TripCycle (just wanted to give some simple word similar to "LifeCycle" - which describes the each stage about a particular thing.)
> Where to go?
> The Super Sevens...
> Onward journey in bike
> Top of the Hill - A Tough Target
> Chilling moments atop
> Coming down the hill
> Back in Bangalore
Where to go?
these were the conv went between me n my friend Thiagarajan...
thursday night
9pm
thiagu: We can go for some trip this weekend right?
me : ya thala... there should not be any problem with that..
(we just spoke this very casually, not giving much attention to it. and only these two sentences, nothing more about that trip.)
friday night
9pm
thiagu: Where can we go tomorrow?
me: i haven't checked anything about that thala. office work u kno.. lemme check it now and get back to you
thiagu: sure. how abt sivaganga?
me: thats nice place thala... lets look for some more options also... how many are likely to turn up?
thiagu: 6 for sure.
me: thats cool... get back to you soon...
11:30pm
me: thala... how abt this place called 'Skandagiri Hills" thala? u might have seen few pics in forward mails, where a guy stands above clouds kno... this is that place only thala. check out these pics in this link ..
thiagu: wow... this is cool place. how far is that from here?
me: this is abt 65 kms thala.. and we need to be there at the top in early morning to witness the beautiful sunrise. which means, we need to trek in the night and they call this as "MoonLight Trek" thala. we can start from here on saturday night. this is fine???
thiagu: np.
thus the place got fixed. And we had just half day to prepare for this, but nothing specially to get ready. so, all set for a gud trekking trip.. :)
The Super Sevens...
We were Seven of us.. Anbu, Harish, Prabhu, Me, Shankar, Thiagarajan n Thilak... The Super Sevens...
Onward Journey in bike:
We all met at Shankar's house, located in BTM 2nd Stage, at around 9pm yesterday. all went to have dinner , except shankar who returned from treat, to Akshaya Bhavan. As usual, it was crowded nd delay in service, which made us to choose Friends Restaurant. Had dinner there. Meanwhile, me n thiagu went to nearby shops to get Water n snacks (britannia slice cakes n some chips). Had dinner and assembled for the onward journey at around 10:30. We made sure that we dont carry excess money and are not carrying any credit/debit cards, as our journey is in night. Better be cautious, than feeling sorry... discussed and decided not to go beyond 50kmph nd halt after every 10kms. Thiagarajan n Me in his CBZ bike, Prabhu n Harish in prabhu's Discoverer bike, Shankar n Thilak in Shankar's Flame bike and Anbu in Boxer bike. We decided to take this onward journey a leisure one, not pughing much. So, few re-checks on the fuel levels, bike's health, few snaps and gear one at 11:10pm.
To give an overview about the route, Jayadeva flyover - MG Rd - Hebbal - Devanahalli - Chickballapur - Skandagiri Hills.
Pretty simple route is it. ya.. it really was. just a straight road from BTM till Chickballapur. we took our first break at around 17kms from BTM, just few kms after Hebbal. As we were in the NH, we could experience the change in the blewing air temperature. Theory 1 -"distance covered and air temperature is inversely proportional" proved. It was getting colder and colder. i want u to have in mind that, most of us weared two/three t-shirts nd a jacket to cover it all and still felt our skin getting frozen. gr8 driving guys... second halt near the completely dark Air Force Base near Yelahanka. Got a glimpse of the new airport from far, after few kms from there, the road turned from better to bad, four lane to single line. Our third halt at an road side Shri Swami Dhaba, where we could get Hot Tea, which was to most necessary thing that needed that time. And belive me when i say that, the Tea got colder within a min as we holded it our hands. few more halts and there we reached chickballapur.
As said earlier, it was straight road (but a bumpy one) till now. We just stopped at left cut, some odd instinct to most of us. when we inquired in an nearby, thats the cut we need to take to go to the hills. sometimes, these insticts really prove benificial at the prompt time. If we had not taken this cut, it might have turned into some route hunting competition to all of us. Shankar was the one who inquired in the nearby cycle repair shop, and came back saying "there will be police station, take right after that, u'll hit a circle, take left there..". As we were discussing abt this, there came two police men and said something in kannada, all we could get from their tone is that we have to start our bike right now. If you are planning to visit there anytime, to identify which left is that, here is the description abt that cut - Once u reach chickballapur, in less than 2 km after SJC Institute of Technology, you'll come across this small Shri Balamuri Ganapathi Temple at the road side (left) and a small Vishweswaraya Statue just at the entrance of that left cut. We took that left, in few mts passed the police station, took right at the dead-end of that road, aftr 50mts from there we again got the same instinct again. this time it was a junction of four roads (and here by "roads" i mean street mud roads, very narrow ones). is this the circle which the local guys mentioned??? full confusion, and we decided to go straight as we could see something like a circle in another 100mts.
Only after reaching the other circle, enquiring the local guys there, we came to know that, the four-road-junction is the one which the cycle shop guys referred as "circle" (And there are different meaning for this word, but in the same context. different ppl refer diff locations in different places). came back to that junction, took left there (with lots n lots of doubts in our mind), went abt 100mts, gained confidence that this should be the right way, but still hacing doubt somewhere in our mind, drove for abt 3kms in the road which runs right thru the small water body and reached a small village. Just to make sure we're in the right track, we called up one of the local guy (whom i could get in touch when planning for this trip) named Madhu, who said he lives in a village called KalawaraHalli Bhetta, which lies right at the foothill of Skandagiri. As we were talking with that guy, we saw a sign board welcoming us to the hills, which gave us a big relief that we're finally goin to reach our target hill. in few mts, met Madhu and thanked him for being awake for so late and helping us to reach there. In another 5 mins, we reached the Papagini Temple, which is right at the start of the hill and this is the place where we should park our vehicle. A big satisfaction to all of us, finally we have compelted the first quarter of our trip successfully.
The whole incidents which i described in the last two paragraphs, took place at 1:30 am to 2am sunday. all the inquries (where we couldnt get anyone out in street at that time), confusions, doubts, happened in this odd hour in the sunday morning.
Top of the Hill - A Tough Target
After 10 mins of relax, we realized that we never bothered to take Torches with us. Oops. All we've got with us was this gadget which spends most of the time with us than any other person/thing in the world, our Mobile phone. And Madhu gave strong instruction to us that dont go for any guides at that place to reach the top, as there are lot of painted arrows, to show us the right path to reach the top. We kept his advice in mind and started to follow a group going ahead. did i tell you that, there were lot of vehicles parked in that parking place, who has already gone to the top, and the count was increasing as the second hand ticks. Glad that i had a SE mobile, and it proved really worthy now, as it lit our way much more like a powerful torch. everyone haveing nokia switched on the video recording to get atleast some light out of their mobile. As we started climbing up, we got ourself caught with a big chunk of ppl, which we didnt like at all. So, we took rest for few mins to let them go ahead of us.
Followed the arrows which guided us and after some time we could find those guys taking rest, we going ahead of them, afterwhich we just thought we will keep ourselfs ahead all thru the way. The path was rough and we were literally blind. the first person leading will have my mobile to get a good view of the way ahead and give instructions nd cautions for the rest of the followers. Remember me saying that we got water and snacks, yes... that proved very very vital now. As after every 10 mins of walk, walk is too simple word to describe, i would use climbing, even climbing is too simple word.. ok.. whatever it may be, every 10 mins, we take rest in the rocky place on the way. As soon as we find the other group catching us, we continued to climb. this interval of 10 mins is during the initial few mts. As time passed, and as we got closer to top, the interval timings came lesser nd lesser. And even here the "Theory 1" holds true. This time its not distance Vs temperature, now its height Vs temperature.
> Where to go?
> The Super Sevens...
> Onward journey in bike
> Top of the Hill - A Tough Target
> Chilling moments atop
> Coming down the hill
> Back in Bangalore
Where to go?
these were the conv went between me n my friend Thiagarajan...
thursday night
9pm
thiagu: We can go for some trip this weekend right?
me : ya thala... there should not be any problem with that..
(we just spoke this very casually, not giving much attention to it. and only these two sentences, nothing more about that trip.)
friday night
9pm
thiagu: Where can we go tomorrow?
me: i haven't checked anything about that thala. office work u kno.. lemme check it now and get back to you
thiagu: sure. how abt sivaganga?
me: thats nice place thala... lets look for some more options also... how many are likely to turn up?
thiagu: 6 for sure.
me: thats cool... get back to you soon...
11:30pm
me: thala... how abt this place called 'Skandagiri Hills" thala? u might have seen few pics in forward mails, where a guy stands above clouds kno... this is that place only thala. check out these pics in this link ..
thiagu: wow... this is cool place. how far is that from here?
me: this is abt 65 kms thala.. and we need to be there at the top in early morning to witness the beautiful sunrise. which means, we need to trek in the night and they call this as "MoonLight Trek" thala. we can start from here on saturday night. this is fine???
thiagu: np.
thus the place got fixed. And we had just half day to prepare for this, but nothing specially to get ready. so, all set for a gud trekking trip.. :)
The Super Sevens...
We were Seven of us.. Anbu, Harish, Prabhu, Me, Shankar, Thiagarajan n Thilak... The Super Sevens...
Onward Journey in bike:
We all met at Shankar's house, located in BTM 2nd Stage, at around 9pm yesterday. all went to have dinner , except shankar who returned from treat, to Akshaya Bhavan. As usual, it was crowded nd delay in service, which made us to choose Friends Restaurant. Had dinner there. Meanwhile, me n thiagu went to nearby shops to get Water n snacks (britannia slice cakes n some chips). Had dinner and assembled for the onward journey at around 10:30. We made sure that we dont carry excess money and are not carrying any credit/debit cards, as our journey is in night. Better be cautious, than feeling sorry... discussed and decided not to go beyond 50kmph nd halt after every 10kms. Thiagarajan n Me in his CBZ bike, Prabhu n Harish in prabhu's Discoverer bike, Shankar n Thilak in Shankar's Flame bike and Anbu in Boxer bike. We decided to take this onward journey a leisure one, not pughing much. So, few re-checks on the fuel levels, bike's health, few snaps and gear one at 11:10pm.
To give an overview about the route, Jayadeva flyover - MG Rd - Hebbal - Devanahalli - Chickballapur - Skandagiri Hills.
Pretty simple route is it. ya.. it really was. just a straight road from BTM till Chickballapur. we took our first break at around 17kms from BTM, just few kms after Hebbal. As we were in the NH, we could experience the change in the blewing air temperature. Theory 1 -"distance covered and air temperature is inversely proportional" proved. It was getting colder and colder. i want u to have in mind that, most of us weared two/three t-shirts nd a jacket to cover it all and still felt our skin getting frozen. gr8 driving guys... second halt near the completely dark Air Force Base near Yelahanka. Got a glimpse of the new airport from far, after few kms from there, the road turned from better to bad, four lane to single line. Our third halt at an road side Shri Swami Dhaba, where we could get Hot Tea, which was to most necessary thing that needed that time. And belive me when i say that, the Tea got colder within a min as we holded it our hands. few more halts and there we reached chickballapur.
As said earlier, it was straight road (but a bumpy one) till now. We just stopped at left cut, some odd instinct to most of us. when we inquired in an nearby, thats the cut we need to take to go to the hills. sometimes, these insticts really prove benificial at the prompt time. If we had not taken this cut, it might have turned into some route hunting competition to all of us. Shankar was the one who inquired in the nearby cycle repair shop, and came back saying "there will be police station, take right after that, u'll hit a circle, take left there..". As we were discussing abt this, there came two police men and said something in kannada, all we could get from their tone is that we have to start our bike right now. If you are planning to visit there anytime, to identify which left is that, here is the description abt that cut - Once u reach chickballapur, in less than 2 km after SJC Institute of Technology, you'll come across this small Shri Balamuri Ganapathi Temple at the road side (left) and a small Vishweswaraya Statue just at the entrance of that left cut. We took that left, in few mts passed the police station, took right at the dead-end of that road, aftr 50mts from there we again got the same instinct again. this time it was a junction of four roads (and here by "roads" i mean street mud roads, very narrow ones). is this the circle which the local guys mentioned??? full confusion, and we decided to go straight as we could see something like a circle in another 100mts.
Only after reaching the other circle, enquiring the local guys there, we came to know that, the four-road-junction is the one which the cycle shop guys referred as "circle" (And there are different meaning for this word, but in the same context. different ppl refer diff locations in different places). came back to that junction, took left there (with lots n lots of doubts in our mind), went abt 100mts, gained confidence that this should be the right way, but still hacing doubt somewhere in our mind, drove for abt 3kms in the road which runs right thru the small water body and reached a small village. Just to make sure we're in the right track, we called up one of the local guy (whom i could get in touch when planning for this trip) named Madhu, who said he lives in a village called KalawaraHalli Bhetta, which lies right at the foothill of Skandagiri. As we were talking with that guy, we saw a sign board welcoming us to the hills, which gave us a big relief that we're finally goin to reach our target hill. in few mts, met Madhu and thanked him for being awake for so late and helping us to reach there. In another 5 mins, we reached the Papagini Temple, which is right at the start of the hill and this is the place where we should park our vehicle. A big satisfaction to all of us, finally we have compelted the first quarter of our trip successfully.
The whole incidents which i described in the last two paragraphs, took place at 1:30 am to 2am sunday. all the inquries (where we couldnt get anyone out in street at that time), confusions, doubts, happened in this odd hour in the sunday morning.
Top of the Hill - A Tough Target
After 10 mins of relax, we realized that we never bothered to take Torches with us. Oops. All we've got with us was this gadget which spends most of the time with us than any other person/thing in the world, our Mobile phone. And Madhu gave strong instruction to us that dont go for any guides at that place to reach the top, as there are lot of painted arrows, to show us the right path to reach the top. We kept his advice in mind and started to follow a group going ahead. did i tell you that, there were lot of vehicles parked in that parking place, who has already gone to the top, and the count was increasing as the second hand ticks. Glad that i had a SE mobile, and it proved really worthy now, as it lit our way much more like a powerful torch. everyone haveing nokia switched on the video recording to get atleast some light out of their mobile. As we started climbing up, we got ourself caught with a big chunk of ppl, which we didnt like at all. So, we took rest for few mins to let them go ahead of us.
Followed the arrows which guided us and after some time we could find those guys taking rest, we going ahead of them, afterwhich we just thought we will keep ourselfs ahead all thru the way. The path was rough and we were literally blind. the first person leading will have my mobile to get a good view of the way ahead and give instructions nd cautions for the rest of the followers. Remember me saying that we got water and snacks, yes... that proved very very vital now. As after every 10 mins of walk, walk is too simple word to describe, i would use climbing, even climbing is too simple word.. ok.. whatever it may be, every 10 mins, we take rest in the rocky place on the way. As soon as we find the other group catching us, we continued to climb. this interval of 10 mins is during the initial few mts. As time passed, and as we got closer to top, the interval timings came lesser nd lesser. And even here the "Theory 1" holds true. This time its not distance Vs temperature, now its height Vs temperature.
Yet To Be Contiued...
prepared vada's. After this splendid breakfast, we all switched to fashion models. Not by the appearance. By the kind of dress we wore. It is a plain but colourfull single polythene sac, which had three holes for our hands and neck. That almost covered the entire body. This is the rain coat for protecting us from the rain water. The head gear was the ordinary polythene cover. But this is the most simple and suitable costume to wear in the all time rainy and marshy hill path. After everyone weared and walked down the hill for trekking, it almost seemed that we are parading in the ramp. 
After some 10 to 15 mins, everyone woke up and had evening tea. Spent some time chatting in front of our room and went for dinner. Dinner was as usual delicious. Had very gud dinner after long time and came back. We played cards. Started with Donkey or Ass. just one round of it took more than 30 mins. completely fun. then played rummy. 2 or 3 rounds of it and then shifted to Bluff, one round of which took almost an hour to finish. All together we finished playing cards at around 10 - 10:30pm. Everyone planned to go to bed, but someone came up with an option of laying dumb-charades. So most of us, almost all, sat back for playing that game. Fun filled game went till 2:30 - 3Am next day. finally all went to bed, after this fun filled day.