Agumbe: The Southern Sohra
A plan to go on a bike trip that exceeds our usual limits of a hundred and fifty kilometers was already under the planning phase even before we climbed the beautiful kudremukh. But we did have to wait for all our exams to be done with to materialize this journey, the result being us ending up with two bikes and four people to sit on them! Well that was balanced but we felt we did need some more put on some good strength. Anyways we put on the gears and off we went. What a wonderful experience it turned out to be!
We chose on Agumbe, the home of one of the awesome serials to be ever produced, Malgudi Days, as our destination and planned to do a circuit by going through Karkala during onwards and Manipal during the reverse journey. Agumbe is known for its second highest rain reception in India after Cheerapunj or Sohra. Good luck or bad luck, we didn’t encounter any water droplets during our spree and well helped us in trekking upto two waterfalls with both of them being dry! Well that’s bad luck. We tried our bikes under extreme conditions, which included a 2 feet fall within a distance of a foot with a pillion! Well that’s an extreme for my bike. Being a 110cc powered motorcycle, I kinda had small fears about its success as an all terrainer.
Honda Twister; respect.
The best part of our journey was when both our bikes were in neutral and, boy, did we overtake some buses while climbing down the Agumbe ghat. The drivers of the bus, obviously locos, tried their best to overtake us. I had to give up finally due to the lack of a disc brake. Well, Yashwin did chase it off!
Pulsar 135; a bit less respect!
At the top of Agumbe ghat there is an observation point from where the whole area up to Hebri can be clearly seen, from a height of over a thousand meters. Even though it wasn’t comparable to that of kudremukh, it was magnificent enough for me to relive the moment again. We visited the jogigundi and Barkana falls, the latter being one of India’s longest falls, and it really is a treat to be watched when it is filled! Another hill we climbed was the Kundagiri Hill, which took us further 600 to 700 meters above Agumbe! At this point, Sachin, who was riding the Pulsar 135, really was confused with its gears and well, was stuck a plenty of times at the crucial hair pin turns. All this time Sky was enjoying as my pillion with just scenery to digest and without the tension of concentrating on the road. That wasn’t a problem as all of us ended in Dominos by evening with Sky sponsoring us!
The worst part of our journey was maintaining our buttocks once it reached its potential of cushioning! Got to do something about that. I couldn’t sit on the bike the next whole day and with great difficulty, managed to go to the market the next evening. Nonethless, after this trip I gained a bit more confidence about driving under any condition, but I was still unexperienced in riding under heavy rain, which I would after two months!
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