35 km bike ride

It was Durga's first visit to our new home. We hoped she enjoyed her vacation here. In one week at Dharwad she had come out on 4 bicycle rides, saw a fabrication unit, saw Khadi Kendra at Garag, visited a village, began crochet lessons, and started reading Ramayana. Deepak joined us on July 2nd. We had planned a ride for the morrow. We have three bikes with us and we needed four for the ride. I borrowed a friend's bike for a day. My heartfelt thanks to Raju for his timely help.

July 3, 2021
We were up by 3-15 am and ready to start the ride by 5-15. We took one of our usual routes ...Toll Naka BRTS Stop - U-Turn just after Ozone - Jubilee Circle - Mini Vidhana Soudha - KCD Circle - Haliyal Naka - Dasankoppa junction - German Hospital - Police HQ Ground ...we took a short break at the ground. Then we proceeded towards Hire Malagiwad where we stopped at Sri Mallikarjuna Gudi. Pushpa went in for a darshan. Deepak's bike, a well used Montra Blue, had a minor issue, the mudguard was lose. The issue was fixed in a minute with a keychain Swiss Army knife.

Riding back towards Dharwad...

...Deepak was riding after two years but he was doing well. The bike Deepak was riding, a Montra Blue was 15 years old yet its gear system worked like new. Our next stop was a kilometer away.

Whenever we are on this route, we usually stop at this temple- Panduranga & Guddada Veeranjaneya Devastana -for some time. The white colored canine recognized us and Durga was quick to give him a treat of Parle-G. The canine finished off one full pack, very demanding guy he is.

The two temples axis are perpendicular to each other. The point where the two axes meet is where this Peepul tree stands. It must be a 7 to 8 YO tree. Morning walkers love to sit under this tree before starting their return leg.

This was one spot we could get a group photo. We tried taking a selfie including the bikes, simply did not work. To our luck, the temple priest's daughter Kavita came, still sleepy eyed. Pushpa and I had met her earlier. That's Pushpa teaching Kavita how to frame the picture and shoot. The canine is curious.. hey, include me too!

This is Kavita's capture. Thank you little one.

The next part of the route is my favorite. Its a dirt track with flanked by greenery. This road runs parallel to Dharwad-Hubli bypass road and hits Dharwad-Goa at Kelageri village. On Goa road we saw a few solo riders and a group of ten or so teenagers out on their bicycles. Somewhere on the way we had decided to touch 30 km mark. To stretch the route I decided to head towards Karnataka University campus. Instead of taking vehicle's route, we rode along Kelageri shoreline which ends at a locality.

The ride through the locality was uphill, a series of left & rights until we reached Dharwad-Haliyal road. The road into the university campus too is an uphill one. Deepak was lagging behind at places but he was consistent and determined. Into the campus the first thing we did was to stop at Nandini outlet for a tiny cup of Badam flavored milk. Deepak and Durga hadn't seen Krishnae Ficus. We rode down along the fence and found a gap, in we went with the bikes straight to the tree. With one month of heavy rains, the garden had become a jungle. It was beautiful! 

Our next destination was an uncle's place. On the way out of the campus, the railway crossing was closed. The wait wasn't a long one, less than five minutes.

As we resumed our journey, Deepak suggested we have breakfast. Yes, it was a good idea. I quickly shortlisted a few decent eateries and selected the one near Lakshmeshwar Gardens. There was some confusion while ordering and ended up eating more than I intended to. Anyway, the next leg was a short ride to Mama's place where we spent around 30 minutes. The four bikes- two Montras and two Firefoxes. Good bikes!

The final leg is going to be a bit of torture because of full tummies, long break and city traffic. Nothing could be done about the first two, there was a way to deal with the third one.. take a slight round about with few uphill stretches. Never mind the uphill roads, safety was more important. We reached home around 9-00. Here's a screenshot from Pushpa's phone.

Never realized we touched speeds of 30 kmph. I guess that was on Dharwad-Malagiwad road.

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