Hi,
I am combining 2 travel logs again in to one.
The last Sunday Oct 3rd had been to ThimarayaSwami Betta near Nandhi hills
The last Monday Oct 4th Been to Sivappana Betta Near Sangam
ThimarayaSwami betta:
My bro wanted to badly go out & asked if I will join him to Nandi Hills (and not if we can go out as usual
), I have to give in, My Cousin Rajesh & His wife Roopa too came in, we started by 6:00 am. took the diversion from Chikbellapur road to Nandi Hills, Post railway crossing got off the road fro some Rock crawling, here I discovered how good the Cooper STT Discoverer is. had a lot of fun, need to work on Approach Angle.
later went to the final turn to Nandi climb, it was about 10 AM and on a a Sunday, people just pour in also B-fast was not good at all, its worth to drive down to chikbellapur kamath & come back even if it means 20+ kms, so ditched Nandi & on the way back I always wanted to explore the nearby hills, inquired with locals & decided to visit ThimarayaSwami temple on the hill top. all cars can reach the hill top too, the temple is of Venkateshwara & live size idol felt very nice & peaceful there, while returning from the temple spotted a trail followed it to a dead end & later the real thing, just went up a Mountain no path no trail, the hard part was to turn around on the steep mountain, My Bro did some more rock climbing & later we came down & back to BLR.
Sivappana Betta Near Sangam
my 3rd trip to this place. planned for my team as my boss & 2 members are leaving my team of 5 people
, caught up with people at office, on the way to Kanakapura about 18Kms from it take a left for some birding near a lake, wanted to take a pic of Gurkha on grass, backed up took the pic & while coming out put the front left wheel in a Clay PIT, with some effort & diffs was able to pull it out of it, Asked guys to spot if its ok to come out avoiding an other, they didn't see an other cylindrical Pit covered with grass & Bum I am in, spent next one hour trying to recover but in vain.
To add to my plight, had installed a extra layer mat on the Gurkha floor, in the processes removed the bag that had toe-rope & jack !!!!, gave up & went to main road requested a tractor guy, but no rope, we managed to find some old cloths & net that was thrown we also used the bed-spread that the poor tractor guy was using as cover, it did help but the fabricated toe rope in first attempt opened up, in the second the tractor guy sprinted in recovery unlike the first and the fabricated rope broke, we asked for help with nearby house who gave a plastic water pipe instead, and we made 16 times the long pipe but it broke in a Jeffy !!! later we removed the tractor trailer, brought in the tractor, put its Jack ( two vertical rods connected by a horizontal rod) used to lift its trailer connection, we put that to the Gurkha's front crash guard, lifter the vehicle with ease, I put in two 5 feet long stone pillars (the ones used for fencing with mettle thorny wires) in to the ditch & it just sunk in I was like Woha no words the pit was god dam deep & the stones just sided in & were going in some more, just that I cannot push in any more as its completely submerged. then the front wheel came out, later the rear got stuck in the same mess, the tractor trying to go behind to lift the rear wheel got stuck it self & after some fuss came out lifted the rear & I drove away while it had me lifter out of the pit, slightly damaging my rear bumper. paid 500 to Tractor guy thanked him, paid 150 for the pipe, & headed out, drove for like 10 kms with diffs locks ON, need to put ext LED's to show Diff locks & hand break, the vehicle give very strong anti steer if the diffs are on & you are driving
Never Ever have I got stuck & suffered so BAD, Lesson Get a winch, Keep the toe-rope no mater what, fit the spare wheel with you and carry the Jack else invite trouble & get jacked
later reached kanakapura, had b-fast packed lunch & reached base of hill, here we see fresh I mean really really fresh foot prints of a lone elephant Bull, I have seen video of elephant in taxi thread, was very worried, after about 2 kms of continuously following the foot prints & passing several elephant doping that stink, my intuition warned me from going any more on the trail, took a vote from all members, they all were frightened to core & wanted to go back, especially worried that I had role cage removed 7 if the bull charged people at back are vulnerable. turned around the jeep stooped, decided to walk & checkout, Me & couple of guys started walking in, while Manju (my Boss) sat on the drivers seat jeep facing out ready to run if need be. we followed for almost 1000 mtrs & came back to the jeep, Decided to carry on & complete the journey. as I am sure all will feel very bad if we turned around & the elephant should be as frightened as we are, headed up, & thankfully didn't see the elephant, now people in the jeep were more concerned of the Animal than the Jeep off road !!, reach top, saw the temple, cam back had lunch & came back to Bangalore I had to meet a corporate VP in a round table at 3:00, was back in city all mucky , headed home took a shower, got on to the GT-250 & back in office for the meeting like a good boy by 3:00 picture a Smiley (as Strictly as only 2 smiles are permitted per post! )
Let the Pics speak:
More pics :
http://picasaweb.google.com/10174172...3/AroundNandi#