It was Sreeji who put forwarded the idea of going to Nandi hills. He was back after an official trip from Germany and wanted to take a break… and suggested that we go somewhere on a bike trip… As always I welcomed what ever idea of a travel comes my way, as I see lot of opportunity for my passions in it… Photography and Driving… and here I have chance for both. So I nodded in affirmation. He suggested that we go the next week itself… i.e. on 20th or 21st of June… But when I intimated that I will be going to my native that weekend, we postponed the idea by one week… And decided to hit the road on Saturday, 27th June, 2009. The plan was to go by 2 bikes. Sreeji and Aarya(Sreeji's would be… Sreeji, Sethu, Aarya and my brother are classmates too…) would cruise on one bike and me and Sethu will ride another… Nandi hills is only around 60 - 65 kilometers away from Bangalore… an ideal place for a one day bike trip. What we planned was to get there around noon, spend some time there till evening enjoying the beauty… (They will enjoy with bare eyes… while I planned to enjoy through lens), and return before night fall… have dinner together and part.

It is an established fact that, if you plan too much in advance, nothing is gonna happen the way you planned it. Here also the same thing happened. Sethu had to leave to Kerala urgently. That leaves Sreeji, Aarya and me. I had another program from Malayalikkoottam (a flickr group of photographers.) to attend on Saturday… And we shifted the trip to Sunday… My friends in Malayalikkoottam suggested that early morning is the best time to shoot there… And Aarya didn't want to spoil her Sunday morning sleep and declared that she is not coming and suggested we can all go together some other weekend once Sethu is back. Now this left Sreeji and me… And we decided to move on with the ride.

Plans were redrafted… And it was decided that we leave early in the morning by 4.30 and return by noon. Which will give us some time to rest and sleep in the afternoon… (After all which software pro in Bangalore won't love to sleep on Sundays?). Since we need to move very early, I decided to stay @ Sreeji's place and went home to fetch my Camera, Tripod and Jacket… I was provided Sethu's bed to sleep as he was away after dinner. Sreeji slept off early… I had to check my mails and reply to them… After finishing the task, I also decided to put my head to rest and moved to Sethu's bed.

Around 10 - 20 minutes must have passed… I had to wake up… Something has bit me near my elbow… and its itching… and the sensation is increasing… Bed Bugs!!!… they were the culprits… These guys used to travel to Kerala by bus and used to carry home bed bugs… - an unavoidable element of long distance bus travels(especially if bus is lil old.). Any way my one night's sleep is ruined as the bed bugs celebrated the feast provided to them. In between I thought of going to the hall and sleeping on the floor. But since it was too cold out there, I discarded that idea. The alarm which I set @ 4.00AM went in vain as I was awake even before that. I got off the bed by around 3.45, and brushed my teeth. Called Sreeji @ 4.00. We both took our showers and got dressed up to leave. We decided to take Sreeji's Yamaha FZ - 16 (Yes the same one you saw in previous post) instead of my Unicorn and hit the road @ 5.00.

Sreeji had taken a printout of the route and land marks on the way… So it was easy to move on. Sreeji held the handle while I took the role of navigator, checking the landmarks… The roads of the garden city which used to be filled with the gush of vehicles across it were all sleeping… and it was nice to ride on empty roads… especially those you have passed when it is crowded. We passed MG road and moved towards Hebbal… The new Bangalore International Airport is near there. In between we stopped for fuel and we switched roles. I grabbed the handle while Sreeji took the back seat. We crossed BIAL and reached Devanahalli. After few kms, we need to take a deviation to left to Nandi hills. It is 10 kilometers from there. The base of the hills is around 3 kilometers away from the deviation and after that, we need to drive up the curves up to reach the top.

The weather was so pleasant and by the time we reached the base, we saw the hill standing tall wearing a white blanket of fog. As we drove up, the fog became more and more thick. I put the wheels to halt a couple of times and pulled out my camera to absorb the lavishing beauty of the nature before me. Sreeji became my model for some time and I clicked lot of his pics also… We reached the parking lot by around 7.00 - 7.15 and got our tickets to enter the park there. The old fort which Tippu Sultan has built has been transformed well into a picnic spot now. Never in his dreams would Tippu have imagined that his fort and rest house would be opened to the public for tickets. There was a small shop near the ticket counter. We had a tea (so called… call it hot water… that would be better) and left our helmets in the safe custody of the shopkeeper and got inside.

I changed to my working gear wearing my photographer's jacket for the convenience of keeping lenses and my camera lost its state of rest. We moved around the place taking pictures as there was plenty of opportunity and scope for a photographer. The view from the top was splendid. The wind was so heavy by around 8.00 and we kept walking. In between Sreeji had to pose for me often. He was taking photos in his mobile camera. There were times when I missed my 18-55 lens which Johnny borrowed from me when he went home for the weekend. As a result I couldn't capture enough wide angle shots. The place is worth a visit early in the morning or for a sunset. A visit during the noon time will not be a good idea. We roamed around the place till 11.00 - 11.30 and decided to return. Both of us were feeling hungry like anything as we have not had anything for breakfast and have been walking all this time for around 4 hours.

Return journey felt pretty fast… After we hit the main road… we exchanged the handles a couple of times and reached BTM by around 1 - 1.30. We stopped @ Claypot, a Mallu restaurant in Thavarekare to have our combined - breakfast and lunch before we got home. We both went to our cocoons to rest after a hyper active trip marking an end to our escapade… We are sure that, we will need to climb the hills again when Sethu returns and see the pictures… Aarya would also love it.

Luv Febz

I wish I could Fly… Please find a bigger version here Best viewed in large size

Sreeji…