Galibore report
Weekend ride to Galibore on 10.02.2008
10.2.2008
Morning 7:00, attendance marked and found 5 of us present at the BTM petrol bunk as planned earlier. Meppa, Moshaii, JSR, myself Jo, and our very well wisher Kar to ride with us till our breakfast point and see us off. The Bypanahalli railway crossing delayed me and moshaii for more than 15 min. One soul did not pick the phone and JSR recollected from his previous experiences that it’s the sign that the soul is still “resting in peace” and is a go ahead sign for others.
Decided breakfast point was kanakpura. JSR was found trying to stop much before that, responding to the call for refueling. His personal fuel level seemed much bellow the reserve. The previous day’s alcohol would have melted down and gasified whatever possible solid fuel he’s had and would have gone like fumes out into the free space. But he moved with the crowd to stretch till Kanakpura for breakfast. At the restaurant 5 idli vadas and one extra vada each for all but JSR... That’s the amazing part of the breakfast story. Anyway he was in full throttle after that. Kar took a U turn. We headed straight.
Few stops to ask for directions and we are at Sangam safe and sound with full energy and enthusiasm. The roads are tempting.. Narrow stretches, full of potholes and rough patches.. Most of the time leaving us up on foot pegs…
The pack stopped at sangam. Me followed by JSR headed to the sand and then close to the water. Moshaii and Meppa’s wtf look did not last for long. They too are there in the $#it. I can’t forget JSR’s comment when I got down to guide him to cross the river… “Da, are you going to send me to other side and you guys going to stay here?“ That suddenly reminded me of the procedure of abandoning unwanted kittens and puppies mostly at the other side of some river or stream making them impossible to come back and find the owner's house. I said, “No Duda, we follow you to any hell“. Good, the photographer is now on the other side and we followed. Moshaii counted the “phishes” he went over while crossing. The latest information is that there are few final calculations to be completed before publishing the final count.
The next stage seemed quite eventful. The sand dune didn’t seem like letting us through easily like the river did. Few events there are beyond explanation. Moshaii’s left right left right bike dance step is inspirational to any choreographer. He made some offerings to the sand dunes – few crystal glass pieces in return to the nicest time and experience.
The other side, a watch man at the check post to the wilderness asked us 100 bucks each under the table to go past the check post with bikes. We imagined one of our fingers raised up in the air and kissing him good bye. Crossed the river back in search of “non check posted” wilderness and found very good ones. That was Galibore area. That was a good decision. I had been to the check posted area and that is not different from the Galibore wilderness and off roads. Probably Galibore is more apt for biking and more exploration. The sangam side is crowded with tourists and lover couples all around like those mosquitos at JSR’s house porch in the evenings at HSR Layout. No place for a biker to open the throttle of his heart with peace of mind.
On the way we had to squeeze pass thorough few Wipro (office team outing) busses blocking the narrow road. Moshaii recollects one girl who was about to step down from one of the busses, seeing JSR popping out from the wild and coming straight to her, suddenly put herself into reverse gear and disappeared back inside the bus. She would have recovered from her initial shock after we all passed by and would have asked others “why are these maniacs riding baked in those space suits when there are air-conditioned busses with push back seats to travel”… We saw the local civilization (probably) welcoming the wipro civilization with drum beats same as that happenin in some funeral processions. (They would need to do things like this and more... After all the package to stay there for one day is around 1600 bucks)
The mud road offered us a wonderful time. We put our anchors at a shore. There Meppa was found flirting with few dogs… Oh let me correct myself… he was found with few dogs and what he was doing with them is still a debatable subject. Let me not get into that now. That all I leave to human imagination to interpret.
We had our lunch back at sangam, a decent restaurant with good food, facility and staff with the right attitude to serve. It was when we all finished our lunch and chilling under the trees, a group of Xboys emerged out of nowhere and got pissed to see our bikes line up. Thankfully it seemed they all were too hungry for much show offs and soon disappeared inside the restaurant.
The return ride… as exiting as the morning ride… around 4 or 4:30 we are back at JSR’s place for the much awaited golden colored drink comes in bottle labeled with some king bird on it.
One fantastic ride;
Everyone kept the rider behind in his R Mirror;
Effective signaling;
Small group with a good formation ride;
Everyone fully ‘armored’…
I enjoyed it very much.
And, those who missed may come out to the terrace at night, lie down looking at the sky and start counting the stars from one side to the other and keep repeating it till you get the same count two consecutive times. This exercise should give good relief to the pain... :D
