A Lovely Day Ride

Its been 8 years now that I have moved into MS Palya and seldom I knew that my neighborhood was so beautiful. I had heard a lot about the cycling expedition to Hesarghatta Lake and the nearby GrassLand and also to the Nruthyagrama but never been able to do one, 29th being an holiday on occasion of EID I decided to have a saddle burn.

Its been a perfect EID to me , an early morning Cycle ride , fantastic weather , great music playing on my phone and my standby mobile camera acting as my primary lens helping me take some nice shots.My earlier plan was to leave at 7am in the morning but the lazy bum couldn wake-up and I started the ride as late as 8.30 in the morning , its an 18 odd km ride from my place and the roads are in perfect condition for a cycle ride.

Ride Through The Horticultural lands

After peddling for about 14kms I reached the Hesarghatta Lake , the wast lake was a reservoir built across the Arkavathy River , now its a dry lake and reportedly it was last found full way back in 1994 . More about the lake in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesaraghatta_Lake

Dry Hesarghatta lake

After visiting the lake , I headed towards the grasslands , from the lake its a 5km ride to the grasslands with no signboards , its better to esquire the locals the way to Nruthyagrama and the Hesarghatta Grassland is just 200mts before the nruthyagrama.

In reached the grassland , rested for a while , took a few photographs and also met a few students who had come there to shoot a film.

The Hesarghatta Grassland is a 300acre stretch and is the last left grassland in Bangalore.There were a few proposals from the government to convert this grassland into a state of the art film studio and a Golf Course , but the High Court of Karnataka has halted the construction plans. And its the need of the hour to save this wast grassland.

More Information on this :http://www.sanctuaryasia.com/campaigns/9182-keep-off-the-hesaraghatta-grassland.html

A Small Off Road trial before the grasslands

My Ride Resting @ the grassland

My Ride Resting @ the grassland

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After spending sometime at the Grassland I rode further to Nruthyagrama , though I did not enter the place but found it quite interesting and would for visit the place soon. From Nruthyagrama I headed straight to my home and gave my ass and back a much needed rest.

So with Cycling , photographing , editing , catching up with friends and blogging this was a EID holiday well.
spent , shall be back with more photographs and writing till then be well and god bless.

PS: All photos are taken from Galaxy Note 2

A Monsoon Ride To Lepakshi

52 days , a long time without a ride considering the last time I rode was a short ride , not that the ride I did this time was longer or i had been to a place which i never visited , but still this ride was different majorly because as the name suggests it was a monsoon ride we started at 7 in the morning and point being esteem mall. As always Kande (Karthik) was on time and we left sharp at 7. Did i mention that it was an unplanned ride,oh yes it was , we decided that we shall meet near esteem mall at 7 and we shall ride on. Firstly when we met we thought we shall ride to penkonda fort and by breakfast which we had at Kamath on the NH7 it was decided we gonna ride to Lepakshi.

Entrance Of the Veerabhadra Temple

The weather was at its best, drizzle and breeze , what a fine combination for an ideal ride. As we rode along the NH7 and passed the Nandi hills bypass the hillocks along the NH7 were just breathtaking , the fog filled hills made me to stop by and take a few photographs. 

A Misty Morning

Few kms from there was our breakfast point and we had a quick idli vada and lime tea. Kamath Yatrinivas along the NH7 is a recommended place for breakfast , the food is tasty and the service is quick. As mentioned earlier it was here we decided the destination as Lepakshi as against our initial plan of Penukonda fort.

50kms we rode along beautifully laid NH7 we reached the junction were we have to take left towards lepakshi , there is a AP tourism building there and also a signboard and an arch indicating the route towards Lepakshi. From this point Lepakshi is 16 kms ride with well laid down but narrow roads. We reached Lepakshi around 10.30 am , stopped for a few minutes near the nandi which happens to be the biggest monolithic nandi sclpture in India and reached the main temple which is a 200 mts from there.The Nandi has been positioned such that it faces the shivalinga shielded by a huge serpent inside the temple.

Shivalinga Shielded by serpant

Shivalinga Shielded by serpant

Lepakshi is a small village located in the Anantapur District, in Andhra Pradesh .Lepakshi is historically and archaeologically significant with three shrines dedicated to Shiva, Vishnu and Virabhadra  built by a ministers of Vijayanagara Empire called Veeranna and Viroopanna , the residing deity of the temple is Veerabhadra Swamy an associate of Lord Shiva according to hindu mythology who happens to be the family deity of Veeranna . the temple complex along with 3 lingas , Lord Vishnu also has Lord Ganesha , Godess Kali and Goddess Durga , the huge complex around the temple has beautiful carvings in according to the vijayanagara style.

Half Completed Mantap

Half Completed Mantap

Half Completed Mantap

Vijayanagar Style Architecture

Vijayanagar Style Architecture

Wide Angle of the beautiful incomplete mantap

We spent a good 2hrs at the temple clicking photographs , the ride back was beautiful with a lite drizzle all the way till home . A Sunday well spent . That’s it with this blog , hope u like the photographs , until next time when I ride to Hogenakkal falls , be well.