Sunday, July 15, 2007

Finding my wheels

Wow, I had a terrific bike ride today. As I approached the literal high point of the day - the water tower in Jubilee Hills that overlooks Durgam Cheruvu - it occurred to me that mountain biking is a relative of backcountry skiing. Both occupy the middle ground between moving on foot (or snowshoes) and being motorized (scooter/motorcycle or snowmobile). They're at the balance point between wanting to really SEE what's around you and wanting to cover ground. Pedaling - hard! - up a dirt path to reach a "summit" and then coasting back down - it's a great way to spend a day. I get mountain biking.

So here's where I went today (or see the full, annotated GPS track) :



I've uploaded a ton of pictures; I'll just put my favorites into this posting.

This may be my favorite picture of the trip so far.


I stopped to admire the scenery (a small lake, Hakimpet Kunta) close to these three; as I turned to go, the little girl started giggling like crazy (probably at my helmet). The oldest woman invited me to watch for a while, and eventually I got this picture. If you think the little girl's smile is big here, you should have seen it when I showed her the image on the camera.

This little sculpture is in the courtyard at a funky, upscale shop called Earth Bazaar.



I took a bunch of shots of these buffalo and birds near the high point at "GrandView".








I was amazed I could get this close to this guy before he spooked.





I rather like the mixed message here.





And finally - what is this?!?




8 comments:

  1. Hi Jerry..i am Harish, a resident of Hyderabad, i was searching for an Hyderabad map and thats when i came across your blog. I was fascinated by this bike trip of yours and also to see places which I never knew about before. In particular the water tank which gives a lovely Hawk eye view of the city. I would love to go there some time, so is it possible for you to help me get there? Can you you pin-point the location of that water tank, if possible, in the Google map pic that you have posted here. Thank you.

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  2. I've tagged the location on this picture:

    http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/6SUzngux8HObLNQTbGf1Hg?feat=directlink

    I recently moved to a new server for my web pages, and lost all of my GPS track from Hyderabad. :-( I hope to recover some of them eventually, but not any time soon, I fear.

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  3. Thanks for the quick reply. I did try and figure out the location with the help of Google Earth, was close enough. Was going through your blog entries on 2007 and every image that i come across brings a wow! out of me. Dint know that i was missing out on so much of greenery that exists here. Enjoyed all the pics that you have posted.

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  4. I was planning to buy a GPS for myself, as I have got a bicycle and would love to go around on it..but something less expensive..could you suggest me some model?

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  5. I haven't kept up on GPS units since I bought mine...

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  6. If i may ask, what GPS do you own?And how good was it when you used it in Hyderabad?
    Hope I am not bothering you much with all these questions.

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  7. I lost my first GPS halfway thru my trip (while hiking in Wyoming, not India...); it was a largish Garmin unit, I can't recall the model. I replaced it with a Garmin eTrex Legend HCx. They're similar in user interface; my current Legend HCx is somewhat smaller than my first unit and has excellent battery life (at least when using lithium batteries, which I use in all my outdoor gear).

    All I used my GPS for is recording tracks; for navigation, I still prefer paper maps and/or dead reckoning, especially in a place like Hyderabad where downloadable maps are (were?) non-existent. My current GPS is probably overkill for that.

    But you don't need a GPS to explore Hyderabad - just hop on that bike and get out there!

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  8. I was planning to buy a GPS, not just cycling but to use it when driving in and out of Hyderabad. But i will have to agree with you on the GPS maps issue, havent really heard of many and not sure how accurate the available maps are. Anyways, thanks for the replies.

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