More cycling adventures!

December 8th, 2008  |  Published in Adventure, Living, Personal  |  21 Comments

When I finally learnt how to cycle prop­erly at the begin­ning of this year, I didn’t think I’d be sign­ing up for a week long cycling trip. But I did : so here I am!

A few weeks ago, I went on my first long cycling trip to a place called Chik­tiru­pati. And of course, despite my valiant efforts, the anti-climax was that I was put in a rick and sent back home on the way back.

This time around, I was deter­mined to make it through. Anil (soon to be TFN par­tic­i­pant!), who sug­gested the des­ti­na­tion for Sun­day, bor­rowed a really nice Fuji Crosstown bike for me. And a lovely bike it turned out to be : really smooth and light and I enjoyed rid­ing it. We set off in the morn­ing around 7 am from the Wipro cam­pus : Anil, Man­jula, Sandeep and I. Sud­hir was sup­posed to join in, but dropped out.

There was a thick cover of mist as we started off and I was hop­ing it would last for the morn­ing as it was really pleas­ant. But after an hour or so, the skies cleared and the sun came out in full glory. Our des­ti­na­tion was Jain Farms in Bagalur in Tamil Nadu. We crossed the bor­der some­where after Sar­japur and then crossed over to TN : the area marked by a small bridge.

The ride was pleas­ant and there were sev­eral ups and downs on the way but I felt quite fine unlike the last expe­ri­ence. The gears on the bike came in handy too as the uphills were much eas­ier on the muscles.

From Bagalur town, the Jain farms prop­erty is around 2–3 kms away. We reached the place before 10 am and then dived straight into a very well deserved break­fast of idlis, dosas and upma. We had ped­aled a good 25k from Bangalore.

We hung around for a while at the farm enjoy­ing the space and seren­ity of the prop­erty. Sev­eral peo­ple have devel­oped their plots there and we went around the place admir­ing other people’s houses. Man­jula nearly got out her cheque book to buy a plot there but then real­ized that she hadn’t car­ried it with her.

It was nearly noon by the time we got back on the bikes for the ride back. Man­jula packed her cycle in her car (which she had sent ahead to Bagalur) and went back. Anil (who’s prepar­ing for TFN) decided that he would try and cover as much ground as pos­si­ble back to Ban­ga­lore and ped­aled back at the speed of light. We decided to take it easy on the ride back : not that I could have gone any faster!

If not for the sun, it would have been a most pleas­ant ride — the scenery was lovely : yel­low fields around and blue skies all around. But the after­noon sun was hot and I felt I was get­ting roasted under it. The last 5 kms or so was espe­cially painful with the sun and also some pain I had devel­oped in legs. But… this time I was deter­mined to finish!

We stopped wher­ever we found shade, or nariyal paani and then again for choco­lates and egg puff some­where near Sarjapur.

Around 3 hours later, we were back where we started. We had a nice and sat­is­fy­ing lunch of Maggi noo­dles (they tasted good!), thanks to a very hos­pitable Aqua whose house was con­ve­niently on the way.

A great ride though I did feel the strain after 45kms or so, but at least it was much bet­ter than my first attempt.

But I’m a lit­tle more geared up and ready for my upcom­ing week long cycling trip! Goa, here I come :-)

Responses

1. Venky Krishnamoorthy says:
   

   December 9th, 2008 at 12:52 am (#)

   Cycling is fun; you have to be sen­si­tive about your back. Remem­ber to wear a hel­met, atleast.

2. Shreelesh Kumar says:
   

   December 9th, 2008 at 7:32 am (#)

   Your last cycling post got me back to at least think­ing about buy­ing one and get­ting back to cycling. But then I should first be get­ting back to pho­tog­ra­phy. Have been stum­bling through cycling sites. Found this car­toon strip. Inter­est­ing sto­ry­line if you start read­ing from the beginning.

   http://yehudamoon.com/index.php?date=2008–01-22

   Enjoy Goa.

3. Shyam says:
   

   December 9th, 2008 at 9:27 am (#)

   Goa ? Decem­ber 20th ? Ah nice ;-)

   Shyam

4. Devakishor says:
   

   December 9th, 2008 at 9:45 am (#)

   I just bought a Trek 3700 a week back and have been cycling every­day. Wish I could go for the Goa bike ride too..:( *jealous*

   Any­ways enjoy the trip..

5. Shrinidhi Hande says:
   

   December 9th, 2008 at 10:37 am (#)

   19 kms is the max I’ve cov­ered by cycle… need to do more…

6. anita says:
   

   December 9th, 2008 at 9:24 pm (#)

   @ venky: yes, i should buy myself a helmet!

   @ shree­lesh: you can also do both ;-)

   @ shyam: we’re in the 15-21st batch! didn’t get seat for the 21st batch!

   @ devak­ishor: wow, i’d like to own that bike! you can join in too, there are a few seats left :-)

   @ shrinidhi: all the best!

7. shub says:
   

   December 10th, 2008 at 9:09 am (#)

   Wow! Cycling to Goa? Awe­some, have a great time :)

8. Anita says:
   

   December 10th, 2008 at 5:17 pm (#)

   @shub: cycling in goa, not to goa! Swalpa dif­fer­ence there!

9. shalini says:
   

   December 10th, 2008 at 7:40 pm (#)

   anita…awesome/ beau­ti­ful pics gal.…and the whole exper­ince you shared sounds fantastic…

   have fun in goa :)

10. Ms.N says:
    

    December 11th, 2008 at 1:18 pm (#)

    Hey Anita! I was just googling arnd for cycling in goa and dropped right here. is ur trip a part of an orga­nized tour? if so could you give me some details? Tx!

    And have a won­der­ful trip!

11. sneha divakar says:
    

    December 12th, 2008 at 2:13 pm (#)

    Hey .. that sounds good… keep up the spirit. I ve been long­ing but haven’t been on a cycling trip since 4th grade :(

12. Aroha says:
    

    December 12th, 2008 at 4:36 pm (#)

    Hi Anita,

    Really enjoy your posts. You have of way of weav­ing words which makes the write-up come alive. Spe­cially enjoyed your account of the cycling trip…

13. anita says:
    

    December 12th, 2008 at 5:28 pm (#)

    @ shalini: thank you!

    @ Ms.N: check out trek2goa.blogspot.com! they have quite a few batches com­ing up though they might be full. but they have can­cel­la­tions if you’re realy keen. it’s organ­ised by the YHAI so it’s very reasonable.

    @ sneha divakar: you should some­time! it’s good fun :-)

    @ Aroha: thanks! and really like your name! i used to have a col­league by your name in aus­tralia years ago and none of us could pro­nounce it very well though!

14. anudivya says:
    

    December 17th, 2008 at 10:57 am (#)

    That is such an amaz­ing pic­ture, I was imme­di­ately drawn to it.

15. Ms.N says:
    

    December 18th, 2008 at 5:47 pm (#)

    hey — thanks… yep, i did land on the cycling web­site, but their batch tim­ings won’t suit. maybe next time!

16. Lubna says:
    

    December 20th, 2008 at 7:10 pm (#)

    Go girl. Wish you and kitty-kitten a great 2009. Must meet in 2009, one of my new year resolutions!

17. Indscribe says:
    

    December 23rd, 2008 at 3:18 am (#)

    Hi,
    I have come to your blog at least after one year. Good to see you blog­ging.…
    :)

18. Anita says:
    

    December 23rd, 2008 at 10:06 pm (#)

    @ anudi­vya: thanks!

    @ Ms.N: you should sometime!

    @ Lubna: absolutely! anytime!

    @ Ind­scribe: yes, still going as you can see :-)

19. praveen kumar.R says:
    

    January 27th, 2009 at 4:15 pm (#)

    how to join you i am inter­ested in cycling very much.

20. manjula says:
    

    February 1st, 2009 at 8:32 pm (#)

    hey anitha, I finally did ! Lets plan another cyc­ing trip..

21. Ulrike Rodrigues says:
    

    July 14th, 2009 at 2:09 am (#)

    As of July 2009, the Goa Cycle Club has 192 mem­bers, three weekly rides and occa­sional cycle expeditions.

    If you’re think­ing of cycling in Goa, con­tact us or bet­ter yet, join a ride!

    Visit our web­site for info and pho­tos, or join our group on Face­book: “Goa Cycle Club”

    http://www.goacycles.org
    http://www.girlgonegoa.wordpress.com

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