bangalore to nilgiris

Riders

Dates: Feb 02,03,2019

Dheeraj on BMW G310 GS

Venki on Harley Street Bob

Sundar on Avenger Cruise

Mahesh on Versys 650

Imagine staying among lush green tea estates frequented by elephants, leopards and sometimes tigers

Imagine staying in 100 year old British-era bungalows that are exquisitely maintained

Imagine staying in neat and lavish rooms with verandahs to laze around

Imagine munching on mouth watering dishes prepared by the most helpful staff

If your imagination has led to curiosity then you need to visit Sinna Dorai...!

The name Sinna Dorai stands for all the above things and many many more... Sinna Dorai is the hospitality division of Murugappa Group who own these tea estates across South India. As of now, they are running at 3 locations, Kadumane (near Sakleshpur), Mango Range (Nilgiris) and Anamallais (Valparai)

We had visited Kadumane in the month of December and I loved the place so much that I visited again with my family.

Day 01: Bangalore - BR Hills - KGudi - Bandipur - Mudhumalai - Gudalur - Mango Range

Our rides, Versys, BMW 310GS, Avenger..

The Harley... :)

It was Venki's idea to pass through BR Hills to spice up the onward journey and what a good idea it was! We started by around 7 AM from Mysore/Nice road junction and headed towards Maddur. To avoid congested towns ahead, we diverted to Malavalli, Shivanasamudra and then to BR Hills via Kollegal. After finishing formalities at check post, we climbed around 12 kms to Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple. The hill top offers amazing views of valleys and hills below, it would be a sight to behold during monsoon when the greenery would be more eye catching. After spending some time at the view point we headed to Chamrajanagar via KGudi road (~20 kms)

At BR Hills View Point

The last I was on KGudi road I was alone on a weekday and did not expect the dense forest with very less clearing on both sides.. My heart was pumping in anticipation of an elephant anytime and heart beat increased on seeing numerous elephant dungs on the road.. I was so panicky that I had to piss 2 times in the stretch of around 20 kms 😰 The road is very windy, narrow, with loose gravel on certain turns, with many speed breakers and the less clearing gives less time to react on seeing a jumbo.

This time I was lucky to have 3 more riders and the passing was less panicky, still we saw many elephants dungs on the road keeping the suspense alive..

We rode through Chamrajanagar, Gundlupet and stopped at Bandipur entrance for lunch.

Piss break... !

The Humps!!

Well, after a heavy lunch we were expecting a relaxed ride through the forests of Bandipur and Mudhumalai, but we jolted out of our cosy expectations by the millions of speed breakers... I mean, come on, do you need one after every 100 m (or thats how close they seemed to be).. There were few back to back ones within 50 m.. The road is well laid, so one would zoom and brake, zoom and brake and get frustrated... 

After crossing the hump-land, we reached Gudalur and then through winding roads of around kms reached the destination around 5.30pm

As mentioned earlier, the place was very good and with our bikes safely parked in a shed (due to elephant visits) we dozed off after having delicious dinner.. 

Dheeraj on his 310GS

Day 02:

We made a move around 8.30AM from the stay and headed towards Sultan Bathery, Muthanga route through Bandipur. Today, we had to cover only around 15 kms through the forest and were spared of crossing multiple humps.. New wide roads were laid, which to me did not make sense, because it was giving everyone all reasons to speed through the forest.. 

Today our plan was straight forward to hit Mysore, via Gundlupet, Nanjangud and then take Mysore highway to Bangalore.. On the way, we met Venki's son, who studies in Mysore and stays in a hostel there.. After hook up and some juice we started back... We stopped at Poojaris Fish Land restaurant on the Mysore highway, which has lot of varieties of fish items and all of them were mouth watering.

Mysore road was relatively calm and we slowly inched our way back to Bangalore, reaching home by around 5.30 pm. Overall covered around 650 kms. The weather and roads were good for both the days and the ride was total fun! 

At Sinna Dorai... 

Evening