Raid de Cauvery in Cycle !

Its been a while I have blogged as I am forced to take a small hiatus from writing .But certainly a lot is happening in my life in last one month and I have been keeping a little busy these days(finally I have reached a stage in life where I am able to write this).Today only I returned back from a Christmas trip from Gokarna/Karwar and when you have travelled some 1000 odd KMs travelling in last seat of a Tempo Traveller in a span of 3 days, there is very little things you can do but write.But Believe u me, at times it is theraupitic.But this post is not about this trip as I am yet to conjure my thoughts in places which will take some time.

This post in particular is regarding the cycle trip to Cauvery Fishing Camp,situated some 120KM from Bangalore which I took some few weeks back.Perhaps my likening for cycle started when I went to Ladakh last August.There I saw few freaks who were cycling from Manali to Leh(477 Km) and some who were cycling in the highest motorable road in the world from Leh .That time we brushed any remote urge whatsoever there saying it is ony possible by firangs.But at the back of my mind I had a strong inclination of taking such a trip before I leave Oracle(Yes it happend finally! But it will be in different post in details ).I conveyd my plan to Suresh saying , “Abhi nahi to Kabhi nahin”.Finally we fixed a plan as Pratap,Gaurav,Vani and Kapil also hopped in.We researched for shops who rent cycle in Bangalore and found one near my place in J.P.Nagar itself.We bought some Energy Bars, RedBull and Gatorade for the D day.

We had plan of leaving Bangalore at 5 am as we wanted to cover maximum distance before sun rises.But we finally started at 6 am on a Sunday morning and somehow I am very glad about this.We started with full throttle as we crossed first 20KM in no time.Suddenly 110 KM seems very much attainable as I thought of streching our trip for another 40 KM to Shivasamudra.After crossing some 30 KM along the way we took our first break partially thanks to Suresh. It was around 8 am on a rather lazy morning in a small town at the outskirts of Bangalore ,people wake up to a rather subdued metallic sound.Suresh tripped over as he was trying to avoid the bike which came in front of him.There was something funny about the way he tripped as I could not resist my funny bone.After a small break we started again and decided to take breakfast in the next available dhaba in the Road.


(First Break before a placid lake during early morning sunrise)



(Surprisingly racing bikes does have side stand.BTW the leftmost one is not ours).

During this part of the journey it was nothing but urgency of breakfast that was pulling us all as I dropped my Shivasamudra plan gradually.But this breakfast juntion didn’t came soon as we crossed Kanakpura situated around 45KM from Bangalore.Finally after cycling for another 20 odd KM we stopped at a local theka where we took our much needed breakfast.Here we refueled ourselves with RedBull ,Gatorade ,local Dosa and Choclates.It was not so much the journey but the cycle seat which was bugging us all.I couldnot understand the reason behind making such a narrow cycle seat.It was our bums that on the saddle which was paining as we were paddling through the journey.Somehow I rememberd Saif Ali Khan sitting on top of the pillow in DCH and could understand the motivation behind doing that.
(Another halt before jungle section began)

As we were paddling through the journey Jungle section began.This was perhaps the best part of the journey as we were paddling through the road in the middle of Deep Jungle.Trees on the roadside was giving us much needed shade as Sun was blazing in its full glory.Suddenly in the middle of all the twists and turns on the road we again heard a familiar metallic thud.Suresh tipped over again but this time there was no bike which came in front of him.It was rather situational and momentary and he was able to recover within no time.Guess someody said it correctly, ‘Practice makes the man perfect’.Finally after pumping ahead for somemore time we reached Muthathi and could able to see river Cauvery.Seeing the water level of the river we immediatly felt Rafting is not a possiblilty.We reached Cauvery Fishing camp at around 1:30 pm. Finally the pain of exhaution was replaced by joy of accomplishment.It was certainly not an easy task considering we all were novic as far as cycling is concerned.

(Draining off our fatigue at cauvery water)

After spending some in camp we returned back to Muthathi.We crossed the river in Coracle and went to the opposite shore.We took much needed bath in Cauvery as we drained off all our fatigue.We loaded our cycle in Tempo traveller as we returned back to Bangalore by evening.In all it was my first attempt at cycling and I must confess it was a wonderful experiance alltogether.I am pretty much sure there would be many more attempts in years to come and who know you might catch me cycling in Khardungla,the highest motorable pass in the world in Ladakh pretty soon.

Bye for now.Its time for some serious ZZZsssss !

Ciao :)