Thanks to the busy schedule of each of us which gave us the idea of a holiday and a break from the hectic schedule. Six guys daring to drive long decided to rip through a distance of 530 kms on our bikes. The decided trip was BR Hills-K Gudi-Himavad Gopalswamy betta-Nanjangood-Bangalore.
We decided to meet in kengeri on the Bangalore mysore highway at 7 AM on 11th December 2010. We started off from there after having a cup of tea from the roadside vendor. As it was early in the morning and the road was free from the usual traffic, we could rip through very quickly to maddur were we decided to have our breakfast. We had the breakfast in kadamba and headed further. A kilometer after maddur we have to take the route towards Kollegal via malavalli. A stretch of 10 kms was a pothole stuck road while reaching malavalli, thereafter we loved the road to kollegal.
Once we reached kollegal we enquired the route to BR hills though the road had signs of direction to that place. We reached the foot of BR hills at around 11:15AM. We had to enter all our vehicle numbers and addresses in the register of the forest department and then enter the jungle area.
We were very much impressed with the flora of the jungle. The snake like roads was all admired by us and we had a wonderful ride till the Billigiri Ranga temple. This is a famous temple in the Hills. The Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple is dedicated to Lord Ranganatha. The local name of the God is Biligiriranga and the deity is shown as being in a standing position. This is the only place in the country where it is depicted as being in this position. From there we took the road to K Gudi forest. It was around 15 kms from the temple. The rich vegetation of BR Hills in turn supported a wide variety of fauna. We could see lot of animals going around in the natural vegetation.
As it was an unplanned trip we had no designated place for lunch. After reaching K Gudi we contacted the jungle resorts for lunch and found it very costly. Then we found a local who could prepare lunch for us and indeed it was yummy. Then we booked a safari. It costs Rs 140 per person. We waited for the jeep to come back and we left for the safari at around 4:45 PM. We were slowly beginning to fall in love with the surroundings.
There were lots of deer in the jungle. We were quite disappointed that we were not able to see any of the wild animals. The guide asked us to come in the summer so that we could do some trekking in the forest to see the wild animals. While this conversation was going on we could spot a jungle elephant. It was very exciting to see a huge jungle elephant in front of us. It had come alone to drink water. Here people say that ONTISALAGA i.e. a single elephant is very dangerous. It started coming nearer to our jeep and our hearts started pumping faster and faster. But it was fun to have such kind of experience.
By the time we reached back it was 6:20PM and the gate to chamrajnagar was closed. They follow a rule of 6:00AM to 6:00PM. We requested the range officer to let us go as we had no accommodation in K Gudi but the officer explained the risks involved after darkness in the forest. He was kind enough to let us accompany his jeep till the forest got over and the villages started. The journey of ten kilometers in the jungle darkness was breathtaking. We could spot some wild creatures travelling along with us on the road. After the jungle area we took our way to chamarjnagar and stayed there.
Next morning we left the place around 5:30AM and headed towards Himavad Gopalswamy betta. We reached the place at round 6:45AM. The road towards the upward hill was not very good but the scenes on the way were unmatchable. We were covered by clouds all over on the top of the hill and it was very unique experience to people living in the concrete jungle. Later we left the place and headed towards Nanjangud . We visited the temple there and left for Bangalore.
