B.R Hills trip

I'd initially thought that i'd skip the description of my trip to B.R Hills, and put the blame on Mr.Procrastination. But, just realised that i have a lot of time to kill ( at 12:25 A.M..god save me!), so here goes.

We started out soon after i put in my previous post. Early mornings are rare occasions in my life. Hence there was more excitement. The journey was to be made on bikes and both man and machine were all set. A chilly,fast and uneventful drive later we were on B.R Hills, short for Beligere Ranganatha Hills. Beligere is the place name and Ranganatha(perumal) is the presiding deity in the major temple out there. The hill side is densely forested and under protection. The biggest draw to B.R Hills is the chance of spotting wild animals in their natural habitat while travelling through the jungle roads. For that u need to get permission from the concerened authorities there who will then provide you with an armed guide and options of a safari through the jungle. Unfortunate as we were, we landed at a time when they were not giving permissions, due to reasons which didn't matter to us. So we had to be content with driving along the main road, admiring the occasional plump of elephant dung. Well, not so bad! we saw deer, peacock, a few new bird species, wild boars and some monkeys. Not the menagerie that one would expect. Nevertheless!

At dusk, we paid a visit to the temple i'd mentioned before and we were right in time for 'deeparadhana', which is a ritual performed in temples all over south (AFAIK) wherein the sanctum sanctorum is closed for a session of puja while temple musicians play typical instruments which mainly include variants of the chenda(drum). Once the puja is done the doors are swung open and the waiting devotees are treated to the 'darshan' of the deity decorated by a lot of lamps. Every such experience has invariably been very spiritual for me and this was no different. After we were done with our prayers, we all sat at the footsteps of the temple for a while looking out at the expanse below, lit up by scores of bulbs. The temple was atop a hillock and the view, even at night was very nice.

We had rented a dormitory for the night, but slept on the terrace in our sleeping bags. It was special, because we were at a high altitude and the sky was amazingly clear. Some 'gyaan' on the various constellations later, everybody had a peaceful sleep.

Early morning next day, few of us ventured out for a walk and got fresh. We started out soon towards b'lore, contemplating a course of action, as Mr. Permission had left us with a lot of time. Little did we know then, that the best part of the journey was yet to come!

While travelling the day before towards B.R Hills, we had covered the shiv samudram hydel project (estd. 1901, india's first). Nothing much to see there though. On continuing from there, we'd seen an inviting reservoir of water, but no access to it. We were hoping to find a water body nearby while returning from B.R Hills.

Between Bangalore and B.R Hills, the major places are Maddur and kollegal. Some distance down from kollegal to bangalore, we took a turn which promised to lead us to a waterfall. Boy! that was a promise well kept! One of the best waterfalls i've ever seen with respect to being able to safely play in it. We were there at noon and the heat made the water all the more inviting. Without undue haste all of us were in the water. The moment i hit the water, i was a possessed man and thenceforth my actions were determined by the challenges that the waterfall could pose to me. A few hours in the water later, we were back on our vehicles towards bangalore. We stopped for lunch at some restaurant on the way and that was when i first realised that i hadn't taken breakfast. Talk of being possessed!

Its not over yet. Sumptuous lunch later, it was the turn of the bikers to be possessed. When i say that the average speed was between 95 and 100 km/hr, i mean every pixel in it. The surroundings were mostly a blur as we zipped past honda cities, mercs(yes, one bike did!) and the sundry. A terrific journey later, we were welcomed by our first redlight and with that the bangalore city traffic engulfed us into its chaos.

We were back to normal life.