Savandurga road trip

Friday evening was full of surprises. A 'no' to road trip came 10 hours after Vikram showed his willingness to go. Not being able to rope in enough people (only Praddy, Gogo n I were game), I decided to drop my bike for servicing in the evening itself and avoid waking up early Saturday morning for the same.  In between, there was a yes followed by a no 30 minutes later from Vikram. We get a call from Vikram and get a final yes at 10pm.  So road trip's on though I'm cursing Vikram for his varying stand which led to losing my bike for the trip.

Next day, we're in for another surprise when Sid C decides to come and bring along his Thunderbird, his appetite and his charm (yes, I did catch some chicks checking him out at the Mysore highway CCD #2).

So we are 6 guys (praddy, Vikram, Bugga, SidC, Gaurav & me) and 4 mean machines- Praddy's 200 Pulsar, SidC's RE Thunderbird and the two Avengers (Vikram and Gaurav's). 

We all head to the Bangalore NICE road which is the baap of speeding. For a total 11 bucks toll, each of the bikes sped like crazy. In fact there was nothing else to do on that empty road and whatever disgust I had for missing out my bike was obliterated by the majestic sight of 2 Avengers, a Pulsar 200 and the thump of the Thunderbird. Contentment, happiness, thrill are some words I'd like to put in at this point. Mysore highway was fun again. Mr. Gogo does a Gogo- his mind is in a meditation trance of some sort where the only objective of life is speeding. The minute facts that where our destination is, that we are supposed to turn right from Ramanagar elude him. Fortunately he is stuck at the only signal at the Mysore road and thanks to some kick ass driving by SidC; we manage to catch him and I shout to him just before he is about to take off again and miss the last chance to get off the highway.

Thereafter I take over Gogo's Avenger for a ride through hilly terrain. It is difficult to explain but these are the kinds of road I often talk about- where riding is a spiritually enriching experience. We even visited a camp for Yahoo guys on the way. Finally we see the mountain made of a single rock. That's definitely the first time I saw such a thing. After confirming with people around if this is the place that we had planned to visit, we parked our bikes in the open ground. We bid a goodbye to the fleet and start our ascend on the rock and my- it is steep! After 30 minutes of climbing our chhotu guide announces that we are to climb like this for another hour, SidC and Gogo decide to call it off. Bugga, Vikram, Praddy n I continue climbing. After around 1.5 hours we were still climbing, confirming that the chotu's claim of 1 hour was a bluff. Every new peak that we expected to be our final destination showed a higher peak which would become our next goal. The number of breaks increased as the climb became more steep. The wind was cool and strong, often disbalancing us while climbing. The beauty of the pure upper winds, the view and the serenity Ahh... When we were on the verge of losing hope, Bugga started singing Himesh tracks and yes- that kept us going. Gasping for breath but singing..

At the top, neither words, nor pictures can describe the beauty. Hence I cannot write much but I do urge everyone to experience it if you can. Even the pictures cannot do justice to the view we had.

We started descending at quite a fast rate and it did take a toll on our knees. Uniting with the rest, we decided to top the day with a hearty meal. We head to the Mysore highway. Praddy n Gogo decide to have a race. While coming, I had played a spoilsport by not going above 70kmph on the hilly roads. These two however were again in that trance state mentioned sometime back. 80-90 were the average speeds in this terrain with a one time drag to 100kmph by the two. The petrified pillions- Bugga n me could do little but shiver in fear. We reached the highway and waited for Sid C and Vikram. Upon consultation, it was decided to head 20km+ wrong way to McD's. And it was worth it since we all were lovin it. I drove the Pulsar 200 and the Thunderbird :). After hogging and having a high profile discussion on whether we should stop at CCD or Barista later, we decide to head for the CCD. Bugga, keeping with his sleeping legend had a short nap here. No prizes for guessing who the chicks were checking out. In fact, it went to such extents that some chicks who saw us at McDonalds followed us here!!

Awesome trip- awesome roads, awesome bikes and of course the fun-nest people made sure that the memories of this trip will never fade.