trip to Skandagiri and Nandi hills bangalore

(Panorama view from Skandgiri)
hi.. as i thought that his sep 2007 is going to be my last month in bangalore, i thought of going to the nearest places that i must have gone in my 3 years in bangalore. Nandi hills! We decided on friday that this saturday (8 sep) we ( me, ravi, manas and atul) will be going in morning. We cam to know that skandgiri is nearby nandi hills and good for tracking. So we decided to first go there. Skandagiri is good for night track.... u go there in night. do tracking for 2 hs and enjoy the beautiful morning .. with lovely clouds below the hill! but as it was our first experience, we decided to go in morning. We started well.. the 70 km long drive at speed of 100 km/hr from BTM -> Mekari circle -> Chikballapur was awesome. I strongly recommend helmet for security for both pillion and rider on bike as facing wind with so much speed will cause trouble.. and its better be safe !
So we reached there in 100 minutes. We were able to see beautiful clouds on both nandi hills and skandgiri on the way. We reached skandgiri and asked ppl about the way to go up. One way was simple tracking ( more of walking up actually) of 7 km and other way was tedious 3 km uphill climbing. And we ignorantly chose the tough way. our hard luck that as soon as we started, clouds started moving away and it became a very tedious climbing in a sunny day. I recommend at least 1 ltr water per person. We took lot of brakes in between and in two hours we reached up. It was beautiful there. But we missed the beautiful morning clouds :-(
But

Then we discovered the other way which was simpler We came back from the same way.
I have plan to go there again to enjoy sunrise।

Few suggestion for those who want to go Skandagiri:
Way: its straight on NH7 , 50 km from Mekari circle, Keep watching board at your left. Also local ppl will help you.
1. best time : go in night, start climbing at 2-3 AM. U will reach in 2-3 hours. There is a parking place, the starting point is less than 1km from there.Take long one 7 km simple path for night track. You can also reach early and get rest in tent ( u have to bring with u) up there. You can come back from same way. It will be at left while coming down.
2. take some food and enough drinking water. However you can get it up also on weekends at least.
3. If you like really tough climbing, take other uphill way of 3 km. That is suitable for day. Please note that it wil be difficult to come back from this way. You should take he first way.

After this we had lunch and started for nandi hills. There its more fun on the way. Those lovely curvy roads reminded me of nainital. It was amazing experience. Up there its same as Skandagiri. Reach early morning to see sun rise. The good thing is you don't have to climb. just enjoy that cool drive. This is complete commercialized picnic spot.
Returning was also fun. I had a race with a guy who was having her girlfriend at back seat. ( hee heee hee.. boys are boys )We were so close to them. We overtook them once than bade sayonara.
The whole day was very adventures. I enjoyed it lot.
For more photos please visit my public album at picasa. http://picasaweb.google.com/pradeep115