In Delhi, I met a lady called Anita, who had sold her car around 10 years ago and now cycles around instead. She told me that with her work­place and home not too far from each other, she man­ages on two wheels most of the time. And this too, in Delhi!
She said some­thing else that struck […]

A few days ago, a cyclist was turned away from the Leela Hotel’s main gate to a side park­ing lot on the road. He was there to attend a con­fer­ence when his “hum­ble” cycle did not pass the “high secu­rity stan­dards” of the hotel. He refused, of course, (even I would!) the secu­rity guard’s suggestion […]

Day 3: Has­san to Madikeri

A day filled with scenic routes but a lot of climbs and pretty tir­ing too in the end. It turned out to be a long day for me. The best part was early on when we had the Gorur dam stretch opened up for us to cycle on — around 3–4 […]

On Day 1, we made it from Ban­ga­lore to Mysore via the National High­way. It wasn’t the most pleas­ant stretch in terms of traf­fic, but I was just glad that I could get this part over with. With trucks and other high speed vehi­cles all mov­ing at break neck speeds and honk­ing con­tin­u­ously, it’s not really con­ducive to cyclists. But after lunch on the road, we reached our des­ti­na­tion — the com­fort­able Hotel Regaalis and even got some time to take in some sight­see­ing in the evening.

Our des­ti­na­tion: Nandi Hills, located about 60 km north of Ban­ga­lore and about 4800 ft above sea level. On top was Tipu Sultan’s sum­mer retreat and the remains of Tipu’s fort still remain. Tipu’s Drop, a 600 metre high cliff face, where pris­on­ers were hurled down the precipice when the king was really angry. Not […]

900 km, 8 days, 1 ride: TFN 09

Yippee!

The Tour of Nil­giris mean­ders through the famed Blue Moun­tains of South India immers­ing you in the stun­ning land­scape, bio-diversity, cul­ture and her­itage of Kar­nataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

On July 24/25th, we headed out to Coorg and Wayanad with Mud­dy­Boots (a new adven­ture com­pany) for a spice coun­try cycling trail. Here is an account of the trip.