Cycling the 70km Bangalore Harohalli route

Route : Bangalore - Nisarga Layout - Harohalli - Kanakpura - Bangalore

Preparations
After digging into many articles for some of the best cycling routes in Bangalore - i preferred doing the Bangalore - Harohalli route with close proximity to my house in Banerghatta road. I had plans to do the Bangalore Mysore route one way and back on the Volvo, but i guess that was too adventurous and tasking - 160 km - by gosh,,,

Me on the Trek 3700

I often cycle early in the morning at my home in Patna - Trek 3700. I knew if i had to do any of the routes in Bangalore -the distances would be long.

Once i selected this route - it was time to get a cycle on rent. I checked on RR Cycles - Madiwala - if they had one. RR Cycles in Madiwala do give cycles on rent. I managed to get a Trek 3700.

The ride

Bangalore-Harohalli.

As Soma left early morning for office , i was off solo en route to Nisarga Layout at 8:45 AM. The initial 12 kms from Gottigere via Banerghatta National Park was crazy. Hell lot of morning traffic.
Once i took the right turn to Nisarga Layout which was another 2 kms. - riding was fun now with no traffic. Nisarga Layout is pretty big and planned - i took a stop here for a quick breakfast. As i was solo - had to make sure that i was on the right track. I avoided doing it from Anekal to Nisarga Layout being too lengthy.
Once i crossed Nisarga layout - the road was bad and heading towards a downhill. Past a few junctions to the right - came a pucca road - which was much better. I had never imagined that the outskirts of Bangalore - road and countryside was beautiful. With a perfect weather - i just felt that i had the extra energy to ride ahead. I guess - as i read in one of the articles - this stretch is one of the best to ride. I had to come over a few uphills which was really taxing and tiring but was worth it. I was now soon on the Banerghatta Zoo corridor. I was the only person on this entire stretch riding and i feared of Elephants cross by,,,i did not stop for a break on this entire stretch,,,,

Uphill - Blr-Harohalli route

There is one particular stretch after the Banerghatta Zoo corridor which is a downhill - by gosh,,,had i not applied my breaks, i would be off the mountains in a deep pitch,,yes, it was very steep.Mind ya fellas- if you do Harohalli to Bangalore via Anekal - it's much more challenging as it has mostly uphill on the route.
By 12:30 i was at the Harohalli junction. Took a break and asked locals for the way back to Bangalore.

  

Harohalli-Kanakpura rd.-J.P.Nagar-Gottigere (Blr)

 This stretch was pretty good to ride but you had to keep in mind of the traffic. I had to keep a constant check to ride to my extreme left - in fact off the road. A few stretches is uphill and it really requires that extra energy to pull. As i was tired cycling more than 3 hours - i could feel the pain in the butt and the muscle pull. The milestone really helped as you could spot at every 2 kms. I took many breaks in between for water and tea. I spotted a few dhabas en route which looked tempting but did not stop,,,after doing this stretch for 25 kms. i almost reached Bangalore. Took a shortcut to JP Nagar - there was a 2 kms uphill which was a killer - i preferred to walk,,,i was near gottigere now.
Before reaching home - i congratulated myself for doing this wonderful route of 75 kms. solo.
Wow,,,,,

Important Info.
Bike - Trek 3700
Rent : 275 per day
RR Cycles - Madiwala - 0091 984479039

Route

JNU Mountaineering Club - old members meet in Bangalore

Was it Rajesh Mall's sheer luck that he was on an NGO assignment in Bangalore for the past one month - or do i phrase it - has everyone been "Bangalored",,,

As i was working in my hometown Patna - i did get the news of Rajesh's visit to Bangalore on an NGO assignment. Initially, he met Dhanalakshmi, Nitesh and Lokesh in MG road a few days ago. Rajesh soon left for field work in various parts of Karnataka.

While i was at home in Bangalore - got the news that Rajesh will be visiting Bangalore once again. He stayed at my house for a day (6th July, 2012) and it was really great to meet him after after 6 years. It always a pleasure and delight when you meet your fella mountaineers from a long gap. And yes, i always read his blogs and got the news of his new adventures and new trekking routes.

Rajesh Mall, Saurabh Vikas, Nitesh Uniyal, Rajiv Kumar

Rajesh had made a plan that all JNUites, especially the trekkers should meet once and it has been ages.
We all assembled at Nitesh's house at 9 for breakfast.- Saurabh Vikas (Periyar wala, Major Saab), Lokesh (Spanish, working with IBM.Blr), Nitesh (Spanish, Oracle), Rajiv (Spanish, Entrepreneur-Patna),,,
It was a moment to capture - after so many years - mountaineers and trekkers meeting. Everyone was sharing their bit of experiences of the Trekking days,,,Desert Trek in the Thar, Rajesh and Nitesh's craziest trekking to Roopkund,,,mine to Vasuki Tal and Kedarnath,,,etc.

I still recall the JNUMC days - when we used to go by 615 bus to Munirka to by our foodstocks for trekking. Our rafting at Shivpuri was just a mere Rs.50 for registration. Still people never came for rafting,,our camping gear and tents were just good enough to use, what we see today in high end stores like Wildcraft and Decathlon are luxury,,,
Thanks to JNUMC and JNU,,,

Rajiv,Saurbah, Rajesh, Lokesh and Nitesh-Nitesh's house-Blr.

We had a superb breakfast at Nitesh's house. (Thanks Nitesh) we soon departed after an hour as everyone had work,,,