Nandi - Bhoganandishwara

Date: 4 August 2018

Total distance: 152 Kilometers

Start Time: 5:45 am

Return Time: 2:30 pm

With: -

Altitude Profile:

Koramangala - Yelahanka - Karahalli - Nandi Hills - Bhoganandishwara Temple - Devanahalli - Koramangala

A week had passed by and I was not  very keen on riding this weekend. I was in the lazy mode and did not prep the cycle before going to bed. It was only when I woke up early that I decided to go for a ride. There was no location that I had planned and as such the only thing that I wanted to avoid was riding on Kanakpura Road as I had ridden on it the last weekend. After a small deliberation, I decided to ride to Nandi Hills as it had been a while since I had ridden to Nandi.

Location was set, decided to ride the MTB again as I wanted a relaxed seating position, got things ready in which pumping air into the tires was the time consuming activity and also energy sapping as well and was ready to start at 5:45 am.

It was day break and I did not have to use the lights. I started well as I was pedaling steadily on the high gears. This lasted about 30 minutes before I was started shifting gears to ease the pressure on the legs. I opted to ride on the outer ring road rather than through the city, which added a couple of kilometers. It was 6:45 am when I got to the Hebbal flyover and I rode onto the flyover.

While riding the flyover, I decided to ride on the interior roads from Yelahanka rather than ride on the airport road. Got off the flyover and had to back track a little to get into Yelahanka. Rode out of the Yelahanka vicinity before taking the right. The first few kilometers still felt like city limits as it was a bus route and a whole lot of students were waiting for the bus. Took a few kilometers and then got onto empty roads. Although I was passing through villages, it still did not have a very rural feel, with the truck traffic and small factories set up on this route.

Some more kilometers and I passed the Padukone Dravid Centre. A football field was visible to the road and it had a whole of guys having a Saturday morning game. Passed by a whole lot of properties being developed on either side of the road, which gave it a rather city feel. There was a lot of truck traffic as well which did not give this ride a very different feel from the highway.

This route is definitely longer than riding on airport road. Along with it, since it was the first time I kept checking the map on account of which there was loss of time and speed. It took me just over 2 hours to reach the Doddaballapur road and instead of taking the left towards Doddaballapur, I took the right and then an immediate left. This road took me to Karahalli, rather than to the foothill. Since I joined at Karahalli, I had to ride 7 kilometers to get to the foothill and the clock ticked to 8:50 am. I was tempted to start the climb, however, I decided to fuel up before climbing since the legs were hurting a little.

I stopped at Nandi Grand and the service here was rather slow. I had a masala dosa and a fresh lime soda. It took 30 minutes for me to have breakfast and start from the restaurant.

I started the climb at 9:20 am and the start was about me realising that I was still on the high gear and I had to shift down. Since the climb had already started, it took a short distance to build momentum and take the load off before shifting the gears. The initial half kilometer was done and the gradient eased up a little allowing me to get into a rhythm. Riding the MTB I had a lot of gears at my disposal and I kept fidgeting with them since I tried to go up the gears whenever possible and when the gradient increased I kept getting into easier gears. Usually, I get into a low gear and keep a steady pace, today I experimented with riding at a slightly quicker pace when possible. I was doing a decent job and was not feeling too tired as well when I reached the midpoint of the climb. The last couple of kilometers is where the gradient increases and I was in the low gears to get me up to the summit. I got to the top at 10:00 am, still a slow climber.

I did not plan on staying at the top and after the customary photo started the downhill. I was excited to do the downhill, there was not much traffic for a Saturday morning (something that I noticed on the way up) and was looking forward to a quick descent. I overtook one car in the first kilometer and then got stuck behind two more. A learner was driving the car in front and was holding us up badly. He was not ready to give room and being in the hair pins it was rather difficult to get past him. When the opportunity did open up, the car behind him was not allowing me to get through as he would block the road. It was a frustrating descent and I managed to squeeze my way past at the mid-point. It had already killed the downhill experience and now it was just about making the most of what was remaining. I made it to the foothill at 10:20 am.

I did not want to climb the hill again and decided to ride around the hill to Bhoganandishwara Temple. A change from the monotony of climbing or so I thought until I hit a small climb on the road. Further, with road work in progress, the distance of just over a kilometer was rather slow and doing the downhill on loose rocks was pretty scary and I hoped that I would not skid and fortunately nothing untoward occurred. I was back onto the tar road and was speeding downhill when I saw two runners, one of whom was Vijay, my college classmate. Bumping into him after a few months, had met him during the Melukote 300 and then met him today. Had a brief chat, he was on a run and had done 27 kilometers when I met him.

I resumed the ride and just over a kilometer later I was at the temple. Parked the cycle, secured it to the electricity pole and then headed in. Till I was wearing shoes it was an easy walk, when I left the shoes and got onto the granite inside the temple premises, I realised that I had not yet recovered from the fall during the Hogenakkal - Yercaud ride in June first week. Every time I kept the left heel down, it was painful. I limped around the temple premises.

It had been a while since I visited the temple. What used to be an empty place now had a lot of people. It was good to see the carvings on the temple walls and made my way around the temple quickly since I wanted to spend time near the Kalyani (pond). This used to be empty and sitting near the pond and spending a few moments in the silence is rather refreshing. I was in for a surprise when I saw a lot of people already at the pond and what's more it was more like a picnic place and all the talking at the place poured water on my expectation of sitting there and enjoying the silence. I could not spend more than a few minutes there and headed out. The addition other than people at the pond was that there were fish and tortoises in the pond now which is an attraction for the kids.

I got back to the cycle and started the ride at 11:10 am. It was about getting back home, now that the ride did not have anything to look forward to, the interest levels were down. The focus was off the road and the route and now it was about the wind direction. It was rather windy and when I did get onto the airport road, it was a head wind. Riding was slow and laboured.

I was knocking off the kilometers slowly and was getting past the familiar markers on this road. I ran into a water deficit and had to make a stop to refill. It took a while to get off the highway and onto the service road. I was hungry as well, however, as I had reached Yelahanka Air Force base, I assumed that a Pepsi would suffice to keep me going for the remaining 25 kilometers. I refilled water and drank a 200 ml Pepsi and got back on the saddle.

The pace of the ride improved a little post the break. However, entering Bangalore I ran into heavy traffic and this automatically served as rest stops. I was not looking forward to rest stops as I was running low on energy levels and wanted to get home as quickly as possible and eat up. The traffic was frustrating and getting past them was an ordeal. It eased up only when I got near Viveknagar which is just 3 kilometers from home. It was pretty much a ride in traffic on Saturday afternoon through the city. I got home at 2:30 pm, freshened up and then had a large serving of biriyani to whet my appetite.