Beast and its rides Trip 9,
704km
Started at 4.30am from Bangalore pretty warm weather, two guys pulling out from the
team at last minute, still we continued with two bikes surprising to see around 100+ two wheelers travelling to Nandi
Hills for sun rise, cops were stopping most of the two wheelers to make morning
moolah near airport toll booth, surprisingly they didn't stop us, (might be
they knew I won't give them anything) as we crossed Devanahalli the chill
started and little further surprised to see heavy fog, visibility was reduced
to hardly 5 feet , never experienced this from a very long time near Bangalore,
and our first stop was in Anantpur for breakfast, amazing dosa at unbelievable
price each egg dosa was 15rs and single omelet for 10rs, we stopped our bike
for fueling just after gooty.
Belum Caves,
Just before the caves on the way one can find massive cement industries and waste black stone piled up in heaps on
the sides of the roads with some beautiful small hills in different shapes, we
reached the caves by 10.30am, caves are open from 10.00am till 5.30am entrance
fee of Rs50 per person with free guide
available inside the caves one has to be present inside to enjoy the natures
carvings and the lighting placed in some places makes the carvings done by
water look magnificent, the guide was telling us there were saints earlier but I
wonder how they used to go in or come out, its 120ft deep from ground
level with bats in it and one has to
bend at many places as the height is
Gandikota fort,
Nobody can make that a fort exists, its so
inside and on the way you can spot a Dam and the roads are narrow, the video
clip where a drunken rider falls on a thorn plant and his back was full of
thorns and sadly got to know he was a tourist vehicle driver, hope he drives safe
to the destinations. We were hungry but still we explored the fort. Entrance
was so amazing we thought that the road would continue on the fort walls but to
our disappointment after 4 turns it ended but the feel was different while
riding the beast in that small place. we trekked on rocks for some distance to
get the magnificent view of the Pennar river and the mountain the pictures explain themselves. Standing on
the tip taking some video and photos we ascended down it was 4pm there was only
a APTDC restaurant where he charged us for meals and gave us only rice and
sambar and other stuffs got over we had no choice but eat what was there, as no
hotels were there. stomach filled with rice we took a short 10min nap in the
hotel.
The return,
Roads were
amazing and ghat stretches were in good condition with sun playing hide and
seek with us and finally we decided to stop and catch the sunset in the camera,
as it got dark couldn't make out much on the sides, but the air was cool and
both sides surrounded by mountains but
this was short lived and then came an 80km horrible stretch with cement lorries
dominating the roads it was just narrow road for one bus or lorry to go, but
there were two way traffic had to do some off roading too and these lorry
fellows never gave way for us easily, we stopped in between for chats in small
town around 8pm had good masala puri for just 10rs, I remember paying 10rs for
masala puri 8years back here in Bangalore. As we connected the NH7 the beast
was unleashed cruising at its best after an hell ride.
Bikes
1 Thunderbird 500
2 Classic
Chrome 500
Riders
1 Sharath Chandra
2 Vishwas Vishu
3 Santhosh
Venkataram
Ride photographer
1 Vishwas Vishu
