Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Revisiting Hessarghatta

Few minutes left for the first sunday after getting my Merida...... Thought of revisiting the first ever respectable-distance ride i did, more than 2 yrs ago...... Convinced Pushky to join me on the ride.....

Started off at 5:45 am...... Pushky's "good condition" Hero DTB had a wheel-bend, faulty brakes, a slowly leaking tyre, creaking pedals et al...... But still, he was game for it. (Mind you, he did long distance rides once in a while, with his defintion of long ride until this being ~6km).... We had a pleasant uneventful ride till we reached the completely dried out Hessarghatta lake..... then on to Nrityagram and Taj Kuteeram..... Now the quest was for that "amazing spot" that our gang discovered on the earlier ride..... The open meadow where one could see the horizon..... The most scenic stretch of the Bangalore Ultra..... Searched around for it, recollecting vague memories......


......Went all around on the rich red mud roads in search of the place...... And in the process, lost Pushky...... I search frantically, racing through every fork of the bumpy trail roads that he could have possibly taken..... I experienced moments of flight, when the bumps sent me soaring!..... I searched, racing ups n downs alike at ~30kmph...... Knowing the speed limitations of his "good condition" bike, i did not have to do more than ~4km of searching, until finally we found each other at the "amazing spot"...... A few snacks, coffees and teas at a nearby petty-shop later, we headed to Bangalore..... in the wrong direction!.... Retraced our paths..... were heading back the way we originally came from.....


.... kkkkhhhhhh..... crash!!!.... Yes, i fell down.... Owing to cellphone in left hand and right hand clutching font brake harder than necessary.... Bruises at several places.... A brown-ed KTM T-shirt.... And an injured thigh muscle.... Rushed (read hi-speed-limp) to the Taj nearby for cleaning up the bruises!.... Could still pedal flat and low-grade ups, thanks to endorphins i guess..... Had amazing sweet jackfruit (from an over-generous vendor who kept on giving more n more without asking for more cash).... Then finally reached NCBS at last.

Total distance covered: 64 km (including 15-20k of roaming around Hessarghatta)
Total time: 6 hrs including lot of timepass!

important consequence: Added one zero to the right, in Pushky's definition of a long ride, which he managed without incident on his "good condition" bike, albeit at a slow pace.


Current mood: Waiting to do another long ride
Currently listening to: Sounds of UT2004 music recverberating through the lab!

1 comment:

Hitesh mamgain said...

Hi Sudhir ... Thanks for the great description of the Hessargatta ride, we did this last sunday. It was very nice and not at all exhausting.....