Goa-Mangalore-Goa , The one who protects the law , breaks the law!

It has been quite some time since we took a long drive and hence the lull in updating the blog. During mid- April 2014, it was election and Easter time; Aari and I decided to drive to Mangalore. 

The route we followed was exactly the same as the previous one.

We started our journey at about 6 AM and had reached Mangalore by 4PM, which included a 30 and 60 minute halt for breakfast and lunch respectively. It took us the same time for the return trip.

The roads are good, and have improved considerably since our drive six months ago. Potholes are almost non-existent however, road widening work between Kundapur and Mangalore is still in progress.

Although we experienced the scorching summer heat, some respite was found as the roads are lined with green trees and a lot of green cover dots the drive.  Scores of rivers cut across the highway; while busy boatmen row their boats across the stream, numerous birds can be spotted engrossed in fishing in these rivers. 

We frequently encountered trucks which seemed to be precariously loaded, and it felt like they would topple anytime, especially, at curves.

How do they load it! We wondered! Having said that, we overtook it keeping more than a safe distance.

A large section of the road widening work is completed and the drive is mostly in these completed sections. Nevertheless, lots of diversions are present and if you happen to miss one, it can prove quite hazardous. 

As you can see above, if you miss the diversion board, you can end up on the wrong lane, facing the full wrath of the oncoming traffic

Well, even if you end up on the right lane, there is no guarantee that you will not meet idiots, who will be merrily driving on the wrong lane! These practices can be hazardous not only to those idiotic drivers, but to legitimate users of the lanes too. 

Like you can see below, many drive with their headlights on, proudly displaying their stupidity. When driving on these roads, we had to be extremely cautious. We sadly witnessed a fatal accident between a bus and an Innova. ( It seemed like the bus was on the wrong lane!!)

Wrong lane driving like this is quite frequent and we were aghast at the risk that these drivers were taking. . 

Then there were those who were dangerously overtaking! Below, a car belonging to the "Judge of Kerala High court" was been driven so rashly, that it came to near collision with us! I had to brake and bring the car to a complete halt and then decided to flash lights on her. If this is the state of our law protectors, God save our country!

On our way to Mangalore, we had breakfast at Hotel Panduranga International at Kumta at about 0945. Our breakfast was delayed, because we had picked up a hitchhiking nun, in Goa who needed a drop at Kumta.

On our return trip, we had breakfast at  "Athitya." Both the restaurants served pretty decent breakfast quite quickly. 

Other than watching natures beauty, if you intend doing some other activity on this leg of the journey, then at Karwar, there is a Warship Museum and an Aquarium. We did not visit them, but looking at the number of people visiting the Warship museum, it seemed like a decent attraction. 

Above: the entrance to the aquarium was quite cute and I could not resist putting up the photograph. Below is the warship museum.

It was a smooth drive for us. The cows, which had posed a menace during our previous drive were nearly gone (encountered only a few), we saw the same elephant though!

Overall, a nice enjoyable drive with loads of fun and memories.

P.S. : If not for Zeita's powerful air-conditioning,  this trip would not have been so much fun- Thank you Zeita!

Mangalore to Coorg – and I enjoyed the leeches suck my blood.

If you have a death wish, visit Mangalore- the traffic here is so chaotic that one may blindfold himself and still drive much better. Drivers and riders in Mangalore lack road etiquette and are oblivious of any traffic rules. The bus drivers top the pecking order of bad driving, with horns blaring at jet level decibels; it’s as if rest of the traffic is theirs to roll over. The two wheelers thankfully can’t go over or below a vehicle, else they would have done that too. It will be a challenge not to see someone drive in the wrong lane at super-fast speed. We started our trip from this maddening city at 0630 AM towards Coorg on the 10^th of September.

 The roads connecting Mangalore and Coorg,

We had booked a cottage at Kabbe holidays- a homestay far away from the maddening city life. The roads from Mangalore to Sullia are pretty good, and then we had  25 kms of crater ridden road to deal with. I would probably have preferred driving on the moon, than in Sullia. The moment we enter the district of Coorg, the roads are carpet again. The road is quite undulating all the way till Madikeri and the scenic greenery is jaw dropping beautiful.

We reached Kabbe Holidays at about 1 PM and had lunch there. We were pleasantly surprised at the beautifully laid out cottages and the lovely scenic view their offered, right from the luxury of our beds. 

 We spent the remainder of the day, listening to the call of the birds and staring into the serene horizon.

Dinner was enlightening with our host, Dilip- realising that Aari was Gluten Intolerant he taught us to make fluffy rice chapatis, rice cake and a couple of other rice delicacies. After a lip smacking dinner, we did what we do best- sleep

The next day, Dilip, Praveen (another guest at the place) and myself went on a trek to a nearby hill. The trek was quite short, but to my unexercised bulky body- quite a challenge. The trek was quite beautiful, with fog rolling down the hill and clearing up frequently. 

The moment we reached the peak, we saw 5 wild elephants about 750 mtrs from where we were. We decided to brave a few thorny bushes and sneak a wee bit closer to the pack. During this process we lost sight of the elephants and rolling fog further reduced visibility. At this moment we heard a loud trumpet of one of the elephants and we decided to rush back to our safe point. Out here I fell into a small pit and thankfully the tall grass, cushioned my fall. I looked at my camera lens and thankfully it was all right. I hauled myself outside the pit and realised that scores of leeches were desperately trying to get into my skin. Not minding the leeches, I continued my rush towards the safe place. Once back into open ground, I started the laborious task of plucking out the leeches- it was quite exhilarating to be sucked so professionally- no pain and no clots.

Once back into our cottages, I was quite excited to rattle out my story to Aari and see her get jealous.

In the afternoon, we went to a nearby waterfall. Aari and I had seen quite many waterfalls this month and quite expectedly, more than the waterfall I was happy to see the frogs that resided there.

They were mating frogs and singles looking at the mating frogs.  Since I had carried my tripod, I decided to get a few long exposure shots of the waterfall anyway.

In the evening, Aari and I had a nice romantic walk in the fog covered walkway of the nearby hill. The blanket of fog providing us a nice cloak of privacy. We also enjoyed speaking and befriending a few friendly local people and they were truly warm towards us.

The morning of our departure, Aari and I decided to wake up early morning, brave the cold and do some bird watching. It was a truly rewarding experience. Other than the common birds like the bulbuls, cuckoo’s and drongo’s we spotted Velvet fronted nuthatch, Grey hornbill, wagtails, whiteeye, scarlet minivet, laughing thrush and a busy golden back woodpecker.

 Knock knock.
Who's there?
VFN
VFN who?
Velvet Fronted Nuthatch

A scarlet Minivet sets the forest on fire..,

With mom,dad and our new found friends Srivani and Praveen.

We had a heavy dosa laden breakfast and started our drive back to Mangalore at 10AM. We had a pitstop at Madikeri for some wild honey and reached Mangalore at 3PM. We somehow felt that the roads were wee better on our return trip that during the onward journey.  All in all it was a never to be forgotten experience, one that we would love to relive again.