Love for riding goes into the cold storage.

September 09, 2017

Love for riding goes into the cold storage:

Got married in 2009 and then responsibilities started piling up. Slowly the fund collected for bike went towards buying a family SUV, investment for future etc etc. and I started sinking deeper and deeper into the fight for survival pushing my passion deeper and deeper into the cold storage.

First Long Ride after a really long time:

One day a cousin of mine gave me a call and said they had formed a group of Wanderers & were planning to do a ride and asked me if I was interested. I had no big bike to do a long ride as the Pulsar 150 was very much being used like a 100cc city bike. I then spoke to a business friend who owned a RE Classic 500 and was planning to sell it. I told him that I would first want to test it and only then I would buy it if it was trouble-free as I had heard a lot of RE Horror stories. The planned ride was Bengaluru-Shettihalli Church Ruins-Agumbe-Gokarna-Bengaluru (About 1150 kms) Night Halts were planned for Agumbe 2 nights and 1 night at Gokarna . What better way to test a bike if it matches your craze! My friend lent me his bike and I set out on my first long Group ride after a really long time.

We were on 11 of us on 4 bikes (A RE Classic 500, CBR250, Pulsar 220NS & Apache RTR 180) and 2 cars (An i10 & a Santro), which followed us with all luggage, tents & sleeping bags. We set out from Bangalore early morning by about 6.

Fog all the way.

Breakfast time Selfie.

Posing after PaetPooja.

By the time we were somewhere 20 kms away from Hassan, the silencer extension just popped off the RE & I was wondering what just happened. Luckily there weren't many vehicles following close so I managed to stop suddenly and take the pipe aside. We then temporarily fixed it with a bucket handle, rode to nearest mechanic at Hassan and got it fixed.

RE Sans Exhaust.

The Popped out Pipe

Then we all traveled and reached Shettihalli Ruins. This was the first time I visited this place. It was just spectacular to watch the water receded & the whole place was looking like a huge playground.

When water recedes

Shettihalli Ruins

Classic 500 among the Ruins.

Classic 500 & CBR 250

Shetthalli Ruins.

Shettihalli Ruins in the background.

Chetan, Abhinav & Me.

Chetan & Abhinav trying burnout.

We then spent a hell lot of time there and then started to our next destination Agumbe.

We reached Agumbe at about 9 pm, had dinner and retired for the day. Here we stayed at 'Dodda Mane' the house where 'Malgudi Days' was shot.

Dinner at 'Dodda Mane' Agumbe

The team outside 'Dodda Mane'.

A few photos of the insides of 'Dodda Mane'

Main Entrance to the 'Dodda Mane'

Wooden pillar at the portico.

Window at the entrance

If at all you forget to pay the bill ;)

Like all early homes, Sunlight falling at the inner portico.

Plants in the inner portico.

The fresh water source

The garden at the back of the house

Banana leaves being readied for serving breakfast at 'Dodda Mane'

The next morning had yummy breakfast served on banana leaves we packed our bags and placed them at our next planned halt where we were supposed to pitch our tents. We then rode to Onake Abbi Falls. The roads from Agumbe to the entrance from where we take a diversion to the falls was awesome with crazy curves and once you take diversion, for about 6 kms there were absolutely no roads. The walk from where park our bikes are about 1.5 kms to the falls.

A beautiful Rainbow

Abbi Falls over my Head.

Yogi & Me.

Trying hard to hide.

We spent a good time there for about 2 hours, on the way back we stopped by at the famous sunset point of Agumbe and then rode back to the place where we pitched our tents.

Me at the sunset point in Agumbe

Sunset at Agumbe

We reached the tenting spot by about 7 and then we had an awesome bonfire party with soft music (as we were in the middle of a jungle)and lots of life stories.

Bonfire Party

Gang of Boys.

We had made plans to ride to the sunrise point early morning to view the sunrise and since like all parties end up with extended sleep, yours truly was the only guy to sleep by 12:30 pm and get up by 5 am. I tried to wake the guys up but was futile so freshened up and was on the bike riding alone to the Kundadri Hills which has a lovely Sunrise point. Kundadri Hill has a 17th century Jain Temple at the top. For more details please visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kundadri .

The moon just before the sunrise atop Kundadri Hill with the Jain temple in the background.

Isn't is a fantastic view?

Moon in the background of the Kundadri Jain temple before the sunrise.

A view just before the sunrise

Peekaboo!!

The sun is up son why aren't you smiling!!

Inside the Jain Temple

Some broken statues

The Kundadri Jain Temple

I spent about an hour exploring the place till the sun rose and then I came back to the parking to see that like very commonly happens with REs, the bike had lost a fuse. Luckily I was warned and so was carrying half a dozen fuses. I reached back to the tenting place to see my groupies just waking up.

A few pics where we pitched tents.