I've been on XBHP for long but lurking in the background, finally gathered some grease to join the party, a first post for me.

Bikes: Enfield Electra and CBZ Classic
Riders: Two
Ride Duration: 4 days including stay


I've been hunched over my handles for ten hours and the last four hour in pitch darkness but for the small round-red tail light of the Enfield bullet. My headlight serves more as a cautionary light to vehicles coming in the opposite than guide me across even ten feet. It's like being on a manic ride in a theme park, sudden bright lights, followed by a rush of wind and then sudden darkness. Red and silver spots float around my eyes; little fire flies that die with the first hint of another bright passing light. We grossly underestimated the ride in the dark, made a clerical mistake of choosing a state highway to get to Bangalore from Shimoga, this highway turned out to be a double lane road with trucks and buses hurtling across with blinding high beams and utter callousness towards us nimble two wheelers. Several weeks later, when the euphoria of the ride had died, I looked up the route on Google maps and realized a small detour via Chitradurga would have made our lives a lot easier, it was an additional seventeen kilometers and meant we would have rode the Bangalore-Mumbai Highway back to Bangalore. The difference? Tolled six lane highway, lit up like a Christmas tree all the way to home sweet home with a reduced risk of getting running over and yes, no freakish invisible speed breakers. But the ride was sweet along with learning a ton of lessons.

Learning lessons and drawing parallels, philosophical yes, but those little lessons learnt don't come printed in handbooks, it's on the road you learn and relearn. Ride one to Coorg, learnt never to wear briefs on a long ride, bums will be war torn with red welts and no, Vaseline doesn't help, boxers is the answer and bums are thankful. Lesson two, never carry backpacks, even if it weighs a feather, after sixty miles, that feather will weigh a ton and your shoulders will be screaming sore. Lessons learnt on this ride, never ever ride into the night fatigued. We started from Bangalore on a cool overcast November evening at seven and rode to Hassan, a ride of four hours in the dark, no challenges. But on the return leg, we took this experience as the benchmark and conveniently chose to forget that we had already rode two hundred kilometers for six hours, four hours into the dark and the fatigue checked in and we were in a constant state of panic. Panic of miss judging a corner, panic of going through a pothole and getting irritated with your riding buddy for no apparent season and I was rubbed off when Adrian slowed to a stall and pulled over with an ember from the cigarette in his eye.

We planned to leave at seven from the resort but rode out only at eleven, four hours late, a delay would come back to bite us towards the end of the ride. The night before, we had routed a new route home with the help of the resort manager, he discouraged the route we had chosen and proposed a new one which he was familiar with. It was a brand new route for us, through the mountains and a non-traditional one to reach Shimoga, this guaranteed thin traffic. Though a late start, we were happy that we were well rested when we started the ride. We rode on the way to Kundapura and took a left turn towards Siddapura and that was the last of the traffic we saw for the next 200 kilometers. This second leg of the ride was marvelously beautiful, a snaking road, undulating through the hills and heavy trucks for company. The road cut across uninhabited plains and thick forests, climbed into twists and cut through thin mist on the mountain tops. We stopped often, shooting panoramas of backwaters at lower ground and as we rode higher, we stopped at clearings to see endless valley floors covered in green forests, valleys flush with tiny streams. The ride was slow; we revved and rode mostly in the third gear, waving out to the occasional motorist and truck driver. The prettiness of the place was a little too much to soak in. We whispered at the stops, not wanting to disturb the forest.

We rode through some amazing scenery, one particular section as we slowed across a bridge, we saw an abandoned road enter the backwaters of some unknown dam, we had to pay respects to a long lost road, we took a little detour, went off road for a mile and ended up on the lip of the road where it entered the backwaters. Surrounded by water but the little strip of black, we were good as marooned. We craved a cabana and a beer and we could stay forever. The silence was again stunning; we could hear the wind ripple the lake surface and when we listened long enough we could hear little fish swimming close to the water surface on a shallow end. We just stood and shot a few pictures, hardly speaking but of the little paradise we chanced upon, the next rains would cover this little road in water and it would be lost, we wished the guys were with us and then laughed that the jokers took the bus home. We left forcefully urged by the hands of our watch but left happy, even if we tried we'd not locate the place again, in the middle of nowhere, a slice of life the way it's meant to be. We rode a little faster, we were averaging 20 km per hour and knew we had a long ride ahead, the untouched beauty of the place was ravenous, we wanted to take it all, but we needed to leave too. The terrain was tough and the area is prone to naxals who have made the region their home, we didn't want any chance meetings, as sad the fact was the naxals presence discouraged people to venture on this route and this kept the place pristine, just a nice irony. The road skirted the backwaters of the Tunga dam, all the while cutting through forests with canopies so thick, the light hardly touched the floor. We saw mongooses, kingfishers, monkeys and other small animals. From Thirthalli we raced to Shimoga, we were riding on pure fuel, the bikes on gasoline, we on buttermilk. No lunch breaks for any solid food. A small stop in Shimoga for coffee and we headed out to the highway and never did the thought occur that we should head out to Chitradurga to ride on a national highway.

Thanks for reading.

Cheers,
Ravish