Anchetti – Mythical forest – double breakfast ride !
We’ve been wanting to drive through Anchetti in Tamil Nadu for a while now. A previous attempt was abandoned when we got lost, then just wandered around for a while before heading back. This time around we were a little better prepared. But I am getting ahead of myself.
Firstly, wish all my readers a very happy new year – 2014, hope it is a year of wonderful rides and many miles.
The first weekend of Jan was just screaming for a ride. We had not been out on a ride for some time as a group. Mostly been out in small splinter groups of 2 or 3. So when the call went forth on FB to do a breakfast ride on the first Sunday of Jan there were many enthusiastic voices. The usual discussion about where to go started off, we had options bandied about. Finally we all voted for Anchetti. It is an obscure little village just in to Tamil Nadu.
This time around we had a few new entrants to the group joining us. Not new riders, in fact if anything, they are veterans. We met at Meenakshi Mall at 6:00 a.m. It is a nice and quiet place at that hour, a completely different picture from the hubbub in the day time.
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| NICE road – waiting for everyone to catch up |
We headed south and were soon on the Nice road, Banerghata entrance. Always a pleasure to ride on this road. You can cruise at 80 – 100 without bothering about road condition or traffic, especially at this hour. You can also go much faster if you want to. (But I think my wife just might read this blog, so I never go above 80 J).
Though we were on the NICE road for a short rip, exiting at Kanakpura, it is a great way to start a ride.
In the pre morning light just the bike and you roaring along on a smooth road. Those few minutes give you the feel, ‘C’est la vie’.
Soon we were off the road and heading further south along Kanakapura road. It was 6:45 by the time we were off the Nice road. We met one of our new entrants there, Sabith, he is a man you can bank on, since he really banks when he turns. Easily the chap who goes lowest in our group on turns.
The most important thing was whether we stop now for breakfast or later. This is a serious decision folks, not to be taken lightly.
Of course you can rely on us to always make smart choices, we decided to stop now and later. J
The little joint on Kanakapura road has become our favorite pitstop. Last time when Atul and I were the only ones who landed up for a planned ride, we went up to there for breakfast and then headed right back. We might not ride, but you can be sure we will never miss breakfast. The priorities are always clear.
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| The happy expressions – always a guarantee with good idlis & coffee |
Breakfast conversation was about, what else, bikes. Atul had a new pair of lights on his bike, he got these at the Art of Motorcycles, Adugodi. Almost all the Bulls in our group now get serviced at the Art. I will post a piece on them shortly. So, we admired the lights and then there was Dev’s new Harley to be admired as well. Not to mention, Som’s desert storm matching helmet and glasses. We also had to talk about the BMW bike that passed us by a little while back and the Ninja. The Beemer had a big silencer but made almost no noise as he smoothly passed us, we were all around 80, he must have been 120 at least. Imagine, a silencer that actually suppresses noise, whatever will they come up with next J.
As usual our favorite joint served us piping hot idlis, vadas and good coffee. Temporarily satiated we were off.
Just a little way down the road is Harohalli, the route turns off the main road here and hits the backroads. Now these are the kind of roads we really like. Narrow blacktops, winding their way between fields and woods. For the Anchetti route, you need to take a right within about 150 metres of leaving the main road. This is the trick we had missed last time when we had done a bit of a wander. This time though we were on top of things. This road is in to the villages for a while before really opening out in to a lovely blacktop.
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| Sabith – leaning in to it.
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There were numerous sweeping curves giving us ample opportunity to lean in to them and ride. (This is where we noticed Samith really leaning in to it)
The road continues through open fields and passes through some villages. 6 Bulls and 2 Harleys riding close together can make quite a racket. Abhijith was on his first ride with us, he is one of the core members of the appropriately named Rolling Thunder MC. We were truly rolling thunder through the sleepy villages on that Sunday morning.
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| The kids discussing Bikes. |
It is also one of the small pleasures of life when you pass through a village and almost everybody stops what they are doing to look at you. The kids all excitedly call out to each other and point in your direction. Of course we don’t know what they are saying which is probably for the best.
We stopped on the outskirts of one such village, Maralwadi, just after a fork in the road and we wanted to be sure that no one took the wrong turn. The kids were most enthused to look at all the bikes. They were enamored by the two Harleys and got down to a comparison of the two identical ones. Finally deciding that Shalin’s was better than Dev’s (much newer one) because it had a snug seat.
From there the road was a little worse for wear for about 2 kms. Dev was worried with the ridiculously low clearance of his new Harley but fortunately the road wasn’t too bad. Don’t think he hit any bumps too hard.
That is about where we came in to the first bit of forest and an absolutely gorgeous bit of road, winding up and down over a small hill with green on both sides.
This is where you hit the zen zone.
You are riding with your buddies yet you are all alone with your bike. You ride in and out of curves like a single unit and let the thump of the bike be one with your beats. A road like that with a good bike under you and great friends around, what more can you ask for.
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| Fresh Dosas |
Shortly after that we entered Anchetti. There we came across Mr. Subramniam’s dosa shop. Dosas that will make your day. Served piping hot on a banana leaf with an unlimited supply of chatni and sambar. Anyone going to Anchetti, please save your appetite for the dosas there. An absolute delight.
The man was also excellent with his directions and distance. He told us exactly how far the next petrol pump was and how far the forest was.
There is a fork in Anchetti, the right takes you to Hogenekal falls and the left takes you through the forest back to Hosur and Bangalore. We had not planned for Hoganekal and therefore took the left fork and headed through the forest.
This is the forest that has taken on a bit of a mythical mystical avatar for us, having failed to find it last time and then planning a couple of rides which did not materialize, it was a good omen to be riding through it. A great start to the year.
The forest provided some nice photo opportunities, not that we were lacking for those along the way of course. As I have said earlier our group is a bunch of photographers with a riding problem. We were missing our wildlife photographers on this particular ride but we made up with three cameras in the fray.
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| Riders in the forest |
From there on it was a fairly straight ride in to Denkanikottai where we stopped for some coconut water. The particular stall was run by a lady, the way she went about hacking off the coconuts, boy! Thwack, Thwack! No one had better mess with her.
There were a couple of elderly chaps there who were having a conversation about our bikes. One of them appreciably commented about the Harleys and wondered what kind of a beast they were. The other promptly informed him that they were the new model of bullets. Very good ones too.
Denkanikottai to Bangalore was a regular well-travelled large road, you gotta do these too, in order to get back home I guess. The route was Denkani, Attibele, Hosur, NICE road and back to Bannerghatta road.
The ride is now behind us but those winding turns through the forest and hills were just so awesome that they will stay for a long time. I have them on my desktop, a glance at them and the spirit automatically lifts up and the day becomes brighter.
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| Riders All ! |
Thump on!
Riders:
· Atul Lakra – Bullet C500
· Anand KR – Bullet Desert Storm
· Som Rathore – Bullet Desert Storm
· Abhijith Rao – Thunderbird – fully modified
· Sabith Sabarinath – Bullet Electra
· Shalin Shukla – Harley Super low
· Dev Chakrabarti – Harley Super low
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Yours truly with a C500
What this post covers:
Royal Enfield, Bullet, Harley Davidson, Motorbike rides around Bangalore to a place called Anchetti (anchetty). This is one of the more popular routes to ride on around Bangalore. The people riding are a bunch of regular people, bike enthusiasts, riding amateurs and pros. The cameras used during the trip are Canon, Nikon and a Sony point and shoot. Motorcycles are a passion for the entire bunch and make us feel happy and carry us away from the daily life that we otherwise have.
&
Yours truly with a C500
What this post covers:
Royal Enfield, Bullet, Harley Davidson, Motorbike rides around Bangalore to a place called Anchetti (anchetty). This is one of the more popular routes to ride on around Bangalore. The people riding are a bunch of regular people, bike enthusiasts, riding amateurs and pros. The cameras used during the trip are Canon, Nikon and a Sony point and shoot. Motorcycles are a passion for the entire bunch and make us feel happy and carry us away from the daily life that we otherwise have.
