It was a drab of a week as nothing was moving at work, and I was getting jittery and restless. It quickly dawned upon me that I haven't been outdoors for more than 2 weeks and the urge to do so was starting to build up. Luckily, Gandhi Jayanthi holiday was approaching. I knew that I definitely had to get out of the crazy city traffic and take in the blissful surroundings of the village countryside, forests and hillocks, before I could return to all the madness. So I got back from work Tuesday night, contemplating what to do the next day, while scrolling Whatsapp status updates.
and Bang !! I hit the jackpot. One of my friends was organizing a bike ride to Kailasagiri Temple and Horsley Hills to celebrate Gandhi Jayanthi. It was called the 'Peace Ride' and we were all asked to come dressed in white. The ride would take the entirety of the day and would consist of a mix of state highways and village roads. What more could one have asked for !
Horsley Hills
Horsley Hills is a hillock and tourist attraction in Andhra Pradesh named after British Collector W.D Horsley. It is located 160 kms from Bangalore, and easily makes for a weekend getaway or day picnic for Bangaloreans. After many dropouts due to early morning rains and flooded streets from the previous night, 6 of us started for our destination at around 5.30 from the Hoskote toll gate, which was our meeting point.
We passed a highway marker announcing our arrival into the state of Andhra Pradesh an hour into the ride. We passed by serene grassland interspersed with mini towns and villages, with hillocks providing the background score all throughout the ride. The sun definitely managed to drench all of this in its glorious vitality, like it has been doing for a million years, as well as vitalize and energize our bodies for the trek that was to come ahead.
Breakfast
We reached a village that was heavily crowded and dusty, just in time for breakfast. It was at around 830. It was crowded not in terms of traffic, but in terms of people. There were scores of people waiting for buses on both sides of the narrow dusty road. The road was relatively quiet and had mostly two-wheelers plying through it, with the occasional town bus passing by every now and then.
There was barely any space for pedestrians to move, and they had to share space with automobiles on these dusty lanes giving rise to a lot of noise and commotion. Since it was quite early in the day, the commotion was low, and so was the noise. We got into a small chic eatery that barely had 5-6 tables in it, as is the custom in villages, and placed our order of Idlis, Vadas, Dosas among other items.
Back on the road
We were back on the road within half an hour. The traffic on the road was comparatively less from here onward. After riding for another hour or so, we were at our destination. The hairpin bends on the hills were a pleasure to cruise for the bikers, and a treat to the senses for pillion riders. We could just feel the wind in our hair, while taking in the ecstasy of feeling the movement of the bike, the hillocks with lush greenery all around us.
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We were drenched in the vitality of the sun all the time
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Single-lane tree lined village roads
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The hilltop
We arrived at one of the picturesque viewpoints of the hill at around 12 in the afternoon. We were treated to mesmerizing and stunning views of the plains below consisting of agricultural fields, shrub forest and village. There were a couple of more viewpoints to see, along with a crocodile zoo, Bird cage, and Deer zoo. One can easily spend around close to an hour over here, with plenty of time to spare for photos and fun.
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| View from the first viewpoint |
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| View from the second viewpoint |
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| View from yet another point on the hill |
After we were done getting around the various points of interest on the hill, we settled down to some ice cream and cool drinks at a stall by the side of the road. By this time the sun was out, but we still did not feel the heat, due to the abundance of greenery around us. It was post noon by now, and so we bid adieu to the place after clicking a few more pictures during the downhill ride.
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| A small pond on the way up |
We stopped at the same dusty town for lunch on the way back, albeit at a different eatery. Needless to say, the food was lip-smacking good and went straight down the hatch, despite the heat.
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| The ultra delicious village meal - lentils, rice and veggies |
We then begun the second part of the journey, to go check out Kailasagiri cave temple and Kaivara. Kailasagiri Cave Temple is situated atop a small hillock, and is a monolith rock in itself. Hence the name, "Kailasagiri cave temple".
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| Posing on the road during the descent |
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| There was barely any traffic, hence such shots |
We were running behind schedule for the day, owing to a few extended breaks, and managed to reach the cave temple, with just an hour to go for sunset. We enjoyed biking on the quaint village roads one has to go through to reach the temple as there was barely any traffic. Once we reached the top we saw two buses with a batch-load of devotees, who were raring to visit the temple just as it was closing. Being trekkers, we could have done it in a jiffy if we wanted to, but we slowed down to help an elderly person climb up, and make it in time for the visit.
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| Stunning vistas from the entrance of the temple |
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| The monolith rock with a cave, and a temple inside it |
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| The rock texture is clearly visible here |
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| At the entrance |
It was sunset by the time we were done clicking pictures and taking in the magnificent scenery of the vast open space right in front of the cave. It somehow brought back memories of Lion King and Pride Rock, and made me imagine all wild animals roaming in the fields below, which were actually populated with shrub forest and agricultural fields, along with villages interspersed in between.
We got packing when it was completely dark, and were amongst some of the last people to move from the spot. The parking area was eerie, and wore a deserted look, with just a few dull lamp posts illuminating the ground. It was exceptionally quiet, with only the sound of the crickets and insects for company.
We started off right away, and once we were on the main highway, what started as just an incipient drizzle, soon turned into full blown rain; with visibility drastically reducing to just a few meters ahead. To add to our plight, and list of miseries, this stret
ch of state highway was neither lit, nor had dividers, and was single-lane. So it literally was a slippery slope for the riders to maintain safety while not going too slow as well, as that would make us terribly late. We reached home at around 930 to dark houses and flooded streets, along with heavily clogged main roads. I ended up at the house of the rider I had been riding pillion with all along.
We made some hot Maggi to warm up our shivering bodies. I then left from there after a while, and got home by 11. With that, I wrapped up this marathon day trip that included an
early morning start,
visiting multiple hillocks,
lip-smacking village fare for lunch and dinner,
Stunning vistas (that reminded me of pride rock from Lion King) from the top of Kailasagiri cave temple,
being inside a cave temple, riding back in the pouring rain in blacked out single lane highways, reaching Bangalore only to be met by water logging at each and every toll gate on the way, massive traffic jams due to the rain, and partial blackouts. It was one hell of a ride. I can't even wait to explore my surroundings in this fashion again.
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