This time, we planned to do a bit more than just laze around in the midst of nowhere, far away from the din of city life. So we decided to go on a small tour from there, using Melpal as a base camp for our adventures.This time around there was a lot more exictement for me, for more than one reason.First, it was my first really long drive in my adorable red car.And second, this time I had decided to take dad's good old Pentax film SLR.At the end of the trip I was thoroughly impressed by the performance of the car, as well as that of the Pentax.
But post film development, I was a lot disappointed by the dullness of the photos when they were converted from film to digital format.But on paper, the photos looked really crisp and neat.
To get a good photo of nature, I didn't have to look around more than 200 metres radius of my grandmom's house.And this shot, of a rose just exemplifies it
We had planned a pligrimage of sorts and hence,set out to Dharmasthala, which has a very famous temple, about 3 hours drive from Melpal.The roads were twisty and ocassionally bumpy too. In some places the acclivity of the slope never seemed to end. As we reached Charmadi Ghats, the roads seems to disappear all of a sudden.In that part of the world, I figured out that they built roads in the middle of potholes.The pots being bigger than the wheel that makes it.If the roads were bad, the scenery and grenery around made up with their picturesque beauty. The only trouble was, I wasn't allowed to get down or stop the car as mom's absolutely terrified of heights and wouldnt want to look down at the deep valleys around.
From there we went to Karkala, to visit my good old friend Sunil and his family. Then I remembered that he's so fond of birds, even of the winged variety.I managed to get a good shot of one perched like this.
From there on, we went to see his family owned cashewnut factory.This, I was reliably informed by his dad, as the largest in Karnataka.I was simply awestruck to know that a single cashewnut goes through a process lasting seven hard days, before it gets to satiate our tastebuds.
The next place on our route map was Kundapur, via Manipal and Udipi.If I was simply astounded by the town of Karkala, which had a lot of shopping mall like complexes,I was even more impressed by Manipal. It looked just like another upper middle class cosmopolitan neighbourhood of Bangalore. I also got to spot a sleek Porsche Cayenne on the road too, something which is extremely rare even in Bangalore city.
Around Kundapur, we visited a couple or more temples and also got to meet some really old relatives. During this time, we went through one of the best roads and as well as one of worst too.I was surprised and very happy to see a small village road laid out with grand prix circuit like bitumen under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana.At the same time was disgusted to drive through what they called National Highway, where it was the car's underbody getting scraped at 20 kmph.I guessed they must have built that highway under the National Highway Ka Paisa Khao Yojana.
Nevertheless, we also got to enjoy a nice sunset that evening by the Arabian sea on one side and the Souparnika river on the other.
Souparnika river looked so calm and serene, giving little idea that it once used to be the habitat for huge wild crocodiles, a hundred or more years back.
We then got back to our base camp Melpal via the Agumbe route. Though the distance was just 135 kms, it was very challenging, as the slopes were so steep at 2 of the hairpin bends, that they had caused the axles of 2 jeeps to break.We also got some time to spend around in the midst of the tea estates close to Melpal, doing photoshoots at will and parking the car at will in the middle of the road.Something like this...
And I also managed to get a pretty decent photo of the coffee beans too...
The next day we had to return back to Bangalore.In 6 days' time, we had covered 1200 kilometres.Each and every mile presented its own challenge, its own pleasures.As I approached Bangalore I was saying to myself that I could do another 300 kilometres in the twisted roads of the Agumbe Ghats, but not many more on the chaotic roads that led to Bangalore.
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