"Skandagiri" , "KalavarahaLLi"

Place: Skandagiri

Route: From Bangalore to Chikkaballapur, near bus stand take a left turn,drive further 2-3 kms, you will reach the starting point.
Facilities: There are facilities like parking, guides to show the route now. Food not available.
Trekking difficulty: Moderate

We desperately wanted a break from work, wanted to go out of Bangalore. Many of us wanted to go for a two days trip, and few weren't getting permission for 2 days. Finally we decided for a one day trip. Now, where to go? Mekedatu?, Bheemeshwari?, Muttatti?, or an unexplored Skandagiri. We had heard of night trekking/moon light trekking to this place called as Skandagiri which is situated around 80 Kms from Bangalore, very close to Chiakkaballapur. The troop decided that we should go to Skandagiri.

I asked every one of (8 people) us to be ready at 6:30 in the morning, I have always maintained my image of reaching late on all occasions, be it a celebration, a party, or a movie. I don't know why, but when it comes to "punctuality" I am always late. To change the perception that my friends had about me, I decided to take the responsibility of arranging a cab and asked the driver to come early in the morning. I was just waiting to tell all my friends, "Look I am on time today" .... Unfortunately , driver did not turn up to my place even at 7, later I got to know that he had switched off his cell. I had to arrange for a new cab and pick up everyone at 830am, poor people, they were waiting there for 2 hours. It was as though the driver helped me to maintain my image!! Well my friends had lot of fun in the early morning waiting for the cab, some went for a walk, few stood outside the Bangalore Central mall looking at uncles and aunties of morning walk, few just kept on calling me up and asking me when is the cab reaching their place, few decided in the morning that they want to make it for the trip.

We started off at 9 AM from Bangalore after everybody boarded the cab. Pretty short journey it was. We reached the place at 1030am. It was a humid day. One of my friends, looking at the hill asked "Whats the fun in climbing this up and down". Yes you are right! It was her first such adventure which looked so stupid to her :-). A guy (Pradeep- 9241188420) came to us convincing us to make him our guide. We negotiated with him to pay him 200 rs for this job.

Oh I forgot to mention one more thing, it was my friend's birthday who was also part of this trip. We managed to buy a cake for her, and had planned to celebrate her b'day on top of the hill. It was a pretty moderately difficult trekking, but we enjoyed it as we went up further. We got some relief by the wind, since it was humid down the hill. We gave our legs some rest during the trek. Though it was a sunny day we enjoyed the trek to the fullest.

We all started getting hungry, and knowing that we had a cake, we decided to celebrate her birthday on the way itself. To our surprise the cake had completely melt and became a cream. I still remember the way we attacked the melted cake, how we troubled the person who gets a phone call, singing "happy birthday to you" whenever birthday girl received a call. We had not done any arrangement for the food so on reaching the top, we had to buy costly "hill side" dishes and had a cup of costly tea. :-)

It was really a beautiful view, though there were no clouds, all of us sat silent like never before. Obviously, who would want to spoil the peace of silence? We were just waiting for our one more favorite trip mate, rain, sitting on those long posts. We could see that black clouds are rushing towards this hill and within another 2 minutes it started raining heavily. My my...it was such scary rain, water drops hitting us left and right, all of us hurried and rushed to find a place to hide ourselves from this rain. We managed to get a place below a rock. The scenic beauty and the fields which were looking like paintings from the hill, got completely covered with clouds. We could see a huge cloud formation touching the Nandhi hills opposite to this hill. On the right side, we could see the clouds rushing through rocks.. overall it was a great experience and though we were all feeling chill cold, it was chilling memory for our minds. Now that our wish is fulfilled ( rain ), we started trekking downwards. It didn't require much of the skills and effort as we were pushing ourselves fast. Some of us were learning trekking skills "left, right left" steps though!

Its a great place to chill out on a day's outing. If you love nature, this place is a must visit.

I trekked this hill once again recently, went on a night trek. It was also a good experience, but watch out for snakes!! We trekked from night 1am to 3 am and waited to see the sun rise. Though sun disappointed us, it was very good to be covered with clouds, felt high on earth!!

Relaxing on Skandagiri hill has left soothing memories!!