A wonderful bike ride to Thattekere Lake with WOW riders

It is very important to have a break from your day to day routine and go out somewhere close to nature. I feel it rejuvenates you and makes your so called ’Mondays a bit more refreshing.

I usually go for treks and nature trips with my college friends but I always thought of going out with BTC group and that too ‘the WOW group‘ sounded like more exciting. Women being daring and going alone for adventures and having all exciting treks – that is so wow!

It was middle of the week and I was checking my gmail post lunch in office, when I saw Ritu’s mail saying ‘Girls, are you feeling the urge to feel the breeze in your hair?’  Yes the mail was about Thattekere lake and that too it was bike riding experience. Without giving a second thought, I registered for the event and there it was, the next day list of all wow ladies going for the bike ride to Thattekere lake.

The day of ride

As decided, we all were supposed to gather near silk board at 6 am, so me and Raja Laxmi, being staying in same area, decided to go together to silk board. It was slightly cold outside and road was deserted with hardly any traffic. In no time we reached silk board and little further towards EC road was our gathering point. A few minutes later Ritu who was the organiser of this event came. It felt so nice to meet these two lovely ladies along with Raja Laxmi’s little daughter. She added more fun to our small venture. 

     Since the other members informed they’ll be joining us at Nice road junction, we started off around 6.20 am towards Bannerghatta-Nice road crossing. Next few minutes I was simply following the other two on my scooty pep for we decided to go by inside route through Gouttigere and then join Bannerghatta road. The sky was quite bright by the time we meet the other gang. With a small intro of everyone and with few riding instructions, off we started heading towards Thattekere lake.

The cool breeze was giving me a sweet shiver and thrill. I was wondering a bit whether my scooty pep will make 38kms drive smooth and with all such amazing thoughts I was following the trail. We took in-between stops and clicked beautiful photographs. We had 4 bikes and a car. Deepa had brought her car which made the trip comfortable for little Vaishnavi. I guess we took some wrong turns in between which led us to a different part to explore. So there was a time were local villagers were guiding us. Spending not much time on google maps we respected the local guidance and headed off towards the lake. On the way to our surprise we saw sericulture. Around 5 to 6 big wooden boards carrying thousands of silk worms each. I had never seen sericulture before. It was really fascinating. A man and a woman were filling one of those boards with more worms. We asked them the direction and off we left. 

It was around somewhere 9 am when we were close to the lake. But the actual route was closed with electric fencing and so we had to take a little longer diversion. And finally we were at the lake. The mission was completed. I felt so awesome that we made it and that too my pep made it without any complaints. By the time we reached my tummy was growling and I guess others were hungry too. So we all parked our bikes there and decided to have some food. Since we started our journey little late we had skipped breakfast stop. But it hardly mattered because everyone had brought so much food that it was more than sufficient. Deepa had packed idlis for all of us. There were fruits, masala rice and bonda too. I had carried Pune’s special bakarwadi and mixture, which I was glad that Ritu and others liked it. Wah  ,what an awesome feeling it was ! Having snacks under trees and sitting beside the lake. The weather was not bad but slightly getting sunny. We were hoping to spot some elephants but dunno what we would have done if an actual one would have crossed our paths. While having food we all chit chatted about past treks done so far and all the fun etc. Hearing the talks abouts all BTC and WOW treks, I made my mind to make more such rides and trips with these new friends. 

Ritu had spotted a small trail in woods which we decided to go and explore after snacks. So we went a few metres ahead and started to explore. We could spot a couple of storks and could hear some chirping around. 

Since the sun was getting much brighter, we all decided to turn around. A local man came looking for us and told not go inside woods since many accidental cases had happened. He also told us not to click pics which I felt was weird. But somehow we manage to take his permission and clicked pics with our bikes.

At around 11 we decided to leave from there. The return journey was different route. It was much wider and greener. Though the heat outside had increased, the trees and grasslands around were pleasing for the eyes. Ritu had this idea of taking pics while driving and we all agreed to it. But once the grasslands were over as we were near to Bangalore the so called familiar traffic was there. We took a stop in between. I suggested we will have some fresh sweet lime juice. Also Ritu had to take our feedbacks on the WOW-group’s second bike venture. The overall trip was so good and unexpected that it made my day. 

For certain part of bannerghatta road we all were together. Raja Laxmi took us through different route to avoid the heavy traffic. We decided to plan such more trips and said goodbyes to each other for now. Around 1.30 I was back at home. Though I was tired a bit but the happiness overcome it. Hoping to have more such adventures and rides with BTC and WOW group. 

Written By     : Neha

Organized By : Ritu

Date of event : 23th Nov 2014

Place             : Thattekere Lake

Photos           : BTC Facebook