pictures ?

I've long since come to the conclusion that 4 GB worth of images is too much! The shortlisting and PP for this bunch that I put up took 1.5 days!

But, since you hung me out to dry there like Brutus, I will look at posting more pics over the week/weekend as soon as I put out some blazing fires in the office since my absence.

Originally Posted by rjstyles69

Honestly I never knew the road was bad beyond Karkala. I still remember we checked that route during our breakfast.

From Sharath's office to Karkala is strictly ordinary. In the good parts, they've concreted the road only in the center strip for some reason. Just left before Karkala, SH25-A started towards Sringeri via Hebri and Agumbe. Since my experience with SHs till then had been generally good, I took that route only to find it having sudden potholes in blind spots. That was still OK since most of the road was motorable till Hebri. Hebri-Agumbe is GONE. NO road. As consolation, they were filling granite stones to "widen" the "road' temporarily. I had to take this entire stretch in slow 2nd gear, sometimes 1st gear.

Sahana was so shocked at having seen such a "road" for the first time in her life that she shot a video of that road when we were hurtling along at 5 kmph to send to TV-9 !!

Originally Posted by rjstyles69

For this I will talk to you offline .

Sure Viji

Originally Posted by rjstyles69

What do you have to say about this pic ?

Great pic! Put it on timer or was one of the Rijus manning the camera ?

Originally Posted by lohithrao

Dint know you were visiting Mangalore, else we could have met.

Originally Posted by s3va

O Mag, I dont know how we missed spotting each other. I was in Kundapur too, in Koteshwar,

We could all have met up and called it the Beached Bums meet!

Originally Posted by sushrutha

Fantastic snaps.
Had been to Agumbe, Marvanthe, Murudeshwara last weekend.

They really should close that Sunset View point. Its the single largest contributor to grid locks on the Agumbe ghats.

[addyhemmige]

Originally Posted by theMAG

.....They really should close that Sunset View point. Its the single largest contributor to grid locks on the Agumbe ghats.

. It is also the single largest contributor of thrash & litter. It is the dirtiest place in the whole of Agumbe.

Nice travelogue Mahesh. Lovely pics. I have travelled through Maravante n number of times and I never ever get tired of it.


@Riju, great pic of the Scorpio. Which beach was it taken on?

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by akroy

Didnt you take pics of Manipal from Samurai's office hilltop?

He was not carrying his night-vision photography gear.

Originally Posted by theMAG

Its supposed to be an SH and as I discovered, is a piece of nonsense. Its acceptable till Hebri and then on is a nighmare till Agumbe ghats. But the scenery was to die for.

These are not car routes. If you drive a SUV, the higher GC and seating position will make the bad roads fade from your vision.

Originally Posted by rjstyles69

What do you have to say about this pic ?

You tried this in a 2WD Scorpio? You have been very lucky my friend.

Originally Posted by theMAG

Just left before Karkala, SH25-A started towards Sringeri via Hebri and Agumbe. Since my experience with SHs till then had been generally good, I took that route only to find it having sudden potholes in blind spots. That was still OK since most of the road was motorable till Hebri. Hebri-Agumbe is GONE. NO road.

Oh, my god! You went all the way to Karkala before turning towards Hebri? You should have turned left at Hiriyadka, which is just 6Kms from Manipal.

Manipal->Karkala = 30Kms
Manipal->Hebri = 30Kms

You nearly doubled your distance to Hebri. I had told you about Hiriyadka turn.

BTW, photographs have come out very well. Most compositions are very good.

[rjstyles69]

Originally Posted by Samurai

You tried this in a 2WD Scorpio? You have been very lucky my friend.

Samu this place is a drive in beach and I even saw trucks plying here. We drove for at-least good 4-5 kms on the beach towards thalassery.

The place is called Muzhappilangad beach. I think fellow member dadu has been here.The sand is quite tight and we never got stranded. (Muzhappilangad - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

[sushrutha]

Originally Posted by theMAG

They really should close that Sunset View point. Its the single largest contributor to grid locks on the Agumbe ghats.

Believe it or not got to know from 2 of my relatives who stay near Agumbe, on Dec 25th Evening there were almost 300-400 Vehicles in tiny agumbe town to witness the Sunset.

Originally Posted by rjstyles69

What do you have to say about this pic ?

Attachment 256364

How abt this pic ??

2nd pic, This is what happens when you park ur car in beach for long & tides start to increase.
Later you endup paying locals almost 3K rupees just to come and push you car.

[KSM-Vtec]

Great travelogue and real good pics!!!! but we need more of them Mag.

[theMAG]

Originally Posted by Samurai

These are not car routes. If you drive a SUV, the higher GC and seating position will make the bad roads fade from your vision.

Dont rub it in! I had to get a minor setting done for my left-rear door after returning to Bangalore.

Originally Posted by Samurai

Oh, my god! You went all the way to Karkala before turning towards Hebri? You should have turned left at Hiriyadka, which is just 6Kms from Manipal.

Manipal->Karkala = 30Kms
Manipal->Hebri = 30Kms

You nearly doubled your distance to Hebri. I had told you about Hiriyadka turn.

Same Hiriyadka route. It was some 70 kms in all to Sringeri. The part after Hebri is perfect for you off-roaders.

Originally Posted by Samurai

BTW, photographs have come out very well. Most compositions are very good.

Thanks for the compliment.

Originally Posted by KSM-Vtec

Great travelogue and real good pics!!!! but we need more of them Mag.

Thanks. Will do over the week/weekend.

[theMAG]

Some highlights of the trip:

1. Enroute: We hadnt had lunch. Finally, just before Agumbe Ghats, in Agumbe, was a typical village hotel. Pulled over- the time might have been around 5 pm. 2 plates of neer dosa, 1 plate of open dosa and 2 coffees = Rs 27 !! I realized city dwellers have completely lost the value of money after this.

2. Boat ride back from Lighthouse Island to Marvanthe Beach: Feeling extra adventurous, I jumped off the boat and held on to a rope at its back and got an amazing tow back ! Almost lost my swim trunks in the process is another experience!

3. Before jumping off the boat, I requested and was allowed to drive the boat for sometime. It was a very unique experience steering a single-handle cum accelerator assembly of its outboard motor. Apparently, these marine diesels cost Rs 75000 !

4. The beach floor is quite shallow at Marvanthe. When the boat captain asked me to release myself from the boat's rope so that he could "park" it back on the beach, looking at how far the beach was, I thought the water must be quite deep - only to be surprised by being able to walk back to the beach from that distance. Felt like a damn fool !

5. Holux GPS device with MioMap really helped. I hadnt had to stop anywhere and ask for local directions.

6. Petrol outside Mangalore city-limits costs Rs 49.17/liter. Tanked up just as NH17 starts out from Mangalore in a BP bunk and that filling was still around half-tank mark after coming back to Bangalore.



The last set of images.

The mighty Agumbe Ghats - Forward Journey:


The alpha-male of the dog kingdom on Marvanthe Beach:


Treasure Island! This was the Lighthouse Island where we went:


Where you go, I follow:


The other great work of nature:



An intrepid fisherman. He later on latched on to our boat for a motorized tug:


Moonscape. Lighthouse Island:


The beautiful unspoilt island:


Turtle Bay from the beach:


One for the archives:


A final action portrait:

[navan49]

Great Travel,good adventure and also great photos. We expect more from you.

[theMAG]

The other discovery made was that driving and photography do not go well with each other. You can do either one fully; doing both simultaneously - like I found out, reduces the enjoyment factor of both.

Accordingly, I've decided that my next holidays will not involve driving if I chose to focus on photography and vice-versa.

[brraj]

Well captured pictures there. Added this to my trip list this year .