Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Bikers Club - Day Ride to Savandurga

























"The Legend Rocks"

"When you drive the legend, it gives a feeling that you are driving a Bike.
"Make way for the "Bullet"

How it started: The Idea came up in the Parking lot at Basement -2 , where diff. brands of Bikes were parked. Amongst all, were the "Monsters" owned by some Gficians. It seemed that some had the passion of riding "The Bullet" where we came up with an "Intro" meeting. After 2 consecutive meetings, we came up with the idea of having a 1 day ride to Savandurga.

Preparations : Since most of us were new, only 2 were veterans - Rajiv and Bhupinder who donned numbers plates of Delhi and J&K - there "Odometer" reading was more than 40,000 kms. They had covered the inhospitable terrains of "Ladakh" and some of the known highways in India - Delhi,Jaipur, Chandigarh - Kolkata, Chennai and Pondicherry.

Based on the experiences, the 2nd meeting was much focussed on the prepartions and tuning of the Bikes.

Day Ride : Most of the Bikers assembled at Oracle GFIC by 7 am and ready to ride to Savandurga. We had a planned route and break points at regular intervals just to check everyone was at the same pace. Riding from Oracle GFIC to the Mysore Highway was quite interesting when you beat the early morning traffic. Soon, you realise that the Mysore Highway is ready to take you for the ride. The Monsters were ready to action and rock the roads.


After a one hour ride, all bikers stopped for Breakfast and Kadu Mane. It was good intro round at the Breakfast table to know people working at different depts. n diff.shifts .

Soon we headed off to Savandurga taking a deviation from the Highway.

Savandaurga : The total distance from Blr.to Savandurga is approx. 75 kms and we reached early. The drive was amazing since there was a particular stretch where some buzzed off at 100.
We were close to the remains, infact in the region where "Sholay' was shot. Gigantic Rocks, loads of Shrubs and deserted landscape. You really seemed to be chasing Gabbar - said one of my freinds said ,,but not on the horse but on a "Bull". Thanks to Blr. Tourism as roads were well tarred to zoom off,,

We soon hit the entrance of Savandurga, where we had the Photo Shoot for the club. Our Local guide escorted further to the temple and the most daring task we had to do for the day - Trekking to the Hill Top.

Hill Top : When one thinks of the Office elevators - you dont dare to use the stair case, when one thinks of travelling, you dont dare take the local bus, but we were here, where we had dare to Trek for 3 hours.

Some had given hope not more to climb than an hour. But it was fun trekking and hearing about the Bikers in diff. processes. and whose-who at work.

When we reached the Top, a spectacular view. A view that was memorable and worth an hours trek.

Some settled to relax at the Top while Vivek was busy taking shots on his new SLR.

Manish, Rajiv, Bhupinder and Shivananda headed further for a more wide view at the temple top - another hour of Trekking. The wind seemed to kill our energy while trekking as we gasped at regular intervals. We had to crawl over some boulders and slipped down a wee bit as the route was dangerous.

The sight was amazing, got to see the Nandi Bull at Temple Top. From the Hillock, you could see the vast arid land with shrubs covered all over the place.


Our decent was very fast and we met our gang, we soon headed to the base. Going downhill was very painful as the knew were hurting.

It was lunch time and we asked our local guide to escort to a local place. Food was yum at the local Bus Stop - Rice with Sambhar.

We soon zoomed off back home before it could get dark. On the way - we saw the Big Banyan Tree.

Riders :
Rajiv Kumar (CSD)- Blue Electra
Bhupinder ( TP) - Silver Machismo
Ronen (AP) - Red Electra
Shivananda (HR) - Black Electra
Abrar ( OA) - Red Thunderbird
Saurabh ( LAD Consulting) - Silver Machismo

Pillion :
Jared ( OA)
Manish ( TP)
Vivek ( NA Consulting)