Skanda Giri Expedition(Its a looooong time since you read a fairly boring tale from me:). Even though fate managed to suppress our quest for Adventurous trips for more than six months by a accident, Guys from Kalki Mansion are back again with a boomerang effect.) Date: 7th Oct 2007 Target: Skanda Giri @ Chikballapur Participants:(Bikes in the order of Cubic Capacity)
Pulsar 200 - Joseph, Jitheesh
Pulsar 180 - Sterin, Prinson
CBZ Exterme - Madhu, Jojy
Discover - Lijit, Sandeep
TVS Victor – Nirmal, Ijaz Planning It was a Sunday morning. Usually on holidays our morning time starts at 11 am – 12:30 pm. Billion dollar idea of this trip struck to me after brushing.(I should have written bed coffee here, but it is a luxury for bachelor’s life in Bangalore). I asked my friends about this and everybody was damn ready for that. We had our breakfast and called our friends for planning to start at 2 pm. It was around 80 km from Bangalore via Mekri Circle, and Devanahalli. Here we go. But we started only at 3pm(We should never be punctual, at least for outings). After typical traffic jams in Bangalore city, we entered into Bangalore – Hyderabad road(6 lane NH – 7 highway) on which we can fly with at least 80 km/hr.
Joseph wanted to test the performance of his new Pulsar 200 cc(And he did that well by traveling around extra 5 - 6 kms after loosing actual route). We had a short break to have lunch in Swathi Restaurant at Yelahanka. We resumed our journey to stop at Devanahalli. Those who want to go Nandi hills should take a diversion from here. We remembered our last trip to Nandi hills by having a tea from nearby stall. After 28 kms riding we reached our destination – Skanda Giri(Mean while we could deduce that the Kannada speaking guy “Ejaz” dont know anything because he was unable to ask the locals about the exact route to Skanda Giri). Are you going do this bloody 7 kms Trek at 6pm? This was the question asked by one local person.
Actually he was there after guiding another group from morning to evening. But we were so confident(I am not sure about all of us but at least 60% were determined to do that). After some discussions we decided to seek his help during trekking. Even though I was against seeking his help, I accepted majority decision.(And later it proved that my decision of not seeking his help was a real blunder, and I had to confess that before my friends later). Trekking without any gadgets, snacks and even water! While started we never thought about the things that I mentioned above. Everybody were thrilled enough to get on the top as soon as possible to return and get back home at the earliest(obviously to have a nice drink together on great Sunday night:)).
We were not actually aware or under estimated the great difficulty that involved in trekking. A cute dog accompanied us at the beginning. On the way Up-hill Jojy was too crazy about taking snaps. He was too busy while enjoying that all the way around. Everybody except him got really drained out during the climb up. Even our guide was asking us for drinking water and torch. It was getting darker and time was around 6:30 pm. Among us, Joseph and Lijith got very much tired than others. We took a small break near a rocky pillar like construction on the way. It was like heaven to have a small break in between. We enjoyed the break by taking many snaps and exchanging poor jokes.(I dont want to mention the word “dirty” here. Oops. Sorry) At last we are on the top. Its time to enjoy, since we have achieved one of the great trekking experience.
Thanks to localities who carved steps on the steep and slippery rocks. There was a temple on the top of the hills. Inside that we found some bats hanging here and there. After that it was a long photo session. We took pictures like anything in different poses at different angles. Have u ever tried trekking down a hill after 8 pm? It was the most difficult part. Since we didn’t have torch, we used our mobile phones’ light for getting some idea of the steep and dangerous path ahead. Our guide went in front to find the way and lead us with his mobile phone. Thanks to Mr. Pradeep for his great involvement that he showed all the way. Also we should really appreciate the mini torches in Sony Ericsson and Nokia 1100 cell models. Up hill climb was around 3 kms and the down hill journey was 7 kms.
We opted for a different route which is less steeper than the last one. Anyway climbing down is more dangerous than climbing up. It took around 2 hours to reach down where we parked our Harleys’. @ 90 – 100 kms per hour . After getting into NH – 7, there was no other way. TVS victor was flying better than expected all the way with Pulsar 180. Other bikes were new and they will have to wait till next trip after first service to experience that feeling. We had our dinner in paramount hotel at midnight. Even though we had to get back home without drinks, we knew that we had some great experience which somebody else never had/ will never have in their whole life time. Hope you are not one of them. So get, set . go!