A Slice Of Life - Part 6

I was riding with a new confidence, I felt as though it was a new me and I was obviously faster. I finally understood the meaning of 'being one with the bike'. We rode towards Bababudangiri through some very scenic roads and reached a guest house which was just before the main village at the top of the hill. We had no expectations at all from the place, but it turned out to be something totally different and the guest house (GH) especially was a 'very' different place. The entire structure had been made of the concrete foundation and they had made the walls of metal sheets which gave it almost a toy house kind of look. Again the accommodation was very cheap at about 400 rupees for 2 rooms. The GH was also set in a very beautiful place and the entire scenery out of the windows took our breath away. We rode into Bababudangiri village only to find that the entire village ran out a few metres after it started!! There were a couple of shops selling outdated stuff and the main attraction was a temple which was said to be attended by both the surrounding Hindu and Muslim population. We had reached bababudangiri in the late evening and we decided that with the fading light, we could not see much of it and decided to retire for the night after having some food from a small eatery in the village. The rooms were extremely cold but we slept like logs.

The next day morning we woke up to bright sunshine and the amazing view again. We decided to bike to the Muthodi Wildlife range and we were told by the caretaker of the guesthouse that our bikes would be allowed only until a particular point after which the forest ranger would take us in further in his Jeep. He also pointed out the cutoff from the main road from which we could reach Muthodi. We set off all excited to go into a forest range.

The approach road to Muthodi was both a bikers dream and nightmare combined in one. The road was still being laid so there were many places where it was just a muddy trail with hairpin curves cut out into the hillside with a drop of a few hundred feet beyond them. We had to be extremely slow and very precise where we placed our bikes on this dirt trail and it took all our powers of concentration to make sure we did not put even a foot wrong. We eventually reached the outskirts of the reserve and here there was a decent road passing through a village where the local village shopping day/farmers market/sanday (Call it what you will) was on in full swing. Now we were all city boys born and bred in cities and we had never seen such a village market before and we were fascinated so see so much of colour and spirit. We decided to stop at the market on the way back from the reserve. On the way, we found a small trail in the muthodi forest range and we rode in it and got some fantastic photos that has sort of in later years stood to bring out the kind of adventure we had. We reached the forest rangers office and found, to our dismay, that the forest ranger was not in town and his assistant could not take us in because the jeep had broken down. So much so for this ride and we turned back slightly disappointed. On the way back, we stopped at the village market and had a whale of a time buying eatables for unheard of prices. The ride up to bababudangiri through the muddy path was relatively uneventful till I on a particularly steep muddy hair pin curve, managed to stall my bike midway through the curve. Danny was right behind me on the slope and he almost stalled his bike too because of me stopping. I somehow managed to get my bike going without sliding backwards and Danny too managed to get up the slope with no harm done.

We reached the GH in Bababudangiri and decided that we were running short on money and had to turn back towards home. We decided to ride till Hassan that night and stay in hassan and celebrate what had been a fantastic holiday and a great adventure. On the way to Hassan, we stopped at Belur to look at the ancient temples and the beautiful carvings. We reached Hassan at about 8 in the evening and found a small motel on the outskirts where we decided to stay for the night. Varun went out and bought some bottles of Beer and I had my first initiation into the world of alcohol. We sang songs and relived the past few days before falling to a deep sleep.

The next morning was cold and slightly foggy and we had to ride about 450 kms in that day, mainly on national highways to reach home. We started off at a brisk pace and soon reached Bangalore, crossing which, we stopped at a small roadside dhabba for lunch. After a good meal, none of us really wanted to ride under the hot afternoon sun but we decided to set off anyway and steadily made progress going back through the places that we had crossed on our forward trip. We crossed Chittoor, crossed the andhra border, went through Vellore and finally rejoined on the Golden quadrilateral, on that magnificent piece of Highway riding towards Chennai,Home.

The End.

Authors Note: I would like to thank danny and varun for their comments on this series and making it easier for me to remember certain events. These 6 parts have brought back fond memories for me and made me relive the period where I discovered the Biker within me. The 4 of us had an absolute ball of a time and I cant wait to go on the next Bike Trip with them. Ladakh, here we come!