Yelagiri Hills, 3rd Trip - April 2011

Day 1 : Bopanna was to reach my place by 1100hrs but by the time he reached it was 1200hrs. No wonder he and Anirban are best buddies.

Since we planned this trip more with the objective of bike ride, we did not carry much stuff with us. Took my saddle bags stuffed with mine and Bopu’s stuff. And ofcourse, his brand new Nikon D550 as well. Actually the camera was new but in market it was an obsolete model :-))

We were to meet Sumit at 1230hrs at Biocon. Somehow we missed Biocon and stopped a little ahead. Sumit joined us around 1240. With all luggage on my bike, Bopu sat behind Sumit. We started around 1245hrs and our next stopped planned was at Krishnagiri. That’s where you can get awesome Egg Dosa and typical TN style sambar in some dhabas J

We were quite unlucky as by the time we reached only meals were available. With just one look at meals in that dhaba, I heard my stomach telling me loud that it is not going to accept it in J Not sure what made us order that oily rubber like parota and omelet. Anyways we were back on road soon after lunch.

Sumit’s bike was low on tyre air pressure and we stopped at one of the fuel stations, only to find that there was no chap to fill air. We tried desperately in that scorching sun on our own for almost 15 mins to find that the machine was not working properly.

Back on road again we took the right diversion from highway towards Yelagiri Hills. However the sign board there reads as “Elagiri” J

Take right from NH46 at Vaniyambadi Junction. There is a sign board pointing towards Elagiri. Get on SH18 and drive through the village. There is one HP petrol pump on the right which is the last fuel station there. Take left from village as you see the sign board pointing towards Yelagiri Hills.

Just before we got onto the ghat section, suddenly it started raining. The showers were so strong that we had to immediately stop our bikes. We saw this Brick Kiln on the right and took our bikes there to keep ourselves dry. The showers lasted for about 15mins. What we didn’t realize was that we were completely covered by blanket of mud and clay.

We started as soon as the rains stopped. While we were about to reach the top, we had to cross the thick Eucalyptus trees. Being one of the first rains of the year, that fresh smell of eucalyptus oil was just awesome. Surprisingly when we reached YMCA camp it was completely dry. It didn’t rain that side and I was so glad that we will be able to go for the trek. And obviously can light up the fire as well J



YMCA Camp



We took one room and dumped our luggage there. Since it was almost 1630hrs, we thought of going to the town to get some booze and bread for dinner.

 

Why was it supposed to happen with us. It was Dry Day in Yelagiri that day :-)) Disappointed Bopu went to a bakery for some cold drink. I don’t know what made me ask one chap standing and staring at us that where could we find booze. Bingo…. He was the right guy and helped us getting the right stuff, though we had to pay little extra ;-)

We reached back at YMCA camp around 1730hrs and packed our stuff for the night trek. On our way up the hill during trek Jimmy, Sheru and Blacky joined us. (they were 3 stray dogs J ).

We reached the highest possible point and the view was just awesome. Sunset was to happen anytime and Bopu was busy trying his hand on his new but obsolete camera :-))

 

Sunset view from the top



Blacky, Jimmy and Sheru



With Bopanna and Sumit



Me and Sumit we went inside the forest bushes to get wood for fire. We could manage sufficient wood to last for entire night. While it was getting dark, I lit the fire enough just to keep the embers. It was to create enough fire quickly just incase if any bear or other animal turns up.

I think I missed to mention that Yelagiri is known to have good no. of Brown Bears J

It was full moon night and not so dark. We could hear some weird scream of some animal at a distance but ignored as it seemed to be atleast 70-80 meters away.

What an experience it was being on top of the hill with no noise and disturbance. It was so peaceful up there. However we could still hear that animals weird scream at regular interval J



Bopanna and Sumit



With Sumit


It was around 2300hrs when suddenly that scream was loud and scary. It was certainly not more than 10meters away from us. For 2 seconds all 3 of us just froze out of fear. I quickly pulled my dagger out and jumped next to the embers. In next 10-15 seconds our fire was again up and good. Slowly that sound faded away.

As usual Bopu wanted to go back down now. We collected our stuff and all waste including paper in a bag and started our trek down around 0015hrs in the night. By the time we reached our room in camp, me and sumit we were dead tired but Bopu wanted to have one more round of booze. Not sure when I slept off J

Day 2 : We gotup around 0900hrs in the morning. We were told that b’fast will be served only till 1000hrs. By the time we reached dining hall almost everything was over. We checked out and decided to have b’fast on the way. There were few hotels in town where we stopped at one of them for b’fast.

 

Off-lately most of my trips where in or around TN and by now I was kind of getting saturated having dosa every time. But anyways that was the only option available. We decided to stop at this Punjabi dhaba before hosur for lunch.

It is next to one Indian Oil Petrol pump, exactly 15kms from the Blore – Hosur Check post. There is one BP petrol pump right opposite to it. I must admit that you get super chicken and tandoori roti there J

 

We halted at this dhaba for almost an hour. Food and lassi were quite nice J. We started back for B’lore city and Sumit parted route at Jail road junction. Bopu and me reached back around 1600hrs.