Monsoons of Karnataka - Photos of a Ride in the Rain

Since I bought the cycle last year, maybe even much before that, I had a dream. To ride in the rains. But never got around to doing so. When the opportunity came this year I wasn't about to let go of the chance to fulfill my dream and how!

Words will fall short to explain the joy of riding in the rain. Only those who have experienced it will know. I was adamant this time, not to take the easy way out, to shoot even when it rains and so I did. And that my  friends, is why I present to you a photo-essay on the awesome monsoon experience in 20 images.

Route followed -

Madikeri - Mandalpatti - Madikeri - Basavanahalli - Kushalnagar

Morning in Madikeri. Before breakfast, I wandered onto the highway to capture some scenery. The road looked lovely, since it was a Saturday, there was a lot of activity of school going kids. I just watched people pass by, sometimes I took a shot.

Then we started the ride after a heavy breakfast at East End Hotel. But two of us managed to get lost in the town while the rest proceeded towards the destination. With great difficulty both of us got rid of the traffic and the town to reach this beautiful road. From now the ride was nothing but awesome. Oh btw, it was raining already. :)

Biking through the back country roads was so much fun! The roads had no traffic, winding through estates, villages and unending greenery. I kept singing to myself "This is the Life!".

Riding along the green fields, it was THE DREAM!
By now, we caught with Girish. So now it was me, him and Nitin on the lovely trail.

With views like this, I couldn't care less about the long ride ahead to the Mandalpatti Peak. We stopped and took photos, in the Rain!

We climbed to reach half way to the peak. CAM guys were also riding along the same route that day. They finished the ride and we had just started, we were about to have an adventure as I knew it.

From the previous point, the road took a turn for worse according to most but it was awesome according to us. For it was in such bad shape, the MTB was used to its full potential. After the dense misty forest, came the open misty mountain tops. Riding here too was the Dream! Actually most of the ride was dreamlike. :)

It rained like crazy while we were cycling up. The winds were throwing me off balance and the visibility was as low as 2-3 meters. I could hear voices as I cycled up. Only much later I could make out the faint silhouette of the other riders in the distance. Mandalpatti was a kilometer more from here.

I was walking alone in the mist. I didn't know if my friends had gone ahead on cycles or if they were even headed this way. I just kept walking in the drizzle. I could see a faint figure of giant branches through the mist. As I got closer it was this magnificent tree that took my breath away. I met my friends there too. We took lots of photos as you can see.

As the rain increased, the drama didn't stop still. It was 4.30pm and we had a long ride down an back to Madikeri. But we kept taking more photos. :)
Off-roading in the rain on our way back was surely one of the highlights of the ride. The rain was lashing and the gradient was crazy. I kept using my front brake instead of the back brake but my guardian angels were looking over me and nothing happened. Only next day I came to know of my great folly! Once we reached the base of the mountain at around 6.30pm we had more to cycle to reach Madikeri. In the night, with no torches, few of us scrambled our way up through the uphills and downhills to reach Madikeri. The day was well spent.

The next morning three of us visited the Royal Tombs at Madikeri and started the ride towards Kushalnagar via Arangi Backwaters.

Now this one's a thinker. Is it a T- junction or a Y-junction or a Y-junction? Go figure!

Soon after Madikeri, we joined the highway to Kushalnagar and the roads were so awesome I can't tell you! It was a comfortable gradient, enough for you not to pedal and also enough for you not to worry about going too fast. The smooth ride lasted for more than an hour. Somewhere along the way we realized we took the wrong route and that we missed the backwaters. Knowing that the rest of the team would've visited backwaters, we thought "aaj kuch toofani karte hain!". We pestered the shopkeeper en route until he gave us a viable alternative to the backwaters. 

The shopkeeper told us about a village called Basavahalli, 6 kms into the deviation from the highway that would lead us to backwaters. 5 kms before Kushalnagar we took left to find the most beautiful route. Not knowing what lay ahead added to the excitement. We took a random trail to reach this small pond.

Again back in the country trails, the monsoon greenery was strikingly beautiful. Small roads, no traffic and pretty sights was what we saw for the next few hours.

So who wants to camp here?

We entered a Wildlife Reserve too. The wet bark of the trees and the fresh color of the leaves was extremely picturesque. We stopped to take more photos but still didn't know if there was a lake or backwaters at all around. We kept cycling anyway.

Have Camera! Will Shoot! That's me btw. :)

And then out of nowhere, we spotted this huge expanse of backwaters far from the road. We couldn't contain our excitement as we got closer. The monsoons had the water level rising. If you see, the telephone wires are half under water! The mountains were in the far distance and the lake seemed to be everywhere. The joy of following the unknown is that you will be ecstatic anyway, since you didn't you know what to expect to begin with.

The ride back was nothing short of legendary either. It started pouring heavily as we rode towards Kushalnagar. Riding in heavy rains, in the forest, water splashing all over, brilliant downhills, I mean that is the dream! Drenched in the rains to the core, bones were shaken to the core,( thanks to the offroading) I had the most awesomest ride yet!