Manchali Forest, Kutte - South Kodagu

Here comes another weekend of May and the Bangalore weather has already started cooling down with good amount of rainfalls in regular intervals. We planned this trip out of nowhere as we only knew that we would run away from the crowd during the weekend.

While looking into a few places in Nagarhole, I came across the South Kodagu map.

South Kodagu in untouched, unexplored and holds a part of Nagarhole and Wayanad green belt. This was interesting. Though it did not have much on to do list, we chalked our way for a relaxing weekend. Searched for a good place to stay and kept the Nagarhole Safari intact in our mind, we looked up The Woodpecker Homestay in Kutte. They are prompt and online on Facebook. I was certainly impressed by their welcoming communication over FB.

We left Bangalore early morning 4 AM on Saturday and took the exit into Mysore road through the Matikere Road. We drove till the Circle of Ranganathitthu Bird Sanctuary and went into Hunsur - Elivala Road. AT Elivala Junction, we had a quick fresh breakfast. The small joints offer mouthwatering freshness of the morning. Once done we continued till Kutte.

Our route was Bangalore - Ramanagara- Channapatna - Mandya - Mysore - Hunsur - Nagarhole - Kutte. We took the NICE Road exit into NH17 and continued for 147kms.At the KRS Road to Elivala, we drove for about 17.9kms and took the Mangalore-Mysore Highway or Mysore-Medikeri road to Doddahunsur for about 37.1kms. From there, we followed the Nagarhole Rd to Gonikoppal. Then into the Kutta Rd/Squadron Leader Ajjamada B Devaiah Rd for about 47.4 km. From there, we drove to the Manchalli Rd. Manchalli  Forest is an extension of Nagarhole Forest reserve and the Woodpecker Homestay is 2.7 kms from the Main Road. Surprisingly the distance between the Manchalli Forest and Nagarhole is about 7kms.

It had been a beautiful drive through the greens. We reached there by 11:30 AM. The Owner of the Woodpecker Homestay, Sharmin, was waiting for us on the main road. Sharmin and his wonderful family is the warmest host any guest can ever find. They make every guest feel at home. His wife and mother are awesomely homely and amazing chefs. We greeted us with fresh juice and oranges from the orchard. They made us comfortably settled in the homestay rooms that were booked for us. The property is beautiful and looks like a postcard with flowers, a blue well and trees all around. Overlooking the homestay is the Wayanad Mountain.

The homestay can accommodate people in 3-4 rooms. The rooms are big and clean. They are well equipped and clean big rest rooms. The long balcony is the best place to sit and listen to the silence or the chirping of the birds and the sound of the crickets. The dining space is out in the open in the extension of the balcony. On the whole, a very cozy place to be.

The woodpecker does not serve lunch so once we freshened up and chatted up with the family for a while, we went with Sharmin to pick up lunch from the nearest Robusta Restaurant. Once done, we grabbed a nap to freshen up for the evening.

The coffee from the estate came around 4:30PM. We walked around the property for an hour to see turkeys, ducks, birds and a good number of butterflies. There is a stream with gushing water just behind the homestay and we walked around there. When we were back, the evening started getting colder and we were served with soup and salads. We spent the evening sitting by the stream in a born fire, humming and singing.

Around 10PM, we were served with a buffet of dinner. This was a wide spread and vegetarian, non-vegeterian, pork and deserts were there. The food tasted amazing. It was hot and fresh and so lip smacking that we could not thank Sharmin enough. Both his mother and wife are very warm people and has classic and authentic culinary skill. We could not finish the food for its quantity; however, we were guilty to leave such tasty bites for the day. We retired early around 11:30PM that day.

Next day was early. I woke up to my regular travel routine of 5:30AM and set out with Camera to capture some interesting things around. The fog would not let me do so anyways; hence I strolled around with a homestay dog in company. Once I was back around 7:30AM, we left for Nagarhole. The 50kms odd stretch of Nagarhole forest had been beautiful. There is something wild about this stretch, something virgin, untouched and wild. We say elephants- tuskers to be precise, herds of deer, monkeys and our regular forest mates here and there. We were back from Nagarhole around 10:30AM.

We were served with lip-smacking breakfast of Coorgi cuisine and continental. We had kadambuttu, curry, sambar, bread, jam, egg, fruits and coffee. Post breakfast, we packed up, freshened and bid goodbye to our amazing hosts.

Woodpecker is peace abode, beautiful place with beautiful people. I cannot write enough about how good the hosts are. One has to visit and experience the essence of The Woodpecker Homestay. We will want to go back again and again.

On our way back we drove down the Iruppu Falls and took our way back to Bangalore through the Hassan Road in the rains.

Contact:

The Woodpecker Homestay

Address: Woodpecker Homestay, Manchalli Village and Post,

               South Kodagu, Madikeri, Karnataka 571250, India.

Phone -  Sharmin +91 99022 30943

Bandipur - An Experience With Wilderness !!

Another weekend comes by and the rainy weather and gloomy sky is calling us to the wildernesses. I got the green signal from my bunch of travel boys. We made a quick call to Mr.  Mahinder Singh and we were got availability in the Tiger Ranch, Bandipur. It is Rs. 1510/- per head with Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and Camp fire. I had to transfer Rs.1900/- online to pre-book. Watch the numbers that were mentioned and when asked, the owner says it’s got Vaastu attached to the numbers. This is the place where the Movie “Jungle” was shot by Ram Gopal Verma and the crew had stayed there for 45 days to shoot.

We left at 3 AM from Bangalore and reached Mysore with 2 halts for tea at 6AM. I counted 47 speed breakers till Mandya and 64 till Mysore. This brings about a good time loss on the way.

For breakfast, we dropped in to a very old joint near the Mysore Zoo, inside a lane by the Commissioner’s House in Mysore. The name of the place is Mylaari. Fresh crispy Dosa and tasty idly was served with coconut chutney.  We left for Bandipur at 7 AM. The road after Nanjangudh is all torn down. Trees have been cut to extend the 2 lane into a 4 lane highway. The entire stretch has been diverted with constructions due to which evening we lost more than 90 mins in an average. We reached Bandipur at 10:30 AM. A sigh of relief took over once we were at the gate that says- Welcome to Bandipur Tiger reserve.  We got into a roadside tea stall and refreshed ourselves with some hot coffee.

We started our drive through the forest and on driving deep for 10-12kms; we reached a junction which says take left for Serai, Country Club etc. We tool the left and went another 8-10kms and took a small trail to the right and off roaded for another 4 kms. There was Tiger Ranch right in front of us.

Wild and basic is the mere look of the place. Tiger Ranch is adventurous and unattractive to look at but extremely hospitable and managed well. We were shown our room with 15mins. They were huts built with metal sheet and thatched roofs with clean European washroom. The hut has beds, good blankets, bedside tables, racks in a form of bare necessity and comforts of sofa and center table to add on. This was one of those first time experiences one has with basic requirements and adjustments. Nothing was inconvenient however; there was no sign of the slightest material luxury anywhere. As we sipped our cold drinks in the sit out, we were all looking forward to the evening.  We freshened up and got ready for the lunch. Lunch was at 1 PM and immediately after lunch we rested for 2 hours.

At 4PM, when the dark clouds started gathering together, we left for a drive into the forest. The best part of the Tiger Ranch is that it is situated deep inside the forest and is among the few places that are located into the wilderness. While driving through Bandipur and crossing the border of Karnatake to the Mudumalai forest, we spotted deer’s, nilguy, bison’s, mongoose, peacocks, common monkeys, black faced langur, various birds and a solitaire elephant striding past the path into the forest. We were spellbound and at around 7PM we reached the kutte after the Mudumalai forest and at the start of masinagudi town, after the temple, in the right is a small tea stall that sells coffee made of malai. Since that was in our checklist, we shared our amazement and held around for half an hour over a cup of coffe. We started back and reached our homestay around 8PM. It had started raining profusely by then and hence the campfire was cancelled. We sat at the sit out and kept a watch on the eyes of the deer’s and the forest wolves that were sparking beyond the electric wire and making us shiver. We were hoping for an elephant to show up though. The owner of the resort sat with us and as always, we talked about the incidents and the difficulties and the beauty of the life in Tiger Ranch. At 10:30PM, the dinner was served. Food remained simple yet extremely tasty and once we were done, at 11:30PM, all lights were switched off and every room was given with a LED lamp and asked to get inside their respective cottages. The forest guard sits outside with a torch and monitors the huts all night.

We spoke for sometimes, locked the doors and got into the blankets listening to the rainfall on the thatched room and the far barks of the dears and the monkeys. The cicada noise was constant all day and night along with frogs, wolves and some other animals. It was an amazing feeling and none of us were aware who slept when.

Next day early as 6AM, we are awake with the jumping and screeching of the monkeys over the huts.  Morning tea was served hot and we lazed in the sit out for a long time. The sky was gloomy and it was still drizzling. We sat outside in the lawn around the wet ash of the born fire that was not lit up last night. We had a lazy breakfast, freshened up and left The Tiger Ranch at around 11AM. Lunch was on the way and we took a de-route from Bandipur – Chamrajnagar – Malvelli – Talkadu – Kanakpura and Bangalore. Though the distance turned out more by about 50kms, we are happy to avoid the Sunday evening traffic and speed breakers of Mysore Road and take the beautiful, scenic and picturesque road instead. We reached Bangalore at 10PM.

Valparai - Wonderland among Wilderness !!

The plan into the greenery is always on the go every time we want to head out to the cool, green and beautiful Valparai. Good Friday is a holiday and the 2^nd last weekend and holiday for the next 6 months. The urge to go out remains more than usual on this situation.This time, since the summer was heading in, we were looking for a place with lower temperature.

I narrowed down to Valparai, a hill station surrounded by Annamalai Tiger Reserve and a rich heritage of wild life in store. We left Bangalore at 2AM on Friday. Our route remained Bangalore - Hosur - Krishnagiri - Dharmapuri - Salem - Thiruppur - Palladam – Coimbatore - Pollachi – Valparai. The distance between Bangalore to Coimbatore is 363kms which took about 6.5 hrs. We did it with 2 breaks for refreshments. We had our early morning breakfast in an old shop serving hot idly and Chutney at the Salem Junction. At the junction of Coimbatore, where the Road diverts towards Pollachi, there is heavy construction of highway in progress. The traffic is slow and a stretch of 5kms stand time consuming. Once we exit from Coimbatore to Pollachi, the road gets better and we travel about 43.3 kms till Pollachi. We reached Pollachi around 10 AM.

We drove till the Azhiyar Reservoir and took a break. We clicked a few photographs and planned to close on our lunch over fresh fish fry being sold in the shacks nearby. We completely drowned in the freshly cooked hot food in the shops. Post lunch, we started for Valparai which is climbing 3500 ft above sea level. Located in the Annamalai ranges of the Western Ghats this beautiful place is most famous for its 40 hairpin bends and the amazing roads that taking everyone through. This road is a Bikers destination and Drivers Dream. It has been mentioned in the list of 10 best roads in the world that one should travel. Extremely well maintained, well planned, completed modulated with adequate reflector and caution signs, this road is a wonder. Added are the greenery and the view of the water bodies and the misty Blue Nilgiris. It was a wonderful weather. There was an official checking done at the ATR Check Post by the forest department and then we started our 65.5kms journey hairpin by hairpin. We stopped at several view points and finally reached at 2PM, completely mesmerized by the beauty around. The total distance covered was 438 kms from Bangalore.

We had booked our stay in a homestay called MistyCreek. As the name suggests, it is situated at the end of the town, on the edge of the tea plantation overlooking a small stream and the Nilgiris behind. That is the view we got from the French windows of the rooms. The price of the stay was pocket friendly and the owner, Frank Benjamin is a well-known face there.  He is known as Benny and is an activist of the forest conservation in Valparai. The food is out of the world, the caretaker who we call Perianna( meaning grandfather, I guess served us home cooked food from one of the local kitchens in hot packs.

We reached there around 2 PM and freshened up, tired as we were. We took a stroll around the town and drove around the misty and cold tea estates. Around 7 PM, we came back to have an early dinner and retired early to bed by 10PM. In the meantime, Benny came by to tell us about the highlights of Valparai.

Next day was as early as 5AM. Geared with our camera and jackets, we headed straight to see hornbills feeding their new born little ones as told by Benny. We waited for about 20mins when the huge Hornbills came flapping their wide wings and fed their chicks. It was a treat to the eye, one of the best experiences that our naked eye could capture, leave along the camera.

 Post the hornbills, we headed straight through the misty mountains towards the grassland and watering holes to see the bison. We saw a few and on the way to and fro we spotted and clicked multiple birds and colorful ones. Some of them were beautiful and unimaginable. We headed back around 10AM with a breakfast in one of the local stalls and tea to die for. Once back, we freshened up and had a quick lunch post which we headed back to our afternoon sleep. We had a long evening to go and Benny had chalked a good plan for us. We woke up fresh from a 2 hrs sleep and sat in the balcony overlooking the valley for an hour with our tea/coffee. What an amazing holiday we were having indeed. We once again drove out around the twinning roads, to click photos of a few birds we saw, sip tea in the tea stall outside a Tea estate, talk to people about their life among the wilderness and hear listen to stories about the village by the Annamalai Tiger Reserve Forest. We visited the Solaiyar Dam which hardly had any water since this was summer and we are waiting for the rain. We visited the famous Balaji Temple and experience a village fair around the Murugan Temple.

We went back to our homestay at 9PM to freshen up, have dinner and wait for the Jeep arranged by Benny to come and pick us up for the night safari. We boarded the Jeep and went around the forest area to spot Wild Dogs, Porcupine, Lion Tailed Macaque, Flying mongoose, species of Owls, Wild Boars and Sambaar – a species of deer. In a distance we also saw a leopard perched on a tree with it tail hanging down and 2 bison grazing below. The view so out of the world and so typically out of the Nat Geo TV Channels. We enjoyed the view and did not click photographs as flashing would disturb their peace and privacy. In the later part of the safari, we finally saw a leopard majestically crossing the road. It stopped, turned around to look at us and then glided into the forest, stopping by once again to turn back look at us and slowly vanish into the forest. We sat their spellbound completely numb with its beauty and powerful looks.

We continued to roam around for another hour saw a few more of animals except for an elephant and the Nilgiri Tahr. At one place we slowed down and 2 men in cycle had billboards in their hand saying “Go slow, Macaque crossing zone”. We stopped and spoke to them. Animal conservation seems to be an important part of the life of people in Valparai. We were amazed and wished we could contribute a little to add to this initiative. When we returned , we were tired but contented and amazed with the beauty of the stary nights in the forest, illuminated by millions of fireflies and the full moon. Once back to the homestay, we retired in our rooms and called it a day.

Next day, we were all packed by for another visit to the Hornbills. We waited for sometimes and pushed off as we were getting delayed. Once back to the homestay, we packed and headed towards home. On our way down, we stopped in several places and clicked photographs. The 9^th Hairpin bend of the 40 total has the most amazing view of the water body, dam and valley from the top.  At the 4^th or 5^th turning we found a family of Nilgiri Tahr. Our trip felt completed and we took umpteen numbers of photographs.

On the way back, we decided to continue the same route we came through. Once we reached Pollachi, we were already starving, hence headed to Kamaraja Road and to the amazing place for Lunch called The Slaves. There we have 2 options, either have in The Slaves or head to Dindigul Venu Biriyani at the next junction. We headed to The Slaves as we were extremely tempted with the reviews on Tripadvisor.

Once done with lunch, we headed out straight to Bangalore. The travel Time remained the same completed with a number of breaks and a dinner in a roadside joint.

It must be noted that stay option in Valparai is very limited and it is either a homestay in the town or at the edge of the town or there are the tea estates which definitely pinches your pocket but offers you the experience. Food is bit of a challenge in the Valley. They are hardly any place to eat and even the small eateries do not look edible. If you stay in homestays, they would provide great food. Hence, do keep that as an option.

I did not find Valparai in Lonely Planet, I did not hear about Valparai from anyone except a handful of crazy friends. However, I am happy not many knows about the place and it still remains beautiful and wilderness is in complete peace till now. We would be going back to the misty patch of life to Valparai soon.

Honey Valley - Virajpet !!

It has been a while that the forest has beckoned us and showered us with its beauty. From the starting of March, the sparsely allocated Indian Holiday Calendar for 2015 has been tempting us to drive out and take a break. 

This was a quick plan, spoke to the standard group and added a couple of new members who are equally eager to head out. Everyone is looking for peace and disconnect from the mobile network. We settled for Honey Valley Estates. A place located about 4520 Ft. above sea level from the beautiful and picturesque Madikeri.

As always, we left early in the morning of 21^st March 2015 and met at the Tumkur Road exit of Yashwantpur Railway Station. A holiday and Ugadi festival marked as New Year to natives of Karnataka, the traffic was extremely heavy. Everyone was traveling away from the madness of Bangalore to their respective homes. We slowly made our way out through the Nelmangala exit and decided to change our route. Since Mysore Road will be definitely high on traffic and humps to add on to, we decided to take the longer Hassan Way.

It was already 8 AM when we got a breather and empty road. We stopped at a Kamath Upachar for Breakfast.  We took a good half an hour break with steaming idli, dosa and great coffee. We picked up bottle water and started again. From Tumkur, we followed the road to Kunigal. A stretch of 20kms is under construction, hence a lot of loose gravels and dusts around. Post Kunigal, the road again gets better till Chanarayapatna. Here, we cross the town and open up into the highway again. I must say that the availability of food is very less in this route. It could be because the Highway is comparatively new or less traffic, we surprisingly found the pockets of CCD or Kamat Upachar for refreshment. From Chanrayapatna, we took a right and kept going straight. We reached Shanivarsante and then into Kushalnagar. Kushalnagar was a short halt for refreshment and then at around 12:30PM we entered Madikeri.

Medikeri is the food paradise every time we travel that route. We drove straight into East End Hotel and parked there. East End Hotel has been serving travelers for years now. Its delicacy being Keema Dosa and meat balls, both are served in the evening. For lunch we had mutton pulao, chicken curry, rice and dal fry. The food was as usual amazingly delicious. They served freshly cooked, hot and tasty with the typical Coorg specialty to taste.

Post lunch, we left towards Coorg. We took the left from the Madikeri where the road goes down towards Virajpet. Honey Valley is 23kms from Virajpet. We travelled into the Madikeri-Murnud road for about 4 kms till Kadanur. At the arriving junction there is a single way bridge over a river or a stream, we took a left after the bridge and continued to travel till Kabbinakkad. At Kabbinakkad junction in the right, we saw a board that says Tamaara Coorg 16kms. This has been our landmark. We followed the board till we reached 4kms and stopped in front of a tea stall call call friends.
The jeep fromn Honey Valley was already there to pick us up. We followed the jeep and started climbing. On the first landing, we parked our car and got into the open Mahindra Monster. Then started the final part of our travel.

The road was as narrow as 4feet wide and steep enough to challenge a 4 WD car. It was as if the mountain range has been razor-ed to create a road. One side was thick forest and the other was steep valley dark into nothingness. Scary yet fun.

It was a 1.5kms drive that tool us 35-40mins up. Finally we reached The Honey Valley. This is a huge estate flanked by greenery and small cottages here and there. At the entrance, there is the dining and kitchen, then about 30 steps down is one of the guest accommodation followed by another further 30 odd steps down. That is where we were put overlooking the valley. Quiet, serene and green fulfilling every moment with the chirping of the birds with known and unknown calls.
We sat around, enjoyed the nature for sometimes when the care taker came to take the order for the dinner. Dinner had the standard vegetarian buffet of rice, roti, dal, 2 currys and curd. To add to that, there were chicken and Pork as an option. Dinner was strictly from 8:00PM to 9:30 PM. For snacks we ordered a few dishes however, the options offered were french fries and onion rings and timings were between 5PM and 6:30PM. Since it was already 3PM by the time we reached the place, we planned to take an hours rest before we hit out for some bird watching. At 4PM, we went around the estate, spotted some birds to photograph and came back by 5:30PM. At the rim of sunset, we sat on the benches of onlooking the valley and had our evening coffee and the snacks.
This completely felt like bliss after a longtime. We inquired about the bon fire and within no time everything was set up and were offered a time limit of 7PM to 9PM. The bonfire was fun..... we sat around and spoke on politics, fun things, little things in life that could have been or should have been and our personal agendas on different topics. We hung around till almost 10PM when we were called to finish the dinner. Dinner was good, typical South Indian homemade everyday food. The Pepper Pork and the Chicken curry was very well cooked. We enjoyed our dinner and went back to the still burning fire. After sitting for an hour, we retired to sleep around 11PM.

Though the feeling of honey valley puts us more back into the hostel days where everything is too tired and restricted to have a relaxed vacation, the silence and the greenery definitely puts one at peace.
Next morning, we were up by 6AM for bird watching however, we found more colorful and big butterflies than birds around. We went back to the snack benches by the valley for the morning tea and spend sometime gazing into the greenery. Post breakfast, we started walking and looking around the estate.It was a beautiful walk through the plantation and we were back only by 12 PM. We freshened up, packed and left from there by 1PM and with a hault in Kushalnagar for lunch and Fishland for dinner, we hit back to Bangalore by 1AM.

Though a short and tiring one, this was a fun trip with a small glimpse of hostel days.

Coastal Maharashtra-Bangalore to Pune !!

The most awaited road trip of the year came around after wrapping up work to to double the hours and triple to energy. Finally, it was closing of 24th evening and I was ready to start packing. Camera checked, sun-glasses checked, cash checked, car pre-travel check-up done and dump the travel bag with minimum clothes. A jacket to save the cold nights. We have a list of places to visit, no direction and no booking. As always this makes a trip to look forward to.

We start From Bangalore at 3AM 25th December. Merry Christmas Everyone. We put the GPS on action and hit the highways. We took the Neelmangala exit and headed through Tumkur, Sira and Hiriyur. On the way, tea stalls and a quick stop at a Kamat Upachar and started right onto the most loved Chitradurga food at the Green House Motel. It comes of the left side on the highway after the stream of Windmills on the National Highway.We always make it a point to stop for food there for the amazing Puri-Saagu and Idli and awesome tea. It has the amazingly clean loo.

The road remained awesome and deviating from a 2,4,6 lanes till Haveri and Hubli-Dharwaar.

From Dharwaar we took a left down road towards the Malvan Beaches via Belgaum and Sawantwadi.

Sawantwadi is a small town for an afternoon laze. We had some small food and loitered around till late evening by the lake to sip some tea and coffee. Around 7pm, tired as we were, we left for Tarkarli. We were in Tarkarli by 8pm with a total travel time.

In the next part of the blog, I will just put the high notes of must do and must eat and cut down of the long blabbering of mine.

Trip Details:
24th December 2014 - Bangalore to Chitradurga
24th December 2014 - Malvan Evening by the Jetty with Seafood and fishing town hangout
25th December 2014 - Tarkarli, Devbaug and night drive to Ratnagiri
                                     These beaches are not for visitors in a way and being so close to Goa, it is very different. Devbaug is a fishing town lined with resorts and boating arrangements. Local food in the small shops provide lip smacking lunch and dinner. We took a round in the beach, had food and moved out. Roads are extremely narrow and buses drive bad.
26th December 2014 - Ratnagiri, Ganapathipule, Are-Ware Beach and Sight the dolphin experience on the way to Ganapatipule.
27th December 2014 - Mahabaleshwar, an experience of beautiful weather, amazing strawberry field and the beautiful Pratapgarh Fort

28th December 2014 -  Panchgani, Wai, Drive to Karla, Panchgani remained a drive from Mahabaleshwar, a small flowery town on the hills. Beautiful and picturesque. Wai completely broke my heart as I had very high hope on the beautiful architecture of the Temple on the River. It was dirty and the town was stinking. There are no place to stay and no body even consider staying there, such is the environment.

29th December 2014 - Karla Cave, The drive to Karla caves was wonderful throughout the night. The mountains and the rocks are so beautiful that one must visit to understand how underrated India is when it comes to beauty of nature. It puts the Yellow stone National park to shame. We reached Karla very late and stayed in the Youth Hostel there. Karla Caves are another wonderful architecture that is ill maintained and not taken care of by the tourism department. The beautiful cave is destroyed due to errosion and unaware tourists who litter and dirty the facilities.

30th December 2014 - Lonavala, Khandala,Pune. From Karla, we drove to Lonavla and found it just an overhyped rainy town with nothing to do much other than the weather and a few view points. From there, we drove fown to Pune. The roads were good, the drive was a great experience and the tunnels were amazing.We reached Pune to stay with a friend and her loving family at the Gymkhana Club vicinity. We had a great family time on the 2nd last day of the year.

31st December 2014 - Pune has been the hangout for 31st December. We went to Malaka Spices and had our beer and brunch. What a start of the day. After the lazy lunch, we headed to shop and see the Osho Meditation Centre and a few shopping places followed by Parties to bring about the new year at a friend's farm house.

1st January 2015 - It was Pune visit to meet friends and family in Pune. We called everyone to the infamous German Bakery and had a wonderful evening.
2nd January 2015 - Left  Pune in the midnight and drove back to Bangalore.

We covered a total distance of 2790 kms.