[nandita_bayan21]

Couple of weekends without a ride can easily make Atul and I bored and restless. Atul on a vacation to his hometown and me loaded with office works, put us off the riding radar for some couple of weeks. Hence the very next weekend Atul was home, we decided to go for a quick spin on Hulk. Vani Vilasa Sagara Dam was a place both of us wanted to venture for a long time but was just not happening. Hence, last Sunday (10th Dec 2017) we agreed to tick this place off as well. Plan was very simple, ride to the dam, explore the place and return home by noon. Atul filled in petrol the previous night, also we did some quick essentials packing for the ride like the camera, first aid kit, tool kit, etc.

Sunday morning around 6am we started from our home, took Bannerghatta road, reached NICE road and rode towards Tumkur road exit (paid a toll of Rs 48). The weather was perfect for an early morning ride with cool breeze, blanket of fog, dew on the grass and open highway. Though it was getting cold initially but as soon as the Sun started peeping out from the clouds it became quite pleasant. However, for some reason, traffic today on the Bangalore Pune highway was too much. Covering a distance of 150kms, around 9am we stopped by at a restaurant to have our breakfast, the place was called ‘Kaveri Veg’. Parked our bike just to see that the place was too crowded and the restaurant is serving just idly, puri and tea/coffee. Whether to stay and eat here itself or go ahead find another place? After some thinking we decided to stick to this place and quickly have our breakfast with whatever available food. Ordered idly, puri and tea. Idly was half cooked and puri was oozing out liters of oil, chutney sambar and curry was almost over, a situation to be completely pissed off but then we saw the helpless plight of the people working there (just three people doing all the job – cooking, serving, taking orders, cleaning the tables, payments, everything yet they were so calm and had a smile on their face) and decided not to complain. A rest of 45 mins, paid the bills and started our ride towards the dam – it was some 50 kms away.



From the highway we took a diversion near Hiriyur town and the dam was another 25 kms from here. This state highway is really beautiful as one can see an array of windmills at a distance, all standing up as an army along the mountain ranges, green vegetation and country side houses and corn farms. But then thanks once again to Google Maps, it took us through a wrong short cut and we ended up in some village far away from the dam. Navigating through the map and asking the locals, we somehow reached the main entry of the dam. The wrong direction nearly wasted 30 mins of our time and some additional 25 kms. But the view of the dam was worth that extra miles and time. We reached here by 10:30am.

Vani Vilasa Sagara Dam, also known as Mari Kanive Dam is considered as one of the oldest dam of Karnataka and constructed across the river Vedavathi by the Mysore Maharajas before independence. The dam is an exquisite work of architecture and engineering marvel, considering the fact that it was built some eight decades ago. It provides water to the surrounding cities, villages, towns and farm lands. The dam is surrounded by mountain ranges, dense forest covers known to be an area producing medicinal plants. The historic Maarikaamba temple at the foot of the dam also attracts a lot of tourists. Apparently forest department are taking up plans to restore the adjacent forest areas and develop this dam as one of the major tourist attraction of Karnataka.


























We roamed around the surrounding areas, clicked pictures and enjoyed the silence and serenity for a while. There were not many people who visit this dam, so one can take time and embrace Mother Nature in tranquility. While we were here, a group of young school kids came for an excursion, accompanied by their teachers to see and learn the significant importance of the dam. Around 11:45am we decided to head back home, with Sun coming out in full strength it started getting too hot. By the way, there are many care takers who would come, try to strike a conversation and eventually ask for money. We paid to one of them, another three came, this time we declined to pay. Nonetheless, we got ready, geared up and started the ride. On our way we stopped by at a location and did some quick photo shoot of Hulk and the beautiful road.







The remaining part of the ride was too exhausting as it was getting too hot (we were sweating in the month of December) and both of us were trying to push each other so as not to fall asleep. The ride through the highway was too boring. In order to do away with sleep, we stopped by at the Karjeevanahalli toll booth, had some quick snacks and tea. Around 2:30pm we crossed Nelamangala and entered Bangalore city limits. Once again took the Nice Road (paid toll of Rs 48) and exited for Bannerghatta road. As usual Bannerghatta road welcomed us with heavy traffic, even at that point of a Sunday afternoon. 3:30pm and we were home.

A quick simple ride just to get refreshed and keep going for the remaining week. The trip ODO read 433kms!

[atul.ktm]

Nandita has started her own YouTube channel. We will be posting all our travel videos over here. Be sure to check it out

Here is the video for the Vani Vilas Sagar Dam ride:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8u7beaUI4Lo&t=271s

PS: We didn't have a GoPro/action camera during this ride, the footage was shot entirely on iPhone 6 plus. Now that we have a GoPro Hero 5 Black at our disposal, hopefully the future videos would be better!