Ride to Pune: A tale of adventure, fun and brotherhood

by Gowtham Kumar Injamuri (India)

Making a local connection India

What would you do? If your colleague has resigned and is moving to another city. You give him a farewell, probably go for dinner and drinks or pack him a gift or even drop him off at the airport. But what if that colleague is as crazy about traveling as you are and shares the same craziness about adventures & is more a brother from another mother than a colleague? You ride all the way and drop him off safely in the new city. So, this is about my ride from Bangalore to Pune with two of my best travel mates. The road from Bangalore to Pune is a pretty straightforward one of 800 Kms. But what's the fun in just riding on the highway. So, we decided to make it exciting by taking a major detour. So, we chose to ride to Pune via Karwar & Goa, mainly coz I wanted to explore the quaint little town of Karwar & the nightlife in Goa during November & ride through the lush green and dangerous Amboli Ghat. We started from Bangalore last at 10 PM, were amazed to see the kind of economic activity that was happening on the highway. Two pitstops, two cups of tea and navigating a sea of huge pieces of metal treading on rubbers later we reached Davangere. Davangere is famous for a lot of things but the Benne Dosa (Butter Dosa) here is, undoubtedly, world-famous. There's a folk tale in circulation among the locals about its popularity. When enquired, a native replied saying that in the past, the people from nearby villages came to Davangere to have the Benne Dosa and watch a movie in the theater closeby and many are said to have sold their inheritance by repeatedly doing it. This story seemed a little far fetched when I first heard it, but once I took a piece of the dosa and put it in my mouth, I had no questions about the authenticity of the folktale. That mouth-watering, buttery, crunchy and heavenly dosa is a must-try whenever you're in Davangere. We explored the farms of a colleague closeby before hitting the road again. It was in the afternoon by the time we started from Davangere. While the highway ride until Haveri was really peaceful and scenic with sunflower fields on the left, the diversion towards Sirsi at Haveri brought in trouble. It looked like the municipality had made excess speed breaker material and dumped it all on this stretch. The speedometer was just oscillating between 10 KMPH & 80 KMPH with a frequency of 30-40 seconds. With almost a broken back and an average speed of 40 KMPH, we reached Sirsi and took a tea break. Sirsi is an amazing place, it looks laid-back but is a gateway to some of the most beautiful waterfalls and hikes in the Uttara Kannada region. Because Sirsi is in the middle of a dense forest, the roads aren't that wide. We opened google maps just to check the progress. Google even suggested a different route from the one we had in mind. But we took the shortcut and started the ride on the Sirsi-Kumta road. We left the town and entered the forest area. It was sunset time so we pulled the visors down. We slowly rode through the not so wide but paved road and smooth bends. Then came a diversion and google maps suggested we take the narrow route. Although there was signage that directed us to continue on the same road for Karwar, we trusted google and took the narrow path. It was a single lane two-way road and the sun had almost set now, leaving the spaces between tree trunks and leaves with an orange tint. The forest kept getting denser as we moved ahead. After continuing for a while, we questioned our decision to trust google maps. The road revealed its true colors in the darkness, the orange tint now turned black. It was pitched darkness around and the road transformed itself into patchy one at first and then into a gravel-filled, frog infested, slippery nightmare. There wasn't enough traction but we kept going ahead, scared, tired, hopeful until we saw the forest check post.