Late one friday evening it struck me that there are lots of places Bangalore roughly 50 to 100 kms away. I spent some time playing with google maps to create a loop.
It would give an outsider from Bangalore a good look at the scenic beauty that includes lakes, hills, forts, forest areas & sanctuaries as well as the hiking areas.
View Larger Map
Starting off from Hoskote ,head to Chintamani. Just before Chintamani is Kaivara betta ,a wonderful hiking place. From there the road winds south to Kolar . Antargange is a little hillock very close to Kolar town, there is a little deer sanctuary here.
The route then turns south west to Malur and thence to Hosur. From Hosur, a state highway leads to Thalli, situated in the backyard of the Bannerghatta forest, a great place to see elephants. The road from Thalli to Harohalli via Maralwadi is very scenic. It has a few small climbs, the Mavuttur dam on the road side as well as the ever popular hiking hotspot Rangaswami betta . The route hits Kanakapura road at Harohalli and proceeds south on the highway till Kanakapura. From Kanakapura, a right turn leads to Ramnagar. This route has a lot of hillocks, B M Betta to start with . The road surface is quite good all the way till Ramnagar. In Ramnagar , take the road that leads to Magadi. This part of the route is my personal favourite, good road surfaces as well as the scrub jungle of the Savanadurga state forest.
After passing Savanadurga , the route cuts across the highway to Mangalore on the route to Dobbaspet. The distinctive spike of granite known as Shivagange is seen even from Savandurga. Its a short hike to the top although there are too many people (and worshippers) on weekends.
Cutting across the NH-4 at Dobbaspet, head to the Devarayanadurga. There is road to the top of this hill, and from there there is panoramic view of the Devarayanadurga state forest . A short ride away is Madhugiri, a sharp conical hill with 7 dwaras from ancient times . The Maidanahalli blackbuck sanctuary is very close.
From madhugiri, the route heads east will the start point, Chintamani. On the way is Nandi hills as well as Kalavarahalli (which has 'shot to fame' of late and is very crowded on weekends).
The better part of this loop is that is avoids the main highways out of Bangalore and sticks to the state highways. While the roads are not always great, it is definitely safer.
Accomodation options: There are a few Kamat restaurants on the highway which offer dorm acco (of the 'cheap and best' variety). There is one in Dobbaspet, and one near Kolar. However, one should be able to camp out near Thalli/ Savanadurga /Siddarabetta . There are also plenty of big towns for 'propah' accomodation.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Honey Valley and Tadiandamol
The trip to Honey Valley was a long pending one, and once we had 4 people in our team and the booking done, we were really looking forward to the trip.
Honey valley is a 70 acre property located close to Tadiyendamol . The 'normal' route to Tadiyendamol is a pretty boring route, what with tar roads and coffee estates for company (unfortunately most urbanites seem to confuse coffee estates for forests, something no self respecting outdoor enthusiast would forgive). Honey valley is run by a Coorgi family in a very homely sort of way, not trying to masquerade as a resort.
We got to Kabbinkaad junction early after a overnight bus from Bangalore, and soon the jeeps arrived. Honey valley is a short (but quite eventful ) 4x4 jeep ride away from the nearest road.
After a quick breakfast and the ritual application of leech retardants (contact me for the patent-pending formula ..hehe ) we started out on the trek.
The route quickly climbs out on to a ridge that eventually connects to the base of Tadiyendamol. Its mostly easy walking on grasslands with the occasional drop into a Shola forest. We
were hiking in the tail end of the monsoons, and the visibility kept dropping to a few feet, so we were forced to keep everyone in sight. It took us a good 5 hours to reach the base of Tadiyendamol (marked by a big black rock ,after which the climb starts).
At this point the rain gods wanted to show us who was the boss, and it was interesting lighting the stove and cooking under multiple umbrellas and raincoats and eating the bread while trying to keep dry. After a while we had to give up the pretense of trying to stay to dry and we started the final climb. By now the bridle path was pretty much a stream and we could'nt see the ground we were walking on .
M who was walking with me was looking a little too confident considering her naivete ,but the path which was slippery earlier was much easier to walk on with the gushing water on it. After darting in and out of the little sholas on the route (it was like walking through a waterfall in the pouring rain inside), we arrived at the grassland close to the top. Unfortunately, we didn't get any sort of views thanks to the weather. That didn't stop us from enjoying some more of our food and we started back down.
The return trip was quite uneventful except for M enjoying the leech bite sensation . After getting back to Honey Valley, the well fed leeches were told to take a hike. Later that evening, we were treated to a wonderful evening concert , thanks to 2 gentlemen in the next room who made up for lack of talent with a guitar with a surfeit of alcohaalu .
The next morning we pampered our legs by not walking around and not skimping on the breakfast one bit. We were joined by A & B for lunch and got late for catching our bus back to Bangalore. A made it up just in time by some manic driving (we reached a minute late but the bus was still around).
We were privy to some more entertainment in Gonikoppa thanks to a tableaux of a very gory sort, for this was republic day. The bus was stopped forcibly . First came an auto and bike collision (on top of a truck) and we were amazed with all the blood and people lying around in moony positions. But it turned out to be the start, later there was a car & bike accident, and the last one was an actual minitruck collision. In addition to a couple of bomb blast scenes, landslides and other natural disasters, it made for a wholesome evening. I guess the tableaux makers need elevation to the national stage for their expertise with fake blood.
Made it back to Bangalore close to midnight.
Honey valley is a 70 acre property located close to Tadiyendamol . The 'normal' route to Tadiyendamol is a pretty boring route, what with tar roads and coffee estates for company (unfortunately most urbanites seem to confuse coffee estates for forests, something no self respecting outdoor enthusiast would forgive). Honey valley is run by a Coorgi family in a very homely sort of way, not trying to masquerade as a resort.
We got to Kabbinkaad junction early after a overnight bus from Bangalore, and soon the jeeps arrived. Honey valley is a short (but quite eventful ) 4x4 jeep ride away from the nearest road.
After a quick breakfast and the ritual application of leech retardants (contact me for the patent-pending formula ..hehe ) we started out on the trek.
The route quickly climbs out on to a ridge that eventually connects to the base of Tadiyendamol. Its mostly easy walking on grasslands with the occasional drop into a Shola forest. We
were hiking in the tail end of the monsoons, and the visibility kept dropping to a few feet, so we were forced to keep everyone in sight. It took us a good 5 hours to reach the base of Tadiyendamol (marked by a big black rock ,after which the climb starts).
At this point the rain gods wanted to show us who was the boss, and it was interesting lighting the stove and cooking under multiple umbrellas and raincoats and eating the bread while trying to keep dry. After a while we had to give up the pretense of trying to stay to dry and we started the final climb. By now the bridle path was pretty much a stream and we could'nt see the ground we were walking on .
M who was walking with me was looking a little too confident considering her naivete ,but the path which was slippery earlier was much easier to walk on with the gushing water on it. After darting in and out of the little sholas on the route (it was like walking through a waterfall in the pouring rain inside), we arrived at the grassland close to the top. Unfortunately, we didn't get any sort of views thanks to the weather. That didn't stop us from enjoying some more of our food and we started back down.
The return trip was quite uneventful except for M enjoying the leech bite sensation . After getting back to Honey Valley, the well fed leeches were told to take a hike. Later that evening, we were treated to a wonderful evening concert , thanks to 2 gentlemen in the next room who made up for lack of talent with a guitar with a surfeit of alcohaalu .
The next morning we pampered our legs by not walking around and not skimping on the breakfast one bit. We were joined by A & B for lunch and got late for catching our bus back to Bangalore. A made it up just in time by some manic driving (we reached a minute late but the bus was still around).
We were privy to some more entertainment in Gonikoppa thanks to a tableaux of a very gory sort, for this was republic day. The bus was stopped forcibly . First came an auto and bike collision (on top of a truck) and we were amazed with all the blood and people lying around in moony positions. But it turned out to be the start, later there was a car & bike accident, and the last one was an actual minitruck collision. In addition to a couple of bomb blast scenes, landslides and other natural disasters, it made for a wholesome evening. I guess the tableaux makers need elevation to the national stage for their expertise with fake blood.
Made it back to Bangalore close to midnight.
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