Nandi Hills Bangalore

Nandi Hills

Nandi hills is a small hillock about 100kms from Bangalore on the Bangalore-Hyderabad road. A popular weekend spot for trekking enthusiast and tourists. The place offers magnificent view atop the hill.
Being a popular spot, the place is crowded on weekends and food and water is easily available.

The road uphill is a challenging one and loads of people turn up here with their vehicles. Early morning, the road opens at 6 am. This restriction put up must be to avoid accidents due to fog.

On top of the hill is an old Shiv temple. The top is like a flat top and has a very nice view from above. The place is pretty dangerous if one tries some foolishly adventurous things and has already claimed many lives. The steep gradient of the hill make it a one way to heaven if things go wrong hence walking near the edges is very dangerous. There is a guard or two who keep watch on people trying to go near the edge for snaps and warns them off. While atop one gets a felling of floating in the clouds. Reaching here early is the actual fun as the weather is nice can cool and the clouds hover all near the hill.

Overall the place is excellent for short drive or ride nearby Bangalore. I have visited this place on numerous occasions and enjoyed the beauty.

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Yelagiri Hills Tamil Nadu

Ride to Yelagiri Hills

Yelagiri is a hill station about 150kms from Bangalore, just off the Krishnagiri-Vellore road. An ideal weekend spot for tourists looking for less crowded and peaceful place near to Bangalore.

While reading about this place it was observed that the drive uphill to Yellagiri will be great because of the 14 hair pin bends and in December of 2008 my buddies and myself decide for  a one-day ride to the place.  Our Infosys biker gang which we later named 'Cruising Sultans' had planned this one and this was my first ride with the guys.

We started off at around 7 am from Electronic city and the 4-lane Hosur road was just like butter. This was the first time I was riding with a group and with 7 Enfield thumping around, it was just amazing. Our first halt was near the petrol bunk at Hosur where Arun shared his 'gyan' on group riding and we decided to follow that. Being December, the weather was pleasant cold which made the ride enjoyable.

The next stop was at Kamat right after Hosur. After a quick breakfast, we rode again towards Yelagiri. From Krishnagiri we took the left under the flyover. If you get over this flyover then you'll miss the turn for Yelagiri. Better keep in mind Vellore so that the left sign for Vellore serves the purpose. Once on the Vellore road, we reached a small town  where there was a sign for Yelagiri saying 'Elagiri'. The hill station is about 30 odd kms from here.

Riding the hairpin bends uphill was exhilarating. We stopped for some snaps on the way. One of the guys had a pillion named Ren who was kind enough to keep on clicking great snaps. On the way up the first stop was the Telescope House. Was a good place to watch the horizon. The view was good, not as awesome as Kodaikannal or Munnar though. After checking this place out we went uphill and reached the hillstation. It's a small place, not as developed as Ooty or Kodaikannal. I could see some lodges around, but did not spot any big hotels.  

The Punganoor lake was the next attraction. It was a nice quiet place not what I wanted at the moment. I was expecting to find some adventurous spot to ride to. After spending some time at the lake and after click here and there, we started back. I insisted to move ahead to check out if there was anything ahead. After a few kms, I spotted a formation of rock and we all decide to ride off-road there. Well the off-road part was not that much, just a little bit of grass and mud to be precise but the rocks looked great. Again it was time for some snaps and since everyone was hungry our humble moderator Manas decide to go to nearby shop and get some chips and biscuits which we readily enjoyed. After an hour of lazing around, we decided to have lunch.

There were not many restaurants around, but only local eateries. The food was tasty, nothing fancy but manageable. with our tummies full we decided our ride back. After an heavy lunch I was feeling sleepy but the hairpins kept my eyes wide open. I bet the other too were sleepy then. On our way back we stopped at the Krishnagiri junction where we had tea and started back. Our final rendezvous point was e-city junction where we gathered back to check on everyone.

It was a superb ride, my first with a group where I got to make new friends and which sparked off many more ride!

Places to see:

• Telescope House

This is the first spot one should reach while uphill. It is like a small observatory or a watch tower from where one can use the telescope kept there to see prominent place in the town at the foothill. A good place to spend sometime.

• Punganoor Artificial Lake-cum-Park

One shall miss this as it is right in the middle of the hillstation itself. A good place for famliy to hang around.

• Jalagamparai Waterfalls

One need to trek to reach this spot. We however did not check this out

• Swamimalai

This is the highest peak in this range and again a trek is required to reach here.


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Things to carry:

Foodstuff: Limited restaurants are available

Cash: Better carry sufficient cash as ATM availability is limited

Fuel: There is not petrol bunk on the way up, so better keep the tank full

Reaching there:

• Take the Hosur road and continue upto Krishnagiri.
• Take the left for Vellore under Krishnagiri Flyover
• Continue till you reach small town of Natrampalli
• Here you will find a marker saying 'Elagiri', take this right and continue

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Kokkare Bellur Mandya

Kokkare Bellur: The Stork Paradise

Kokkare Bellur is a small village about 100 kms from Bangalore in Mandya district. The name itself means 'village of storks' in kannada. The location of the village is about 15 kms off the Bangalore-Mysore highway.

For a very long time, I was planning to visit this place but somehow always skipped the spot. However in June of 2012 on my visit to nearby town in Mandya for a wedding celebration, my friends and I decided to check out this place.

Well to my surprise, there was no big crowd in this sleepy little town. I had heard that this place was the nesting grounds for the painted storks and like Ranganathittu I was expecting some fencing and park at this place. However all this lasted only till the time we reached this place. The village is a small one and you might just pass through without seeing any sign or hoarding for the place but you sure will not miss seeing the beautiful stork and their huge nest all around this place.

As soon as we reached the town and were about to ask the locals for directions to see the storks, we spotted 2 big storks sitting right on the side of the road. That was just amazing! And more had to come because on seeing around the place, we found that there were storks everywhere with nests very near to human settlements. It was like both man and birds were co-existing at this place in harmony.

Even though I could not identify the different species of storks, the proximity of their nest to the houses around really surprised me. The best thing about this place was that the birds were comfortable with humans and hence taking good shots was not a difficult job for an amateur like me.

On moving around the village we came across a small fence inside which storks that were injured or could not fly were kept with ample food supply. One can roam around this place freely and enjoy the beauty around.

The local childern might keep on pestering you for money and be sure not to hand them any or you might be flocked by dozens.

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Duration:
Half a day trip from Bangalore or Mysore
 

Best time to visit:

Winter, Evening

Things to carry:

Water

Food stuff

Note: There is not restaurant that we could spot nearby. The nearest restaurant is on the Bangalore-Mysore Highway.

Route Map:

From Bangalore

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