Road trip to Jayamangali Blackbuck Reserve

My brother and his biking gang were planning to go to the Jayamangali Blackbuck reserve which is located in Madhugiri Taluk of Tumkur District. For a change I was free that day and decided to join them. It was my first bike trip since my friend bought a car in 2015. I was an amateur among all these pro bikers. There were three Royal Enfield’s, two Pulsar 220, one FZ and I was on my Honda Unicorn. 

There are 3 ways to reach this place. The easiest way is to take the Tumkur road till Dobbaspet and then take the deviation towards Madhugiri. You need to go about 20kms further from Madhugiri to reach the reserve. My bothers friends however don’t like easy routes, so they took the Doddaballapur-Gauribadanur route which was a six lane highway until Yelahanka and then a state highway, which basically had pot holes in a few places and was under construction to convert to a 4 lane highway.

 

We got lost in between because a route was closed due to construction and we didn’t follow the maps properly. They termed this as off-roading! 

We left home at around 4am and after regrouping with rest of the folks we left Bangalore at around 5am. 

Around 6am we stopped for tea where we got to witness the Sunrise.

Around 7:45 we stopped for breakfast at Sri Krishna Grand at Gauribadanur. The food was good and really cheap for the quantity and quality.

We managed to reach the blackbuck reserve at around 9am. The plan was to reach here before it gets sunny so that we get to witness some blackbucks before they go deep into the reserve to hide from the sun but we were late. The place however has a lot of shrubs and is actually green

The blackbucks were no where to be seen. We decided to go into the reserve in search of them. After walking for about 20mins we finally spotted some blackbucks but none of us had a good camera to capture it. 

So being content with what we came for, we head back to the outpost where we had parked our bikes. 

We rested till about 1230pm and took the Madhugiri route back. After having lunch in Madhugiri we left for Bangalore. We were able to reach home by 6pm. It was an amazing road trip but to get a full experience make sure you reach before 7:30am when it is actually cool for the blackbucks to roam around freely.

Here is a video taken by Mayank who was with us during the trip

Couple of things I would like to point out regarding bike trips. These are known to everyone but I would like to reiterate it
1) Always stay at a speed below 80kmph or the road speed limit as mentioned on the traffic signs. Go slow on state highways because there are more chances of hitting an animal on the road than any vehicles.
2) Wear helmet and safety gears. You would be vigilant but there are things on the road beyond your control.
3) When you leave early morning you tend to get empty roads but if the signal is red, wait because the person on the other side won’t slow down if he sees a green light.
4) Don’t ride if you are feeling sleepy or drowsy. It is OK to stop for a while and rest.
5) Please make sure your bike is serviced regularly and tyres are replaced every 20-25k kilometres. Have it checked during the service. 

By the end of the trip I noticed major cracks on my front tyres which I had to replace in my next service. On the note of tyres I would like to highlight that I’m chronicling my road trip adventure for CEAT Tyres in association with BlogAdda. 

Read more about CEAT TYRES

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