GoGreen team set about in the morning to join the ‘Save Turahalli’ campaign. We decided to take a detour and go around the forest, and enter it through the farther entrance. As we moved into the forest on the ‘kachcha’ path, we came across people walking leisurely through the forest, some with high-end cameras, hoping to snap some unique pictures. Then a guy, supposedly a forest officer, chased us on his mobike and told us to get out of the forest as a cheetah had been spotted. Wow! A cheetah! Finally, the forest is living upto its name! GoGreen Rao joine
d us and immediately rubbished the officers claim, querying him about the people walking about, if they were immune to the cheetah’s ire. Or, maybe, Turahalli cheetah has a special dislike to cyclists. That man finally gave up and promptly headed in the direction where he said the cheetah was spotted (probably to have a quick chat with the lissome beast). We continued to enjoy looking for the spot we had to go to. Everyone had different ideas, but we managed to reach the summit through the lovely green, and quiet forest. But not without incident. GoGreener Srikanth’s Trek cycle’s chain snapped. So we a few of us became mechanics and went about repairing his chain. As the cycle was being repaired in an upside-down position, another Trek cycle was turned upside-down, so that the path of the chain through the derailleur would be placed properly. Finally, success! Srikanth wou
ld be able to cycle back. Other people joined in on the common cause and all signed on the banner reading ‘SAVE TURAHALLI’, as a token of their support
. As one batch of people signed off, it was discovered that the pen was a whiteboard marker, not a permanent one. But that did not dilute the support of the group. Having penned our support to the cause, we all headed off, which took us on a steep down-hill curvy slope, scattered with stones, pebbles and mud. It was a task, even to walk the cycles downhill! After a few almost-slipped-and-fell instances, we all reached terra firma and headed home. A trip to remember, it was!
GoGreen_09Sep12 Turahalli Ride
GoGreen Reporter .. GoGreen Suresh
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