Tour de Ride Series - Shimoga to Agumbe to Hornadu !!

9th -11th August 2013

Finally I am putting it, right this was pending for long and I didn't want to miss out writing this. This ride was my first multi-day cycling expedition and good amount of anticipation was built around it, in spite of being totally bugged with work commitments. On 8th August, I had to rush to catch the bus starting at 11.45 pm from Majestic, funny and coincidently things went good. I left office by 10 pm, had to run to my room, collect my cycle and baggage and on my way to the bus station, I was just thinking how to ride around 18-20kms distance in just about an hour. To my rescue, volvo bus which was passing by allowed me to carry my cycle, I thanked God. Now I was bit relieved my expedition is still on, meantime I handed bit of my workload to my colleague who gracefully accepted my request. I was late to the bus station, but the bus was also late. Now, all that is said and done we were on for our expedition. We boarded our cycles into bus, after bit of negotiation we settled at paying 150 rs to both cycle till Shimoga. Since this was first time we were loading our cycles into bus there was bit of hassle to fit them inside the carriage. 

Our plan for this expedition was to ride through Shimoga, Thirthhalli, Agumbe, Sringeri and Horanadu and end the expedition at Mudigere, around about 240-250 kms through Western Ghats. 

Started off from Shimoga around 7 am after freshening and fuelling up with light breakfast typical idli wada sambar. Thirthhalli was set as our first destination. After learning the road was perfect with no major elevation, we covered the first 60kms pretty smoothly, we stopped at couple of places, one at the bird sanctuary and a dam and few more places to take photos. We had lunch at Thirthhalli, around the same time, we decided to ride further till Agumbe and call off the day. We had another 35 kms to cover. Rain welcomed our ride as we took route to Agumbe. Route was hilly climb and wonderful, Western ghat was never felt so close. We pushed ourself to reach our destination by dark. We reached Agumbe  around 7 pm. I started to search for "Dodda Mane", age old mansion featured in popular TV serial of 90's "Malgudi Days". Was able to locate the house at some distance, due to rain the whole mansion was covered with plastic sheet. The house was full of visitor due to long holiday weekend. We requested Ajji [Grand nanny] at the house we could adjust somewhere inside. She agreed to let us stay for the night. 

Start of our journey

I could recollect all the rooms showed in the Malgudi Days TV serial. It was old, lots of wood work, water well inside the house, water heating drums, felt good about staying in a place which had age old history and different generations leaving under single roof. Kasturi Akka [Amma] maintain the house and guests. Next day we planned to leave early to our next course, we bid adieu to Kasturi Amma with lots of good memories and headed towards to Shringeri Matt. 

Malgudi Days serial was shot here

With Kasturi Akka @ Dodda Mane

We reached Shringeri Matt by 11 am and had darshan of Shardamba Devi. We waited for sometime to have prasadam and soon after we left to Horanadu. We had the plan to reach Horanadu by day light and make a stay there. We started by 1 pm and had the target of around 60 km ride before it turns dark. We kept our pace with the time factor in mind, ride was good with few steep climbs, traversing through coffee and tea plantation was wonderful, we managed to have a good ride and kept the pace at the same time, we stopped couple of time to have authentic plantation tea. 20 kms from Horanadu it turned dark, since we had not equipped ourself with good high beam torch, we thought to call the day. Talking to few people at the tea stall, we found staying at Kalasa place around 12 kms from Horanadu was best option. We rode till Kalasa and fixed a lodge to stay overnight. 

@Shringeri Matt

@Horanadu with Kids

@Horanadu Annapurneshwari Temple

We needed a Airavat bus from KSRTC to transport our cycles, on the course we learned that the bus doesn't pass by our final destination which was Mudigeri. Next morning we enquired more on that and finally decided to stop our ride at Horanadu and catch the bus from there. So now we had only 12 kms ride left for the whole trip. We wanted to catch lots of pictures we missed to take last couple of days and also enjoy the short stops at tea stalls. 

Reached Horanadu by 11 am, had Sri Annapurna Devi darshan. As we sat idle, idea popped into mind why not do some seva. Lunch was about to start, I went to one of the person who was in charge of lunch there and asked if we can serve. He asked us to fill the water glass and serve whoever asks for water while they are having lunch. We got friendly with the guys who were already doing this and had loads of fun doing this service. We did it for 2 hours before we were asked to have our lunch before the stipulated lunch hours.

We had booked the bus at 9pm, we had time of the world to spend next 5-6 hours. Dozed a bit in the temple and went around to have tea. Again dinner prasad started at 8 pm, now we were first to take the seat for dinner. Boarded the bus at 9, but had some quarrel with ticket collector over our luggage "cylces". 

We had wonder three days of cycles, life for us was pacing at 10-15 kmph and felt wonderful to be so close to Western Ghats. Met lot of good, humble people who helped us one or the other way, seeing the excitement in the eyes of village people, especially children was wonderful experience. Bye for now.

Keep Cycling.

Save Environment. 

3 States - Let's cycle it out !!

Date: 15th to 17th August across Karnataka, Tamilnadu and Kerala !

I am not narrating any story adding an extra state to Chetan Bhagat’s 2 states. Well, this ought be told as story but a real story of bicycle expedition of 3 people across 3 states, 3 reserve forests, numerous villages and meeting whole lot of new people with varied experiences. 

After my wrist injury recovery in May, I was hardly riding the cycle with a fear of hurting it more. I slowly started to get back to riding to office with to and fro of around 24 kms. Initially bit uncomfortable, after few the rides I started to feel better. I was now riding the cycle on alternative days. To take ahead to longer rides, I decided to use the public holiday on 29^th July for long ride. Accompanied by my office colleague, we rode to ChikkThirupathi and back, around 80kms distance. Ride felt good in terms of my energy and also my wrist. Same day I decided to call my regular cycling partner Anup about long ride plan between 15^th August to 17^th August, as usual, he was ready without even convincing him. Now planning was on me. This time I wanted to ride more and less of the sightseeing stuff, ooty was one of the options, but as it would be a long weekend, it will be heavily crowded. Then came the idea of circuit, not riding back the same way we rode. Decided to turn towards Wayanad after Bandipur and then head towards Nagarhole forest and then return to Mysore through HD Kote route. So, final route came something like the one below, looks to me like Srilankan landscape route.

Map below:

Cycling route

Anup was ready but concern of wild animals through Bandipur/Nagarhole kept him rethinking about the route. But to my rescue , I saw a blog written last year about similar route that cleared most of our doubts about the route and wild animals. I will write a brief write up just about the route, permission and about wild animals on this route. Next person showed interest was Irfan, you will soon see these guys in photos. Irfan borrowed his friends cycle and we are all set.

Day 1:

We started on 15^th Morning around 3 am towards Shanthi nagar bus stand, after enquiring about bus to Mysore, we got to know it was better to start from Satellite bus stand, we rode around 10kms to reach the Mysore satellite bus stand. After a brief negotiation about fare to our luggage, which we eventually settled at 100 rs per cycle, we boarded the bus and then it was time for good sleep at least for next couple of hours. After reaching Mysore around 7.30 am, got fresh and had breakfast. So finally we are all set to begin our ride, long and adventurous. We hi-five'd and took some selfies and started our ride to stop right in front of Mysore palace. Took some snaps there with tri-color on our 68^th Independence day, what a moment!!. We rode till Najangud, refueled ourselves. To my surprise it was pretty sunny, I expected rain along the way but it was all hot, pretty damn hot. Reached Gundlupet and stopped for the lunch. Surprised to meet few of Irfan’s colleagues who were going to Masinagudi, it was also our destination for the day.  Entering Bandipur Tiger reserve was amazing, I was still hoping to spot some wild animals with equal amount of fear to face them on our cycles. Turns out we landed again in human jungle, lot of people occupied the resorts and too many vehicles were annoying. We continued to reached our planned destination, when police at TN check post stopped us entering Madhumalai forest on cycles. With no hope to convince him, we hired a jeep and boarded all cycles till Teppakadu and thought continue to Masinagudi by cycle. To our dismay, all resorts were full and locals suggested us to reach Gudalur, where we could find a decent lodge. With no option left, we took the jeep further to Gudalur, TN. With sumptuous dinner and brief walk, we were dead on bed. First day ride was pretty decent we covered around 105 kms from Mysore with 15 kms through Jeep to Gudulur. Overall ride distance for the day was 100kms.

Happy Independence Day !!Start from magnificent Mysore Palace [L-R] Anup, me & Irfan

Day 2:

Uppam was our serving for the breakfast from a local restaurant, relishing it was. By now locals started gazing us with lot of puzzled and inquisitive faces. Day 2 plan was to reach Padiri forest or Mananthvady and based on the suggestions by locals we thought to take our decision of further ride or to staying back. This stretch was challenging with few serious climbs till Devarshola, however climbs continued further but with relatively lesser altitude. More fun involved in the descent, we sped on the cycles reaching beyond 50kmph. Reached Sulthan Bathery by lunch time, by now we entered 3^rd State Kerala. we met few people who riding 200/300 km brevet organized by Cochin Cycling Club. Met Biju Jacob one of the organizer for the race, he suggested us to follow brevet route which is more scenic then usual high way route. Due to time constraint we decided to continue by same route we planned which would reduce 15 kms of cycling effort, if we would have took the brevet route. Reached Mananthvady, which was a decent city. We settled for a  lodge inside the market. Day 2 ride was pretty much satisfying except I missed to take my cycle on ferry on the brevet route, I had once carryed my bike on a ferry. Day 2 ride around 90 kms, met few cyclists, discussed few things with them and we were cyclobro’s.

   

Bandipur entrance

@Tamilnadu-Kerala border

Day 3:

Again we were back to riding in the forest, but this time we were skeptic and had to be clear before entering the forest. We reached Bavali and went to Nagarhole Checkpost, now we could speak in our language, we were back to Karnataka territory. Forest officer assured us of no harm riding the cycles through forest with few safety measures of not stopping in between and also following any vehicle in case wild animals appear. Determined to cross the forest and witness some wild animals, we started together maintaining same pace with each other. Spotted deer, missed to see Elephant which had crossed the road few minutes before we arrived. Heard the sounds made by elephants at distance. Ride was unforgettable. But soon we were out of the forest reserve to face the sun again. After riding for couple of hours we realized that it was too much of heat and we could get ourselves dehydrated. We managed to get a goods auto to carry our cycles to Mysore which was about 35/40 kms. Driver agreed to transport the cycles and us 5 kms from Mysore. Next 2 hours was pleasant not riding in a very hot environment. We arrived to Mysore and rode another 5 kms to bus station, with few finishing photo clicks in front of Mysore palace. With a satisfying cycling of around 270 kms, we are now back, back with good memories and happy about the energy with put it in. We can proudly say ‘We burnt no PETROL’. 

... hell yeah !!

Trio on finishing the expedition

Keep Cycling

I run, now I cycle too

[21-April-2013]

I had thoughts of buying a cycle for some time now, but I was not sure on maintaining it. This thought kept me more puzzled whether to buy cycle or not. These days especially starting with this year, I have been cycling around, with couple of duathlons and major adventure event in February Enduro3 in which I cycled around 75kms. It was simple decision to make and buy the cycle. With budget around 11k to 12k I felt this would not put big hole in my pocket. After some research and inquiry, I had brought down my options to Hercules and LA-Sovereign. Hercules is well established cycle brand in India and very popular brand and this was safe bet, but somehow I had my reservations on this, not sure why but I wanted to go for other brands and thought of taking my chances. Extending budget beyond 15k or close to 20k was not an option for me. Well, I thought good cycle with better price tag would always perform well, how about making an average cycle to outperform and meet all your expectations. Cyclists owning Trek, Marida, etc please don’t curse me for this.

I browsed for LA-Sovereign and found the features and price fit my needs. LA-Sovereign wave was priced at 11,190 rupees. A descent bike, good color , Thai-India collaborative brand. Last Saturday I went to check the bike at RR Cycles at Madivala. I asked for LA-Sovereign wave alloy and found the cycle very good looking. I checked the reviews with the shop owners which he said is descent one, feature which stand out in this bike is the front disc, wheel rim size which 27.5 in this cycle for 12k range. Later I googled to check the reviews in the net, to my surprise there were no reviews available for this bike except it was mentioned in some blogs, 27.5er or commonly called 650B bikes are intermediate of 26er and 29er bikes and had a good review. Now let me try this one. I spoke to few of my friends who own cycles, they too were not heard of this brand much. So now it was just a matter of gut feeling to go with this bike. Next day I visited the cycle shop, with few more tests and comprehensions, finally I decided to take chances and bet on LA-Sovereign wave 650b. Cycle came along with side stand, dealer fitted me water bottle cage and bell. I bought the lock, in all paid 11,400 /- rupees. They offered two months of service on the bike. I rode the bike back to my room that was around 15kms. It was a good ride but I had few hiccups during the gear change and also wheels were wobbling. No presumption yet, I will put up a good review, after good long ride in 2-3 months from now. For now, I welcome new member to my family LA-Sovereign Wave 650b.

Few pics here

At RR Cycles, Madivala

With LA-Sovereign Wave 650b

Balachandra with bike

LA-Sovereign Wave 650b

Happy Cycling !!