Aavala Betta

Date: 4 March 2017

Total distance: 195 Kilometers

Start Time: 3:00 am

Return Time:  3:00 pm

With: -

Altitude Profile:
Koramangala – Aavala Betta - Koramangala

Had been through a bout of sore throat and cold. Had not recovered from the cold but still wanted to ride as it was 2 weeks since I had ridden and I wanted to see if the cold had affected my fitness. I did not have to look up locations as Aavala Betta and Gudibande are pending. I decided to ride to Aavala Betta as it is closer, although there was a temptation to combine both the locations, I opted to take a call after getting to Aavala Betta. As I wanted to keep my options open for covering more than one location I decided to start at 3:00 am.

I woke up promptly at 2:00 am when the alarm rang and got the cycle ready. I decided to ride the road bike as I was going to be on the highway most of the time and probably do about 10-12 kilometers on interior roads. Got ready and started at 3:00 am.

It was a cool morning and it did not take long for me to warm up and pick up the speed. I generally do not ride quick, however, the weather was good and I was also feeling good and kept churning the pedals. I realised that I was quicker than usual when I reached Yelahanka in 50 minutes. Knowing the road well till the Nandi Turn was working in my favour as I knew where I had to ease off the pace and the sections where I could make up for the drop in pace. When I reached the Nandi turn it was 4:45 am.

I continued riding quickly and when I got to the Chikkaballapur by pass I realised that I had ridden quickly and day break was still a long way off. I did not fancy getting off the highway and riding through interior roads in the dark. I slowed the pace a bit and also I was entering unchartered territory for me and without knowledge of the route I had to slow down. I checked on Google Maps and reached the turn from the highway when it was still dark. Google Maps had another route which was longer by 6 kilometers but gave me more time on the highway. I opted for the longer route as I did not want to ride the interior roads in the dark alone. Came across a couple of down hills and by the time I had to turn from the highway it was day break.

I had about 14 kilometers to get to Aavala Betta. The kilometer stones were indicating the distance to Gudibande and the distance was only 13 kilometers. I was tempted to ride to Gudi Bande and cover Aavala Betta on the way back. The road was bumpy and I was not enjoying the ride on this road. I reached the junction where I had to turn left to Aavala Betta and go straight to Gudi Bande. A look at the Gudi Bande route and I realised the road was bad and it was better off riding to Gudi Bande from the highway. I took the left and headed to Aavala Betta as the road looked better.

I had gone for about a kilometer and realised that the road to Aavala Betta was not doing any favours to the road bike. It was a bumpy ride and I could not wait to reach Aavala Betta and get off the road. It was sun rise time, although I wanted to make it to Aavala Betta for sun rise, I knew that it was wishful thinking as the road was bad and I had to be careful to avoid any damage to the cycle. Before long I was at the turn to Aavala Betta and it read 2.5 kilometers to the destination. The road was climbing up and within a few meters the gradient became very steep. I could see the gradient from a distance and shifted into the low gear. I still had to put in a lot of effort to make it up and saw a host of bikes parked. I had expected a further 2 kilometer ride, however the gate to the top has been closed and we have to make the journey to the top by foot. It was 7:15 am and I had covered 100 kilometers in just over 4 hours.

I parked the cycle and packed all the accessories into the bag and started the walk to the top. I was walking up the vehicle path and although I did see steps I did not want to risk taking the steps as I did not know where they lead to. As I got higher, the view of the valley was opening up, however I did not stop as I guessed that I would be able to see the valley from the peak as well. When I got to the end of the road, I saw a flight of steps leading up to the temple at the peak. I started ascending the steps and saw that people were struggling to make the climb and were taking constant breaks. I did not have the luxury of taking breaks as I was concerned about the cycle being unattended at the base even though I had locked it to the fence. I reached the temple, which was closed and noticed 2 paths, one leading around the hill and another flight of steps leading to a temple which was situated at the peak. Public are not allowed in the route around the hill and Forest Office Board has been fixed at the place which says that people are not allowed beyond this point. I headed up the steps and in a couple of minutes was at the peak. The temple was closed, however the valley view from here was beautiful. I clicked a couple of pics and looked around for the view point that Aavala Betta is famous for. I could not find it and a look down I saw that the view point was below and the access to the place was from round the hill where access is restricted. I saw that other tourists were already there and had ignored the sign board.

I headed down and as there were no forest guards around I quickly headed round the hill to the view point. There were forest sign boards which indicated that I was in bear territory. However the only animal that I saw there were monkeys. When I did get to the location I saw that a monkey was terrorising a few tourists. It was after their bags for refreshments and as I got there the monkey turned its attention towards me. I knew that I could not keep the bag down and had to be on high alert. It took a while before the monkey was chased away and we were given a few moments of peace to look at the place. I requested another tourist to take a couple of snaps of mine and as soon as it was done, I beat a hasty retreat from the place. I took the steps leading down rather than the road and made it down quickly.

I had a coconut water and then fixed all the accessories back on the cycle which took time. It was 8:15 am and I was feeling a little tired from the walk up the hill. I ruled out going to Gudi Bande as that would also involve a trek and did not fancy trekking up another hill and then riding back home. I opted to ride back and wanted to take the shorter route. Without checking the route, I headed back down the same road and stopped at the junction to check the route. I realised that I had taken the wrong route and had to make my way back up the steep climb and when I did get on track I was welcomed by bad roads. The road condition was worse than the morning and I was hoping that it would last for only a few kilometers.

I was however disappointed when the bad roads continued and to compound things further there was a lot of climbing to be done. I was struggling to make it up the climbs and the road was de-motivating. I passed through dry forests and even when the downhill's came by I was not picking up any speed. I was relieved when I got to Chikkaballapur and that brought an end to the bad roads. The 20 odd kilometers of bad roads that I had ridden on had taken a lot out of me and I was pretty exhausted. Another reason for the exhaustion was that I had not eaten and was looking to stop, however I knew that if I stopped at Chikkaballpur, then I would have to make another stop for lunch before getting home, I opted instead to have sugarcane juice and push the breakfast stop a little more so that I could make just one stop before getting home.

I had a couple of cups of sugar cane juice, however I was not rejuvenated. I was still tired and I ran into head winds as soon as I started. It was difficult riding and the speed was down. When I did get to the highway I was riding at 20 kmph and did feel that I was at least 10 kmph below the average. I did not stop and kept pedaling and made it past the Nandi turn. I noticed that I was pedaling even on downhill's and thought that the head wind was the reason even though it did not seem to be a very strong head wind. I had decided to stop just before the airport toll for breakfast. It was 11:15 am when I got there and I had pongal and 2 glasses of lime soda.

It was 11:50 am when I started from the hotel. I made it about 10 meters from the hotel when I noticed that the front tire was punctured. I realised that the puncture was the main reason for the loss in speed and had increased the effort quotient as well. I pushed the cycle to the top of the flyover and began the process to change the tube. Before long I had a new tube in the tire and reached out to the water bottle to quench my thirst. The bottle's were missing and it dawned on me that I had left them at the restaurant. I started to ride back to the hotel when I heard a hissing noise, the tire was punctured again. I got down and pushed the cycle to the restaurant, collected the bottles and started to change the tube again. Took my time and by the time I was done changing the tube for the second time I was very tired. I had about 40 kilometers to complete and was hoping that the tire would hold. I rode slowly from here and was careful in all the pot holes and made sure to go easy on the cycle.

It was 1:00 pm by the time I got started and although I rode carefully, I made brisk progress. It helped that the Sun would temporarily go behind the clouds giving some respite from the heat. I did not plan to make any more stops even though it was past 1:00 pm, I was not hungry and decided to have lunch after getting back home. The ride from the airport toll to Hebbal was brisk and I entered a rather empty Bangalore city. I was very happy that there was very little traffic and did not have constant honking behind me. I made it past the Windsor Manor underpass and knew that the climbing is done and it would be an easy ride home. However, I did not expect another flat. I did feel that the cycle was beginning to drag near MG Road, however I noticed that the tire was losing air only near Hosmat hospital. I was 5 kilometers from home and did not want to change another tube when I was close to the house. I pumped air into the tire and hoped that it would hold. A nervous 5 kilometer ride during which every noise that I heard seemed to coming from the tire. Fortunately for me, the tire held and I made it home at 3:00 pm.

I am exhausted, however considering that I trekked for about an hour and another hour was lost on the tire, 12 hours seems to be a decent time for the ride. Need to work on the tire and get it ready, will work on it after resting, for now its break time for me and for the cycle.