The Plan:
2 bikes, 4 people , 60Kms, 1/2 day.

The Route:
ORR -> Old Madras Road -> Hebbal -> Devanahalli ->  Nandi Cross -> Nandi Village

The Lodge rooms in the entrance

The Travel:-
Heard people saying you should be reaching the hills by 6.30 to enjoy the sunrise & view. Nevertheless we reached late around 7.30, but we had a great experience of driving through fog & mist. Its monsoon season, so no clue about sunrise. One of the simplest routes, hit hebbal flyover, drive straight. We stopped near Manyata Tech Park to fill fuel, and made another stop at Devanahalli for morning tea. Watch out for the route board reading Nandhi hills on the left, missing to do so took as additional 2 Km's. Keep straight on the Nandhi road thru the Nandhi village till you reach the T junction. Nandhi hills on the left & Bhoga Nandeswara Temple on the right. We headed back to Bangalore by 2.30 PM.

ORR -> Old Madras Road -> Hebbal -> Devanahalli -> Nandhi village -> Nandhi Hills

The Place:-
Nandhi Hills:-
This place is a perfect bikers paradise for a weekend getaway. This is my first time experience driving thru the mist & fog. So it was thrilling & exciting. Ideal time I would suggest is 7 or 7.30 , so that you can get a feel of fog & by the time you are done with exploration, the fog clears around 10. This place attracts quiet a lot of people. Spotted few bicyclers & handful of Kawasaki Ninja's. Main spots are the water Tank, wood houses, Tippu's fort & 850 year old temple on the top of the hills. We reached the base by around 11 & had breakfast & headed to Bhoga Nandeswara Temple.

Misty mornings

The huge tank with mist cleared.

Bhoga Nandeswara Temple:-
Located on the right side of the T junction, takes about 15 mins to reach this architectural place. Interesting fact of this place is that these temples were built by kings of 5 dynasties. The perfect symmetry of the inside tank & the surrounding speaks for themselves. Here is more info about the place- http://bangaloregetaways.wordpress.com/2010/11/16/bhoga-nandeeshwara-and-arunachaleshwara-temples-nandi-grama/

A must visit, if you are in Bangalore.

Bhoga Nandeswara Temple

Fog and the mood.

Cheers,

Prem.

The Plan:
6 people , 2 bikes , 50Kms , 1 day.

The Route: 

Tiruvallur -> Uthukottai -> Nagalapuram -> Puttur

Green agricultural fields en route to Nagalapuram.

The Travel:

When you have all day to spend in Uthukottai, a place in the TN - Andhra border, Kone falls might be one of the best place to visit. The route is pretty straightforward, a straight stretch without any deviations & the highway roads with hardly any traffic makes it a pleasure to ride. Keep driving until you hit a left at about 10kms before Puttur. Kone falls is at 2kms from there.

Tiruvallur -> Uthukottai -> Nagalapuram -> Puttur

The Place:

First thing you will notice is the monkeys surrounding the place. Some demand food, while few others are smart enough to rip off the covers of parked bike & search for food. There is main stream beside the temple dedicated for visitors to drench, but by the time we went, there was hardly any water flowing. So did a little trek, climbing up the mountains to reach another stream with a small pool. Even though the stream was not that great, it looked a ideal place to bath, but we still climbed one more level & found out a better place. Had some fun for around 2 hours and returned back.

Altogether, if you are around Chennai & want to spend sometime away from the city on a weekend, this is an ideal place.

First waterfall upon climbing the rocks

View of the district from Hills

Green all the way. [ Little harsh sunlight though ]

Climbing some more rocks,we have the second water fall forming a pool.

The pool.

Smaller water streams as well. 

Cheers,
Prem.

Travelogue has taken a hibernation mode for past couple of months. As usual caught up with the blogger laziness syndrome. So with the usual excuse of will-blog-frequently, updating the travel report on 500 Km ride to B.R Hills & GopalswamyBetta.

The Plan -

7 people, 4 bikes , 500 Km's , 2 days. 

Himavad Gopalswamy Betta Hilllock Temple

Day 1 - 

• Started from Bangalore at 7 AM.
• Had Breakfast at Shoppers stop at 7.30 AM
• Reach Kanakapura by 10 AM. Headed to Shivasamudram via Malavalli and reached there by 12.30 noon. Had lunch there itself & started by 2.30 PM to B.R Hills via Kollegal & Yelandur route. Reached the Jungle Lodges around 5 PM. 
• Dropped our luggage's at VGKK school & after relaxing for an hour, headed to Biligiri rangana temple located on the top of BR.Hills. Reached there around 6.30 PM.
• Returned back & had dinner at hotel around 8 PM( There is only one in the locality & they serve only meals for dinner ) situated en-route to BR Temple.
• Night stay at VGKK hostel.

Misunderstanding ?? 

Day 2 -

• Started from VGKK Hostel at 7.30 AM.
• Hot Tea & breakfast ( Idly, chutney ) at Jungle lodge junction.
• Drove thru the ghat section of B.R Hills & reached the jungle lodges at 10.15 PM.
• Reached ChamrajNagar around 11.30 & stopped at Gundulpet for lunch around 1.30 PM.
• Reached GopalswamyBetta by 2.15 PM & spent around an hour @ the temple & returned back to Gundulpet by 4.30 PM.
• Headed to Mysore and reached around 6.30 PM.
• Stopped at Maddur by 8.30 PM for dinner & resumed @ 9.30 PM for the last stretch to Bangalore.
• Reached home by 12.30 AM.

Lined Up for the Ride

The Stay -

One of the worth remembering memory of this trip is the stay at VGKK school. This looks more like a hospital from the front, but they do have guest houses in the rear. The charges were quiet cheap & their definition of basic - independent house with 3 decent sized cots. This school provides free education to the local tribes residing in the area & works in the upliftment of local people & the amount from us would be utilized for their studies. Mr. Arun Kumar (09902319473) is the caretaker of this institution & he shared his experiences & the way school is managed. We had a good time, sitting in the middle of the school ground with temperature hitting low & eventually we experienced fogs coming out from our mouth while speaking. Morning was very refreshing as we had the view of sunrise, slowly penetrating its golden lights through the mist. Along with our charges we donated some amount for the trust & collected brochures from Arun. All together it was a great experience. I would strongly recommend this place. 

Golden lights. Those were the huts we stayed.

The Route - 

Bangalore -> Kanakpura -> Malavalli -> Shivanasamudra -> Kollegal -> Yelandur -> BR Hills -> Nagavalli -> Chamaraj nagara -> Terakanambi -> Gundlupet -> Gopalswamybetta -> Gundlupet -> Mysore -> Maddur -> Bangalore

The Route : A- Bangalore , B- B.R Hills , C - GopalswamyBetta , D- Mysore

The Good Experiences  -

• Stay at VGKK school.
• Ghat section ride thru BR Hills.
• Dinner at Maddur resturant was superb. This place is famous for Vada.
• First time 500 Km's in my bike.

Vivekananda Girijana Kalyana Kendra [ VGKK ]

The Bad Choices - 

• Bad season to visit Shivanasamudra. Very hot place & the water level in the falls was very minimal.
• Ghat section ride within BR Hills is not as greenish as expected. Idle time should be around August- September.
• Perfect time to visit GopalswamyBetta is early morning. The trekking has been banned now. The maximum time that you can spend is 45 mins, a pass given at the entrance of Gopalswamy Betta temple. Riding at noon, all you end up with is, scorching sun above your head as contrast to the misty fogs you see when you google for GopalswamyBetta.

Biligiri Rangana Swamy temple

Tea shop on the BR Hills Junction

Morning Dews @ 6.30 A.M

Clouds & light playing hide & seek during up hill drive to Gopal swamy Betta.

Himavad Gopalswamy Betta Hilllock Temple

Cheers,
Prem.

Travelogue in new year started with ride to Thattekere lake, a place located around 25 kms from Bangalore. It has been in a long time to-do list, ever since reading the eye catching trip report of Prashanth. Also it has been close to 8 months ever since I took my Yamaha out of the city for a ride.

The bicycle tales

Earlier plans to start by 6 AM has been pushed to 7 AM owing to the laziness & the weather ensured that we start by 7.30 AM. Meanwhile, the two bicyclers were in middle of  their first journey in cycle which started around 5 AM. Amidst the weather which constantly made patterns of dew in my helmet fibers, we set out in three bikes with two pillion riders. We made two stops before reaching the Bhannerghatta Road - one at HSR petrol bunk to fill fuel for the bikes & one at Tea shop near Shoppers stop to fill fuel for our stomach.

                       

Its a straight route from Bhannerghatta road without any turns till you hit the Bhannerghatta National Park deviation. Turn left and head straight for about 7 or 8 kms until you spot the next deviation. Take right, which me missed to do so, causing an extra 5 kms travel before we realized that we took the wrong route. From that its pretty much a straight road for around 10 kms, travelling into the villages with a scenic view. Its better when in doubt ask the villagers for the route.

The Enchanting Lake Entrance

Around 8.30 AM , we stopped for breakfast at some roadside hotel in Bhannerghatta. Reached the lake by 10.30 AM. The last stretch of ride thru the village roads is just awesome. Will be more enjoyable, especially if the weather is bit cloudy. After a few inquiries, finally we reached the much awaited place, kept out of the city, less occupied by people and obviously clean & calm. On the entrance you find Madheswara temple and few steps down the slide, the scenic lake. The bicyclers went in for a swim to get rid of the tiredness of 5 hrs of cycling. We just wandered there for some time , took some snaps & started back.

Lake View

Some more from the Lakeside

Lakeside View

On the return, we made a visit to Bhannerghatta National park, & my desperate attempt to capture a butterfly finally got fulfilled. We reached back home by 5.30 PM.

The moment

Pack foods, drive in with family, eat, spend time, watch the birds, & what more, Thattekere makes an ideal picnic spot which you will not regret visiting.

Cheers,
Prem.

Almost a year, ever since I updated my travelogue. There has been a couple or more bike rides happened in the mean time, but acute laziness in me has kept me off from updating them. Rode on wheels to weekend getaway spots in Bangalore, starting off with Mekadatu, followed by Kanva Reservoir, and an adventurous ride to Br Hills & GopalsamyBetta, but were forced to cut short it to BR Hills. Luckily the travel stories were documented & blogged by Ram & you can find more of his travel stories here.

This time it was a 3 day trip & with various suggestions flying around for, we finalized the plan for Chikmagalur & Kemmankundi. Nature Nirvana Home Stay was booked for accommodations and we started around 10 PM , hoping to reach by 5 AM. Driving in the hassle free NH made the driver excited & with the speed he was driving we would have reached Chikmagalur by 2. We stopped at Coffee day around 12 for a break & chitchat & finally reached Chikmagalur by 5.

The adventurous or rather scary I would say, is the 7 km descending ride to the Nature Nirvana Home stay. With poor roads which only Jeeps can make it, foggy morning where nothing in front is visible & and the probability of making a slight slip being extremely high, it took around 1.5 hrs to travel 7 Kms.

The Route -

Nature Nirvana Plantation Home Stay :

The place - Except for the tiresome ride , the place is very calm, scenic and pleasant.Great mountain view. The people here deliver a great hospitality & comfort. Camp fire with unlimited barbecue in the cold is a pure bliss.

The food - Awesome , Unlimited, non-veg, different varieties, most importantly filling.

Activities ( Indoor )- Within the premised there is Shuttle court , Basket ball , Cricket. Given the dampness of the ground extra care is needed while playing else you mind end up injuring your knees.

Activities ( Outdoor ) - They organize day trips to Kemmangundi , Baba budengiri and other travel spots. Also close to the stay, there are couple of places at walk able distance. Spent day-1 on exploring the nearby places ,the waterfall where we spent most of our time relaxing, ending with a sunset at viewpoint. Day 2 was more of a uphill trek to the close by peak and some encounter with Leeches followed by great gyan session by one of a fellow friend.

Chennakesava Temple, Belur - On the return, we had a visit to Chennakesava temple, Belur. The history behind the constructions & carvings of the temple left us dumbstruck. If you are visiting this place, I would recommend to have a guide explaining the history behind this masterpiece. Winded up our lunch at Kaamath on the way & reached Bangalore by 8 Pm.

The Cost - It costed around 5K per person, for 3 days. Inclusive of travel & accommodation.

To sum it up, except for the 7km ride, it was a fun filled and  relaxing weekend.

Click here to view the album.

Regards
Prem.

When we planned for a new year trek, we never imagined that it would come out this well. We decided to trek Kumaraparvatha, one of the highest peaks in Karnataka. As usual last minute planning tried to screw up things but that made the trek more enjoyable and adventurous than ever.

Trekkers : Prem , Ram , Logesh, Mohan , Bala , Uma , Vicky ( Who made it all the way from Kerala )

Till Dec31, we did nothing other than booking tickets for 10.00 pm bus and paying the Tent advance.

5.30 Pm : Mother nature started its new year celebration with heavy downpour.

6.30 Pm : No signs of rain to stop and while we were thinking off to scrap the plan , Vicky was desperate to do justice to the 700 Rs he spent for his volvo.7.30 Pm : With not much choice left , Ram and Mohan set off amidst heavy rains to pick up the tent from JayNagar and head to Majestic. Me and Logesh left to Marathalli for purchasing food & medicine, leaving Vicky @ home to clean the odanjufied horlicks bottle.

8.15 Pm : Left in auto to K.R Puram railway station which is around 3 kms, to catch Lalbhag Express @ 8.55 Pm. Reached at 9.00 Pm coz of heavy traffic.

9.00 Pm : Asked for three tickets, we were given only one by mistake. With minimal time left we boarded the train without tickets for two with the hope that we wont be caught by TTE.10.00 Pm: Reached city junction and in urgency took the back exit. While Ram, at majestic driver kalla vilunthufying to delay the bus for us.

10.20 Pm : Reached majestic and looking for platform 5. All we could find was 1,2,3,4,7,8,9.

10.40 Pm : Finally we were able to get hold of the bus. After a few abuses from conductor and driver, the most memorable trip ever started.

Our trek was an exact ditto of http://srikanth-darpana.blogspot.com/2008/12/kumaraparvatha-trek.html . We were literally crawling for the next two days. :-) Not a place to be missed if you are in and around Bangalore.

Cheers
Prem.

Wayanad, One of the memorable trips of my life. Every time we plan for a weekend trip, we end up sleeping in our rooms. This trip was not planned neither organized. All happened in just 2 days of time. We started @ 7 AM in Toyato Qualis that we booked. The route is pity straight forward Bangalore-->Mysore-->Gundelpet-->Kalpetta.. Reached wyanad by 3.30 ... Wayanad is a place of hype. Not all places are as exciting as mentioned in other blogs. Few places that are worth spending time out here are

1. Edakkal caves- Located on the way to kalpetta, this place is a gud trekking spot. Nearly takes 2 hrs to climb 1000 feet & reach to the top of the peak.

2. MeenMutty Falls - Must see location. 2 hrs of tiresome trek down the forest, you ll find the exciting sound of waterfalls providing a exciting scenic view. Be sure that you take up your first aid kit, coz this place can really mess up things if u are careless. Climbing up ll take out all your energy & all you can find is Kerala coconuts sold at Rs.20. Thirunelveli la alwa 100 Rs nu solra mathiri la irukku...

3. Sunrise valley -Located few km from Meenmutty falls, this is a view point. Similar to the one in kodaikanal, but too good to watch.

4. Chembra Peak - Even though we didn have enough time to cover this location, it is a great trekking place not to be missed & it requires almost half a day to complete the trek.

Rest of the places like pookote lake, Banasura Sagar Dam, view point,tea estates are just like anyother tourist spot. My advice would be not to spend much time on these places. If anyone is planning for a trip to wyanad, I would suggest them to stay in hotel "Wyanad Hights". One place where you can experience maximum hospitality with affordable price. Thilakan (09605224326) is the caretaker who did everything to us to make our trip enjoyable. The entire trip costed around 2500 Rs.

P.S : Thankfully all things went as planned. If the weekend trip got canceled, we had plans to register for the bungee jump that was conducted the same week which resulted in mishap. Who knows,may be I will not be sitting here typing this post... The Butterfly Effect!!!...

Cheers
Prem.

Technorati Tags : wayanad , Edukkal caves , Meenmutty falls , Chembra Peak , kerala , Adventure , Trek , Travel

After having our product being released last week, the organization decided for some team building activities. With various teams opting for different places, our choice was Shristi Adventure camp. This camp provides outdoor activities for various programs like team building, leadership qualities etc.

 It is located at Tumkur Road almost 60 km away from the city. This is a one day camp and we were asked to pick any one of the days from Friday to Monday. As none of the teams were interested in camping on weekends, Monday was our choice. As always Monday mornings are blue, I struggled to wake up at 5.30 and managed to reach office in time. Delayed start due to few people & the increasing appetite for food, made the 2 hours of bus journey very boring. Anyways we guys boarded the mapillai bench & had a nice nap. Once we reached we found the place was deserted & gave the feel of jungle. Few kms of walk through the forest, we reached the camp. It is a private property covering 56 hectares maintained for adventure camps & team building activities. Breakfast was served & we had our tummies full.

Now its time for some activities. The entire group was divided into 3 teams & activities were planned such that points were allotted for each activity. The events are spider web, Island hopping, Parallel Bridge crossing & pipeline. At first sight, it seemed to be boring & nothing to do with team building. But once we started doing it ,it was full fun & enthusiasm with each one developing a strategy to handle the problem. Me & vijay (my teammate) came out with a different approach in Island hopping, ended up injuring the knees of the instructor :( After completing each activity, juice was provided, as though we did something useful. The facilitators wanted us to be hydrated every now & then. Last event was the mountain hiking where we covered almost the entire place walking for 2 hrs. The scenic view of the mountains & the lake were the best parts of the trek. Our team won by scoring maximum points. It was a nice experience altogether having fun & entertainment for the whole day accompanied by some good food. This was my first trekking experience & I really enjoyed it. Expecting a few more treks in 2009 ...

Cheers,
Prem.

With almost 3 months of stay in bangalore Life was boring and mechanical.Home and office were our daily routine.All the weekends we either used to sleep or visit the nearby shopping malls to pass time.So we decided to take a break. This time it was adventure sports the PARA-SAILING.

We had no clue of what this sport is to be. We googled for more info and the registration form read you must register five days prior to this event.Since it was someday in the mid week our plan got cancelled. So we registered for the next week. Para sailing is conducted in HOSKOTE lake. None of us knew how to get to hoskote , so we phoned up the instructor and got the directions. It was really a tough task to wake up at 7 but I managed to do it & we started off at 8 am. We took the bus to marathalli from BTM water tank. It was just 15 mins of journey in the early morning with no traffic on sundays. From there we went to KR puram cable bridge bus stand. As per plans we boarded a 316 bus and took tickets for stop next to mandore. Hancharahalli is the place I guess.

We reached there at 9.30 and were really hungry. All we could do is to fill our tummies with tender coconut as no hotels were there. On the right was our expected landmark Andrew wood craft and we walked straight. The route to hoskote lake was pretty interesting. We took up the straight road as suggested by the villagers.No parashutes were found on air yet we moved believing that we have taken the right path. And finally we were there at HOSKOTE lake. To our surprise Hoskote is a dry lake with few goats nd buffaloes grazing around. There is no such registration process as well. we were the only participants over there. Declaration forms needs to be filled before taking the flight. Its just the formality that comes with every sporting activity.This is how it works, The parachute is hooked to the person and a long rope is attached to the person with other end of the rope being attached to the jeep. With the favourable wind conditions it lifts the person when the jeep is acclerated and you will gain height. It was my turn. Me being afraid of heights , it was really a great thrill to para sail.

Prayed to all the kulatheivams that nothing bad should happen. There is nothing to worry about since there are few trained professionals. With the general rule lesser the weight greater is the height I was going much higher and higher. This is the time. You are up in the air , flying like a bird , clicking the aerial view at an altitude of 300 meters above the ground level. I was just shouting screaming and enjoyin the flight. But all joy lasted for only 2 minutes.I wished it could have been a few more minutes in air. 350 bucks is quite large sum for just 2 minutes but it was a different experience cum adventure altogether.It was not as adrenalin pumping as expected. Dont forget to visit the rose gardens that are well maintained on the way to lake. The parasailers are planning to organise an event in december in which the proposed height factor is 600 meters and charge is 500 bucks. If anyone is really interested here is the contact number of the instructor 9886797597 (Neeraj is his name) .Gonna try bungee jumping next...

Cheers,
Prem.