Sunday, 27 September 2015

Cycling : Shimoga to Gokarna

Travelling is always fun as usual. This time we decided to go for a Cycle Trip.
Before embarking on this trip, this was our plan :
13th Thursday : Leave Bangalore to Shivamogga
14th Friday : Pedal from Shivamogga to Jog Falls (Appox : 100kms)
15th Saturday : Pedal from Jog Falls to Gokarna (Appox : 120kms)
16th Sunday : Relax in Gokarna and then travel back to Bangalore.

We were 5 members who finally made it, - Jimit, Abhishek, Rohan, Sumanth and Myself.  Ricky and Shantanu had to opt out due to their sudden personal work. Ricky was the one who planned the trip, route and stuffs. Unfortunately, we had to move on. Since we were well prepared for this trip we did not wanted to back out.

There were news of heavy rainfall in Shivamoga but we stick to our plan of Cycle trip.

We planned to ship our cycle via train for on-going journey and while coming back we thought of putting it on the bus. Yes, this was amateur ride. We knew there will be lot of learning as we have to manage on our own, no support vehicle too. We were all excited.

We had our train on Thursday at 11pm, but we had to be there near Luggage counter around 9pm for shipping the cycle. Jimit and I left marathalli to Majestic around 7pm, similarly Rohan, Sumanth and Abhishek left for Railway station to reach there by 9pm. And by 9pm, we were there at Railway station. We had little introduction of each other . After booking the tickets for luggage we went to have dinner to near by hotel. We came to each other well and decided the road plan for the next 3 days.

We reached Shimoga around 5am, after un-loading the cycles we got freshen up in railway station itself. We were all set to ride around 6am.  After some 10km, we had tea and Banana so that we have keep our energy level.

Sumanth had a cramp on the way. He had to rest and have to do stretches. We were in Ghat section and that did not seem to be good idea to rest. So, we were waiting for a tempo and truck so that it can carry cycle along. Thankfully we did not have to wait for long, a truck passed by and he agreed to drop 10km far. He was diverting from there. Anyways 10km was sufficient to get recovered.

We 4 continued our ride and reached Anandapura where Sumanth was waiting. We had breakfast here. And resumed our journey to jog.

The journey was amazing, the scenic view made us to love cycling even more. The road from Shivamoga to Jog was ultimate, the only issue was with truck and other vehicle, being a cyclist we had to follow the lane properly.

During our journey we experienced heavy rainfall, we rode and it was a great feeling. Greener along the sides with rain can made us happier.

As per the plan we had to ride from Shivamoga to Jog on the first day. And to our surprise we reached Jog by 3:15pm. The jog beauty was absolute classic. We enjoyed the beauty after which we decided to stay nearby Jog. Managed to get a room which is big enough for 5 of us for 1500rs. This was pretty good deal. We had the snacks in Jog. Room was large enough and we were comfortable.
The stay was approx 2km from Jog, we thought of re-visting the jog in the night. Since it was raining we did not wanted to go again and hence decided to pass time in room itself. We spent time talking and watching Saina's Semi-Final match and later pro-kabbadi. We ordered dinner from the stay itself.

It was an awesome first day of our trip. We slept around 11am and decided to start the ride by 6am.

Next morning we woke up around 5;15am and were ready by 6:30am to explore the ghat section. To our surprise Sumanth and My cycle were having flat tyre. Luckily for both of us it was the front wheel. But Unfortunately Sumanth's tube was broken at the tip and had to replace with the new tube. Rohan was an expert in fixing this and made the fixes quick. We left Jog around 7:30am.

Now we were about to cross Ghat section with terrrible up and down's. yes it was indeed a great experience. After riding some distance we had tea and biscuit. As mentioned the CYcling in the ghat section was amazing. We encountered the rain too. It was all fun. Finally reached a village where we planned to have break fast. The break fast was delicious. We had atleast 2-3 dishes. The Sun was coming out brightly and we were coming out of Ghat section as well. The ride till Honnavar was really challenging. Up hill and Sun never seemed to be off.

Finally we reached Honnavar. We were sweating bad. Luckily we found an AC restaurant named Romanancia. The food was Ok but the environment was the best. We sat nearby AC machine and enjoyed the cool weather which we were badly missing. We spend almost 2 hours here.

Around 3pm , we planned to leave to Gokarna. The route to Gokarna was almost flat. Due to Sun, the ride was bit challenging. Since, we were getting later to reach Gokarna, we decided to halt near Kumta. Kumta to Gokarna is 30km travel distance and we did not mind going next day morning.
Also, Sumanth had flat in his tyre , so we decided Kumta.

We visited Kumta beach, had cycled over the beach, shore and had fun in beach. We found a good hotel in Kumta and it was pretty decent. We had a beer and good food to close the day.

The last day of our trip, we left Kumta around 7am to Gokarna, we reached Gokarna by 10:30am. We visited Om Beach and spent time in Namaste Cafe. A good place to hang out. We spend entire day here.

Since we did not book Train ticket, we had to put the Cycle in Bus luggage counter. It was difficult to accomodate 5 cycle in bus, hence we had to dislocate each and every part possible and put over the luggage. Finally we managed to do.

We reached Majestic, Bangalore around 7am. Fixed our cycle and dispersed to our locality.

It was an awesome experience. Love Cycling :-)

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