The Psychelist: Impromptu Ride to Hessaraghatta

I've been falling behind on my ride reports, but I'll try to catch up before 2014. Here's one about a sunday ride last month, to Hessaraghatta and Madhure.

There was no route or distance planned - we headed out towards Hessaraghatta deciding to play it by ear. It was quite cold all morning, there was even a slight drizzle till while we were on pipeline road. When we stopped for a quick chai at our regular bakery we saw team cars and riders heading to the month's BBCh race. This month it was an XC race, starting at the eco resort "Our Native village" near Hessaraghatta.

After a quick look at the lake we decided to head to the race start to see all the riders in action. Unfortunately, a missed the turn, and (mis-)guided by Google Maps roamed around for a while before we finally found it.

"Our Native Villave" describes itself as an eco-resort. It is tucked away in a quiet little spot just north of Hessaraghatta, and is probably fancier among places I have visited on my bicycle tours. After a brief breakfast of Idli-sambar, we started off towards Madhure.

Not wanting to take the usual (populaire) route past the CFSRI, we consulted Google Maps which showed a trail of sorts running towards Madhure. Both of us were on mountainbikes, so we had no qualms about taking even the small trails along or through the fields. In a couple of places we had to dismount and push, in others we had to backtrack and consult the GPS/Map. We came out onto a village road which then took us to Madhure. This lake, too, had water, although not as much as Hessaraghatta. These lakes are visited by a number of migrant bird species in the winter, but we did not spot any.