Read the blog to know about the 3 Cyclists who went through a tiger reserve.
We started from Bangalore at 10pm. 3 cycles under the bus and we had a good overnight journey to Dharwad( The peda city)
A quick morning shower and we were ready to do the first 100kms of the day. It was from Dharwad to Dandeli. Stopped at hotel annapoorna for some mouth watering Idly vada. The food tastes so good when you are cycling long distances.
Roads are fairly flat and with the soft touch of the morning sun we were at the borders of Haliyal and about to hit Dandeli. Perfect roads for road bikers though we were on MTBs.
We enter Dandeli and from this point onwards the colours and sounds of the jungle is refreshing. Cycling inside Dandeli is one of the best cycling routes in India. The tree canopy on the highway gives shade for over 100 kms for the cyclists.
We decide to take a longer route to see the SUPA DAM. Encountered some great uphills on the way to the dam. We need to climb those hills to get a view of the great Kali river.
We stayed at “KADUMANE”. An accommodation well away from the town of Dandeli. Deep inside the woods and frequented by animals. The stay was inside a “plant reserve” run by Mr Narashima who has been in Dandeli since Childhood and is very well versed with the flora and fauna of the forest.
After 117 kms and night’s rest we started off next morning towards KARWAR. We had to cross the Anshi Tiger reserve which was thickest part of the forest.
The second best reason for this route to be one of the best routes in India is because we have a 20 minutes downhill after you cross Anshi. Yes, 20 min of no pedaling and some breath taking views.
We finally hit sea level and we had about 20kms to reach our beach house accommodation called Majali beach resort. These 20 kms had to be covered under the sun and we were roasted. The stay on the beach looked something like this.
The journey from Karwar to Bangalore was in the bus again with our bikes under and us getting for a Monday morning meeting at the office.