Ride to Muninagara Dam

The weekend was yet another mundane one until I got a call from one of my friends towards the end of the Saturday to go for a ride to Muninagara Dam – a place near Bannerghatta national park in Bangalore. The plan is an expedition into the forest area surrounding the national park to explore the beauty of nature. It sounded very interesting and adventurous for the fact that this is a bicycle ride and the not usual motorcycle ones which I have been on so far. Initially, I was little worried if I could pedal 80 KMs altogether in the first one of this kind, but then boosted myself telling, if I can’t do this now at this age, then when else I could do it!!! So, continued with the plan and scheduled the start by 2 AM Sunday morning to avoid burning us out much in the hot sun during the daytime. The gang of five was ready to ride the next morning.

The next question for us was to get the cycles ready, as none of us except the one who came up with this plan have a bicycle on his own. Got a lead from him about the bicycle rentals in Bangalore and went and approached Unnathi automobiles- located in 6^th cross near the BBMP Park in New thippasandra bangalore- which has B’twin 5.0 bicycles for rent. These cycles have 3 front gears and 7 rear gears providing a combination of 21 gears for easy riding. [I did not know the technicalities of the cycle, yet got to know these details from the shopkeeper]. We just need to give one ID proof original and address proof photcopy to get the cycles. The rent per day is Rs.300/- per cycle. Rented 4 cycles at around 8 PM Saturday night and rode them to Ulsoor, which is the start point of our ride the following morning.By the time we reached back our house, it was 9 PM, had dinner and chats and went to bed to take a power nap.

As per the plan, I and my friend got up by 1 AM to get ready and leave from my house to Ulsoor in bike. The start itself was a bit scary as we were chased by dogs thrice near my house itself. J Somehow built courage and proceeded forward and reached near Ulsoor. There awaited the next scary thing for us. We weren’t aware of some local temple function and the processions happening over there. The whole of that area is on streets, enjoying the festivals. People were drunk all over, dancing for songs and the beats and full police protection was given to that area, we had to take a lot of diversions to reach my friend’s house there.

We set out for the ride from Ulsoor by around 2:45 AM. The ride was at ease in the early hours of the morning that we could cover more than 10KMs in the first hour itself. Stopped near the Royal Meenakshi mall in the bannerghatta road around 4:00 AM for a break of 10 mins, took some snaps there and continued further 

Guys relaxing and discussing about the first leg of the journey :)

The next stop was after crossing the junction which has the deviation for the Bannerghatta national park, kaggalipura and ragihalli. There are two routes to reach muninagara from here. One is via kaggalipura and the other thru Ragihalli. We took the ragihalli route as that would be more scenic to ride amidst the forest. 3 Kms down the anekal road, there would be a deviation with a sign board which says Ramakrishna Mission 10 KMs. We have to take right in this place, from here on it’s the forest route. When we reached this junction by around 5:15 AM, there were 3 villagers who guided us with the routes and also scared us a little by telling about the presence of Elephants en route. We were not having enough light sources with us; only one of the cycles was having a light with which we came so far. After hearing from them, I dint want to take much risk to ride on to the forest route in complete darkness, so took a break there for about 20 mins, so that we would be in sunlight  when we actually get into the forest roads.

The Road Not taken

The Bikes

Resumed the ride by around 5:40 AM when the visibility gets better and moved forward. There were a few two wheeler and auto rickshaws coming in the opposite side and one of the guys stopped us and warned us again about the prevalence of elephants en route and asked us to be careful while going. For a minute I thought, we are going to get stuck with the elephants and going to experience something which is really adventurous. Yet, nothing of that sort really happened. We continued to proceed forward in the twilight and within half an hour we could see the sunrise in the horizon. The road was really good to ride except for 2-3 steep rises in it, which made me get exhausted completely. Stopped for very short breaks for 5 mins in between and reached till Ragihalli by around 6:30 AM.  

Mullaiventhan doing stunts with the Bike!!!

Its Chinnadurai's turn now...

In Ragihalli village, we enquired about the route to Muninagara dam, and to our disappointment everyone told it is not possible to reach the dam via this route and to reach the dam we need to take the Kaggalipura route only, to which we need to backtrack 15 KMs and ride another 19 KMs from there, which would really be a herculean task for all of us. I was so exhausted already that I was not in any mood to backtrack and take the other route. Had we done that, I wouldn’t have had energy to ride back to Bangalore at all. J. Decided to drop the Dam idea, had breakfast at Ragihalli in a small mess and rode a little further to get into the trails in the forest. Got into one trail and did a terrain ride in the rocks and bushes in the forest of about quarter kilometer, took a few snaps out there, and came back to the main roads of the village. It was 8 AM, when we are done with all this and we wanted to head back to Bangalore at this point of time, so that we can reach back before 12 noon. 

Guys following the leader Deepan

Amresh posing in the trails...

Started with the return journey, took our first break after crossing the AMC College to drink tender coconut, sat down for a while and proceeded further. The sun has come overhead and it was horribly hot to ride thru. The return journey was a bit tougher than the onward due to the weather change. Took enough breaks now and then and reached back to the den by around 10:45 AM. Straight away went to the bicycle rentals and returned the cycles and went home and got crashed to get up again by 5:30 PM in the evening. I was really amused and astonished to believe myself that I have done 80Kms ride without much of complexity. Though, we din see the dam for which we intended to ride, it was really a different experience to try out the bicylce after years, it was one of an exhausting yet enthralling ride.