Prathima's Miles & Milestones

I’m someone who loves challenges. 
I love to do things that my brain has never conquered.

Being a techie, at college fests, I’ve been in the top three contestants in every Technical Treasure Hunt I participated. My love for the same continued when I first heard of Cycling Treasure Hunt being organized by Spokeswomen & Cyloon community in the city on March 13th, 2022 which is an annual event.

We coined a cool name for the team as there were prizes for Team names & outfits. Each one of us knew each other on the spot & gelled well. There were multiple routes defined, and a volunteer was assigned for each route where the team captain communicated the answers for every hint. We met at the route 7 counter, greeted each other, did our warm-up together, clicked pictures with the team & heard about their love for the sport, their hobbies & lastly their professions.

We agreed upon the strategy of Divide & Conquer for every clue we get.

1. The very first one was a crossword where we circled around in every direction so that we could contribute at least 10 words wrt cycling as a spot & submitted it first among the 40+ teams registered. We were super excited to receive our first hint!
2. We hint was GKB Opticians & as a localite & living in Indiranagar — It was pretty easy to find it & we rushed to the store to click a selfie together with the team & proceed to the next clue.

3. The next one was to click a picture in front of any BBMP sign. It immediately flashed that I government pool I trained for swimming all these years has a BBMP sign. We rushed to the location & clicked a picture. Here we ensured we chose the double-road route as it has lesser traffic, is safe for cyclists & not so elevated, unlike the main roads. 
We ditched google maps suggestions from here onwards & put on our thinking hat to find the optimal route.

4. After submission we had a google form with questions on Tour De France, Cycling brands, Type of road bikes, Tadej Pogačar & so on. It was a stress buster & each one of us also googled to be double sure of our answers. Alas, we were at 80% right & corrected to 100% to receive the next hint which was Doordarshan Kendra — the ultimate TV Tower! We sipped water, checked the maps, since there was no optimal route — we had to choose the elevated uphills — motivated each other, stopped at every turn to hint the teammates for a turning & finally made it to the destination.

5. We were super drained due to the crazy uphills & inclination. We clicked a picture with the TV tower in the background & sent it to the volunteer. We received another lengthy questionnaire — we were too tired to google hence brainstorming worked & we submitted the answers. Some of them were just images/memes typically which was fun to crack. This led to the next hint which was St.Mary’s Basilica! It was Shivajinagar church in layman’s terms.

6. We were hoping that this was our last clue as we were close to 25kms in the scorching summer heat & traffic having an eye on each other. We reached the church with all our might & submitted. Another questionnaire, we were super high & were not dependent on google answers nor maps! Got another 100%in on the very first attempt. By then we knew who is good at cracking what kind of questions. End of the day we were all here for the love of cycling. After submitting, we hint was — Return to the venue! We screamed & discussed the shortest route via Ejipura & then back to the pavilion. We discussed our entry towards the gate as in our minds we were winners already.

There was a cheer as we reached, yet there were other teams who has already made it before us. We saw the food & made it to the dining hall. Had a nice chit-chat about our experiences. We also discussed what could be better, the best moments when two of us lost the route & so on. We made it to the farewell where many cyclists who has accomplished tremendous records were awarded. Made a lot of connections. Promised to meet for long rides next. Results were announced & we realized we were so close!

It was such a fun-filled & fulfilling day. A day full of surprises! 
New people, new routes! Adrenaline rush! Lots of memories made.

We made sure we keep in touch & come prepared next time with walkie talkie for communication 🙂