Next leg, Bandipur

So, I don't have photos of this leg of journey as it started pouring down rain so I didn't pull out my camera. Others along for the ride have pics so when I get them I'll edit this post. Anyway, after mysore the highway ends and becomes a fairly standard India 2 lane road. The quality of the pavement degraded quickly and the next challenge of the ride really kicked in; avoiding huge pits in the road. There were of course still unmarked speed bumps. And, now, there is wildlife to contend with as well. The road from mysore turns and heads into the Bandipur forest. Bandipur is a national wildlife reserve, full of water buffalo, wild cows, elephants, and tigers. The road quality is very good, apparently the national parks get more money for road improvement. It was winding as well, so very fun to ride on a bike as you can countersteer and lean into the turns. The guys I rode with had given me very stern warnings about the wild elephants as they are very dangerous if they have a baby to protect, as they will charge and gore. I only saw one elephant and it was pretty deep in the forest so it didn't turn out to be an issue. In heavily forested areas like this, there's really no chance of seeing a tiger, you just know they are there to eat you if you doddle. My main tank did run out of gas through the forest, but I had a full reserve tank so a very quick stop and a restart I was once again on my way.
Save for the rain, this was a very beautiful stretch and the most fun part of the ride. The Bandipur forest ends with the border crossing between Karnataka, the state I live in, and Kerala, the state to the south west. I was a bit worried about the border crossing as I don't have an Indian license, but it was no big deal, just a sleeping cop next to an open gate.