Sunday, June 8, 2008

Nandi hills - Once again...

Its been long time since i have 'written' anything here - not that nothing is happening around me, but I was in a kind of lethargy... the moment I start to pen down my thoughts, my words will start drying up - and how ever I may try, I never get past first few sentences...

It was almost like this with my riding too. Itz been quiet some time since I was on road, and whenever some of my friends start planning, I somehow end up missing them...

This week, I was in a mood to rest, so Saturday I was almost home all the time. By evening, the ride bug started crawling under my skin, and after a few failed attempts to chalk out a plan, decided to hit roads early morning to see sun rise at Nandi hills.
Nandi hill is a place around less than 100 KM from my home, so it was more or less like a jog in the park than a proper ride. Woke up by 4, and set out from my home by 4.30, and went to pick up my friends Sivaram. We left from his home by 5, and when we passes Hebbal fly over, I knew my plan for a lazy ride was ready for a toss - Our plan was to reach Nandi hills to watch the sun rise, but the sky already started showing signs of rising sun... this coupled with a sparse traffic three lane highway (at many places, the highway was almost like a runway, properly lit and marked lanes, arrow straight road, and no traffic) was more than enough reason to wring the throttle and Anikutty (She is my cousins Bullet, and I ma her temporary custodian) surged past 100 kmph effortlessly.
Just before 6 am we reached Nandi hills, and what welcomed us there was -believe it or not - thick mist. We had a ball there - walking around and getting lost in the mist, enjoying the blowing winds and hot hot coffee...
A slight overlook from my part saw Moi running out of juice, and it was kind of damper coz we where quiet shutter happy and was planning ahead to take lot more pictures...
By 9, we said good bye to Nandi hills and started our journey back. On the way, we stopped at a wayside place and had hot yummy Appams, and reached Sivaram’s place and crashed... the only downside of the trip was, it gifted me a mild fever... hope I will be ok in two days time... :-D

Some pictures...













(Ps: now reading a book by Kazuo Ishiguro - Never let me go... Man, it is a beautiful book, one which I will recommend even before I finish reading it)

23 comments:

Preeti said...

Fever! The e-mail transmitted sore throat has become fever? Take care! ;)

Beautiful photos! Really nice stuff...I wish i could take some good stuff when i go to munnar :D

Love LJ Joshi said...

sorry for foiling your ride pilans :(

i still can look only one side... heh heh feels like i'm sitting giving a perpetual quater profile pose...

anikutty is a pretty babe...

~ ॐ ~ said...

AWESOME !!!

I like nandi hills... Though me and my friends had started to go somewhere else, we ended up a Nandi Hills !!! and did not see anything but thickest of fogs I could... but it was fun anyway !!!

Gazal said...

both the post and the pics are an invitation to nandi hills.perfect time to visit it is early morning indeed.

am heading out there soon.

Pavi!!!! said...

Jeez..the is the 2nd time ur talking abt nandi hills! takes me back to so many memories!

once we left Blr at midnite..spent all nite there, saw the sunrise n came back after 9 am the next morning! tht was such a gr8 time! n its sooooooooo beautiful ya!

Rià said...

Oh wow!those pics were awesome man!u hav an eye for good photography for sure. :)

Anonymous said...

Nice photos. I love the stair one. So mystical.

Anonymous said...

I think it's great that you keep writing even "when your pen dries up". The world would have better writers if more people did that. Also great pics.

Anonymous said...

Narration & pictures, both are wonderful.

Nandi hills is in my list. In fact, I have been reading about so many places around B'lore that I need a month's break to visit them all. :-)

The picture no. 4 is my favourite.

Cuckoo

Juby George said...

cool place i say...

M said...

hey grt !:) yes bad abt fever .. but hope ur lot better nw .. anyways great pics esp 2nd and 4th !!:0 :)


take care ..

K.C. said...

Hope your writing this got you motivated again. It always helps to get it out on "paper", huh? KC

Shalini Gowrisankar said...

Wow.. Beautiful pics :)

Hope you get well soon :)

Unknown said...

Wow... Beautiful pics xh! :)

--xh-- said...

@preetz: yeah.. that cold morphed to fever :( boo hoo
@Lj: ha ha ha... no way, bro... hope u r getting better :)
(anikutty says thanks for ur compliments)
@prasanth: ha ha ha
@G: yeah - try it, u may like it.. will give u more tips abt it...
@pavi: ha ha ha.. me hv been ther emay be around 30 times atleast... :) wow, that must hv been fun :)
@ria: thnks thnks :)
@rose: welcome to my place...thnx :)
@sonia: :) thnx..
@cuckoo: thnx :) take a long holiday and come here... :)
@juby: thnx comrade
@menu: :) thnx
@K.C: welcome to my page.. thnx :)yeah, it helps to get it out :)

Gunjan Aylawadi said...

great pictures there!!

gypsy said...

pics are awesome...


the book--i have noted...

Vinod Laxman said...

The signs of fever were already showing in your eyes in that pic!!! The return journey would have aggravated it. Since you are a born rider, these minor upsets are all part of the big game. Anyway take rest comrade.

Jaya said...

Wonderful pics here. Driving/riding early morning is definitely fun. I'll checkout the book.

aneri_masi said...

hmm...my office has banned picasa, so photo ghar se dekhenge.

you woke up at 4? Wow!

more comments after i see the pics :)

Anonymous said...

wow! nice. nice... pice pics :)

the pink flowers is so good :)

and even yur pic is good :P

Unknown said...

Very nice pics. Me and my Hubbie are planning to visit Nandi Hills next month on our kinetic. Was wondering did you find it safe on the ghat roads, as I would love to ride my kine in parts. Did you guys switch off the engine downhill? Need some tips.
Regards,
Kusum,

--xh-- said...

@kusum: It is perfectly safe to do the trip on a Kinetic. We have done the trip on a kinetic once. While returning (on downhill) never switch off the engine. You should never ride\drive downhill with engine switched off.
If you need any particular tips or want to know anything more detail, drop me an e-mail. My mail id is given in my user profile.

--Anoop