Green grass, Blue sky... its a beautiful day...
Well, the title isn't exactly mine. I have heard it some where, can't exactly pinpoint the source. I suspect it is some ad jingle. That is besides the point. Such a place exists. If you live in Bangalore, all you have to do is travel 25kms on NH-7 to find it. Nandi Hills.
Like all trips, this was planned with great care. All in half an hour. Aditya calls me up on Friday night and says, "How about Nandi hills tom?". Thats all. A few phone calls later Saveen is with us. We decide to meet at Cauvery Emporium on Sat at 0900 and head out to the hills.
And that is what we did. The road to Yelhanka is quite crowded and narrow. There is work still being carried out on those roads. Yet where ever it is done, it is done good. That is indeed heartning.
Our first stop was just before Yelhanka for that quick breakfast which took more than 45 mins. We didn't complain. It gave us plenty of time to get up to date with each others' lives. We realised that we did live in interesting times. Not the chinese style!
Stomachs filled we resumed our ride. And what greets us is the most beautiful sight. An IAF landing. The runway at the Yelhanka Air Force Station is just over the fence from NH-7 so it looks as if the plane will touchdown on NH-7. It is a sight worth wating a life time.
Next stop was Devanhalli. That was me. My Enfield can not travel at 120 kmph. It just about does 112kmph and that is quite creepy, so I stick to a more reasonable 85kmph. That meant I lost our guys on a Pulsar and a Honda Unicorn. I finally caught them guys at the diversion to Nandi Hills. 22kms to go. A straight road to the Hill. We took a few snaps and headed the hill way.
What happened next was insane. A group of 20-30 people are blocking our way in the form of a human chain. I thought they were day time muggers. So I revved up and sped at them. That is why I am insane too. They had no choice, they let me go. Saveen passed them a few seconds before me almost wobbled, but no harm done. Aditya was caught, not for long. He too escaped. All this tom foolery to collect money for Ganesh Chaturti. Those people were truly insane.
The rest of the ride was spent soaking in the great view, cool breeze. What took the cake was the lack of human beings on the road. That made the ride even more sweet. We were zipping through the narrow roads on the ghat section at 70kmph. It was great.
We had to climb 1km from the parking lot to the top. That was great fun too. No people. Only love struck couples hoping for privacy that we were not going to give them.
The view from the top was breathtaking. We got philosphical. That is till the monkeys decided to entertain us. Those cheekey monkeys even got me to throw away my ice cream. Saveen had fun with one. Teasing it till it decided to jump!
The way back a few photo ops here and there and then back to Banaglore and the mad mad traffic. Lunch was at 1630 at Ballal residency. We guys enjoyed ourselves so much that we decided to trip again!
