Place:Shettihalli Church & Gorur Dam. Distance: 250 x 2 = 500kms.Directions: Bengaluru – Kunigal – CR Patna – Hassan – Shettihalli DamParticiapants: Prashanth >Sukesh > Sujan> Karthik (Sp).Bikes: Thunderbird > Pulsar Previous visit: BilikalBetta Ride
IN LESS THAN 50 WORDS: This was a crazy 500kms one day ride. The beautiful submerged church was pure bliss to watch. The backwaters were calm and pleasant. An excellent lunch treat by Sujan and finally the epic raging ride back to Bangalore made this chapter a wonderful one.
INTRO & PLAN:As far as the planning goes, Sukesh at office told me about Shettihalli Dam. Once that was mentioned the wikipedia of Hassan, Sujan told us that it was hardly 25kms from his place and he would free. And Prashanth wanted to take his new Enfield for a spin. By the way, Sujan, Sukesh & Prashanth were from the same college, same batch.. So, I guess I was the visitor who ended up having a wonderful day. TIME: 22:00 (4/3/2016)
ASSEMBLE & LEAVE:Yeah I was up at 05:00, did a push ups & bicep curls and was all set to go. Sukesh first arrived at my place. As the meet up was scheduled at the NICE road exit near Tumkur road, we both took off from Bangalore.
TIME: 07:00
RIDE 1: (Bangalore – Kunigal – Chanraypatna – Hassan – Shettihalli Church)Cruising on the ORR we reached Tumkur road. Continuing further we reached Nelamangala NICE road exit. But we couldn’t find Prashanth. So we called him up, but as he said he was further ahead, we continued going further and ended up at Mangalore highway deviation. Finally we caught up with him at this deviation and all the three took off on the Mangalore highway with full flow. We cruised at super smooth pace one behind the other. We pulled over at the hotel near to Kunigal for some real tasty breakfast.TIME: 07:45
After belting two rounds, we had some tea and took off. Riding with full flow, we rode non-stop cruising past Yadiyur, Hirisave, and reached Channrayanapatna for a small tea break. The roads trust me, were simply excellent. Wide, smooth and little curves here and there. TIME:10:00The last stretch was done again more or less resting back and letting our bikes take us to the peaceful city – Hassan. As we approached Hassan, we called up Sujan who was eagerly waiting for our arrival on the ring road.TIME: 11:00
HASSAN:We were invited to Sujan house. There we spent about 30mins munching down some snacks and finally after a superb coffee, 4 of us left Hassan towards Shettihalli Church. The ride to Shettihalli church was a decent one. Initially as we got out of the town we had to face some minor traffic, nothing compared to Bangalore’s.After which we cruised along at a decent pace and finally after some off roading we could spot the ancient church in ruins afar. Looked amazing from even afar.TIME: 12:15
SHETTIHALLI CHURCH:We roamed about the place. Explored the abandoned church first. Then we went around it exploring the perimeters. We went down to the backwaters and checked the water as well. When asked about getting down, it was a no as we had a long way to go back. We sat on the river banks and chatted away the time. After a while we began the ever golden game of skipping stones. Finally went about and reached back the church. Then we decided to ride to Gorur dam as well as it was pretty close by.TIME: 13:10
GORUR DAM:Gorur dam is about 25kms from Shettihalli. As the roads were narrow, we rode at a slow pace. Once we reached the dam premises, the other 3 recollected their college trip to this place. We spend most of the time wandering around near the gate as going over the bund was prohibited. As the sun was blazing, it drained up most of our energy. We decided to head back to Hassan for some lunch.TIME: 14:15RIDE 2: (Gorur Dam – Hassan – Chanrayanpatna – Yadiyur – Kunigal – Nelamangala – Bangalore)We rode at pretty decent pace as our stomach was grumbling with hunger. Once we reached Hassan, Sujan treated us with an awesome lunch. Then we went to his home for some tea. As Prashanth wanted to meet his friend we went to his home as well and after the meet up we finally left Hassan.TIME: 18:00
And now, all hell broke loose.Trust me, I never expected this kind of finisher! I told Sukesh to call up his home and tell them that he would be back by 23:00. But as I was experiencing some pain in my chest I told Prashanth that we would ride 50kms and pull over. So that meant 3 stops. And boy! we followed it to precision. Prashanth filled up his fuel at hassan and we took off.We rode at about 80km/h on the beautiful highway non-stop and pulled over after the first 50kms post Hirisave to witness a beautiful sunset.With the sun down, darkness came upon us and so did the chilly winds of the highways. Now the traffic gradually increased, but we kept on riding at the pace, and what synch we both were in! it was amazing.Sukesh went silenteven though now then I spoke to him.
Finally after another 50kms we pulled over at a small bridge in the darkness with the indicators shining, we had some water. And after resting for some more time. It was a last stretch. With some no non-sense riding we raced ahead and reached Nelamanagala in at 20:15. 2hours & 15mins from Hassan to Nelamangala in the dark was something amazing.
After which the traffic increased too much and slowed our progress. So we took the NICE road from Tumkur road and cruised along again at a decent pace unit the Clover leaf. Here , Prashanth headed straight towards the Hosur road and Sukesh & me towards the ring road.Finally after a long day on the road we reached back home, completely wrecked but very satisfied.TIME: 21: 30
CONCLUSION:This was much needed ride. 500kms in one day was never a joke. But totally it was just the strain needed to get off. Needless to say the ride back was a crazy one! Made me kind of proud and Sukesh, I guess very happy as he reached 2hours before.Until next time, Cia \m/
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