94) Melukote & Tonnur Kere: (23/5/2014)

Place: Melukote & Tonnur Lake

Distance: 150 x 2 = 300kms

Directions: Bangalore - Maddur - Mandya - Melukote - Pandavpura - Tonnur Lake

Participants: Chethan (Zethu) > Karthik (Sp)

Bikes: Pulsar

Previous Chapter: Kabbaldurga Trek

IN LESS THAN 50 WORDS:

Alright, this was one of the catching up trips we had to have under our belt for the smooth functioning of the club. Ride to Melukote, like always was smooth & the peaceful Tonnur lake to finish off made this chapter a memorable one!!

INTRO & PLAN:

It had been about 2 months since our previous chapter! Even though we don’t keep targets & all, once the duration for non-trip is more than 3 weeks the lag begins. So, as soon as I returned I called up Zethu asked him as to when he was comfortable to travel. After a long discussion both of us decided to take leave from our respective workplaces and head out! The place now, yeah this is funny , we had three places on our minds – Hogennekkal, Balmuri & Mahadevpura!

TIME: 22:00 (22/5/2014)

ASSEMBLE & LEAVE:

Yeah woke up at 05:00, did a few push-ups & sit-ups, had a sip of coffee & was all set to go! We had decided we both would go on my bike, so I took off from my place at around 06:15 & rode on ORR & reached Zethu’s place at 07:00. Then we played Rock, Paper & Scissors to take a call on the place. Finally guess which was the place??  (Oh Crap! Wait, the article’s heading I’ve already typed.. basically it was neither rock, nor paper or scissor it was Edward scissor hands :P)

TIME: 07:30

 

RIDE 1: (Bangalore – Bidadi – Maddur – Mandya - Melukote)

Okay, this was a good 150kms stretch, mostly on the butter smooth SH-17. We rode non-stop until Bidadi & pulled over at our regular hotel to munch down on some breakfast. Oh yeah the talking hadn’t begin as of yet :P

TIME: 08:00

As we left Bidadi, firstly I spotted our hotel Vision, where all of these adventures began for the very first time way back in Nov, 2009! Then we started filling each other on the happenings of the past. We pulled over a couple of times for tea. It was not long before we reached Mandya where we took a right deviation and entered into the peaceful country roads!

Trust me, the roads to Melukote are pure bliss to ride upon. Surface wise they’re excellent & ambience wise they’re heavenly. We spoke about all sorts of shit like music, bands, college life, lecturers, (I wouldn’t mind picking names of people who we swore at Haha!! :P)

  

We did make a couple of pull overs just to sit on the road & admire the greenery surrounding us. We enjoyed the very act of breathing I must say, the freshness of the air was something we weren’t use to thanks to the shitty cities! Anyway gliding along the beautiful curves at a slow pace we reached Melukote.

TIME: 11:30

MELUKOTE:

We parked our bikes, visited the Kalyani Pond first. Then we decided not to visit the temple, but to head out to our regular peace spot and crash under the shade of the trees for a few hours. Oh yes, like said it was peaceful alright! We threw down our bags & pullovers and began to explore the place a little. 

 

Then we sat down speaking about where the club was heading and also about the much awaited 100^th trip. We took a call and decided it shouldn’t be too big or too small, but it should be something totally different (What do you think happened?)  After this we crashed looking into the sky through the veil of branches and leaves, listening to the rustling of the leaves we drifted away into deep sleep! (Shit was real trippy man!) We awoke after 1.5 hours or so. The clock had struck 13:30, the breeze was still pleasant. We felt

totally afresh after the brilliant nap. With a freshened up mind, we decided to hit Tonnur Kere as well.

TIME:13:45

  

RIDE 2: (Melukote – Tonnur Kere)

 This was hardly a 10-15kms ride. After bidding adieu to Melukote, we rode abck to Pandavpura from there on asking for directions (& not stealing sugarcanes this time :P) we cruised along to reach the peaceful lake!

TIME: 14:00

TONNUR KERE:

Ah, like always she looked B.E.A utiful! The conditions were cool & breezy, so we decided to trek up the hillock and settle down peacefully on top of the hill. The climb to the top took us only 15mins. Once we reached the top, we just found a nice peaceful spot. We sat down starting at the glittering waters and kind of hypnotizing ourselves. With the breeze off the lake hitting our faces and the sun’s rays dancing gently on the surface of the water we kinda began to drift. After an hour or so, we decided to leave as our tummies had begun to swear at us.

TIME:15:15

 

RIDE 3: (Tonnur Lake – Srirangapatna – Maddur – Ramnagar – Bangalore)

Okay, this was the last stretch. But it was way, way different from the ones we’d done till date. To start off, we left Tonnur Kere & reached back Srirangapatna where we had a tea break. From here we continued cruising on SH-17, told Zethu I wanted to munch on Dosa as it had been more than 2months.

So we pulled over at Maddur Tiffany’s and belted some Masala Dosa. After this as we were cruising Zethu told he wanted to munch down on some Dhaba food as well. So we pulled over again near a Dhaba near Ramnagar for some snacks & drinks! (point being, we hear each other out!!) We spent about 1.5hours at the Dhaba after which the sun left back towards it home & so did we! Dropped back Zethu at his place, thanked him for making it, and headed back to reach my place.

TIME: 21:00

CONCLUSION:

“I must say, this was one the wonderful trips till date. With a lot of catching up to do, and facing the fact that the number of trips from hence forth would reduce. Coming up with counter plans for such happenings, as to keep the club flying high, then finally drifting into the nature’s beauty and getting high by just breathing was just …”

Until next time Cia \m/

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93) Kabbaldurga Trek: (23/3/2014)

Place: Kabbaldurga Trek

Distance:  100 x 2 = 200kms

Directions: Bangalore – Bidadi – Channpatna - Kabbaldurga

Participants: Deepak (Deefu) > Datta (Dattu) > Karthik  (Sp)

Bikes: Zeus > Pulsar

Previous Visit: Medigeshi Fort Trek.

IN LESS THAN 50 WORDS:

It had been more than a month since our last visit to Medigeshi Fort. So uh, yeah had lost touch of roads slightly, but the very same fact made us more eager to hit back on it! This trip was one of the standard ones that we hit often to shake back the clan into its form.

INTRO & PLAN:

Okay, had returned back to Bangalore after a month or so. So wanted to get the grip back on the roads and places and more importantly wanted to see how my body had been holding up with all these breaks. The only way to find that out was to push myself to the edge! So after speaking to the Deefu & Dattu, a ride + trek was planned to Kabbaldurga. Oh yeah, not to speak one of my favourites around Bangalore.

TIME: 22:00 (22/3/2015)

ASSEMBLE & LEAVE:

Oh yeah woke up at 05:00, did a few push-ups & sit-ups, had a sip of coffee & was all set to go! The meet up was scheduled at my place at 06:30. So went down, wiped my bike and vroomed it a little and was all set to go. After about an hour of looking into the sky & scratching my head the two showed up, blaming each other for the delay haha! After having a good laugh we departed Bangalore.

TIME: 07:30

  

RIDE 1: (Bangalore – Bidadi – Channpatna – Kabbaldurga)

So uh, this was roughly a 100kms stretch. The first 60km being on our butter smooth home run – Mysore Road, the rest of it being on the beautiful country roads. As we left, the sun rose but as the air was still cold we decided to ride non-stop until Bidadi. After reaching Bidadi we decided to pull over for breakfast at our regular hotel to munch on some tasty breakfast!

TIME: 08:15

Okay with our tummies quietened, we rode nonstop until Channpatna and took a left deviation to leave behind the hot SH-17 and we entered the cool country roads. The ride in this stretch was awesome like always. Huge trees on both sides of the roads, fresh air hitting our faces as we glided on! Once we got the first glimpse of the hillock we pulled over and just stared at her for long. Trust every time, every single time, I shiver looking at her from the same view point. After the break we moved on to enter the town. We parked our bike’s and with the mountain goat’s spirit wide awake within us, it was time for some conquering!

TIME: 10:15

  

ASCENSION:

The ascension was a smooth one, I must say. See the thing was, time was not at all a criteria. We wanted to check where we stood on our energy levels after this long break we had taken. But yeah, we took 90min flat, no shit huh?

By now guess we all know what the stretches are, but for new comers, here goes:

i) Initial Stretch

ii) 3-Point Stretch

iii) Viper Stretch

iv) Final Stretch

Keep up with here now!

  

i) Initial Stretch:

Ok, like always, this is the stretch where we mess up haha! No matter how many times, trust me.. always we miss out. This time was no different, so we decided to keep going through the shrubs & bushes until we hit rock surface then we go up :P

ii) 3 Point Stretch:

Okay, once we found our way around and reached the 3 Pointer, we knew this would be ‘the’ test of our stamina and would clearly give us where we stood on our energy levels. Took a deep breath and turned ourselves into monitor lizards and started ascending the hillock even though the surface was blazing hot!  Once we were  done with this stretch, we didn’t allow our adrenaline to carry us away. We decided to rest for 20-30mins and then move on.

   

iii) Viper Stretch:

 With Dattu filling us on his side of life during the past month (trust me it was entertaining!:P) we rested on green grass. After this we took on the viper stretch. This was more or less pretty easy, guiding our way through the snake’ s backbone we made it to the final stretch.

  

iv) Final Stretch:

Trust me, this stretch now is pretty okay to look at, with all the steps, railings & shit. First time I had come, scary it was! But with all this steps and railing, we knew our knees would take a beating. And the exact thing happened. But anyway we reached the top.

TIME: 11:45

TOP:

As it was a Sunday, it was little crowded (There cannot be a place where many people and i exist at one moment – My own Certainty principle :P) So made our way quick through both the temples and showed our respect to the place. And finally went and stood at the brink of the hillock overlooking and enjoying the scenic view.

TIME: 12:30

DESCENSION:

We took about 45mins to descend the hillock. It was easy going, but we took care to mind each and every step. A slip in mind would be a slip to death! (Huh, sounds neat right :P) The top two stretches were completed with less effort. During these two stretches we gave away our water bottles and choco’s to people who were climbing up. Then we made our way through the 3 Pointer with ease. Once we reached flat ground we allowed out feet to pretty much take us in auto mode to the town where we belted 3-4 coconuts. Before leaving the town, we had one last look at the magnificent hillock.

TIME: 13:15

RIDE 2: (Kabbladurga – Channpatna – Bidadi – Bangalore)

Okay, this was a 100km ride back with a break for lunch in between We rode back non-stop from Kabblu to Mysore road. As we reached SH-17, our tummies began to grumble & swear at us. So we hit the throttle and cruised down to Manju  Dhaba for some heavy batting.

TIME: 14:15

  

Once we were done with lunch, we burped aloud ( haha, signs of a complete accept huh :P) And a decision was made to ride slowly and not to doze off. We cruised along at a comfortable pace on SH-17 until Kengeri. At Kengeri we pulled over thanked each other for making it and split our ways to reach back home.

TIME: 16:45

Sunday well spent huh, Until next time Ta-da Cia \m/

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