01 May 2013

Anchetty Again

Five of us rode the Anchetty Brevet Route to check (and update if required) the cue sheet ahead of the June 1 BRM. We had planned to ride as fast as possible, at least within randonneuring limits, but ended up making a super relaxed ride of it.

A mud road descending into Anchetty from Jawalagiri



Three of us - Sree, Bharath and self - started at 6AM from Campus. Karthikeyan and Nayan were to join us at the NICE Road interchange on Kanakapura Road. I had ridden to Anchetty twice earlier - one on a general ride and one to recce this route We made good time till Harohalli, where we had a relaxed breakfast. The road climbs a little immediately after Harohalli, and then descends all the way till a little after Maralvadi, and we made good time (other than a slight delay owing to a flat). In maralvadi we caught up with another group of cyclists - somehow we never figured out who they were or where they went.

After Maravladi the road descends and crosses a lake on the left - and this is where the first real climbs start. Soon the road enters the protected forest region - there are boards signed "Bannerghetta National Park" and electric fences along the road.

A panoramic  photo of the forest road to Thalli via Dodda Maralvadi

Soon we reached the turnoff to Talli, at which point there is fan-tas-tic descent, and shortly after we crossed the border into Tamil Nadu. From this point on we had to climb nearly 200m to get to Talli (which is at roughly the same elevation as Bangalore)!



At Talli we took a long relaxing break for some nice lunch, after which we set off towards Anchetty. This stretch crosses Jawalagiri and passes through another stretch of forest. 


Mud road just before Anchetty
Close to Anchetty (about 10km away) we split up to explore the two alternative routes we had come to recce. Another flat on the way delayed our arrival in Anchetty even further. We had good experience of lack of food in Anchetty, so after a brief halt to refill water and have some refreshments we pushed on to Denkanikottai. This being the third time I was climbing up the ghat from Anchetty to Denkanikottai it felt much easier.


On the way we stopped at "The Tree" (8 km from Denkanikottai). By the time we reached Denkanikottai it was dark. We kept going, and crossed Attibele by about 9.30, and reached IISc shortly after midnight.

4 comments:

Arvind said...

hi.. you said there is a mud road before Anchetty. is that road-bikeable?
or only mtbs can do it?

Abhijit Kshirsagar said...

The route we did has definitely been done on a bike with thin (28mm IIRC) tires by someone else.

Arvind said...

thank you.
is the mud road still there in the final route which has been decided?

Abhijit Kshirsagar said...

The mud road is not part of the Brevet route.