Tour de Self Edition 3: Leg 2

1 and 2 December 2024

Exploring the jungle in rain: Bangalore- Muthathi-Shivasamudram

by Saurabh Mittal with inputs from Chandra Prakash Agarwal 

The first leg of the Tour de Self 2024 edition 3 to Yercaud wasn't enough for 2024, and Chandra Prakash insisted on another multi-day ride, so I  planned a second leg for 2 days to Muthathi and Shivanasamudra from Bangalore. Chandra Prakash and Aditya, enjoying a holiday break, joined me on this ride on the 1st and 2nd of December 2024.  The objective was to explore waterfalls, forests and  water bodies in Mandya district.

Ranjan, another cyclist, had earlier suggested to cover Muthathi, BR Hills and Mysore. I checked the route and sought validations for road conditions and safety in a cycling WhatsApp group. We figured out that BR Hills was forbidden to cyclists and Mysore was too far.  Shivanasamudra was nearer and could be coupled with Muthathi conveniently.

I packed everything the previous night using the list from leg 1. The route has a challenging rolling terrain and it was drizzling all night. Anxious and not able to sleep, I checked my phone at 1 am to discover that cyclone Fengal had hit the coast of India, severely affecting Pondicherry and nearby coastal areas. It was raining at 5 am but that did not change our determination.

Aditya was waiting at his house and we started towards Electronic City. We got lost for a while near NICE Road, as I was following my own plan ignoring the route planned in Komoot. The wet surface due to rains resulted in me falling while carrying my bicycle in an attempt to cross a compound wall (typical cyclist mentality to save time). Luckily I was not hurt. I was more worried about Aditya as he was moving slowly and his raincoat was causing discomfort.

On day 1, we planned to meet Chandra Prakash (who started from his home in Sarajapura simultaneously) at the IIM Bangalore Jigani campus, and continue from thereon together. The plan was to meet at IIM Bangalore at 6.45 am. However, we converged at the meeting point only by 8.15 am (delayed by rains, our initial misadventures and wrong routing  of Google Maps used by Chandra Prakash). While we were running late by 1.5 hours, but it was not concerning because we had time buffer. We started towards Harohalli via Tattekere (Bannerghatta). We avoided Kanakapura town and took an internal route to arrive at Dodda Marla Wadi. Aditya encountered a loose side stand wanting urgent attention. He wanted to avoid any further problems, so removed the stand at a local cycle shop. We stopped for breakfast, but finding boiled eggs was a challenge due to Amavasya (no moon day).  After inquiring with several locals, we found boiled eggs in a small restaurant, while Chandra Prakash ate dosas and thatte idli at a food stall.

Unsure about cycling permissions on the forest route, we started towards Muthathi after the fulfilling breakfast. We reached the Kanakapura Highway and moved towards Sathanur, aiming for Muthathi. At 1 pm, Aditya felt discomfort at Sathanur bus stop and considered the possibility of returning home. After a short break, we continued together.  We asked an auto driver about hotels in Muthathi and he mentioned a Hanuman temple at the bottom of Muthathi and a market with lodging options. He warned us that the next 15 kilometers was completely downhill riddled with uncertain road conditions.

From Satanuru, we took a left turn towards Muthathi, and the road became a forest trail. We reached a forest check post, where a guard warned us about elephants and the practically non-existent road. We decided to continue and the downhill ride was exhilarating.  It was a pristine forest with solitude views and no sun.

Two forest department officials on a motorbike informed us of even worse roads ahead. I wondered how bad could it be, because we had already cycled 7 kilometers into the forest with gravel surface.  Soon we realized that the road was being built and it was layered up with loosely packed construction aggregates. This was even more uncomfortable than gravel. We encountered a few construction workers who warned us about elephants too.  But hoping that we could reach the bottom before the sun goes down, we continued having no specific plan in mind. 

There were many monkeys running along, as we descended  the roads. I was scared that a monkey would jump over or in front of my bicycle. When we reached the bottom towards Muthathi settlement around 3 pm, we saw the beautiful river. I was amazed to see deer running across the road.  The Muthathi town was fenced and manned by forest guards. We saw picnickers cooking rice on firewood, along the banks of the river. At any picnic spot, I have not failed to see the consumption of gutka (betel/tobacco chewing) and beer. 

We looked for halting options and found 3 of them - one being a dark room, one smelling of alcohol and the other was claustrophobic. I chose the claustrophobic lodge, as the room was on the first floor with ventilation. It was dirt cheap  - INR 500 per night for 3 people. This temple town settlement was deep into the forest along the river bank and had the Anjaneya (Hanuman, Muthathiraya) Temple. We came to know that this temple  was maintained by Puneeth Rajkumar's wife's family.  It attracted huge crowds due to the popularity of the Kannada actor Puneeth Rajkumar, who passed away in 2021.  Chandra Prakash and Aditya were hungry and ate ragi balls (ragi mudde) and chicken kebab respectively at an eatery, while I took a stroll at the river which was littered with pooja items, flowers, immersed idols, plastic water bottles and beer bottles. It was only 5 pm and it had started to get dark. It hadn't rained much since morning, but had started to rain now. We wanted to explore a bit more and went to the other side of the river with  our bicycles, to chill out a bit, before dinner was served.

On the other side, we saw monkeys stealing beer from a stash of food of picnickers. It was dramatic since the monkeys chose the beer as the first preference. The idiotic picnickers threw empty beer bottles at the monkeys in hope of getting their alcohol back, but to no avail. It became such a commotion in the serene tranquility of the nature that we had been enjoying for a few hours. We were completed drenched and unsettled by the hullabaloo of the monkeys (or rather the picnickers), we decided to go back to our accommodation to charge our mobile phones. 

Muthathi is extremely remote and does not have any mobile networks. There are landline phones available with a few shopkeepers, which served as the communication channel for the locals. The hotels and shops here are not listed on Google Maps, and there is no utility of that without internet connectivity. The remoteness of the place was surprising and made us worried of running out of the limited paper currency carried by us in the absence of ditigal means. We called our spouses using telphone to inform that we are alive and well. A really remote place to be.

Our host had promised to serve us food of our choice and I was delighted. I wanted to eat country chicken (nati koli). Food should be ordered 30 minutes in advance to allow them time for preparation.  Our host took us to his friend's food stall, where a couple was preparing food. The couple had stayed in Mandya in the past and had worked in restaurant business. The couple were adept at cooking and understood our dietary preferences quickly. They insisted I have mutton instead of the country chicken, because it would be difficult to find a country chicken in such a remote place with the heavy rain. They only had the egg-laying hen breed (a cross-bred with the country chicken and was not a delicacy for eating). I agreed for my specific recipe of the mutton (with minimal spices and  chillies, only to later realise that Aditya was not comfortable eating red meat).  He decided to give the mutton a try but couldn't swallow the texture of the mutton. He loved the mutton soup though. Chandra Prakash being a vegetarian ordered chowmein and ragi mudde and was satisfied with the preparation. We had a nice chat with the eatery owners in Kannada and I had to  upgrade my Kannada levels. It was a friendly evening with the locals.

 The rain was incessant when we were done with the dinner. Despite rains, we took a brief visit to the temple.

On day 2, we planned to go to Shiavansamudram from Muthathi.  It had rained heavily through out the night resulting in an overnight power outage. We realised that our mobile phones ad power bank were half charged and would be out of power soon.

We started the climb of 20 kilometers from Muthathi to Halaguru at 8 am. I did not realize that I had left one of my bag at the lodge. The lodge owner came on his motorcycle to return my bag. I was overwhelmed with his hospitality.  At a river viewpoint, we stopped a car to request the driver to take our photograph. The driver and the co-passenger did not mind stopping to help us and enjoyed a brief chat with us. The next 3 km were excruciating uphill climb followed by a  gradual climb for 10 kilometers. 

At Halaguru, we reached the Kanakpura-Mallavalli-Kollegalla highway. We continued towards Mallavalli for a few kilometers before stopping for a heavy brunch. I had a bunch of boiled eggs as usual, while others had dosa. We had multiple round of tea and coffee while drying ourselves at the restaurant. This break of over an hour and a half also provided us time to charge our phones and power bank.The continuous heavy rains tempted us to consider an option of returning back to Bangalore directly, skipping Shivasamudram(91 kilometers from Halaguru). Nonetheless, we continued further, ignoring the rain. 

We took a left to the country side road  towards Shivasamudram. I had initially planned Gaganachukki  and Shivasamudram waterfalls. These waterfalls on the Cauvery river are often compared to the gigantic Niagra waterfall of US, due to their voluminous water flow during the rainy season. We enjoyed the scenic beauty and the cool weather along the man made canal.  The canals fed Minera hydroelectric powerplant and also along BWSSB water supplies. The road was flat and more than10 kilometers along the canal. We also saw the filling of water into pipes for fresh water supply to Bengaluru. 

We crossed several other water bodies - canals, reservoirs and rivers. The continous downpour made it a true watery experience. It was foggy and we could observe clouds descending over the hills. The water was crystal clear and is supplied to many cities as potable drinking water. There are endless roads and waterfalls to explore in this region. We saw government quarters, which were very old, and the government colonies with dak bunglows (guest houses) for BWSSB employees. There are multiple hydroelectric power houses in that region.

The cycling terrain in Shivasamudram is flat and close to river streams with broken roads. We went over an old bridge over the Cauvery river. The bridge was narrow and only 1 bus can pass over at a time.  The synchronised driving on this bridge where one bus waits while another bus crosses was commendable.  We realised that Kollegala bus stand was 10 kilometers away with a possibility to find buses to Bengaluru. This gave us the freedom to visit all the water falls in the region. We first went to Gaganchukki waterfall, where we met the family and friends of  a professor from NIT Suratkal. They were very excited to have a conversation with us cyclists. In India, long distance cycling has started attracing a lot of respect. Then we went to Shivasamudram waterfall. Both waterfalls are similar in terms of the massive volume of water they have. En route, we saw an old temple, but we had no time to visit it. 

It was getting dark and we put on the front and rear lights.  The rains forced us to drop the plan to go to Kollegala bus stand and go to Malavalli where the frequency of buses to Bangalore was higher. We should have prepared well for night rides and should have carried proper highway lights with us. We stopped at a small shop where I purchased peanuts. The spice level of the peanuts was beyond our tolerance level. To satisfy the hunger, I washed the masala peanuts with water to reduce the spiciness. We also drank hot milk, and ate biscuits to replenish our energy levels. As we were short of bright lights, we rode together for 20 kilometers in a tandem manner until Malavalli. At 7 pm, we had difficulties in finding a vehicle ride back to Bangalore. After a long wait and requests to multiple bus drivers, we were able to find a bus to Harohalli. From Harohalli, we took a bus to Bangalore and we reached Banashankari bus stop at 10 pm. It was raining cats and dogs. I realized that my front shifter had been damaged in transport, and I would have to ride cross chained to my home. It was barely manageable and Aditya and I rode 10 kilometers to HSR layout to our homes. Chandra Prakash took an auto ride to Sarjapura (30 kilometers from Banashankari bus stop). 

This trip was a memorable adventure, filled with challenges and beautiful experiences that I hadn't experienced in my last 10 years of cycling. We rode for 95 kilometers on the second day with non-stop rain. The entire trip was ultra economical with the per head cost being less than INR 1,250, and concluding 2024 ultra-lightweight bike packing episode for this year.

#cyclingtakesyoutonewplaces