It
had been almost a month since we had gone out on a trip to outside
Bangalore. The last time we had gone was the fantastic Kerala trip. This
time we planned to go on a day trip on bikes to a place, around
Bangalore within 100 km. Madhu was more interested and had been asking us (Rahul and
me) to plan one this weekend. Even I was interested in going to an
adventurous trip :-). Rahul and me decided last night that we cloud go
to Antaragange, a trekking hill place 70 km far from Bangalore towards
Kolar. We decided to start at 8:30am on Saturday as Madhu had some work
till 8:30am.
I woke up by 8am (of course with alarm ;-)), got ready by 8:30am. The time was past 8:30am and hadn't received any call from anyone. The weather seemed so cool and nice as if God listened our prayers. I hoped it would be cloudy and windy all the day. We were afraid how the weather would to today, but we were lucky. There was no trace of Sun though the time is reaching 9am.
I called Shiva, after looked at the missed call yesterday night, he asked me about the plan and I told him I was waiting for a call, I would let him know about it. I then called Rahul and asked him about the plan, he said, yes and he was getting ready and he would let me know when he starts along with Abhi. After few minutes, Vani called me and asked if I was going to the trip. She told she initially refused to come as she had some work. She was now ready to come, told me to let her know when we were ready. She also told me to not to tell others that she was coming, to give surprise, I thought ;-).
At last we - Madhu, Vani and me started around 12:30pm.Madhu and Vani on Madhu's scooter and me on my bike. It was mid-day I know, and you could think what trekking in the mid-day, but it didn't look that way, thanks to the weather. Rahul and Abhi left early as he told he had some work to do near KR Puram and he would wait for us near a place called Avalahalli. Though it was Saturday afternoon, the traffic didn't seem less, and we rode on intermediate ring road. Sometimes I liked riding in full traffic than on a track road. We reached 80 feed road, where Pondi and Shiva were waiting for us. We met them and started riding on old madras road. I went ahead little faster and filled the fuel at Shell and joined the rest after the KR Puram bridge. This time Vani wanted to ride the scooter, and she was riding pretty good, but it seemed she was concentrating too much and was looking just straight (it looked to me starting at the road).
It took us some more time to escape the city outskirts to reach Avalahalli where Rahul and Abhi were waiting. They looked surprised when they saw Vani riding scooter. It was good to see that moment. We spent few minutes and then started our ride, as it was almost 3pm afternoon. It was an awesome ride on the Kolar national higway, a fantastic road. There are beautiful fields with different types plants and trees on the sides of the road. We saw few rose gardens, with different colors. We also saw many hills on both the sides, sometimes I wondered why was only Karnataka gifted with so many hills. I did not like AP for this reason (Well, not really!). The wind got cooler and cooler as we were getting farther from city and started enjoying ride more and more. On the way we found an expanse of open and cleared ground, as if it was designed especially for cricket and they were playing cricket like professionals. I thought how would they come this far from city to play. I just wanted to see it for sometime, well I wanted to play more than see. As we continued our journey on the highway and approaching the Kolar, I was getting excited. We finally reached Kolar at around 4:30pm, we stopped there and bought some food - bread, jam and some mixture. After crossed the main junction of Kolar, we asked few people about the way to Antaragange. We took left at Kolar bus stand towards the Antaragange road. It was narrow as compared to the Kolar main road, but it was good to ride with few curves on the way. In few minutes we reached to the based of the hill, where we parked our vehicles.
It was time to start our trek, though we planned a morning trek, we ended up doing evening trek. We felt bit hot, though there was no Sun, may be it was because of the journey. Let me tell you about this place. Antaragange is a mountain situated in the Shathashrunga mountain range in the southeastern portion of the Indian state of Karnataka. Antara Gange literally means "Ganges from deep" in Kannada. Antaragange is famous for the temple situated on the mountain. In the temple is a pond which gets a continuous flow of underground water from the mouth of a Basava (stone bull). There is a steep, narrow path to the top of the mountain. The mountain consists of granite rocks and lot of caves around.
There was road way to the top of the hill to which we can go by bike. We thought of going to the top on bikes and then explore the caves, but we decided to go on foot. The trek trial looked so easy as the steps clearly showed it as how the steps would be at normal temples. As we started our trek, we saw so many monkeys wandering everywhere. I read in internet that there would be some dogs, but instead there were many monkeys. Rahul and other started commenting me that they were my friends. They might try to come near you and snatch food items if any, so we made sure that no food packets were visible. Also better to keep a safe distance from them. The place around looked like a dense forest on the hills. We thought me might find some good adventure place ahead. As we went ahead, we saw a narrow way in the semi covered trees both the sides. We asked a person where did that path go. He said it also would go to the temple and also to top of the hill. So we went through that narrow path, removing the branches of the plants that came our way. At some places we found bit difficult as there were some plants with thorns on the way. We didn't really know the exact way but we kept on going. But we enjoyed a lot walking in that path and we did find it adventurous. It was very long time that I had gone to an adventurous trip, this gave me some memories back.
We reached a place where we had found a big flat rock. I said, we could have food here. Everyone sat on that rock and we had bread, jam and mixture. That was our lunch for that day. Anyway, who cared about food, when we had lot of fun. While having food, we realized that we just reached to the steps path, we were little disappointed that the adventurous trek was going to be again climbing through the steps that looked like temple steps. However as per Madhu, Abhi and others suggestion we took the steps way. But when we reached the steps, it was not what I expected, it was just the rock. We climbed little far ahead, and there we saw very big rocks and what we found under the rocks is what you could call it as cave. We ran towards that and went inside to see what was in there. It was completely like a cave, little dark inside and difficult to walk. Everyone came inside and we spent there lot of time talking about many things. It was nice to sit there, and feeling like sleeping. Rahul and me did lay down for sometime.
After few minutes, they woke us up to say that it was time to go down. I said without reaching to the top, we cannot go down. But they didn't listen. Madhu, Abhi and Shiva already started going down. I instead, went to other side, through the rocks. What I saw was bigger rocks, and I couldn't help exploring everything out there. I ran towards all the rocks that I see. Vani was shouting not to go. But I was running, dancing and jumping all around. I just didn't see where I was from jumping from and jumping on to. I think I didn't want see, I just wanted to find the end. Rahul followed me for some distance. But then couldn't find the proper way. I finally went till the last rock. Vani and Dileep came till some way and settled at a big rock in the middle. I reached back to them along with Rahul. We had spend fun time there, enjoyed the cool wind. The wind was so fast that it could take us with it. We took some selfie pictures in mobile. We saw whole Kolar started lighting their houses as the day reaching it's end. It was an excellent view. We were sad that we didn't have a camera to capture it.
I woke up by 8am (of course with alarm ;-)), got ready by 8:30am. The time was past 8:30am and hadn't received any call from anyone. The weather seemed so cool and nice as if God listened our prayers. I hoped it would be cloudy and windy all the day. We were afraid how the weather would to today, but we were lucky. There was no trace of Sun though the time is reaching 9am.
I called Shiva, after looked at the missed call yesterday night, he asked me about the plan and I told him I was waiting for a call, I would let him know about it. I then called Rahul and asked him about the plan, he said, yes and he was getting ready and he would let me know when he starts along with Abhi. After few minutes, Vani called me and asked if I was going to the trip. She told she initially refused to come as she had some work. She was now ready to come, told me to let her know when we were ready. She also told me to not to tell others that she was coming, to give surprise, I thought ;-).
At last we - Madhu, Vani and me started around 12:30pm.Madhu and Vani on Madhu's scooter and me on my bike. It was mid-day I know, and you could think what trekking in the mid-day, but it didn't look that way, thanks to the weather. Rahul and Abhi left early as he told he had some work to do near KR Puram and he would wait for us near a place called Avalahalli. Though it was Saturday afternoon, the traffic didn't seem less, and we rode on intermediate ring road. Sometimes I liked riding in full traffic than on a track road. We reached 80 feed road, where Pondi and Shiva were waiting for us. We met them and started riding on old madras road. I went ahead little faster and filled the fuel at Shell and joined the rest after the KR Puram bridge. This time Vani wanted to ride the scooter, and she was riding pretty good, but it seemed she was concentrating too much and was looking just straight (it looked to me starting at the road).
It took us some more time to escape the city outskirts to reach Avalahalli where Rahul and Abhi were waiting. They looked surprised when they saw Vani riding scooter. It was good to see that moment. We spent few minutes and then started our ride, as it was almost 3pm afternoon. It was an awesome ride on the Kolar national higway, a fantastic road. There are beautiful fields with different types plants and trees on the sides of the road. We saw few rose gardens, with different colors. We also saw many hills on both the sides, sometimes I wondered why was only Karnataka gifted with so many hills. I did not like AP for this reason (Well, not really!). The wind got cooler and cooler as we were getting farther from city and started enjoying ride more and more. On the way we found an expanse of open and cleared ground, as if it was designed especially for cricket and they were playing cricket like professionals. I thought how would they come this far from city to play. I just wanted to see it for sometime, well I wanted to play more than see. As we continued our journey on the highway and approaching the Kolar, I was getting excited. We finally reached Kolar at around 4:30pm, we stopped there and bought some food - bread, jam and some mixture. After crossed the main junction of Kolar, we asked few people about the way to Antaragange. We took left at Kolar bus stand towards the Antaragange road. It was narrow as compared to the Kolar main road, but it was good to ride with few curves on the way. In few minutes we reached to the based of the hill, where we parked our vehicles.
 |
| Trekking path |
 |
| A hill side view |
It was time to start our trek, though we planned a morning trek, we ended up doing evening trek. We felt bit hot, though there was no Sun, may be it was because of the journey. Let me tell you about this place. Antaragange is a mountain situated in the Shathashrunga mountain range in the southeastern portion of the Indian state of Karnataka. Antara Gange literally means "Ganges from deep" in Kannada. Antaragange is famous for the temple situated on the mountain. In the temple is a pond which gets a continuous flow of underground water from the mouth of a Basava (stone bull). There is a steep, narrow path to the top of the mountain. The mountain consists of granite rocks and lot of caves around.
There was road way to the top of the hill to which we can go by bike. We thought of going to the top on bikes and then explore the caves, but we decided to go on foot. The trek trial looked so easy as the steps clearly showed it as how the steps would be at normal temples. As we started our trek, we saw so many monkeys wandering everywhere. I read in internet that there would be some dogs, but instead there were many monkeys. Rahul and other started commenting me that they were my friends. They might try to come near you and snatch food items if any, so we made sure that no food packets were visible. Also better to keep a safe distance from them. The place around looked like a dense forest on the hills. We thought me might find some good adventure place ahead. As we went ahead, we saw a narrow way in the semi covered trees both the sides. We asked a person where did that path go. He said it also would go to the temple and also to top of the hill. So we went through that narrow path, removing the branches of the plants that came our way. At some places we found bit difficult as there were some plants with thorns on the way. We didn't really know the exact way but we kept on going. But we enjoyed a lot walking in that path and we did find it adventurous. It was very long time that I had gone to an adventurous trip, this gave me some memories back.
We reached a place where we had found a big flat rock. I said, we could have food here. Everyone sat on that rock and we had bread, jam and mixture. That was our lunch for that day. Anyway, who cared about food, when we had lot of fun. While having food, we realized that we just reached to the steps path, we were little disappointed that the adventurous trek was going to be again climbing through the steps that looked like temple steps. However as per Madhu, Abhi and others suggestion we took the steps way. But when we reached the steps, it was not what I expected, it was just the rock. We climbed little far ahead, and there we saw very big rocks and what we found under the rocks is what you could call it as cave. We ran towards that and went inside to see what was in there. It was completely like a cave, little dark inside and difficult to walk. Everyone came inside and we spent there lot of time talking about many things. It was nice to sit there, and feeling like sleeping. Rahul and me did lay down for sometime.
 |
| Talking something |
After few minutes, they woke us up to say that it was time to go down. I said without reaching to the top, we cannot go down. But they didn't listen. Madhu, Abhi and Shiva already started going down. I instead, went to other side, through the rocks. What I saw was bigger rocks, and I couldn't help exploring everything out there. I ran towards all the rocks that I see. Vani was shouting not to go. But I was running, dancing and jumping all around. I just didn't see where I was from jumping from and jumping on to. I think I didn't want see, I just wanted to find the end. Rahul followed me for some distance. But then couldn't find the proper way. I finally went till the last rock. Vani and Dileep came till some way and settled at a big rock in the middle. I reached back to them along with Rahul. We had spend fun time there, enjoyed the cool wind. The wind was so fast that it could take us with it. We took some selfie pictures in mobile. We saw whole Kolar started lighting their houses as the day reaching it's end. It was an excellent view. We were sad that we didn't have a camera to capture it.
 |
| On top of a rock |
 |
| Tried a 360 Degree view |
On the whole, it was a wonderful day - awesome riding, adventurous trek, and exploration of caves and rocks. We had a thought of visiting Kotilingeshwara but no. There would be another time for that visit, till then wait for that time.
Awesome Naresh...Didn't know about this quality of yours...keep writing and we will give you more reasons ;)
ReplyDeleteAbhi, thank you. That was inspiring. :-)
ReplyDeleteEven I didn't know it, until I start writing these. :-P