Manchanabele Dam

Date: 4 February 2017

Total distance: 88 Kilometers

Start Time: 6:00 am

Return Time:  12:30 pm

With: Dennis Nicholas

Altitude Profile:
Koramangala – Manchanabele Dam - Koramangala

It was just 4 days since I had returned from the Kodai-Munnar-Kochi cycle trip. However, 4 days without any riding of substance was hitting me. I wanted to get back on the road and at the same time I knew that I had not recovered sufficiently from the ride and therefore did not want to push too hard. I wanted it to be a relaxed ride without any climbing just to get the body going. The possible locations were Chikka Tirupathi and Manchanabele. I checked on the group if anyone would join and did not get any response. I checked with Dennis if he wanted to ride and he was game. I told him that it would be a relaxed ride and that we should start at 5:00 am and that we would be back by 11:30 am. We decided to meet at Hudson circle at 5:00 am.

As has been the trend lately, I missed the alarm. I woke up at 5:15 am and saw the notification that I had missed the alarm. I had received a message from Dennis stating that he would be at Hudson Circle at 5:20 am. I called him, but he did not answer. I started getting ready, and received a call from Dennis in 5 minutes. He confirmed that he had not left as yet and that he would leave after sometime as I was delayed. We decided to meet at Hudson Circle at 6:00 am. I got ready and was able to leave home only at 6:00 am. I reached Forum Mall and got to know that the road is closed as there was a festival in Adugodi. I had to circle round and ride through Diary Circle, Wilson Garden and then got to Hudson Circle. It was 6:15 am and Dennis was already waiting for me.

We chatted a bit and then got started on the ride. We were on the Sirsi circle flyover in no time and as soon as we crossed the flyover the pace of the ride increased. We navigated past the bad roads in Bangalore, not that I was concerned since I was riding the MTB. We chatted about riding and also about the recent trip and before we knew it we had made our way past Kengeri. I checked with Dennis if he was hungry and as he confirmed that he was fine to ride, we continued and took the turn towards the Big Banyan Tree. The climb had started and the pace dropped a bit. This was Dennis's first long ride and he was doing fine till the climb started. Just as we were getting close to the Big Banyan Tree he was beginning to tire. We continued till the Big Banyan Tree and then stopped to rest.

A 15 minute break and we were back on the saddle. Rolling terrain is what was ahead, however with the Sun coming out it was not easy riding. Dennis was soldiering on and rode steadily. The landscape was largely dry and the truck traffic has increased exponentially which resulted in the ride not being very pleasant. We ate a lot of dust and finally made it to the Manchanabele Dam.

The view was hazy and I could not see the Savandurga hill. Although the dam did have water, the Sun combined with the hazy view did not look very appealing. I have liked the place better on my previous visits and was disappointed on this visit.

We took a 30 minute break before we resumed the ride. The ride from Manchananbele to Big Banyan Tree was slow as it involved a lot of climbing. I told Dennis that this was only the beginning and the ride into Bangalore would involve a lot of climbing, however we had a break to look forward to. We took a quick rest stop before getting to Big Banyan Tree and then rode all the way to Mysore Road and within a kilometer stopped to have breakfast.

We had a relaxed breakfast and then got back on the saddle. There was a lot of traffic on Mysore Road, however we were able to ride in single file on the left of the road. However, when we entered the city limits we were welcomed by traffic jams. We had to push the cycle on the foot path near Raja Rajeshwari Nagar to make a bit of a headway in the traffic. After we crossed the signal at this junction we were able to ride for the rest of the journey albeit slowly. We got to the Sirsi Flyover and Dennis was fine with riding on the flyover rather than under it. When we crossed the flyover we knew that the ride was as good as done as there was no climbing remaining. We rode together till MG Road where we parted to get home.