A Ride for Redemption – Western Ghats
Bike Trip
“For the senses wander, and when one lets the mind follow them, it carries wisdom away like a windblown ship on the waters” – the Bhagavad Gita
“For the senses wander, and when one lets the mind follow them, it carries wisdom away like a windblown ship on the waters” – the Bhagavad Gita
Some
things we aspire to do in practical life can be categorized in to 3 lists based
on priority. Bucket list, Wish list, Goals to achieve list. It’s extremely easy
to throw things you aspire to do in to bucket list. It remains in bucket until
and unless you prioritize and move it to Goals to achieve list. Wish list is
something for which you never even attempt to work on to materialize it. It’s
just a wish that you want it to happen on its own.
I had one such thing in
a buck list since long time. To be more specific, the moment I bought my TB 350
in 2014, had thought of going on a long ride (Pretty normal for anyone who buys
a bullet). It didn’t matter to where and when. Hampi was the first option but
couldn’t achieve it because of dropouts. It’s still in my bucket list! The
thing immediately falling next in to my bucket list was Western Ghats bike
ride.
For a while,
circumstances and life events didn’t really help me out in planning anything
outdoor. All I needed was a trigger to move things from bucket list to Goal
list. That trigger I got was the resultant of all the emotional negativities,
strong enough to push me to such an extent that I was mentally ready to take a
week long solo trip to reclaim myself in Western Ghats covering temples, hills
stations, mountains, wildlife reserves, waterfalls, beaches.
With the blank mind, I
stared at vast evergreen patch of western Karnataka in Google Maps. Countless
number of zoom in, zoom outs in map made me to think, OK… I need to take a
month sabbatical to cover all these places, told my desperate greedy mind!!!
But wait, that’s the luxury I cannot afford, told my company leave policy. With
good number of permutations and combinations I shortlisted places and routes to
cover in a week long ride.
Route
was carefully chosen so that I must be reaching the destination for the day
before dark and at least 3 places of interests are covered before dusk. A brief
plan was ready by initial week of November 2016. The circuit consisted of
covering 6 districts in Western Ghats mainly Hassan, Chikmagalur, Shimoga,
Uttar Kannada, Dakshin Kannada and Udupi within a week. The circuit included
the places that I had seen them back in my school days and some of them new and
remote enough to explore.
Even
though I had solo ride intention, I was generous enough to invite some bullet
owners. As expected there were dropouts at the end moment. I almost decided for solo. Surprisingly, one
of my colleague rider who was well aware of my plan was obviously tempted and
joined at the end moment. There by the count of serious riders rose to amazingly
2.
Day 1:
Bengaluru >>Sharavanabelagola>>Belur>>Mullayanagiri Peak>>Chikmagalur
(320 Kms)
After
juggling between too many tentative dates, the ride date was finalized for 7th
Dec 2016. December being a perfect month for long rides, any dates in that
month would suffice.
The ride started from
Whitefield at 4.30 AM and caught up with my friend at Kundalahalli Gate at
around 5 AM. By 6 AM we were cruising towards NH 75 towards Hassan. The main
intention of starting early was to cover enough distance of about 160 kms to
reach Shravanabelagola before 9AM. So that, major chunk of distance can be
covered early and fast.
Although ride was
smooth and traffic free, it was damn cold! It was chilling even under double
layer of jackets, pants and gloves. Road quality stands up to national highway
standards. My cruising speed was regulated to 70 kmph and not more than 70 at
any part of the ride (Fuel efficiency was the one reason another being tappet
issue).
A diversion from
highway took us to Sharavanabelagola road. At around 9.30 AM we were at
entrance of stairs towards largest monolithic statue of Bahubali Gommateshwara carved
over the rocky hill, standing at the height of 17 mtrs. Short climb on stairs
under morning sun was inevitable to reach the statue of Jain pilgrim
attraction. As luggage deposit rooms are available, we had hands free climb to
hill.
 |
| one of the seven wonders of India |
The view from the top
of the hill gives a bird eye view of other hills around, city and artificial
lake.
Refuelling ourselves
with coconut water, the next move was towards Belur Chennakeshava temple. A
short 2 hrs ride covering about 90 kms from Shravanabelogola got us to one of
the finest workmanship of ancient Indian sculpture architecture. The
workmanship includes sculptures of wild animals, horses, Indian epics and
voluptuous dancers of those ages. It’s a treat for art lovers. Every sculpture
there had a story and meaning behind it.
Even though temple
provided prasada (lunch) was available, it was too much crowded. We later
settled for hotel food and left for chickmagalur. For the whole trip we hadn’t
booked any accommodation for the night stay. It was pre-decided that whenever
we reach the last place for the day we would settle there for the night and for
whatever the accommodation we could catch on to. Fortunately, in chikmagalur
one of my close relatives house was available for first day stay. Belur to
chickmagalur is about 35 kms. Evening at around 4 PM, we unloaded our luggages,
refreshed and immediately left for Mullayanagiri Peak. It was hardly about 15
kms from my relatives place. With enough packed snacks and water, we entered
mullayangiri road. The ride was through curvy uphill road surrounded by coffee
estates and tall trees. It was surreal experience to drive through such roads
in Western Ghats. As the elevation increased, the road quality decreased and
got narrower. Some hairpin bends were risky enough and soft mud made it
difficult to manoeuvre.
A short walk towards
the peak gives the exalting view of entire mountain ranges around and clear
overview of Chikmagalur city. Clear blue sky and green slope surroundings and
no trees around made it altogether a different kind of mountain experience in
South India.
Day 2: (Kyatanamakki Hill station>>Horanadu>> Lakya Dam>>Karkala)
Actual time of departure was at 6.30AM. This particular
route involved riding in pure western ghats with countless number of bends and
curves in the landscape of coffee estates dotted by houses here and there.
Excellent roads, favourable but cold breeze, encircled by silence in air gave
ecstatic feeling of thumping my TB 350. The first place of interest for the day
was less known Kyatanamakki hill station. There were 2 routes that can be taken
to reach the hill from chikmagalur. The one via Mudigere- could have costed us
a distance of 124 kms and another via balehonnur for 114 kms. Keeping further
places in mind , we took the route via balehonnur, shantigrama and then to
kyatanamakki.
Half the way after
breakfast in balehonnur we rechecked the GPS maps for any shortcuts. The more I
zoomed the map, a faint road appeared connecting to kyatanamakki. We gave a
shot and went ahead with the thought in mind saying that there is nothing wrong
in taking the road less travelled.
By now I had another
realization that my co rider might have already reached the hill station and
might be trying to connect me. This short cut idea cost me precious time but
nevertheless getting lost is part of the adventure. From now it was very narrow
lane with loose gravel with feel of remoteness. Even though there were houses
nearby but there was no human movement around for long throughout the route. I
frequently check the GPS to make sure I didn’t lose some more of precious time
in wrong turns and simultaneously i picked up pace on straight stretches
whenever I could. At one particular stretch I saw 2 chickens standing beside
the road doing nothing and at same time somehow I was confident that there
won’t be any mischief by those, like crossing road when I was about to pass
them. But I was wrong and they were unpredictable. The moment I passed close
by, one of the chicken suddenly moved in front of my bike and started screaming
for its life. I was flabbergasted to know what just happened and saw the
chicken has stuck between my left leg and bike. I tried to kick it but it
wouldn’t free itself as its wings were wide open. In the second kick I heard no
more chicken scream and sensed I could have had just ran over the bike on
chicken. All this happened within few seconds but I didn’t slow down fearing
the chicken might be dead and its owner might be chasing me. But anyway I gave
glance back in my rear view mirror; there was nothing on road or anybody
chasing me, thus, giving me a sigh of relief.
With
bit difficulty I finally found out the narrow lane to kyatanamakki. It was
difficult search even with working GPS and asking people around. Few distance
in to ride I could sense it was sudden steep and loose gravel was all around
the path. Wheels couldn’t get traction on to surface and I was skidding. At one
point the skid was too much to control the bike, brakes got ineffective and
leaned to its left and fell off. Sleeping bag tied on left side of the bag
reduced the damage to bike.
Picking up bike on
loose gravel road is another difficult task. Had to make sure bike don’t roll
off back after I lift it back and had to control brakes in parallel. Grinding
the engine, controlling the clutch methodically I drove on hard surface and
made sure I didn’t put wheels back on gravel. Few meters in to ride I saw the
road getting terribly rugged and fractured. It’s a perfect terrain for off road
vehicles and bikers. The smell of hot engine in that difficult terrain was
evident as I pushed the throttle and moved ahead on slope. Suddenly I saw my co
rider friend descending from the slope, giving me a surprise. I thought he was
done with waiting for me on top of hill and returning back. But I was
‘relieved’ to hear that he couldn’t go ahead as the terrain was too difficult
to navigate. It got more exciting as I throttled my way ahead. The terrain was
indeed difficult and I was mentally prepared for another skid. But also made
sure I avoided gravel path at any moment. The demanding part of ascend was over
and mild hard slope was ahead for the final ascent to kyatanamakki hill.
The complete 360deg breathtaking
view of green mountains around kyatanamakki hill station was worth the arduous
ride there.
Spent some time relaxing ourselves and gave
some for our machines. 2 cattle on top of the hills were staring continuously
at us as if they haven’t seen any humans in their life. One of them even tried
to chew off my friend jacket. It was almost successful in doing that. Timely
chasing was enough to recover almost half swallowed jacket.
Felt descending was far
trickier than ascending. It’s nothing but combination of both brakes. Being in
first gear doesn’t help in anyway.
Horanadu is hardly 30
min (10 kms) from there. Made a quick visit, finished lunch and started to
Lakya dam in Kudremukha National Park.
Entry to Kudremukha
national park is can be accessed only after getting access permission letter
forest check post which is on the way just before we enter the forest reserve. No
need to pay anything. For 2 wheelers its 1.5 hours of time limit to reach the
exit of national park.
Meanwhile we stick to
our plan to visit Lakya dam as it was on the way. Lakya dam is about an hour
from horanadu. On the way is Kalasa temple as well. Due to time constraints we
couldn’t make it to kalasa.
Riding through national
forest is distinctive kind of experience. Very low traffic, no village limits,
thick forest, animal or bird sightings make it different (saw a big lizard
crossing road). KIOCL mine (Kudremukha Iron Ore Company) is one of the largest
iron ore mines in the world. The lakya dam is a check dam construted by KIOCL
for the river Lakya. The sole purpose of this dam is collect silt and waste
material from mining industries situated beyond kudremukha. Entry to lakya dam
is restricted and tourist can’t easily access this. We came to realize this
after we entered through back door path. The dam surrounding was scenic, calm, no
human movement around, slow moving wind with back drop of mountains and trees
beyond the dam catchment area. It must have looked lush green in monsoon but
the unusual observation was that there was no water in the dam.
As the main road to the
dam was closed, we had entered though some illegal route to the dam. While on
top the dam, security guards noticed us and a uniformed fellow drove towards us
in his bike with high speed with added flashing lights. By noticing this we
thought we could be arrested or taken away for trespassing. Instead of running
back to our bikes, we stood calm waited for the approaching aggression. Even
before he stopping, the guard started his interrogation. As per him we have to
take permission from the company office to enter the locality and we cannot
enter just like that. We calmly responded from where we came, that we were
unaware of the rules and apologised for trespassing and left. Our demeanour and
apologies were so effective that the guard calmed down immediately and got
polite.
All we wanted was the
glimpse of the dam locality. That was achieved and moved out of the place
satisfied.
The rest of the ride to
our next location Karkala was simply the best part of the trip. Excellent road,
greenery, countless number of curves and some sections of the roads were
completely shadowed by trees. This is
exactly what I wanted in the trip, this is what I had exactly planned for, and
this is what I exactly achieved. The best ride I ever had in my riding
experience.
It
was early in the evening when we reached Karkala. Took a room in the city and
did nothing for rest of the day. During my post-graduation days I studied in
Nitte near by Karkala, so I had covered some places before. Karkala’s main
attraction is Jain Basadi and Bahubali statue just like one we saw in
Sharavanabelogola. Lakya dam to karkala is around 55 Kms.
Day 3: (Seetha Falls >>
Kollur>>Jog Falls)
Most of the petrol bunks on the way were not
accepting cards over cash even at the height of the demonetization effect.
Fortunately, beside the lodge was a bank ATM. I had assumed getting cash in
small cities would be more difficult than in Bengaluru. But that’s not the
case. Reloaded our pocket with one pink note and proceed towards Seetha falls
or Koodlu Falls in Someshwara wildlife sanctuary at 6.30AM. Unblemished
relishing memories of seetha falls back from PG days made me to plan a ride for
this place again. For the whole month the agumbe roads were closed for repair.
As the road which we were riding also connected agumbe, we felt almost no
oncoming traffic; it was almost a feeling of riding on a deserted road on a
cool winter morning.
One
can easily miss out this turn towards Seetha falls. This particular turn comes
half way in to the falls. From then it’s about 15 kms of ride on muddy, pot
hole filled village road and almost no road. Road is extremely bad and the more
deep you go the more isolated it gets. Hardly there are any human movements
around. But good thing is directions to falls are proper and informative.
By
9 AM we were at the parking and entrance of Koodlu falls. Few years ago when I
visited, there was no such thing as entry fee or plastic restriction. Now every
plastic material in the bag was counted at the reception before we were told to
proceed. This was done so that to maintain cleanliness in the falls
surroundings. A short 2 kms trek from the entrance was all that’s need to reach
the hidden gem of the forest – “Seetha Falls Or Koodlu theertha falls”. December
is the right time to visit the falls as the receding rain would allow us to
move around the falls and take short dip. As the water falls from a
considerable height, the mist from the falling water gives a freezing feeling
around the falls. The location of the falls is in such a way that the it’s
surrounded from 3 sides and open to entrance from only one. Kind of land locked
or cliff locked.
As
expected, there were not humans around. Comfortably settled, finished the food
that we had bought for breakfast in the previous night, took the coldest dip in
the water and spent some meaningful time enjoying the isolation and
exclusivity. It was risky and too slippery to get exactly below the falls, so I
avoided for misadventure.
Trekked
back to parking location and recounted the carried plastic to get back the
deposit amount. Drove back to main road and proceeded towards Kollur temple.
Seetha
falls to kollur is around 90 kms. It was already close to 12 in the noon. Our
intention was to have lunch in kollur and then visit the temple. We doubted
whether that will be possible to reach before lunch time. By now, our bikes had
taken some toll in forest roads. Greasing the chains made the ride smooth
again. Just few minutes to lunch closing time we reached Kollur. Actually I was
last person to get the food for the day. Finished the temple visit soon after and
started to our next destination for the day- Jog falls.
Out of the 3 routes
shown in the picture, blue line is the route which we took and regretted later.
Why we took that route? It looked shortest way to Jog and second reason was
middle route involved taking ferry, get down and then drive to Sagar to reach Jog
falls. Our estimation said we would be late to last ferry that would be
departing at around 5 PM.
Kollur to Jog involves some serious ghats
section ride. Good Cement road made it bit easier. The route which we took is
the same route till the diversion, left turn for Jog and right turn for
Signadur Chowdeshwari temple road then to Sagar.
The most torturous ride
of the trip started the moment we took left turn towards Jog. The problem was not just about the pot holed road,
it was also uneven surface that happens after filling up pot holes. It was
impossible to miss a pot hole and rough road through the entire stretch. This
was extreme test for our bikes endurance to harshness mainly to suspension. Oh
man… the torture was unbearable. We first started at 30 kmph assuming good road
would start ahead in few minutes. We continued, with the false hope. Reality
was something else. Realizing we are practically screwed up and it was getting
late to reach Jog, I increased the speed to around 40 – 50kmph. Within an hour
we reached bhatkal- soraba main road thus ending the most irritating ride of
about 20 kms in the trip. Took a much needed rest for remaining distance to
cover. My worst fear was bike breakdown to due puncture or chain break and
getting stuck in remote village areas where there is hardly any help at those
times.
Anyway, our rest of the
ride was not smooth as we expected. It got dark, added to this some road
construction was underway so couldn’t pace up as well. By the time we reached
Jog it was around 7.30 PM and soon settled for an accommodation nearby to falls and
slept.
Day 4: (Sahasralinga >> Yana>> Gokarna
OM beach)
Mornings at around 7 we
were back on road. December is not the right time for Jog visit. Hardly there
is any waterfall due to receded rains months before. It must have been too good
in monsoon, I can make a guess. Spent some time in view points, had breakfast
and left for the next destination- Sahasralinga in Uttara kannada district. Jog
falls to sahasralinga is 75 en route via Siddapura and Sirsi. Ride was
effortless and smooth because of good, wide enough roads.
Sahasralinga is a
pilgrim place where good numbers of Shivalingas are carved out of rocks in the
river Shalmala. It’s also a good place to take a dip and enjoy winter river
ambience. As December month is school organised trip time, these kinds of
places are normally noisy due to countless batches of school kids screaming and
shouting senselessly. It’s the same case in most of the places we saw in the
trip. So we couldn’t really enjoy the natural ambience of the place.
Afternoon lunch was
planned at my relative’s house in a Village named salkani. Half an hour ride
from Saharsralinga was enough to reach right on lunch time.
To reach from source to
destination, if you think Google map shows all the possible routes to choose
from, then this is one such case where it was different.
After slurping a good
lunch then came the thought of sleep, as always. But it was no time for a catnap
as per our schedule. Evening before sunset we must be in Gokarna as per plan.
Our relative gave a short cut route to Yana from salkani. When we checked it in
Google map, it was hardly loading on our mobile due to feeble network. We heard
the route verbally, created a map in our heads, started our engines and rolled
towards Yana in a Google unmapped road. Too many turns and sections of bad
roads go us confused at many places, but some sign boards started to appear
showing direction and distance towards Yana. It was easier than what we had
expected. Within an hour we were at one of the entrance of Yana. It was hardly
about 40 kms from Salkani but time saving and ride worthy route for sure.
Again few minutes of
rock and roll ride, we were at yana parking. Located in forests of Uttar
Kannada, Yana looked completely contrasting to the blue sky background. The 2
pitch black volcanic ‘shikhara’ rocks are mammoth and ancient. It’s definitely
as old as the early earth history itself. It’s not just any rough volcanic
formation, but also a pilgrim centre with a temple situated below the shikhara.
Out of 2, arrangements for look around are made only to Bhairaveshwara
shikhara, whereas Mohini shikhara is left out. Surrounding is messy with lots
of plastics and waste.
From yana we again
continued in google unmapped road towards Gokarna. We had taken Hillur-Achave
road and joined Mirjan-Ramnagar road to reach Gokarna (approx 50 kms).
Again, no
accommodations were booked for stay in Gokarna. We reached OM beach parking at
around 5 PM in the evening and started looking for accommodations online. The
list was as expensive as that of Goa and added to this, it was weekend!!! We
even were ready to sleep on open beach provided the place is secure. For a
while decided that we go watch sun set and later think of accommodation.
Placed our bags on a
patch of rock, opened our snacks and settled for the final view of the day –
sunset. It was peaceful, slow breeze and endless view of sea ahead of us with
the view of ‘Orange ball’ sinking in to the sea. All this was giving a sense of
relief that we were able to cover places and reach destinations for the day on
time.
There are good number
of shacks on the beach providing food and accommodations. Like a nomads, with
our bags, we entered shacks one by one from the starting of OM beach. The word
of the evening was ‘no rooms available try in the next one’. We covered almost
all the shacks of entire beach asking for place to sleep at least. Almost given
up, we gave the final try, on the last most shack of the beach believing that
we might get lucky there. And we were
indeed lucky!!!! A room was available for 350Rs!!! That too, cheaper than what
we had expected! That was a big relief of that evening. ‘Almost giving up and
getting lucky to stay for a night in beach shack that too on a weekend without
booking’.
Shack guy took us to
our den for the night. It was nothing but a ‘prison cell’ without a lock from
inside. Anybody can enter and leave at their wish. A mosquito net, a fan and a
bed- god knows when it was cleaned before were the gifted items in the room.
Dinner arrangement
overlooking the beach was the highlight of the place. Recapping the things that
happened in our previous few days of ride and planning ahead for next 2 days of
the ride was part of the dinner discussion. Surprisingly, shack food menu was
very extravagant and serving included variety of food. Too tired to roam around
the beach, I settled in the ‘cell’ for sleep soon after dinner.
Day 5: (Mirjan Fort >>Murudeshwara>>
Malpe)
It’s
definitely an unalike feeling to overhear and feel the beach ambience early in
the morning. Silently sat on the chair overlooking the beach for a while and
got ready, finished breakfast in the shack and geared up our machines for the
next ride to Mirjan fort.
In my initial plan, I
had plans to cover regions around Karwar and then proceed towards to south. But
due to leave issues with my co-rider I had to cut short in the trip plan. Day 5
ride mostly involved riding on costal highway of NH 66. In many stretches of
the road, construction work reduced the road to single lane, added to this,
long lines of LPG and petroleum trucks added to traffic at many narrow roads.
Over all road quality
is OK but ride was not stimulating or as greener as what we had seen in last
previous days. Riding in open highway under intense sun made the ride still
more boring for the day.
Mirjan Fort - First
place to be covered for the day. Not many people know about this fort, that’s
what it makes special for me. No crowd, no noise and no pollution, that’s what
I always expect to see in the destination. From OM beach to Mirjan is around 25
kms. We missed the turn to fort and drove ahead for some distance. GPS map came
in handy. I had seen the monsoon photos of fort in internet before. It really
is appealing and tempted me to visit the place.
The 16th
century fort was built for defence purpose and it’s of Arabic and Portuguese
style of construction. Most part of the structures is intact and descriptions
boards are very few. No guides, no fees or what so ever.
After few minutes of
roaming we were back on road again riding to Murudeshwara, about 60 kms. By
lunch time we reached the temple premises after depositing our luggage. Sunday
crowd made its presence felt. Long lines for ‘darshan’, long lines for lunch,
long lines for parking made it a bit of mess.
Soon after lunch we
were back on road riding towards Marvanthe beach. Our immediate plan was to
reach Marvanthe and swim for a while and reach udupi late in the evening.
Murdueshwara to
Marvanthe beach is about 51kms and it’s a long straight highway drive under
midday sun. As we came across a stretch of road embracing the beach in an
exclusive way, we checked our maps and got to comprehend we were at Marvanthe
beach. Unfortunately, the beach area looked less crowded and not a suitable
place to swim. We hardly got any chance to swim in OM beach and aspiration to
swim in Marvanthe Beach done for and now we were in desperate need for another
beach for the day. I quickly checked how long to Udupi and anything in between.
That was it!! Malpe. The beach for which I had been in my PG days and a perfect
place to swim till sun is down. An hour ride covering about 52 kms got us to the
most crowded beach in the coast. We reached Malpe around 5 PM and deposited our
luggages and went straight ahead to the beach. For next one hour it was nothing
but ease, unwind, and glide over the Arabian Sea for good. This swim was the
most awaited part of the trip and finally got accomplished. Bathing facility in
the beach location resembled that of an overcrowded jail bathing facility. Open
showers, under each shower pipe there were not less than 3 people sharing the
water (soaps as well) and all of them are strangers from kids age to uncles!!!
The chaos included countless unaccounted undergarments, soaps and shampoo
sachets all through the bathing facility. All composed, it was kind of entertaining
experience in such place.
Tremendously hungry by
now, we hit to the street foods beside the beach road. Every second set up was
that of fish fry shop. Savoured few items, collected our bags and moved towards
Udupi looking for an accommodation for the final night of the trip. Finally
selected the cheapest most accommodation in the city, finished the not so good
dinner and met one of my ex- colleague, now a Professor in Manipal college.
Gossiped for a while and returned back to room for sleep.
Day 6: >>> Bengaluru<<<450 kms="" o:p="">
Last day, I don’t want it to be boring ride
only day. We had pretty much distance to be cover till Bengaluru passing through
widest landscape in Karnataka. Dharmasthala came in to mind while planning the
last day ride. It was chosen in order to give some good break in between. So, the
ride route selected to had to pass thorough Karkala again and then to
Dharmasthala and from there to Bengaluru via Hassan.
We started early from Udupi,
even before the sunrise, keeping in mind to reach Bengaluru before dark. The ride
was pleasant in the early hours with no traffic obstructions around. Some of
the roads for example, the stretch from Manchakal to Karkala is developed to 4
lane road, which was kind of single lane road back in my college days there.
Hardly gave any stops
in between till Belthangady for tiffin. We had covered quite a distance in the
morning hours. Dharmasthala is hardly 15 kms from Belthangady but it had face
some traffic.
When we reached Dharmasthala
it was quite evident from the crowd there that we might be not be able to
finish the visit on time. Anyway, we parked our bikes and went ahead to deposit
was luggage, but it couldn’t get synchronized as we had expected. Luggage deposit
process was halted for a while and we foresaw we might face further delay in temple
because of the long queues. Immediately we altered our plan and exited Dharmasthala
without any ‘darshan’.
Dharmasthala to
Bengaluru is around 300 kms through twisty and tortures Shiradi ghats. It was
quite a sunny day that could be felt even around ghat roads. Some sections of
the roads were so horrible that our pace reduced to 5 kmph for some stretch. These
roads had been completely harassed during incessant monsoon rains. Although some
road work was going on, it’s too slow to cover such wide stretch of road. By noon
we reached Hassan as per the plan. But all this riding above wide range of
roads and terrain got us in to travel exhaustion. Quietly finished lunch and
started to Bengaluru when the midday sun was at it seasons peak. We had anticipated
that this ride won’t be easy after lunch. Riding on ghat roads was far better
off than riding on simple straight stretch of highway from Hassan. Cruising at
70 kmph, weary eyes gave gloomy glimpse on the road. Took frequents breaks
whenever and wherever we needed. At one point my eyes lids felt so heavy that when
I opened my eyes full, I had slightly deviated from the lane. This was enough
to give red alert and quickly take for a coffee break. My co rider was
expressing his difficulty on how he was keeping on the road. Although coffee
break gave some dynamism, it was not enough. I started singing some random
songs to keep my mind alert, started reading the number of other passing
vehicles etc. but the most effective way to keep myself alert on road was to start counting
numbers in German language.
Some 80kms to Bengaluru
we started to see cloud formation and depressed weather over the sky. By that
time Chennai was gearing up for cyclone Vardah landfall. That cylone had spread
its effect as distant as where we were driving. At around 4.30PM reached Nelamangala
flyover. Still far from our homes, we drove through usual Bengaluru traffic added
to this, it started to pour aiding to much more traffic. By now my co rider and
I had split to our respective places. Dripping all over I reached my room at
around 7.30PM finally completing the most exhaustive ride with wide varied
climate and terrain in one single day.
It was sense of accomplishment
for me doing this kind of trip for the first time. Around 450 kms in a single
day is no easy task in many terms, that too being the last day of a week-long trip.
‘By far this is the most magnificently
planned and executed trip by me ever’.
This trip offered me
much needed revive, self-assurance, and relieve from the thirst for adventure
and mostly significantly ‘The Redemption’.
