It was another lazy weekend. I had planned to sleep thru most of it as there was nothing planned nor anything worth watching in the theaters (Jab Harry met Sejal, really? why did she even meet harry?) when all of a sudden my better half said (rather announced): "Lets go trekking to Nandi Hills"!
I have been in bangalore for over a decade and have visited nandi hills just once and that too in the evening time in my car and had no idea about the trekking option in Nandi Hills.
Couple of years back we both had been to a trip to Valley of Flowers in Uttarakhand and had bought trekking shoe and other gear from decathlon which had remained unused. So decided that its a good chance not just to use the stuff but also enjoy some hiking and breath in some fresh air plus enjoy the beautiful views from the hill.
Did a quick search online and found few websites with the details of the hiking path. so we decided to go ahead with the hike on saturday. The route from home to starting point of the trek was a good 62 Km.
Started from home around 7.30AM in our punto and took the route via minerva circle, corporation, mysore bank circle, hi grounds, mekhri circle, hebbal to touch the bellary road. Being saturday the roads had very little traffic and we were taking left towards nandi hills in no time.
After taking left from bellary road, we went all the way till we touch the nelamangala - chikkaballapura road. At the junction we took road going towards Nandi Village on the right side. The weekend crowd on bikes/cars/SUV take left at this junction so the road towards Nandi village was almost empty and it had freshly laid surface so driving was smooth.
At nandi village you take left and continue towards the sultanpet village. Once in the village, immediately after the masjid, we took a small road on the left which takes towards the starting point on the hiking route. There is a sign post clearly indicating road to Nandi Hills.
After traveling on this broken road for around 150 mtrs you will see a huge bungalow on your right. you can park you vehicle in front of this bungalow compound or can drive few more meters ahead where you will find open space to you right to park you vehicles. We saw couple of SUV's parked here.
Google maps doesn't show the hiking path. it will show a path which is 8 KM via the nelamangala - chikaballapura road. If you change the view to satellite mode on google maps you will see there is indeed a path shown which starts at Silver oak farms and goes all the way up to Nandi hills steps.
We parked our punto in front of the compound and started our hike. The entire path has stone steps all the way to Tippu guest house. This hiking route is around 1.5KM and its moderate intensity trek with some steep steps for few meters on the way. But a good path for beginners.
Even though i walk almost 5 KM every morning on a path which has good inclines, flat road its still a little tiring climbing steps continuously. We took several brief breaks to catch our breath and also to enjoy the views and yes also to click some pictures. ("Ek minute ruck ke mera photo lo na, kitna acha view hai" :D)
While hiking you can rest besides the steps or there are several stone rest stops on the way where you can take a breather. Mind you there are no shops on this trail selling refreshments so carry your own bottle of water and may be a snack if desire to have one on the way.
We also saw some beautiful flowers on the way.
While we were slowly making progress we saw several folks already coming down from their hike. Since the weather was cloudy and we were in no hurry we took it easy. we crossed the tippu guest house and emerged just after the Nandi hills entrance arch from where all the 4 wheeler's go towards the parking spot.
The entire nandi hills was covered in the blanket of clouds when we reached the top around 10.30AM
There is a huge well known as Amrutha Sarovara on top
Tried to take in the views from several view points but the place was too crowded being a weekend. We decided to grab a quick bite and saw the hotel Mayura had best view as it was almost at the edge of the hill top. Ordered some hot dosa and enjoyed the view sitting inside.
The clouds kept playing hide and seek with the hills in the mean time.
While we were finishing our breakfast, it started to drizzle. All the crowd started to take shelter where ever covered space was available. We decided to wait for few minutes at the Amul stall enjoying a kulfi in the awesome weather.
But the rain pickup in intensity and we decided that there is no point in waiting as we any way have to take the hiking path down to our car. out came our ponchos which we had bough during our goa trip last month and started our journey back the same route.
Folks taking shelter from rain at tippu guest house were surprised to see us just walking down in the rain. Our joy of walking in the rain was short lived as the poncho i was wearing had ripped off at couple of places while was trying to wear it. Due to this i started to get wet.
The bigger problem were the stone steps! Since it was raining all the way, at several places our shoe started to slip even though they were supposed to be water proof and also have grip in wet conditions as well. Thankfully neither of us fell down when we slipped but we had to be extra cautious while climbing down. on top of it my socks started to hold water and the shoe became heavy! had to stop couple of times to squeeze the water out before continuing our trek downhill.
We realized the importance of walking stick especially while coming down from hill as it would have taken some body weight and reduced the stress on the knee. As we neared our car the rain reduced and then finally stopped.
So out came the phone and a departing photo had to be clicked
By the time we reached down it was 12:45 we were soaking wet, took few minutes to rest our knee and also to rinse out the water from our shoe.
Thus ended our a small little hiking trip to Nandi hills.
PS: Saturday went off ok, but some Sunday came with a new Realization: that we do have calf muscles!
walking and climbing/getting down steps became such a challenge i realized that in-spite of my morning walks i am still not physically fit stupid:. Even today my calf is reminding and has inspired me to write this travelogue!
Hope you enjoyed it. Cheers
A very well written TL with some useful tips which will surely come handy for guys planning the trek, like me. Thanks for sharing.
Is the trek allowed nowadays? I want my children to be introduced to hiking and wanted to take them during these summer holidays.
