Skandagiri Hills @ Bangalore.

Hi everyone.. As much as I want to travel all the time, my bank balance does not really sustain my nomadic lifestyle too well. So Peru and Antarctica and all the other places on my never ending list have to wait for now. Meanwhile, to keep you busy, I have asked Sunil to contribute on Lonely traveller and start with his recent amazing trekking trip to the Skandhagiri hills. Over to you Sunil..



Thanks Harish. Hello everybody,

Last week a few of our collegues and friends planned to go to Skandhagiri Hills on a weekend. It is also called as Kalwarbetta and close to the more famous Nandi hills. It is 80 Km ride towards Chikkaballapur from Bangalore. A total of twelve people started on 6 Bykes at 01:30 AM and reached the place in 3 hours.



From the base, we began the trek, which took us around 2hrs in total to reach to the top.The way was covered with bushes, steep slopes and loose rocks in some places and we needed to be very careful . Must admit it is an wonderful trecking experience. Unfortunately, as it was too early in the morning, we couldn't took any snaps. After reaching the top around 6:00am, we found ourselves on the clouds.



There is Fort and a small temple. This fort was occupied by the British troops in 1791 during the Anglo-Mysore wars. Dont know who built a fort at the height of 1750 Mts from sea level and who lived there.We were eagerly waiting for the sun rise sitting on the top..we failed to see a clear sun rise as it is the monsoon season and the sky was too cloudy. We sat on the rocks and rested there on the rocks for about 2 hrs( !! Slept in clouds..).



We started to come down around 9:30. In the way we could see some beautiful locations what which we were unable to see in dark.



Its a great place for trekking during a full moon night or during January, after the monsoon season. Water,snacks and First-aid kit is a must, you won't find any thing on the top.
Meet you sooon with the Nxt trip..

Sunset at Mindil beach

Hi guys.. just some random snaps I took at Mindil last week. Mindil is one of Darwin's good beaches. It comes alive during the dry season, with markets on the evenings. It looks like a hippie paradise with all sorts of jewelry, paintings, music and foods. The dry is almost comming to an end and everyone is out there to make the best of it.

పాపి కొండలు

The original plan was to rent a private boat and spend the entire night and the next day in Godavari. However, nonstop rains the preceding week resulted in Godavari running at the brim and all boats except the tourism department's were cancelled. So we got onto one of the overcrowded and noisy boats.





The panorama was fantastic. Rains turned the hills into lush green carpets. The river was full of flood water and roaring with frightening intensity. Also got to see one of the police stations that revolutionary Alluri Seetharamaraju famously raided.





The small beautiful hamlets on both sides of the river are so cut off from the rest of the world, with no power, road or phones, and yet have a captivating allure about them.





The swelling river and huge whirlpools meant that the boat had to move much slowly and cautiously taking twice as much time to reach the hills and leaving very little time for us to explore.



Its a beautiful place and I would recommend the boat ride to a medium sized group. But u need to be quick folks. Once the Polavaram project is built in the next couple of years, the whole area will be submerged under water.

Maredmilli

It was probably the first time the entire family got out together. Everyone was traumatized and shaken when the train we were on got burnt. Thankfully, all of us got out of it alive. We lost a day as the result and had to abandon plans of camping overnight.

Determined to make the best of what we had, me, Vamsi, Nani & Sudha decided to go there anyways.
So we dropped everyone else in the guest house and walked a couple of kilometers in absolute darkness of a new moon day, aided only by the light from the display of the cell phone to reach the camping site.
It was pretty scary folks!! and more than once did we consider returning back.

The place was lush green, helped by the recent monsoon rains, and all streams full and flowing. There is no cellphone coverage in the area and that was the best news for me.
Fantastic place for a large group of friends, family or workmates to camp for a couple of days and get away from civilization.

Went to sleep very late after some fun around the camp fire. Woke up early in the morning and explored the place. The chaps there made some tea from the root of Sugandhi, a medicinal plant. It tasted great. I tried unsuccessfully to buy some of it .

Another delicacy was bamboo chicken- The chicken is put into the bamboo stick along with some spices, and the bamboo put in hot burning fire, to let it slowly get burnt. The juices oozing out from the bamboo provide the salt and distinct flavour to the chicken. Must try sometime at home on a BBQ.

After a while, the rest of the family joined us and we roamed around the place. Had good fun getting wet in Jalatarangini, a nearby waterfall.

Everyone was exhausted after that, and we had to skip a couple of other falls and head back to Rajhamundry for the night.