Rapping at The Rappa

With hang over of Cloud valley still lingering in the head there was another ride planned to The Rappa. The most relieving thing about the ride was it was away from the dreaded Mysore road which we take on almost all rides and riding back on a Sunday on Mysore road is the nightmare of any rider with maniacs driving like they do in the city.

Rappa is close to Hassan about 230 kms from Bangalore. This time around there was a big bunch that had signed in for the ride about 40 of us were all set to hit the road. The route that was planned is
Bangalore-->Magadi-->Kunigal-->Channarayapatna-->Hassan-->Rappa

I was getting used to all this riding every weekend(almost every weekend) so the anxiety had died down a little so could get some good sleep on Friday night. Meeting point was Mekhri Circle at 6 30. Praisy would join me on 100ft road and we would ride from there to Mekhri Circle together. I was just leaving from my house a gentle drizzle started which turned out to become a pretty heavy rain. Met Praisy at 12th main indiranagar and we left to Mekhri circle in the rain. We were kinda late so couldn’t catch up with people who were already there, we left as soon as we reached Mekhri circle.

First stop was at Kunigal for breakfast the whole route through Magadi was a blessing away from nellamangala traffic. The road was full of twists and turns and a biker’s paradise provided we are in control of the bike. Reached Kunigal by8 and had some brilliant thatte idli’s and some amazing vada’s. Hit the road after some coffee from here it full on patrang wonlee. Everyone was in a mood of clipping through the roads. The roads were pretty decent too. Next regroup point was outside Channarayapatna for some tender coconuts and then from there the next stop was just outside Hassan where Biju was waiting for us to lead us to The Rappa.

We were welcomed by 3 amazing dogs Brownie (Irish setter), Shadow (Bassett Hound) and Shunti (American Spitz). And one haunting long Rock Python. They were our official guide around The Rappa. After a much awaited lunch we headed to the water for kayaking. It was an awesome experience me and Ratish went kayaking about 8 kms almost till the dam. It was a tiring and muscle building experience. After all the fun we realized that our Aritra (Little Johnny) was missing. He had shot away swimming alone without any life jackets and went missing. It was a horrifying experience for everyone. We had search parties sent to find him but no sign of him everyone was pessimistic about what happened to this fellow.

Later Vijay gets a call from little Johnny saying the currents took him away towards the dam and I kind soul picked him up and dropped in some village. The villagers must have thought this guy must have been some extinct bear of some kind coming out of the water. ;) Somehow prashi went and picked up and came back to the base camp. It was relieving to know that nothing serious had happened.

Then was the party in the evening it was superb to say the least we had a camp fire for the cold and people were enjoying their drinks I was having a gala time talking to guys and with the music and my usual drink Pepsi neat. The icing on the cake was the local folk music that they had arranged. It was simply awesome and I just let go and danced like a maniac. Then we had dinner and started talking all kinds of random stuff about ride experiences and stuff like that. Then we decided to retire for the night and hit the bed.

The mornings when we leave are the most difficult part of any ride when we have to head back. We decided to leave late take some pictures on the way at the ruins of the church and then head back to Bangalore. The ruins were simple great we got some real cool pics here. Had lunch on the way at kamat and again the full patrang wonlee. Praisy had a minor break down on the way but got it fixed also Ratish had a minor fall thanks to the riding gear it was nothing serious.

Reached Bangalore at about 6 and was home by about 6 30. Awesome ride and an amazingly planned trip to the Rappa.