We decided to start at 5.30 in the morning,as it was my first bike trek after a break,i woke up early and this time instead of people calling me to wake me up,i called almost everyone.As usual some one was late,so we all gathered in front of the Infosys gate,our starting point at around 6,we were 14 people in 7 bikes.Our next meeting place was a small restaurant in Bantwal Cross road(in short BC road) for breakfast,which is exactly 23 kms from Mangalore.
We reached the place at around 7,had breakfast and asked the waiter there to pack something for lunch which we can have at the falls,but as we reached early lunch was not ready yet,so we decided we will have somewhere in Ujire.After many short breaks in between we reached Ujire which is another junction like BC road.This time we had two kannada speaking guys with us,so unlike many other treks there was no language barrier.They enquired about the falls and i searched for lunch,but no restaurants there packed food.We continued our ride and decided will have lunch on the way back from falls.We took a left turn after a km from Ujire,this was a newly constructed road,with no traffic at all,so most of us were crusing like crazy bikers(one can imagine the speed of indian bikes on a newly constructed traffic free road).Open roads,panoramic beauty of ghats,cool breeze and over all, the feeling of being a free bird,this was the best road i have travelled so far in the Charmadi ghats.
After riding for almost an hour on the good road:),we had to take a right turn near Didupe ,which is a small village in the Kudremukh national park area,now the real test of our riding skills and also the field testing of our bikes had started,there was no pakka roads,only stones,we had no idea how far was the falls.The stony roads along with the upslopes made our ride a back breaking one.
We parked our vehicles in somebody's house,thanks to prasanth and nanda(kannada speaking guys) as there is always a chance of vehicle theft/petrol theft if bikes are parked anywhere else.
From this point we were on our feet,it was just a small trek through the rubber plantations and we reached our destination.As we passed through the forest most of us were attacked by leeches...didn't knew till we reached the falls and removed the clothes,leech on my right leg,oh leech on my left too,leech on my bag,under my socks....as it was not a rainy season no one expected this,otherwise we would have carried some leech repellant(salt or tobbacco:)..).Away from the leeches now, the view of the falls was fantastic. The water was not that deep,one can easily go near the falls and enjoy the splashing water,the base was sandy and not rocky, different from all other previous falls which i had visited.
We spent almost an hour in there, had some snacks.And just when we were coming out some person suddenly appeared and said that he was a forest guard and without permission, one couldn’t go to the falls.One has to pay 40 rs per head in order to come here,he had no badge just some receipt book,Nanda kept on arguing with him and we came out without even paying a penny:),if nanda would not have accompanied us in this trek,our pockets wud have become a little lighter:).
We were on our way back to the base where we had kept our bikes,my shoulder started paining,so i sat behind someone else and gave my bike to ravi.He slipped on my bike riding at only 35-40 kph...he tore his jeans and had some bruises on his hand...when i fell nothing happened to my jeans:)...poor bike don't know how long its gonna take this torture.....
