Weekend Ride to Manchanabele Dam

The year 2020 had been very different for everybody. People never heard about this five letter word COVID before and the letter was strong enough to screw up lives. It put a hard stop to all normal things and the year became a nightmare for everybody. All the tourist places were closed across the globe and domestic and international flight were restricted.

After a long house arrest for almost 8 months, I thought lets chalk out a plan to have a weekend ride. I proposed this to my close bikers group and got a huge response. So I realized, I am not the only one who is feeling frustrated and demotivated. It’s same with the others. We chose few places out of which we finalized Manchanabele Dam near savandurga.

Manchanabele dam is nearby to the place, across the river Arkavathy. It is a trekking location. It provides water to Magadi town, Kayaking also conducted here. Species of Water Snakes are also visible. However, the reservoir bed is a death trap with sudden fault-lines, large boulders as well as deep slush. More than 200 people have lost their lives between 2006 and 2011.It is very dangerous to get into the waters in this reservoir even if one is a good swimmer. The dam backwaters can also be accessed via Dabbaguli village or via Magadi road where few adventure resorts are located. The Dodda Alada Mara and Savanadurga are other tourist attractions in the circuit. The dam can be reached by direct buses from K. R. Market(Route nos. 227M, 227VA, 227VC, 242VA, 242W).

There were few reasons behind choosing that place, firstly we wanted to have a one day trip as we were also riding after one year, so we were not confident enough to go for long rides. Secondly, the plan was made all of a sudden without having any time to service the bikes, so taking the bikes for long rides without proper servicing would have been foolishness….Thirdly, none of us had been to that place before.

Now let me introduce our group….There were four people (2 riders and 2 pillions) who participated in this sudden trip as the rest of our riders were all happily settled in their natives from last 8 months. Faraz Sheikh and myself were the riders and Mamta Yadav and Tanuja Emme were our pillions.

Faraz Sheikh is from Indore and now settled in Bangalore from last 7 years. He is the youngest among us. He is a sportsman who had been a professional badminton player and has represented his state twice in national championship. He is one of the fittest among us. This was going to be the last trip for him before his marriage. He was excited and I would appreciate him for his guts and courage as he went to this trip leaving his feonsay without worrying much about the consequences…. 

Next comes Mamta. Her full name is Mamta Yadav. She is the master of all trades. She can do anything and everything. Trust me guys when I say this, I truly mean it. She is an excellent cook and she is also a marathon trainer. She is fittest in our group. She loves to travel and we have rode before together. As we were riding after a long time, almost a year, she was also super excited.

Now it’s turn for Tanuja…Tanuja Emme. She is a new addition to our group. We are more than delighted to have her in our group. Myself and Mamta already knew her as we have worked together before and she was also a good friend of Mamta. She is from Pune and now she is in Bangalore from last 6 months. This was going to be her first bike ride and so she had mixed emotions. She was excited but also worried a bit as she did not have enough trust and confidence on our riding skills… :):):)

It was 10th January, 2021. We decided to start at 5:30 AM but I was the one who got everybody late. I picked up Tanuja and met Faraz near his place. Lastly we picked up Mamta from JP Nagar at 7AM and started riding towards Mysore Road. The traffic was very less as it was a weekend morning and we touched the highway in next 45 mins. The highway was not good as there was construction work going on everywhere. We had our breakfast on the way. As per the map, we took a turn on our right at 2kms from the place where we stopped for breakfast.

The entire topography changed with the turn. There was no dust, no construction work and no congestion. We were riding with the nature and through the nature. The roads were clean and the surrounding was peaceful. The map said we are 20kms way from our destination and we were all feeling that this 20kms should have been 40kms as we were enjoying the ride so much. After riding for 30 mins, we reached the dam. The dam was closed due to COVID 19 restrictions. But we managed to trek 500 meters and went close to the dam. The place was solitary and very peaceful. It’s an ideal destination for the nature lovers and photographers. We sat there for 2 hrs. and then we realized that there was a place close by where we can get down in the Arkavathy river. We asked couple of locals and managed to reach that place. Actually Tanuja helped us to get the information as she knew kannada very well.

When we reached the banks of Arkavathy River it was an example of absolute beauty. Although there was not much water but still I think the landscape and the bridge added more flavour to it. We clicked some lovely photos and spent almost 2 hrs. over there.

We started from there by 12 pm. We had lunch on the way and we reached our house by 5:30 pm. The day was really well spent and at last we got an opportunity to breathe in fresh air.

If any of you is planning to visit to Manchanabele Dam, then I would recommend few things….

• Start early and reach early. Plan to see the sunset. It’s a different experience altogether.

• You will not get much food options there, so carry eatables but also carry a garbage bag and carry you scraps back with you in the garbage bag. Please do not dump plastic packets or bottles there.

• The roads are good after the Mysore road but drive carefully as you will get multiple blind turns where visibility is less than 20%

• If you are visiting Manchanabele Dam, then please also visit Savandurga hill.

• Lastly, do not ever think of getting into the dam water without life jacket. It does not matter how good you are as a swimmer, please test your skills somewhere else but atleast not here.