Dandiganahalli Dam

Date: 21 January 2017

Total distance: 187 Kilometers

Start Time: 5:30 am

Return Time:  4:45 pm

With: -

Altitude Profile:
Koramangala – Dandiganahallli - Koramangala

I was planning for the weekend ride and was looking for locations near Bangalore. The plan was to do a 200 KM ride at a relaxed pace. While looking up for places other than the usual locations that come up, this time I came across a biker's blog which had the following locations:

            -           Dandiganahalli - 90 kms
-           Aavalabetta - 100 kms
-           Gudibanda - 110 kms

After a couple of near misses for Gudibande, I decided to ride to Dandiganahalli Dam and then to Gudibanda from there. The plan was to leave at 3:30 am so that I can get to Dandiganahalli by 8:30 am and to Gudibande by 11:00 am. I set the alarm for 2:30 am and went to bed. For the second week in succession I missed the alarm and after twisting and turning in bed waiting for the alarm to ring, when I did check the time it was 5:00 am. I had missed the start time and with it I had to sacrifice one location. I decided to ride to Dandiganahalli Dam and keep Gudibanda for another day.

I quickly got ready and although I had expected to start at 5:45 am I was able to start the ride at 5:30 am. It was a hurried start and I did have the feeling that I had forgotten something. I had opted to ride the MTB since the road near the dam is non-existent and also since I would be riding the interior roads I opted for the safer option. I was in a hurry to make up for lost time as I was still looking at covering both the locations. I had to calm down and realised that if I pushed too hard then I might not be able to make it to even one location. I  rode through empty streets of Bangalore and before long I was at the Hebbal flyover and as soon as I crossed the flyover I saw a host of bikers and just one cyclist. It was a surprisingly low turnout of cyclists for a Saturday morning. I rode on the flyover and just as I reached Yelahanka it was day break, however the light was improving at a very slow rate. It was at this point that I realised that I had not carried the water bottle. Decided that I would stop further up the road to purchase a bottle of water.

I was gaining fair ground on the flyovers and was under the impression that I was riding fast until I was passed by 2 cyclists on road bikes and the ease with which they opened the gap on me settled the decision of which cycle I was going to take for the upcoming trip to Kodaikanal and Munnar. I tried to catch up, however my effort was futile and I settled into my speed. As I reached the Airport toll I saw that the two cyclists had stopped for a break. I continued riding and made quick progress after the airport toll towards Devanahalli as it is a downhill section. Just as I was getting to Devanahalli, I was caught by the 2 cyclists and a brief chat later I got to know that they also ride brevets and as we chatted about the rides we had reached the turn to Nandi Hills from the highway and we stopped for breakfast. It was 7:35 am when we stopped. A plate of idli vada and we were ready to leave. It was 8:00 am when we started. I got to know that they were riding to Nandi hills and that we would be riding the same route till the Nandi base. They could not believe that I would ride till the Nandi base and not climb the hill. I did not have time for the climb and also was not for the physical exertion of the climb. It did not take long for them to open the gap when we started the ride and I managed to catch up just before the Nandi base as they were taking it easy before the climb. I bid good bye as they started the climb and I continued further towards Dandiganahalli.

Google maps was used to ascertain the route as I rode towards Doddaballapur. I rode for about 3-4 kilometers before reaching the junction where I had to turn right and ride towards the Chikkaballapur road. I stopped to buy water and when I resumed the ride the road was in very bad shape. I was happy that my decision to get the MTB had paid off. I rode without being worried about punctures. At the next village I had to turn left and the road improved here and also began to climb. The speed was down due to the gradient and also due to the wind. It was a windy day and I was surprised with the wind speed in January.

I kept checking on Google maps and was able to make the turns at the right places. A couple of kilometers and the gradient of the road changed from climbing to downhill. The speed did not increase by much due to the wind, however the place was very scenic with hills on the right and within a kilometer I was in a forest. Although there is no wildlife and the forest was dry, I was not very comfortable riding through the place. There were a lot of forest trails, however I did not want to go exploring alone. I was out of the forest in 10 minutes and then passed through a lot of villages. There were a couple of huge climbs followed by steep downhill sections as well. I saw a small lake and stopped to click a few pics. As I rode on, I realised that I was at the tip of the lake and it opened up into a huge lake and I was surprised with the amount of water. A few more pictures and I was back on the saddle.

Before long I had reached the Chikkaballapur road and came across road work and only half of the road was available for traffic. There was not much traffic and I was not pushed off the road much. I rode into Manchenahalli village before realising that I had overshot the turn to Dandiganahalli and had to back track a little. A further 200 meters from the turn to Dandiganahalli, the road became worse. It was filled with potholes and the saving grace was the Manchenahalli lake. It was a huge lake and took my mind off the road condition.

A couple of kilometers and it was a gravel road, however it was in good condition, the only deterrent being the wind. The wind had picked up and it was a strong head wind which resulted in very slow progress. I reached Dandiganahalli village and after a couple of enquiries and a short but steep climb later I was at the lake. 3 bikers left the place just as I arrived and there were 3 more bikers who were still there. It was 10:30 am when I reached. The lake was surrounded by hills and with hardly any people around the beauty of the place was enhanced as it was very peaceful. I sat down for a few minutes to take in the view and clicked a lot of pics. There is no shade at the place and as the Sun belted down I knew that my time at the lake was coming to a rather quick end.

I spent about 30 minutes at the lake before commencing my return. It was 11:00 am and Gudibanda being about 40 kilometers away, I did not fancy trekking around 1:30 pm and decided to drop Gudibanda for the day and head back home. I realised later that I was only 15 kilometers away from Aavalabetta and I could have visited the place instead. Anyways, the thought did not occur at the time and after refilling on water at Manchenahalli village I started the return journey at 11:30 am.

It was 17 kilometers to Chikkaballapur and a further 75 kilometers from Chikkaballapur to Bangalore. I expected to reach Chikkaballapur at 12:30 pm and had decided to have an early lunch. What I did not know at that time was that it was a 12 kilometer climb to Chikkaballapur and coupled with the wind, riding was painfully slow. It started as a gradual climb and slowly built up to the ghat. It was 12:30 pm when I got to the ghat and as I was hungry, I stopped for a coconut water and the malai filled me up. The climb up the ghat was only 2 kilometers, however, it was the first time when I felt the wind was a factor even during a climb. Also, with heavy traffic I had to back off pedaling near the corners as buses took the right of way and I had to restart which was taking a lot of effort. I was happy to get past the ghat and rode the remaining few kilometers to Chikkaballapur town quickly.

When I did get into Chikkaballapur town it was crowded and I wanted to get out of town before stopping for lunch. As I passed through town I saw a lot of water melon vendors and also sugar cane juice vendors. I resisted the temptation to stop, however with the energy reserves depleting I was unable to resist the temptation to have sugar cane juice and made a stop where I gulped down a couple of cups of sugar cane juice. The sugar cane juice had taken care of the hunger and I was ready to ride for a further 30 minutes at least.

I got onto the highway in 10 minutes and was welcomed by flyovers. Long steep flyovers and the climbing continued. However, I had a favorable wind and was able to keep the speed up compared to the painfully slow ride from Manchenahalli to Chikkaballapur, it seemed like I was riding very fast although I was only doing a modest 20 kmph. Devanahalli was not too far off and within half an hour I had crossed the Nandi turn and had made it to Devanahalli. I was not hungry and did have thoughts of riding to Bangalore and having lunch, however, I thought that I would be pushing myself too hard and instead opted to stop for lunch. I stopped for lunch just before the airport at 2:00 pm. I had a relaxed lunch and restarted the ride at 2:45 pm.

The post lunch ride was quick and as I sped towards Yelahanka I saw a crowd gathered near the road. A closer look and a group were shooting a video on the service road. It did not look like a movie shoot, however I stopped and watched the struggles of shooting a video in a crowded area, since they wanted to shoot the video with no traffic in a heavy traffic area. 10 minutes later I restarted the ride. It was 3:15 pm and dark clouds made its appearance above. I looked around and noticed that the cloud was above me and could see that the sky was clear ahead. I rode quickly to make it out of the cloud so that I could avoid the rain as it increasingly looked like it would rain. I kept pushing and as I made it to Yelahanka a few droplets of rain made their appearance. I stopped, packed the phone in to the bag and continued to ride quickly. I was ruing the decision to have stopped for lunch as the thought of getting drenched was not very appealing. Fortunately, the rain held up and I made it to the Hebbal flyover. I was welcomed by the Bangalore traffic and with the cloud cover still hovering above it was frustrating to ride slowly through Bangalore. It was more frustrating that I was being shouted at for riding on the extreme left of the lane and vented my frustration on a car driver for shouting at me and gave him a piece of my mind. I did not back off since I was not obstructing him and shouted back since he did not think that the road belonged to cyclists.

I pushed hard when the traffic situation allowed and kept hoping that the clouds would not open up. Fortunately the rain held back and I got back home at 4:45 pm. The rain threat had pushed me to get back early. I was a little disappointed that the total distance did not go over the 200 mark, the thought did occur that I should ride around to push past the 200 km mark, however I did not want to risk it with the rain threat. It was another ride to a beautiful location and would love to see that the place remains as it is.

Remember a question asked by one of the shop owners where I stopped to buy water, he asked how much time I spent at Dandiganahalli Dam and when I told him I was there for around 30 minutes, he asked why I should ride so far to spend only 30 minutes. Relevant question, however I realised that it is more about the journey rather than the destination which drives me to keep riding and spending comparatively less time at the destinations.