Atlast Icycled :-)

     Home alone for the weekend at Bangalore is one of the worst things to happen ;-) and that had made me to do something new and interesting to kick out the boredom. Then came the idea of the cycling as I have bought my bike by August and since then never really got good time to ride on. Initially, I was thinking to ride around my residence to a close by place within the city just to to eat some time off the weekend. Thanks to Facebook, that I got to know about the Hesarghatta trail ride organised by ICycle for Jan 13. The first thing that came to my mind was, Will I be able to complete the ride of 70 km (round trip), as that seems to be Herculian task at this point of time (that too with my current fitness level :P). But then somehow managed to convince myself and registered for the event.

     The ride plan was to start from Sadashiva nagar swimming pool by 6:30 AM and ride on till Taj Kuteeram and return to the origin. The second doubt I had on myself was, the starting point in Sadashiva nagar itself was 20 Km from my house(this was the result of the Google maps though), and if I have to be there by 6:30 AM I have to start by 4:30 AM from my residence which was really a nightmare for me. So I was little skeptical about making up for the event, quickly called up the organizers, had a discussion and decided to rent the cycle from them. The total cost for the ride is Rs.650(350 - cycle rent + 300 - breakfast, snacks & lunch) So, everything is set and the plan is on. I just need to be prepared and ready for the ride the next morning. 

     As I am a first timer and very newbie for a ride with a group like this, I was so excited and enthusiastic. I got up by around 5 AM and got ready and reached the assemble point by 6:15 AM. Awaited for all the members to come, we were about 12 for this ride and the ride began exactly about 7:00 AM. The route was pretty easy and straight forward, reach BEL circle, and took right from there towards Jalahalli and kept going straight till we reached Hesarghatta lake. The trail wasn't so tough in the onward journey, we hardly encountered some 3-4 slopes in the road, everybody was just riding at ease. We have reached near the Heasarghatta lake by about 8:10 AM and stopped for breakfast. Resumed the ride after half an hour and we could reach the destination by about 9:00 AM. I was so surprised to realize that I could cover a distance of about 35 KM approx in 2 hours, that too with a break in between. :-)

    I have been earlier to the same place in my motorcycle and had experienced the tranquility in the grasslands there. This time we just spent about 15 mins or so and started the return ride. This was little tougher compared to the onward, and exhausted me more than how I passed by earlier. Again with a break for snacks before we hit the city roads by 10 AM, we managed to reach back the origin by about 11 AM. 

     I must admit that it was a wonderful ride, much easier than I imagined and well organized by the ICycle team. During the return ride, Manju from the team guided me and helped me much making right use of the gears  and explained me with DOs and DONTs while biking. It was all very informative and useful tips. I am really glad to have joined the group and went on for the ride. The urge for biking has already increased a lot for me. Hoping to ride more, learn more and most of all want to enjoy the fun of biking!!!

     The photos from the ride are available in the below links from ICycle:

http://www.icycle.in/portfolio/hesaraghatta-13jan13/

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.538287502868611.121413.198939560136742&type=1

New Year 2013 ride…

2012 was the most boring year I would say- at the least with respect to my biking and touring. Though, the year started with a ride to Coorg for the new year, the rest of the year turned out to be empty on my rides. Adding to the motorcycle touring, I did start with a new venture of cycling/biking and bought a new B’twin RR 5.0 as well. Fortune didn’t favour me on that perspective also. I could hardly go for any ride with my RR 5.0. Yet, stayed uncompromised till the end of the year, and did a one day ride to Salem in CBR(about 450 KM) in November. That gave me a feel good factor that, I have not wasted up the whole year without any biking

Nevertheless, I wanted to ride for this new year as well, so that I can proudly say I ride for every new year. Yeah, this is my third new year celebration in a row, which I had spent with my bike. This time too the destination is one of the Cauvery areas. After a few hours of research on the boarding and lodging for 5, we narrowed it down to Shivanasamudra falls (a place around 135+ KM from Bangalore). We managed to book a resort (that’s how they claim themselves) called Riversedge near the Gaganachukki falls itself. They charged Rs.1750/- per head inclusive of Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. That seemed to be a very good deal for all of us, as it works out very cheaper than what we would end up spending here in Bangalore if we go for any new celebrations.

The ride started on 31-Dec-2012 around 8 AM from my house. Though the bikes remained the same(CBR, R15 and CBZX), the people riding them are different this time, as the usual guys are out of town. Thank God, my school friends were there as my saviours They came down from Pune & Chennai for the new year bash .  Yet I managed to convince them to take for the ride off Bangalore!!! We took the Bangalore->Mysore SH 17 till Maddur and took a deviation to Malavalli, which is one hell of a road we have ever ridden. The entire 20+ KM stretch was bumpy. Beyond that was a neatly laid road till the resort. With a few calls to the owner, we managed to locate the resort and reached there around 1 PM. (Yeah 5 hours is too much of a time actually including a short break for the breakfast near Bidadi). We had prepared our mind earlier from Bangalore that the resort is going to be crappy. Despite that, we decided to go to it out of our desperation to go off the city. The resort lived up to our expectation, it had a pretty decent room which accommodated 5 persons at ease. When we made our booking thru phone, the price quoted was 1750 per person, but we could bargain it and ended up paying 1500

We had lunch in the resort and went to the river which is just a stone throw away from the room. That was the first disappointment for us, the Cauvery has gone dry badly. We managed to find some small pool of running water amidst the dry river and took a bath in it.

The most enjoyable part of the river was the photo shoot. All the guys started posing one after the other and I was clicking everyone’s Facebook profile pictures(Yeah the photos are more to publish on Facebook only these days )

Got back to our room in the evening around 5 PM and relaxed for a while and started to get a glimpse of the actual falls. There awaited our second disappointment. The waters in our showers would be denser than those falling in the waterfall. Felt really bad and pity about the status of the river Cauvery, yet took some snaps just to hold the memory of the visit to the place and headed back to room

Rest of the times, we just spent inside the room enjoying among ourselves, the third disappointing thing in the trip was the choice of songs being played in the resort. None of us had liked it, and that left us with an option of just get locked inside the room We were happy to hear the Gangnam style and why this kolaveri around 12’o clock of Jan 1,2013 which helped us in making some moves and welcome the new year with the dancing hearts  

Next morning, around 10 AM, had our breakfast, clicked some formal group photos outside the rooms and inside the premises of the resorts and started back to Bangalore.

The return journey was so peaceful as we took the route via Kanakapura road. Stopped multiple times in between to kill some time and could reach back home a little late. We had reached Bangalore by about 2 PM.

On the whole, it was an enjoyable ride and I could complete my wish of riding three years in a row. Hoping to do more motorcycle touring/biking this year and to add more posts to my blog!!!

Trip in a nutshell:

Number of days: Two

Bikes in the ride: CBR250R, R15, CBZX

Route taken:

Onward : Bangalore –> Maddur-> Malavalli –> Shivanasamudra falls(Gaganachukki )

Return: Shivanadamudra –> Malavalli –> Kanakapura –> Bangalore

Distance covered: 275 KM (Round trip including the all places visited)

Accommodation: Riversedge resort(1500 per head incl. BF, Lunch, Dinner)