Riderz Nexus 2019: Coorg Kadamkolli Resort

December 07-08

Early morning start to the ride from Bangalore

After a lovely ride we reached Kadamkolli resort- Venue for Riderz Nexus

ThRoTLS team 

The Products on display-- found these useful

Useful for night riders. This products is on your back, connects to your bike indicators. Ease of visibility to the large vehicles

Found these arm bands interesting. Affordable & useful for night riders

The resort is well maintained, good local food cooked by the in-house cooks. We were lucky to get something to eat. Food was an issue at the event- especially for the vegetarians. Leave the food aside, the place is very scenic & beautiful. So I would rate 5 star for the resort location. Rooms are pretty basic.

Our trek in the morning treated us with this greenery

@the venue kitchen

my time to explore the place

Event night with music & games

Showing off my badges

This was my first long ride. Return journey was tiring as we started late and ended up in heavy traffic towards Bangalore. 

Goats leap- Mekedatu

A ride with the Bikernis was long due. Its been 2 months since I joined them and yet had not been able to go for a ride with the ladies. When the quarter calendar got published with Mekedatu in it with a date that looked convenient, I jumped for it. Home front taken care, the ride was planned for November 16th, day ride. The exciting part was not just long riding with the Bikernis but also with my best buddy for the first time. 

I started from home at 4:00am and met up with 3 of them first. Meeting point decided was Panchamukhi Ganesha temple on Mysore road at 5:15am. We somehow managed to get there in time. Total of 16 bikes & 17 ladies (Captain had a pillion with her). Clear instructions given on the protection gears to be in place, riding safety, who the Marshall was, who would be the sweep & the team was asked to follow the captain. 

5.30am meet

After about 1.5hrs of ride we stopped over at Vasu Restaurant on Kanakapura road. Small place known for its Crispy Dosa. Large masala dosa and Gulab jamun & a small glass of Coffee is what I had.

Hungry faces

Coffee's in

Crispy crispy Dosas

Yumm Gulab Jamun

Breakfast done, we got back on road. We rode through the narrow but beautiful green roads towards Mekedatu.

Rs.30/- entry fee at the checkpost & another Rs.30/- to enter Mekedatu. 

'Mekedatu' means 'goat's leap' in Kannada. It is said that a goat being chased by a tiger made a desperate attempt to save its life by leaping from one side of the gorge and managed to cross over the raging river below, whereas the tiger did not attempt to replicate this feat, and abandoned the chase. The point where the goat leapt has widened since then from erosion caused by the river Cauvery. It is about 110+ km from Bangalore. 

Mekedatu is a good place for one day trip, spend more time at the river bed before you get into the bus, that's where you get a chance to touch the water. River crossing in Coracle & bus ride takes you to the view point where you can see Cauvery flowing through the deep gorge.

Some photo session & fun at the entrance and we were ready to go for the coracle ride. The excitement got even better with the boatman taking us on a spin in the coracle. he charged us a bit extra for his effort. We shifted into a bus after crossing the river. After sitting in the bus we felt that if biking would have been allowed it would have a great track for us to ride through, but yes we do understand the care taken to preserve nature hence not allowing public vehicles in this patch of land. Have uploaded some videos below to show you what am talking about. With good rains this year, there is good green cover across. 

The gang

Bikernis with the bikes

Start of Coracle ride

Cauvery flowing through narrow gorge

Kalasutra designed jacket by Sameera was tried by all the girls (who could fit in :D ) and that called for a special round of photo session. A whole of lot of pics taken, photo sessions, fun time. The bus ride to see the Cauvery was a bumpy one. With Sun on our heads we were all hoping we could get something cold to drink..and just when we were starting a round of introductions to know each other better, another bus stopped and downloaded crates of cold drink. Chilled with cold drinks, happy pictures taken, it was time to get back in the bus for the ride back in coracle. By the time we returned back thirst had kicked in again, coconut water kept us hydrated this time. Lunch was at Mayura restaurant. Not great, but much needed hot food bought- self service.

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Mekedatu

The Girls

while they were busy staring down

With my bestie

Hola

Post lunch we started back on our journey to Bangalore through those green paths & hairpin bends. One short stop for a cup of coffee at Balaji Restaurant and ride along till Nice road entrance before we all split our ways towards home.

The best part about this ride was, every rider followed the instructions given in the beginning of the ride. The roles of the Captain, Marshall & Sweep were played fantastically; the Captain of the ride Sneha, ensured not a single biker is left behind and the Marshall Shwetha ensured all 16 bikes stuck together while maintaining an average speed of 60kmph through out. Thanks to the girls who captured natures beauty in their cameras and shared..I am able to put together everything because of them.

Jacket designed by Kalasutra

In the bus

Live to RIDE; Ride to GIVE: Nallaguttahalli

The ThROTLS team came up with yet another donation drive, this time for a Government Higher Primary School in Nallagultapalli Gram Panchayat. We had received a request from school for school bags & notebooks for the kids through a friend of VJ.
A big thanks to all the friends who came forward to help with this drive and made it a success. Thumbs-up to those who made it to the drive and a big hug to those to contributed to this initiative. 

Start of the ride

One for the kids

Early morning ride of 75kms with a breakfast stop, we reached the school. The ride was scenic with green farmland on either side of the road. Upon reaching the school we were welcomed by Raghu who has adopted this school to ensure betterment of the school. Surprise surprise...we were welcomed with a welcome speech from the school Headmaster, a senior teacher and then a thank you note from Raghu. The welcome speech was followed by handing over a Rose to each one of us who had come. Post which the handing over of the school bags and sports items were given out to all the students of the school by us. The excitement in the eyes of the students was more for the football, throwball & badminton rackets we could see. So the teachers declared that the kids could play with what was given to them. Back in the staff room we were served hot tea and some snacks, completely unexpected. Some chit chat with the teachers and Raghu suggested that we have lunch with him & his Guruji.

Shetty & camera with curious kids

Excited to receive their bags

Riding team

Staff room

Keen listeners

We were requested to head to the temple which was atop a hill in Nallaguttahalli. It is believed that this temple has a pond which never dries. Amazingly you can walk on top of it; probably because of the weeds that have grown over it. The water in the pond has healing properties and all the villagers nearby use the water as their medicine. Raghu himself claimed that he & his family haven't taken any medication for ailments and the water from this pond is consumed whenever they are ill. Also the weed growing on top of the pond gives out some kind of seed which they call it the beads, given to ladies in the village who are getting married to add it onto their wedding chain. The color of the bead varies from white, grey & black. I got some of it home :) supposedly good luck for married women. There is also a natural cave which has a door constructed now to ensure there is control on who goes in and comes out.
It didn't end there, it happened to be Guruji's birthday that day and we were offered a good home cooked meal at the temple premises. The team there took care of us like we were their personal guests serving food with patience and inquiring on anything that we needed. Hospitality at its best. Guruji sat down with us for lunch too. Post lunch a cup of coffee for all and we rested at the hill top to enjoy the cool breeze. Some bit of chit chat and we decided to ride back to Bangalore. All in all a ride worth the effort.

View from hilltop

Temple

Outside the temple

The cave

Pond with weed on it

Beads

Its true we can walk on the pond

Relaxing

Bhojan time

The pond

Another view from the outside

Friends in conversation