Solo Ride to Ganeshgudi (Dandeli)

500kms, 10 hours, awesome roads, monsoon weather, intermittent rains, lush green forests, you and your bike…!

Yes, recently in August I completed my first solo ride to Ganeshgudi (Dandeli) about 500 kms away from home, not planned but spontaneous.Independence day weekend, on a boring Thrusday evening, as I sat in boredom, needing a break, my bike needing a long ride, I just got up and rode to the bunk, filled up the tank, came home and announced I’m riding to Dandeli tomorrow!

Mom asked – how many, I replied alone and she made a quick nod and walked away, I could hear a frown from my dad sitting on the sofa, expected reactions and a witty smile on my face!

5am – I was running around loading bags and tying them on to the rear seat, filling up the bottles, and those last minute rushes! Mom walked out and said ride safe, ride slow, I nod again with a grin :) Of late, my parents are supportive enough as they know my adamant nature and my quest to do things differently. August is peak monsoon month and I was expecting rains to be my companion, I badly needed to soak in the rains as Bangalore was literally dry and hot with no signs of rains at all, a total monsoon failure this year!

Still the early morning truck and cab traffic on Tumkur road, NH4 took me more than an hour to clear and face the open winding highways. Riding on the highway, it feels like home on a bullet. The bird is a real cruiser, you don’t struggle and the bird never goes out of steam however long the ride may be. The little bumps and humps, bad patches and those curves don’t deter the bird and rationally the speed never comes down, frequent use of the clutch not required unless the roads are horrible. The needle on the speedo kept on nearing the 3 digit mark and I had to often control the urge and reduce the speed, yet I maintained a consistent speed of 70+ all through the ride. Incidentally, I took an alternate route to Ganeshgudi through the country side that consumed more time as the roads were pretty bad but was compensated with stunning views providing relief to my sore eyes. Dressed up in camouflaged dress and with the long boots of Woodlands to protect my ankle and riding gloves completing the gear, I was the object of attention for every curious villager and the kids waving at me :) I was so obsessed with riding the bird that I often relented to stop and take out the camera that I now regret (wish I could have captured those stunning country side vistas with my bird in the frame…!). Anyway, there is always a next time ;)

Black clouds were hovering all along but somehow the rains were reluctant to shower on me and they only came down after me covering 450 out of the 500 odd kms on the bird. Once you bypass Dandeli, the vista’s have a dramatic changeover with the teak plantations taking over and forests all along the way replacing the barren lands along the highway. The road to Ganeshgudi after Dandeli is laden with beautiful curves and you ride through the reserve forest all along. I stayed at my regular jaunt, the Old Magazine House campsite run by the Jungle Lodges (www.junglelodges.com) and the staffs were no less happy in welcoming me back again there. I was completely drenched riding the last stretch in rains as I had no intent of stopping too; in fact I was hoping to ride in the rains :) It rained pretty much the entire time I was there and I was happy to just loiter around, eat, sleep and relax without any care in the world.

On the ride back, I started off late due to the rains and yet again I loved the ride in the rains, but the ride was slow as I was busy feasting on the beauty of nature when it rains. Three hours of riding in the rains and next seven without it ensured that I was completely dry by the time I was back home, not an inclination that I had rode in the rains. Stops were few more on the return journey for that hot cup of ‘chai’ to fuel me along and to check the baggage as not to let them fall (the spring chords had lost a little of their elasticity that made the weight of the bags shift to one end). Again, I was so engrossed in the ride that I forgot lunch and only stopped for a late heavy snack at dusk time. The last couple of hours ride was all about riding in the dark and the only thing I felt unsatisfactory on the bird is the weak headlamp, highly insufficient on the highways, barely manageable.

Back home, much to my and parents’ surprise, I was active and showed no signs of fatigue as I always do when back from a trip however comfortable it may be. Signs of comfortness and more biking rides on its way :)

‘bird’ in the article refers to my bike – Royal Enfield Thunderbird, 350cc

Route – Bangalore-Tumkur-Chitradurga-Davanagere-Haveri-Ranebennur-Bankapur (turn left off the highway)-Mundgod-Kalghatgi-Haliyal-Barchi(bypassing Dandeli)-Ganeshgudi

Note: No tolls to be paid for any bikes; the leftmost bay is for the bikes to ride away.

For Biking:

A good riding jacket and a sturdy helmet

Ankle covering boots

Riding Gloves (and knee protectors)

Lots of Water

Sturdy bags / backpacks that sits on the rear seat

Ropes (preferably elastic with hooks) or the typical Saddle bags

Rainwear (if riding in rains/monsoon)

Tool kit (I need to build one now)

All documents and Id cards

Read this post by Sankara to know more here - http://www.beontheroad.com/2012/10/packing-tips-for-your-motorcycle-trip.html

Ride safe! Ride slow! Enjoy your ride!

Bike Ride to Bandipura

 

A famous quote:

“There are two types of people in this world, people who ride motorcycles and people who wish they could ride motorcycles”.

It’s not about speeding above the 3 digit mark, its not riding like there’s no tomorrow, it’s not a speed rush; it’s riding… and riding a bullet. The feel you get while riding a bullet is next to none and definitely can’t be expressed in words here. The engine roars to a start and the thump you feel is something only you can feel :)

Coming back to the post, I wanted to take the bullet out on a long drive (well, this was to be my first long drive on a bike with more than 150cc capacity) and with an eager buddy, Guru, more eager to accompany me on his Rx, we made a quick weekend dash to Bandipura covering about 500kms in 2 days. Incidentally, this was our 2^nd bike ride to Bandipura, the first being a double ride on his Rx sometime back.

http://adventureanytime.blogspot.in/2010/04/bandipura-bike-ride.html

I was a speed fanatic some years ago, but with age come wisdom and with that wisdom, I control the urge to speed and ride within safe limits. The bullet is a rider’s delight, a perfect recipe; it shall behave as you want it to and responds in sync with your pulses. I love riding and that halves the tiredness you feel and the urge to ride keeps you moving.

We left early to reach Bandipura by afternoon, but as it was destined, the Rx had a bad puncture near Bidadi and getting a person to do it took nothing less than 5 hours! A regular stop for Bidadi Thatte Idli became an unending wait for the mechanic to turn up. A rare day, when the mechanic failed to turn up at his regular time and by the time he came, there were about 10 customers from the entire town waiting for him! Argh! From there, there was no stopping me and the bullet and I only stopped next at Mysore city (Columbia Asia hospital circle) and Guru was wondering where I had vanished! Another of my habits is that I never attend calls nor sms while riding unless I feel it may be something important, if so I pull over and take the call. In short, I never realized the vibration of the cell and had completely missed his calls. After a super quick lunch at Kamat café, Mysore, we went ballistic on the road towards Bandipura with the only stop for ATM at Gundlupet. The road all the way from Bangalore to Bandipura is in good condition for 95% of the stretch with a few small bad patches in between.

We took the customary safari bus ride by the department to get the feel of the wild. Being summer, it was dry, hot and humid. The deers, peacocks, jungle fowl, gaurs, and boars were all there and were waiting for the first showers of the season. We stayed at the Vana Vihar (http://www.vanavihar.com/index.html) right opposite to Bandipur Plaza, our regular place of stay. The cottages look good for families to stay and the food is decent enough; don’t expect anything extraordinary, but better than the food at Bandipur Plaza. Next day another customary safari ride (this time a jeep ride with the Jungle lodges) and we got to see a young tusker chipping away at a tree for its bark repeatedly. The weather was dry and so was the forest, forest fires happening in some places, scarcity of water and dry throats, its tough for the animals and the monsoons are eagerly awaited. Very few waterholes survive the summer onslaught and some are filled by the department to beat the heat and the bigger ones shrink to quarter their size during the summer months.

But, it felt good to be back in the forest and enjoying the magpie robin’s show at every nook and corner, on every branch and stump, the peafowl’s in group waiting for the rains, the jungle fowl cuckooing everywhere, the faint alarm calls of the sambar deer or the barking deer far away hinting of a predator movement, the 7 sisters or the jungle babblers babbling all around, the numerous birds who can only be heard but not seen owing to the dense canopy and growth, the fearless wild dogs who run, chase and eventually eat their prey when still alive, those tense moments when you wait without luck for a cat to stride out from the rustling bushes, a monitor lizard on the tree, a star tortoise having lost its way on the jeep track, the hoopoe’s and mynah’s sharing the same trunk of the tree, those elusive raptors soaring high and mighty, the crumbling of branches indicative of a tusker nearby, a ton of black mass revealing itself as a lone gaur giving you a quizzed look, you blink and miss the elusive barking deer; the barks, grunts, and whoops of the silver coated hanuman langur’s high above, the wonderful win-win co-existence of the deer’s and the primates, the sounds of the bamboo cluster or the trees made by the howling winds, the eerie silence you encounter in the middle of a jungle – well, I can just go on and on… :) The joy of being in a forest can only be felt, not said!

After an eventful stay, we were on our way back home on the bike’s and starting mid afternoon, we reached Mysore pretty fast and early maintaining a decent speed and riding single lane. After a heavy lunch, Guru started feeling the tiredness, hampering our ride back and taking numerous breaks to stretch. Finally, reached home before dusk set in and hit the sacks right away recounting each and every moment of the wonderful journey we undertook.

A lean, mean biker and his bikes

Me: I have biked on a Java and a Yezdi, the cult bikes!

Audience: Don’t joke buddy, you rode it or it rode you!

Audience2: (to Audience1) Simple maga, he would have just sat on it and the wind would have carried him forward (both laughing loud)!

Me (to myself): Wait people, my day will come (and I stamp out of the place)!

Well, this is no fiction but my actual story :) Looking at my physical fit and size, I’ve always been on the receiving end of the taunts and jokes but that never bothered me as I always took it sportingly and with each such incident my resolve to prove them wrong got all the more stronger and stronger in my heart and mind. I still lack the physical strength but lack no dearth of skill or confidence to maneuver any bike I ride.

Dad’s LML scooter was the bike that I grew up with during my school days and he would often let me once in a while to handle it. His policy was simple, first learn to remove the scooter from the stand, push it for a distance and come back and put it back on the stand and then only he would let me ride it. (Scooters didn’t have side stands then and bikes were very few and far).

College days saw me looking with envy at each bike/scooter on the road and secretly wishing I would get a chance to ride it! Brother’s TVS XL was my next buddy for some months and each time I rode it, I would go zip, zap, zoom leaving others dumbfounded and some yelling at me :) Friend’s bikes were my next target and often I would request/plead to get a ride on it and one such bike was the cult bike the Yezdi. I still remember the day I took the Yezdi for a round around my college and I still remember even harder, the few people who were laughing at that. The sound, the power, the ride left me drooling over the bike and that bike left a lasting impression on me that I still remember and thanks to my friend for having confidence in me and letting me ride it :)

Again my brothers’ Samurai (the No problem bike), Victor and the Splendor were often taken away by me for a ride and I would wait for every opportunity to go to the market or the grocery shop just to go on a ride on the bike. Early job days when I used to commute by bus, my colleagues bikes enthused and often I would be riding a Fiero or an Rx or an Caliber whenever I could get an opportunity and sometimes I would create opportunities for such rides!

Finally after a couple of years later, I was a proud owner of the Bajaj Discover bike that fit into my modest budget delivering high performance and being good on my wallet too. I still remember the long rides I have been on it and sometimes those hair raising rushes through blink miss gaps and also those pleasant drives and how to forget those scratches and bruises when you are either knocked off or fall in the stupid of fashions. As years passed by, I always nurtured a zeal for those heavy racing bikes but right on top of the wish list were the cult Harley-Davidson cruiser bikes. Owning one of them is like a dream seeing their prices in India, but I still hope to ride one of them. A couple of rides on my friends Royal Enfield (the Indian Harley Davidson I would say) changed my perception that I did not deemed myself fit to ride a bullet.

A seed with the secret desire to own one such bike took more than an year to germinate and overpower my negative thoughts and after a lot of infighting for months as to buy or not, a final decision was made and I just walked into the showroom and booked a Royal Enfield Thunderbird all for myself (probably one of those situations when I listened to my heart rather than my head that is still busy calculating ways to sort out the finances). After six months of a long tedious wait, finally the day came when the bike became a part of me and my life.

I sat on the bike, turned the ignition to on and as soon as the electric starter was depressed, the RE came into life growling dub…dub…dub…dub that still echoes and I hope it remains the same throughout… It’s often said a bullet is just not a bike; it’s a part of your life and this you would realize only when you own one and importantly ride one :)

Lastly, ride safe and ride with the conscious that there are others riders too and all of you have the right of way! Speed but do not over speed, Speed thrills but Kills!

and this to all those who taunt me:

Kuch Toh Log Kahenge

Logon Ka Kaam Hain Kehna

Chhodo Bekaar Ki Baaton Mein

Kahin Beet Na Jaaye Raina

Kuch Toh Log Kahenge

Logon Ka Kaam Hain Kehna! :)

This post is for a contest 'What Motorcycling means to the Indian Motorcyclist' sponsored by Castrol. You can find their FB page here.

Weekend birding around Bannerghatta

Well, a small excursion around the forests of Bannerghatta area avoiding the national park and some birding where we were. I joined Amit and Karthik on this excursion as my team members were preoccupied with other work.

Elephant infested areas and we were lucky not to bump in them but got to see their presence all around. The butterflies were numerous, but I had no patience running behind them :)

A long bike ride after quite some time and the cameras were finally out after nearly a month or so...

Bird checklist:

Tawny Eagle

Brahminy Kite

Black KIte

Oriental Honey Buzzard

Baya Weaver

Little Cormorant

White breasted Kingfisher

Spotted Munia

Racquet tailed Drongo

White bellied Drongo

Spotted Dove

Collared Dove

Greater Coucal

Common Coot

Indian Robin

Magpie Robin

Pied Bushchat

Ashy crowned Sparrow Lark

Barn Swallow

and many more...

Bandipura - A bike ride...

December 2009 - Christmas weekendThis is one weekend when generally we are planned in advance and this time too we had booked the department cottages at Bandipura National Park for a day through Guru in advance, but Nag and Raja dropped out due to personal reasons and only me and guru were ready to go.

The decision was simple, I suggested we ride to Bandipura on his Rx covering Ranganthittu on the way and guru instantly agreed to this. Its always a dream for me to go on long rides on the Rx and now my time had come :) Unless and until you enjoy a bike ride, its difficult to drive doubles on a long drive because once you get uncomfortable your journey gets interrupted with lot of breaks.

We started off early in the day and reached Ranganathittu by 7:30am in the day. We took the boat ride for an hour for birding and we were not dissappointed.

The Pied Kingfishers, Stork billed Kf, Small blue Kf, White breasted Kf, River terns, Stone Plovers, Eurasian Spoonbills, Egrets, Brahminy kite juvenile all made their presence felt. After the customary breakfast at the hotel there we started off towards Bandipura via Mysore through the outer ring road avoiding traffic at Mysuru city, we reached by 1pm steadily driving at around 70 km/hr.

With 2 days to spare and just a day's booking at the dept cottage, we opted to stay at the Bandipur Plaza just outside the National Park premises, we have been here earlier and it was easy getting accomodation there and relatively cheaper than the resorts with the exception of food only. Wildlife is our main objective and intention of being in bandipur and next we had check the alternates for the safari rides into the park. The depat jeeps were not working and the bus rides were full to the brim because of the holiday crowd, finally we had to depend on the private resort, MC Resort for the jeep ride into the park.

Sighting this time was below par with a lone tusker and the herd of bisons being the saving grace along with the normal chital and sambars. The big cats were again elusive this time (no idea when our luck will turn around?) on our many jeep rides into the park area.

Next day we checked into the dept cottage "Papiha" and our first reaction was wow good man, big, spacious and well maintained, we were impressed. Actually the cottage we had booked holds 4 people, but in real sense around 10 people can be accomodated, its that big! Wonder why the dept does not develop these and market them. To get accomodation here, we had to literally struggle and visit the Mysuru forest office numerous times. All the cottages were full according to the Mysuru office, but the reality was that hardly 2-3 of them were full and the others empty... Why are the ordinary people not given preference? Why? Lot of questions and no answers...! The canteen was functional to our luck and the caterers were a new group and the food served was really good and worth for the every penny we paid.

Next day, after the morning safari we checked out and then started our drive back to Bengaluru. The Rx is such a wonderful vehicle, you never realize how far you have travelled, the stress and strain factor is nil and the vehicle never runs out of steam. You, the Rx, its deafening sound and empty roads...

Well a much deserved break and a good bike ride... wishing for more!!!

Care for the nature and the nature cares for you!