A Western Ride

It had been months since we stepped out of our quarantine zone, the travel bug in me started to itch. Seeing this, my friend devised a genius plan so that we can deceive our parents into tricking we were trekking a hill which was 50 km away. Being the wanderlusters we are, they granted us given that we were hygienic and are back before curfew time. After seeing they have fallen for our trap, we now had to decide the route for the estimates. We decided to hear the mountains calling within our self.

The time had come, all packed for our post-lock down ride into the lush full western ghats of India. Riding after months even on a monotonous road has joy-filled, Daktari was filled with fuel up to the brim after ages. Lack of fitness took a toll on us after a 100 km stretch, this was a sign of ageing I would say xD. After relaxing all our muscles with yoga on the road, we rode to close the gap between our adventitious destination. As we were closer, the torrential rain had worsened the roads and now our body was getting battered parallelly.

Soon the roads started to open up to let us experience the hidden beauty the valleys concealed. Riding through the roads which abut the mountain was a clear bliss even though we had done it various times, every curve had a greater view to offer. Now our stomachs were growling, as we had already packed our food with us, we just had to wait for a perfect place to have a meal. Eventually, we found a way that reaches the Netravati river, there we knew it was a perfect spot to munch. After filling our hungry stomach, we head on to Bisle Ghat, the curves kept getting better and better with green trees creating a canopy-like they were welcoming us. Reaching Bisle View Point, we saw the crowd and decided not to risk ourselves, so we just rode on to get a better vantage point. After stopping for our travel photos and giving our butts a rest, we asked around for a place called "Patla Betta", an old man directed us, many bikers were already at the starting point. Seeing this we decided to ride instead of hiring a jeep to reach the top. The hill was very steep and it posed as a hurdle to us in often, but we were audacious to reach the top. After a battle, we reached the top. All the mountains were lush as if a green saree was draped over them. The cold breeze grazed past our face and making it to our spine to give us a thrill of amazement.

Even though we wanted to stay and build a house over there, we had to leave to get back to our reality. The descend was scary at the same time filled with adrenaline. Moving the centre of gravity to the back of the bike to gain more traction while going down was painful but helpful. After spending around 20 minutes getting down, we realised we were going to be late. As soon as we were about to head to Bangalore, the downpour slowed our progress, it continued to shower down on us for another 2 hours. The curfew time was set, knowing we couldn't delay any further we rode in the rain not thinking about the consequences of a fever that would get us. Around 9 we reached home safely and completely drenched. After a steaming shower and hot food, we decided to call it a good-hard day.