Bicycle BR Hills at night

Bicycle BR Hills at night

A night ride on bicycles called ‘Moonlight Carnival’ that covered the periphery of BR hills.

A night ride on bicycles called 'Moonlight Carnival', which covered the periphery of BR hills. This was the second night ride by the organizers, with their first one done two years back. With bikes of 35 riders placed into canter vans that come along, we started from Bangalore by bus around 9pm on Fri, 13 April 2012.


Day 01 : Kollegal to Bailur

Sat, 14 Apr 2012

Reached Kollegal and with lights on our bikes started to ride at about 2:30a.m. At some point, the moonlight was bright enough and so we switched off all lights and rode along. As we rode through number of small villages, got to chat up with a few of the riders. We did faced a few dogs barking at us. Slowed down till they backed away and then we rode on. Soon rode ahead along and eventually caught up with the few guys who were ahead. By 5:45am we reached a village and stopped by a small stall to have tea. We rode on and stopped at the Forest Rest House at Bailur by about 7a.m. Got to know that few others had reached there much earlier. From here we had a very good view of BR Hills. Took a few photos and relaxed while the other riders turn up one by one. Soon we pitched tents, had bath in cold water and then breakfast.

Later on, Manohar - one of the organizers suggested to do a trek nearby but was unable to get permission for the same. That apart many didn't seem eager to do the trek in the hot afternoon. So we chilled out playing cards till lunch time. Had lunch and relaxed. At 4pm, we started our to ride to the Tibetan monastery that was about 10km away. After 7kms, had to take a left off the main road and ride 3km on bad roads, till we got to the monastery. Here it was quiet, peaceful and serene. After spending some time there, we returned back to the guest house via another route by about 7pm. Freshened up, had dinner and slept early.

Distance covered today 55 kms


Day 02 : Bailur to Punjur

Sun, 15 Apr 2012

Second day we started from the guest house at 7a.m. and rode through the Mudumalai forest in Tamilnadu. The early morning ride was really refreshing. Riders were seperated in many groups along the way, while I and another guy reached the checkpost where a few riders ahead had stopped to check with the locals for the route to Germalam, which was an immediate left after the checkpost. We all rode towards Germalam and it was fairly a good downhill. A few riders who were returning back from there mentioned that it was not worth riding in that direction. Two of us went ahead anyway and soon turned back towards the checkpost only to realize that the ride uphill was not that actually not difficult to cover.

We then turned left to head to Arepalyam. The road was good all along this route. The ride was fun downhill although later on there was some bad patches by the side of the road as some road repairs were going on. At some point riding downhill, we came about one female rider lying on the road hurt while her friend sat besides her. She was hurt on her elbow and was unconscious. We helped lift her up the shade and waited for two more riders to show up to wait there while another rider and I ride further downhill to get a good mobile signal range to call for some medical help. We soon caught up with a few riders among who was the organizer to whom we related what happened and he managed to arrange for medical aid. We continued to ride further and somewhere near Mavallam we stopped to have breakfast at a small restaurant. By this time we were five riders.

Pass by Kovilpalayam and we took a sharp right onto NH 209 to head towards Punjur and were about 14 km from there when I felt an uneasy feeling and stopped to throw up. Stopped by a small shop nearby and had lemon juice which helped. Meanwhile the rider along with me had gone ahead unaware about what happened later called to check on me. Told him to carry on and I would catch up. Rested for about 15 minutes and continued. By about 11 a.m reached the spot were the other riders had already reached and were resting under a huge tree. Took group photos while the bikes got loaded into the canter vans. Soon got into the bus and headed back to Bangalore.

Distance covered today 50 kms

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