Cycling Elephants and Fishy Fables

[Parag Patankar]

I did the Kagglipura-Harohalli-Jigani loop around the periphery of the Bannerghatta National Park yesterday, felt good to do a Long Ride and Long Write After a Long Break.

Me-Triumphantly: "I climbed non-stop from Harohalli to Jigani, and without even using the Granny Gears!"

Wife: "So you are finally a Cycling Yogi?"

Me: "No, it is the hand of God."

W: "Midlife crisis turning you into a Religious nut, or a football fan?"

Me: "Actually  God-Curry's men flattened the climbs, in improving the road for truckers."

Eavesdropping Eco-activist son: "What about the Elephants?"

Cycle on to read the full tale

[Ali Poonawala]

Good writing and cycling too ..Ragihalli route had lot of granite mining when I did it 10 years ago...has that changed ?

Warm regards 

Ali

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[Parag Patankar]

Thanks Dr Ali.

The route I took was not Ragihalli, as that is usually banned for cyclists if there are Forest guards at the checkpoint.

The was the regular Harohalli-Jigani climb (with the Branch Off to Anekal which is causing the road to be widened), but on the last stretch,at the Jigani water tank, instead of going towards Jigani Industrial area, we turn left and hit the edge of the Ragihalli forest.  I did not see any active quarrying, but there was an old quarry I passed, which was full of rainwater.

But a lot of lakes in the Kanakapura road stretch have disappeared, some have been turned into "Lakeview Layouts" ;-(

[db]

Great ride & post, Parag.  Do you have the GPS track?  Want to check the specific sections.  I did some of these sections few times last year.  There were still quite a few climbs then.  So need to try them again, to see how much flattening has happened... that is sad though, those climbs were (some of?) the best, around BLR.

Doc... yes, the granite quarrying was on for a long time.  But looks like now the climbs have been flattened for traffic. :/  There was the awesome descent from Anekal side, to the Harohalli-Jigani road... wonder what it's status is.  Hopefully I have vids of all these sections.

-{db}.

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[Parag]

Sorry no GPS track, I did not even have the data  turned on the phone.

The flattening :

1. The first sharp short ascent coming from the Harohalli side has become pretty flat, they have blasted through the granite boulder we used to climb. I used to drop down to granny gears on this one , this time I just climbed with my normal minor climb gearing.
2. The second one is mostly intact, it was a long slow climb anyway.
3. The third one was the very long climb just before the IIMB campus. That has been flattened somewhat near the base and they are building a bridge (half done for the last year or so), but is still a nice climb, wit the vistas on both sides which are thankfully not spoilt. This climb comes after the Anekal fork, and this may be the reason it has not been altered too much.
   

For the Climbing enthusiasts, try this section that I discovered at the end of the ride, short but very steep climbs and descents.

https://goo.gl/maps/6WRMUafmtkmqpE4G7

[Cudzoziemiec]

A good write and a good ride. Thank you for posting, I'm enjoying your blog. The "Hand of God" line really made me laugh!

[db]

Thanks for the details.  Ya, was also wondering about the climb before the IIM-B campus... so looks like that is there for now.  So all the flattening is mainly for traffic to/from Anekal?   I suppose the flatenning will move towards Jigani as well... really sad.

The climb section you marked on google maps ... I think I have done the adjacent road, through Ragihalli-Bannerghatta forest.  Some fantastic climbs/descents there as well.  Have done them in both directions.

Strava and other apps should allow gps recording, w/o having to enable data... or you can switch off data after you start recording; I think I have done that with strava.

rgds,  -{db}.

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