It was a crisp Sunday morning when I joined RTMC bikers on my first official ride to Devarayanadurga. The ride was organized for the newbies’ basically, but quite a few oldies turned up too. At the last head count we had around 44 people on the ride, and from what I heard, this was a record turn out!! Neat huh! 

I had the pleasure of riding (pillion with Abhi of course!) with some 40 odd bullets along with Sam’s Beemer and a Chopper-style-Electra. Deepa was the only woman rider in the entire bunch and thanks to her for the helmet. The start point was Mekhri Circle, and after a small briefing about the first regrouping point and some rules to follow while on the highway (keep to the left, always stop on your left, and no racing! heh heh!) we were on our way.

Passed the early morning traffic and after a refueling stop at Nelamangala we hit the Tumkur highway. Cruising along we followed the lady on the ‘Myle’ through the miles with brief regrouping stops on the way. The weather was great and Abhi was surprisingly doing some subdued riding. Since the pre-decided breakfast point near Kyatasandra was closed, we went looking for another one, and in the process overshot Tumkur and thereby D’Durga by a couple of kilometers. But then, who was in a hurry to get to the place anyways Finally, after checking with a few local lads about the direction we headed to a restaurant that the mod found as an alternative breakfast point. The boys served us ladies at the self service hotel, with ample amounts of Idli-vada-dosas and some awesome coffee in teeny tiny ‘lotas’. Vodka joined us with ‘Gift’ and we proceeded towards D’Durga.

Abhi finally did some fast riding, and I enjoyed every bit of it. Unfortunately it was short lived, since we reached the fort sooner than I had expected. Those interested climbed up the stone steps to the temple on the top of fort and a few of us stayed back and clicked snaps. The bunch then headed back to Namada Chilume, for introductions and briefing the newbies like me about RTMC. Once done, a lunch stop on the way back in Kamat was decided. We decided to skip it since we didn’t want to miss the MotoGP and Abhi belted back (yay!) to Bangalore. We were home within almost an hour of leaving the place.

2007/mab/0325-devarayanadurga-01-t.jpg|center|Riding in the pack near Tumkur|0|Riding in the pack near Tumkur|bottom|center|160\r\n2007/mab/0325-devarayanadurga-02-t.jpg|center|Vardenchi chopper|0|One of the Announce list members was on a modified bullet. Very nicely done job!|bottom|center|160\r\n2007/mab/0325-devarayanadurga-03-t.jpg|center|The announce ride turnout…|0|The announce ride turnout…|bottom|center|160\r\n2007/mab/0325-devarayanadurga-04-t.jpg|center|…was so large that….|0|…was so large that….|bottom|center|160\r\n2007/mab/0325-devarayanadurga-05-t.jpg|center|…the entire parking lot was filled…|0|…the entire parking lot was filled…|bottom|center|160\r\n2007/mab/0325-devarayanadurga-06-t.jpg|center|… to the brim with RTMCers…|0|… to the brim with RTMCers…|bottom|center|160\r\n2007/mab/0325-devarayanadurga-07-t.jpg|center|Rakshas”s scorpio|0|Rakshas”s scorpio filled to the brim with riding gear when not in use!|bottom|center|160\r\n2007/mab/0325-devarayanadurga-08-t.jpg|center|Motorcycle riding gear|0|When I say full, I am not joking!|bottom|center|160\r\n2007/mab/0325-devarayanadurga-09-t.jpg|center|Some twisties leading to the top|0|Some twisties leading to the top of the hillock|bottom|center|160\r\n2007/mab/0325-devarayanadurga-10-t.jpg|center|A wannabe Chevy.|0|Hmm… Imitation names must be all used up to resort to these…|bottom|center|160\r\n2007/mab/0325-devarayanadurga-11-t.jpg|center|Namada Chilume|0|The parking outside Namada Chilume|bottom|center|160\r\n2007/mab/0325-devarayanadurga-12-t.jpg|center|Chenthil|0|I”ve more snaps, but Chentil says, Stop the crappy P&S photography!|bottom|center|160