Sagara-Mangalore Ride

Route:Bangalore – Neelamangala – Tumkur - Shivamogga – Sagara – Jog Falls-Sagara – Sigandur Barge – Kollur - Marwante Beach – Udupi – Mangalore – Bekal Fort – Panambur Beach – Mangalore - Hassan – Bangalore

This was my first proper long ride. It was planned for 5 day ride from Oct 1st to 5th.

Day 1:
As per the plan me and diwakar had to meet Vasanth and Santhosh at Neelamangala around 6. Me & diwakar did not exactly where was Neelamangala and how to reach there. Diwakar was able to go still some time and then he was also not sure of the route 100%. But some how we reached Neelamangala around 6:30. When we reached Neelamangala juction, santhosh and vasanth realised me and diwakar had exchanged our saddle bags. We felt bad to be late as it was long ride in means of days. But we realised another guy Sachin was yet to join us. We all had a tea / coffee there and started for Shivamogga at 7 am. Initially the road were ok, but after the 20-30 kms it was better and was able to do an average of 70-80 kmph :)

Reached Shivamogga around lunch time. Had lunch and then moved on towards Sagara. The road were ok but we made good speed and reached Sagara at 2:30 pm. Checked into the hotel, freshened up. Then later in the evening we started moving around Sagara.
Went to a nearby place which was supposed to be a Dharamshala types as per Vasanth. When we reached there, came to know that we had the wrong info, but the location was great, had a small lake, temple and a small trek-path into the forest. Santhosh took his bike on the trek path latter me and diwakar also took the bike.Found 2 kids there, they were just roaming around. They were all ga-ga over our bikes,clicked a few snaps with them. Returned to the hotel around 6:30 pm. Santoosh had a good idea about Sagara and he took us to a reliable petrol bunk. In the night we were joined by 2 more riders(Rajath and Sujay)

Day 2:
Plan was to go jog falls and roam around Sagara. We got up in the morning around 6:30 and started off since we wanted to cross a reservoir in barge. The route to the barge was like off-roading. We reached the place to take barge to cross the reservoir with our bikes. It was great feeling to cross the reservoir in barge with the bike. We crossed the barge went around the place. Had breakfast and decided to get back to hotel for lunch. While returning back we missed barge. We had to wait for the next barge to come. During that we had some fun. When the barge came only mine and santhosh bike was parked inside. Others had to wait since a bus had to also cross the reservoir. The others bikes were also loaded and we set off to Sagara back. After lunch and some rest we decided to go Jog. When we started there was like shower. We had to stop and go. We went to jog the water was less. So we spent some time. Rajath and others were saying how water flows during the rain season. We came back to hotel around 6:30 - 7 PM and reseted for the day.

Day 3:
Woke up at 5:30 am and hit the road at 6:30 am. We had to cover a lot of distance today, plan was to reach Mangalore before sunset. We had to cross the resaviour by a barge in an anther place. The roads to barge and from barge till we hit the highway it was bad. I was little bit worried about (to be frank was scary abt a fall, as we moved i was getting used to the roads). But as we got nearer Kollur the road kept on getting better & better. Took a small tea & breakfast break around 8 – 8:30 am, no idea where we were at that time, Vasanth & Santoosh said that we were going through a small stretch of Kerala so that roads would be really good. Believe me it was like butter as we got near Marwante Beach.
Reached Marwante beach around 12:30 pm. The road was beautiful, sea on one side & backwaters on one side. Had some fresh tender coconut & then moved on the Turtle Bay Beach Resort for lunch. We were told that the lunch preparation would take approx 30 – 45 mins. So we had to wait till then.Meanwhile, Santoosh decided to try his bike in the sand, to his back luck, the portion of the beach he chose had fine sand and the bike got stuck in it !!! We had to rush there for the rescue. Also the bike was so badly stuck that revving it was of no use, we picked up 2-3 planks of wood & literally lifted the bike’s rear wheel onto it. Then slowly revved it and moved the planks as the bike moved forward. Took us around 1 hour to get the bike out !! Got back to the resort and by this time the lunch was already being served.After lunch relaxed a bit and then started to get ready to leave for Mangalore by 2:30 pm. Left Marwante beach and headed for Mangalore. Me and diwakar was warned of sudden suprise of bad pootholes as we move towards Mangalore. As i was riding towards Mangalore, construction work was going on .we lost each other and re-grouping was tough. Later we reached the hotel and took reset.

Day 4:
We decided to see Beekal Fort (seen in Bombay Movie song). We were joined by Zahin with RD350. We went to Beekal fort which is in kerala. After entering Kerala i filled my tank since it was cheap. We spent a lot of time in Beekal Fort and came back Managalore and took reset for some time. Later in the evening we went to beach and spent some time in the beach.

Day 5:
The started off early in the morning to bangalore. We had 2 options via coorg / Hassan. We decided to take Hassan route since it was know route to vasanth and Santhosh. Sachin wanted to take Coorg route. But since every one insisted on Hassan route, he started moving quickly. We reached Neelamangala around 3 in the evening. The fun started after Neelamagala. I didn't new abt the Nice road, but still took it. At some point there was board saying bangalore. Me and diwakar took that route and we roamed arround bangalore before we reached Banshankari. Later we realised we should have continued in the Nice road itself.