Xylo: Wanderlust Tales : Trip to Nandi hills

This time during my trip to Bangalore for my Durga puja vacation, our family decided on for a road trip to the famous Nandi hills.

Nandi hills, believed to be one of the beautiful getaway places near Bangalore. It is an ancient hill fortress approximately 60-65 kilometers from Kanakpura Road.
It would take approximately 2 hours to reach here - Google maps aids in the directions on the road. If you love driving - drive through the highways would be enchanting.
You would find plentiful grape plantation across the roads.

The best time to visit would be in the wee hours of the morning, so as to get an exquisite view of the place - covered in clouds.

The roads to Nandi Hills, are quite curvy - hence make sure you are an experienced driver if you are travelling using your own vehicle. Moving up the hills gets the road steeper and steeper.

For the passengers, the drive through the curves is scenic giving you a chance to get in touch with the greenery and mother nature.

We intended to trek a little, so we parked our car around 2 km prior the entrance. Be prepared to walk and sweat a lot, to reach till the top.

Do's -

Wear comfortable shoes
Carry drinking water
Carry your shades or caps waive off the sun
Carry tissues or hanker chief

There is a ticket that we paid at the entrance.
Major problem is information not being provided in English - it gets difficult to even know what you are being charged for.

There are a couple of eatery shops right before you make your way up - you can relax and enjoy a few nibbling here - before you sweat it out to reach the top.

Reaching the top is a task in itself, climb, climb and climb.

Before you start your ascent, you would see the Amrutha Sarova - a beautiful man made water enclosure - mostly seemed to used for private bathing for the Rajas or people of significant genre.
Then the recreation area which must been used for lazing around and spending some relaxing time.

As you climb up, you would find a beautiful park atop where you can see families with their kids having a gala time.

The Tipu's drop is another fascinating place to watch out for - it is said that the perpetrators were dropped off from this point and there was no returning for them from here.

Things to watch out here are the:

Amrutha Sarova
Tippu drop
Children's playground
Tippu's summer palace and fort
Yoga naandeswar temple
Horse way

We couldn't make it to all - we got exhausted way too fast making our way up. :)

While returning from the Nandi Hills - while on the highway,we spotted a beautiful temple atop the hills.
The architecture of the temple,led us to detour. Although we couldn't find a proper road to reach it, we attempted going there via the rocks and climbing up. We parked our car in the nearest empty spot we saw.
Be extra cautious while heading upwards, crooked totally.
Finally when we made our way up, we were astounded to discover that it was a Jain temple.

The view from the temple was absolutely scenic - the glance of the entire city, sent a shiver down our back. It took quite some time to sink in.

Some of the photos from the visit: