Yesterday I came back to Bangalore from Goa. This was my fifth trip to Goa. This trip was different in many ways compared to my previous visits there. This article is about the trip to Goa and how I think it’s an epic trip of my life.
Few months back while chatting with a friend of mine from the mathematics department, IISc, I came to know that Jonathan Fernandes, an another friend of mine from the same department was planning to go to his home, which is located in a village in Goa, by cycle from here (Bangalore). I was deeply thrilled the moment I heard the idea. I met Jonathan in next couple of days to know more about his plan. He told me that he had once made a promise to himself that if he gets admit to a PhD program in the US universities then he would cycle or perhaps even walk all the way to Goa. Fortunately when I met him that day he had already got admits from two universities, which meant he was ON for the Goa expedition. I expressed my interest towards the expedition along with some insights on going about it. I also told him that I hadn’t cycled for years and mentioned that don’t possess a cycle. He was glad to know about my enthusiasm towards the expedition and expressed the same. In couple of weeks time he got a sports cycle called Shwinn sportera sports, a hybrid cycle, which costs eighteen thousand rupees, just to do the Goa expedition. Well, thanks to a close friend of mine who was ready to lend me his sports cycle (Trek 3700) whenever I wanted. With that, Jon and I did three to four expeditions from March to May ’11, which includes Bangalore – Savandurga- Bangalore (150kms), Bangalore – Chennai (350kms), Bangalore – Nandhi – Bangalore (120kms) and also not to forget the 10kms cyclathan, in which Jon had his first fall from the cycle. Another friend from Physics dept was with us in couple of these expeditions. Besides these expeditions, we did couple more separately with our other friends respectively. It was pretty good fun doing all those cycling trip, it exposed us from possible adversities that one could encounter while cycling long distance. The best thing about those expeditions was that it built great confidence in us to take up the idea which we conceived with little or no thinking, or rather what is perceived by many as madness.
After encountering many unavoidable interrupts to the Goa plan we could finally leave Bangalore on June 3rd. The next paragraphs of this write up is precisely the ride report of our epic Bangalore – Goa cycle journey (600plus kms), which lasted for five days.
At 3AM (on June 3rd 2011), I called Jon from Mekri circle, with one hand holding my cycle handle and the other holding my mobile phone, “Hello, Jon! Are you ready? I am 10 minutes away from the institute “. Jon replied” oh, is it? I will be ready in some time, just got up, come over to my room”. Well, after all the last minutes of preparation, which actually lasted for two hours, we started our journey from the mathematics department with a neat snap of us. Though we had earlier decided to have a good sleep before the journey, neither of us could manage to have even two hours of ordinary nap.
We started the journey with really great energy levels; in fact the first 20kms was covered in less than 40mins I guess. By the time we cycled 35- 40kms we felt drowsy, hungry and I felt like crapping. Thankfully we saw a neat restaurant called Kamat upahar which was just beside a big petrol pump. We had some good food there, but realized later that it was an overpriced restaurant. I guess having a neat lavatory facility made it a good choice for many travelers on that road (NH4). I did take a power nap to make myself fresh while Jon was reading the newspaper. At that point a thought of taking a nap for at least an hour had entered our mind. The time spent at the Kamat restaurant was not eventful as there was a dispute in the bill which led to a minor clash between the hotel staff and us. Though the dispute got resolved in our favor, it was kind of sad that I had to be part of the ugly debate. Anyway, leaving that thing apart, we crossed Tumkur by around eleven or so. The sky was cloudy, weather was very pleasant, must say that it was just good enough for cycling long distance. Jon and I indulged in a few discussions while cycling. It was good. When there was a great mismatch of speed we decided to cycle solo, during one of the occasion when I was lagging by a kilometer or so I met this middle aged or perhaps little older person by name Uday Shankar who was traveling towards a place called Gubbi by an old scoter. He started off by asking me about the expedition and later on with my personal details. I answered all his questions with fair accuracy as he sounded like good man and a man with appreciation for adventure. Not just that he was good, he turned out be a man with great generosity. He requested us to have lunch at a mess which he runs. Jon and I were very pleased with the offer and decided to have our first lunch of the trip at his mess, which was a very awesome south Indian meal. Incidentally we were offered tea just before reaching his mess. We were overwhelmed by the treatment we got in Gubbi.
Before we left Gubbi, Uday connected us to a friend of his in Tiptur who could provide us an accommodation for our night stay. Uday came from a much respected family which was/is involved in village welfare for many decades. We thanked Uday for all that he did to us and continued our journey with a filled belly. By around 3PM or so we were feeling very drowsy as I told you earlier that we couldn’t manage to have a good sleep before the start of the trip. We took our cycles into some unknown farm where there were many coconut trees just beside a paddy farm. We collected the fallen dry coconut tree branches to make a bed which was effective in supporting us an hour long nap. Jon, also managed to crap somewhere away from the farm to make himself better shaped for the rest of the journey.
We left that place hoping that we could reach Tiptur before sunset. We cycled at a rate of 20 -25kms/hr or so after taking rest at that farm. The road was flat and the weather was awesome, what else could have stopped us? Well, my cycle back tyre got punctured when we were 30kms from Tiptur. Jon had gone ahead of me and his cell was switched off. I was kind of apprehensive on going about it. I have been carrying a puncture kit in all my previous expeditions but never was in a situation to actually use it. This time I had to. I got good assistance from few villagers who were around. I requested a guy going on a motorbike to look out for a cyclist and inform about the situation when he meets him. Jon stopped and called me back after 20 minutes, that is just after he came to know about the situation, he wanted to come over to help me but I could nearly fix the puncture with help of the villagers by then. I thanked those villagers and had a chat with them for a while. I actually felt good to go through that experience, though I was little freaked out for a while when the puncture actually happened. After I met Jon I shared my experience with him up to a minute detail, with a bit of pride :)
We reached Tiptur by 8:15. Uday’s friend was waiting for us near his shop in Doddapete. He took us to Jaydeva student’s hostel (AKA Jayadeva Vidyarthi Nilaya) where we had our dinner and later crashed. The facility was decently good, with fan, bed sheets and provision to charge our mobile phones. We had rassam and sambar for our dinner which was again pretty good.
The second day started at about 5:30AM with a plan to cycle till Shimoga, which is about 140kms from Tiptur. We reached the first destination for the day Kadur which is about 70kms from Tiptur by 10:30AM. The route was pretty flat with a few climbs and descent. I must say that Arasikere, a small town which came on our way to Kadur, has a wonderful lake. We took good number of pictures near the lake. Sri Vinayak Café at Kadur turned out as the best place to have food in our entire trip. We had chow chow bath, dosas , idlies and coffees there. The server of the café was very good in invoking desire in us to have so many dishes. We couldn’t just stop until we were actually full.
The result of heavy breakfast was a unplanned nap. We identified a plantation, where they grew Mango and guava fruits, somewhere nearby Kadur to rest for nearly two hours. It was a good sleep below small trees which were just about our height and with fruits hanging. Jon didn’t have as much good sleep as I did as he was irritated by some bugs and flies. I become insensitive to the world once I catch up with a good sleep hence didn’t get affected much. The plantation people were gracious; they gave us some mangos and guava when they saw us up. We left that plantation by 2:30 or so and cycled towards Tarikere at a good pace. We had an Ice-cream each along with jack fruit at Tarikere. Reaching Shimoga (about 70 kms from Kadur) was pretty comfortable as the roads were very good and fairly even. I had talked to a cousin of mine, who had a vacant house in shimoga, to give us the access for the night’s stay while we were at Tiptur itself. At my cousin’s fairly sophisticated house we managed to wash our cloths with the help of a washing machine and also had hot water bath. After freshening up, we had our dinner somewhere near the city bus stand.
The plan for the third day was to reach Jog falls, which is about 100kms from Shimoga. We were pretty confident that we would make it by four or so. The day began with us leaving my cousin’s house at 6:30AM. It was kind of drizzling when we left. The sky was gloomy; there was a fair chance of heavy rain. We were never de-motivated because of rain, unlike a hot sunny weather. The route to sagara, which is about 70kms, was very uneven; we had both climbs as well as descent. Thanks to neat gear arrangements in these sports cycles, we could adjust the gear sets at our convenience so that we could apply power to peddle at our capacity. Of course, during steep climbs we had to totally exert all the energy that we could and during descent it was just a matter of showing directions to the wheels. Jon’s cycle’s back tyre got punctured when we were about 40kms from Sagara near a small village called Shivalli. Jon and I fixed the puncture near a mechanic shop, which had a compressor that we used to fill in air. The villagers were amazed looking at us; I mean we looked like people of a different country, with the helmet, our sports attire, cycling bags and stuff aiding to the perception. The kids of the village apparently had great fun watching us fix the puncture using our puncture kit. They even congratulated us when the puncture was fixed and wished us good luck just when we left. Besides fixing the puncture at that place we had our breakfast as well in a pretty decent restaurant. Jon had Dosas in nearly all the place we had breakfast during the trip, I did as well have couple of dosas at that place.
Just 6kms or so from that village where we fixed the puncture, Jons cycle got punctured again, this time it was his front tyre. I was cycling ahead of Jon hence an automobile traveler on that road had to inform me about the situation. Jon was waiting for me as I had the puncture kit. Jon was little unhappy about the fact that I had put on my head phones to listen to music when the puncture happened, he called loudly but I was thoroughly indulged in listening to music from my mobile phone. We were on a road which goes inside a forest region. We were just wondering on going about it, a young man stopped by us and enquired about the situation. While we were talking to him we got an idea to actually remove the front wheel from the cycle and take it to the compressor shop. Jon requested that young man to take him to the compressor shop; however the young man took Jon to one more place which was much nearby compared to the earlier one. Jon returned very quickly compared to what I expected. We thanked the young man for not just dropping Jon at that place where he could fix puncture and most importantly fill air but also bringing him back. At that point we realized the importance of carrying a bigger air pump. Though we were carrying a small pump, we found it too difficult to fill air up to the required levels. After that incident we kind of cycled with much care on bad terrains. We reached Sagara at round 3:00PM. The lunch at Sagara was pretty good. After taking more than one half break, we continued. We were totally drenched by the time we reached Jog. The last descent which was about 2kms was a kick ass ride, we would have probably ripped at about 50kms/hr or even more than that. That gave a really great feeling. The whole route to Jog from Shimoga was beautiful. We saw mountains, greenery, lakes, especially those lakes which had lotus plants were totally wonderful. Besides punctures, the other reason for our slow progress was because of our fetish for taking pictures. During the whole trip, we never missed an opportunity in taking pictures at nice places.
We reached Jog falls at around 6:30PM. The falls was not at its best. The water was much lesser than what I had seen during my earlier visits to Jog. What made us feel great was that we had completed more than half the distance of our trip. Yes, reaching Jog was a significant millstone of the journey.
We stayed at youth hostel, which is about half a kilometer from the falls. The accommodation at youth hostel was very good for the payment of hundred rupees we made. It’s highly recommended for those who are on a limited budget trip.
The fourth day began pretty late. We were very tired after cycling the previous day to Jog; hence we slept for more than eight hours. Though we had covered just about hundred kilometers, we felt that it was lot tougher than the other two days where we covered nearly 140kms each. We had our breakfast at Mayura restaurant, the same place we had our dinner previous night. At about 8:45 or so, after taking couple of pictures of the falls, we started the last stretch on NH206, which ends at Honavara. This stretch is one helluva route, it’s bloody awesome. We cycled across several hills. The whole route is Ghat section. So many climbs and so many descents, don’t remember how many we passed. In midst of all these, Jon’s back break got jammed. That was kind of depressing. We tried to fix it with whatever little tools we had. At a village called Gerusoppa, which is about 30kms from Jog, we request for oil and grease from a mechanic who had a shop there. The breaking system became little better because of the efforts we put at Gerusoppa. After that bit of repair, we continued cycling, even though it was raining heavily.
Jon and I had many discussions, debates and perhaps on a few occasion we indulged in a heated argument as well, on various things, not always on the trip issues, mostly on other general topics. One interesting discussion that we got into was while cycling from Gerusoppa to honnavara, regarding the statistically observed asymmetry of hair length between men and women, in relation to evolution theory. The discussion further lead to other observed asymmetries between men and women, like sense for direction, strength, beauty and also about the culinary skills. I remember during this stretch, we cycled just next to next, while it was raining heavily, and our argument progressing without any stoppages. I must tell Jon that I greatly enjoyed being engaged in all those discussions, during this trip as well as during our earlier trips too. Before we could logically conclude the discussion we reached Honavara, it was about three then.
We spent hardly half an hour or so at Honavara. We had idly vada and coffee at Kamath restaurant. The plan was to reach Gokarna, which is about 60kms from that place. We were on the legendary NH17, which goes on the coasts of Kerala, Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra. We reached Kumta, which is about 22kms from Honavara, in less than 45mins. We changed our plan after finding the route to be very flat. We decided to complete Karwar which is about 70kms from Kumta. We ripped hard, it was great fun to cycle at a deadly speed, making the automobile look slower, however that didn’t last for long. Soon we encountered hills that invariably reduced our speed to less than 12km/hr or so. We decided to settle to Ankola, which is 30kms before Karwar. Reaching Ankola wasn’t an easy thing either; we had to cycle in the night, while it was raining continuously, with a dim cycle light to help us maneuver on a road that was dominated by heavy duty trucks. That was little unsafe but we weren’t left with options. We reached Ankola by around nine, I guess. Thankfully the very first hotel we enquired gave us the accommodation at a reasonable price after the hotel person listened to our adventuresome story. The hotel room looked good in the first go; only later Jon realized the presence of bed bugs that kind of ruined his sleep. I had a good sleep though.
There was nothing much to plan for the fifth day. We were about 100kms from our final destination. Jon wanted to have lunch at his place, which looked little ambitious to me. We started our final day at 7:30AM from the hotel. The road continued to amaze us with variety of landscape through out the journey. The mountain on our way to Karwar is a really beautiful thing to witness. We got the first view of the sea when we were something like ten to fifteen kilometers from Karwar. The fact that we had cycled to Chennai from Bangalore before and now to Goa, gave us a sense of conquering the east coast and the west coast. The sea looked absolutely fantastic, especially near the Karwar beach. At around 10AM we made it to the Karwar city. We had a fairly heavy breakfast at a good restaurant called Savita. Before leaving the city we lubricated our cycle chains in a cycle shop. It was pretty hot when we left Karwar.
Jon’s cycle tyre got punctured yet again when we were just about 20kms from the Goa- Karnataka border; but for our luck this time there was a cycle shop in less than half a kilometer. The guy at the shop was very nice and knew Jon’s mother tongue that is Konkani. From then on Jon took care of the communication with the people we met, unlike before. After the puncture incident we pretty much knew that we wouldn’t be making it to the lunch at Jon’s place. Just before we reached the Karnataka – Goa border Jon expressed his interest in buying me a beer bottle at Canacona, the first Goan city on our way. I had never consumed alcohol more than 10ml in my entire life, and always refused to have when ever any of my friends asked, requested or even forced, however this time I responded to Jon with very positive YES with in a second or so. I knew that it was different this time. I wanted to make the event little larger thing by having it. I can’t really say whether it made any sense but for the next couple of days I had extra strong beer, white wine, red wine, triple x rum etc at Jon’s home. Well, it would require an altogether different article to write about the super great hospitality I got at Jon’s home, but for now I shall stick to the ride report.
Reaching the Karnataka – Goa border meant that our mission had nearly accomplished. I got good number of pictures of me crossing the border clicked by Jon. We reached Canacone by about 3PM or so. As I told you earlier we celebrated our feat by having a bottle of beer each. The beer tasted bitter for the first go, but was pretty good by the time I completed the bottle. It was kind of nice probably because I was fairly hungry and thirsty. We also had dosa in a south Indian restaurant and also an ice cream each before we left Canacone. Well, only after cycling few kilometers from Canacone we realized that we had not completed the toughest climb of the expedition. The stretch from Canacona to Margoa had very steep climbs which actually go on and on for long. Man that was really a test of patience. When we thought we have almost made it wasn’t actually done. Like-wise we also experienced great descent as well which in a way compensated. We took quite many pictures just before reaching Jon’s home as there was enough time for the sunset. We were pretty much celebrating by the time we reached Jon’s village. Jon took a video of us reaching his home. Jon’s parents, brother and his neighbors too were waiting with flowers and sweets when we reached his home. We got a pretty neat welcome from the whole group. Jon’s parents were very delighted to see us complete the dream expedition. We both actually looked like war heroes in all the snaps that were taken. We totally loved the attention, loved the fact that we did it. Well, that’s how our expedition ended. Would I like to say anything more? Yes, I do. Here it goes:
It all started with some kind of madness. Well, not all madness is a disease, some madness could be cure to a disease which you never knew you had or perhaps you never thought you could ever have, try catering to the madness in any case, believe me it’s a sexy awesome feeling when you actually indulge in it.
And yes, Cheers Jonathan! Man we made it!
