2011-05-20- Bheemeswari Night out

Introduction:
Offlate it's kind off hard to get like minded people who wish to spend a wild night out in a freaky forest (Common - think straight!). Four guys made it to Bheemeswari - Ravi(new entrant with pumping adrenalin), Sandeep, Srikanth and Zorro-Rojo(my new nick - Red Fox). The poor time keepers this time were Sandeep and Srikanth who showed up 2 hours late they show up 1530 hours.

From Zorro-Rojo, Ravikanth, Sandeep, Srikanth

Muthathi:
We reached Muthathi pretty comfortably - 17:30 hours with a lot of day light to spare. Soon we hit problems with Srikanth on a flat rear tyre. With two spare bikes it wasn't a problem to manage the temporal loss, however with no repair shop nearby we parked the bikes in a makeshift tent at Muthathi to proceed further.

Bheemeswari
3 kms further away from Bheemeswari is a secret place where we frequented. Now the place has given way to a new forest guest house. We were left with no choice but look out for a new safe haven. It was 1930 hours with not many options we took shelter in the open beside the Cauvery's.

From Camp Site

Campsite
Got the camp fire and bajjis started rolling in, along with the bajjis were a few locusts, and interesting fire-flies fried as well. It was time to rest in peace (i mean we were done for the day). To keep the foxes at bay i had just the right music rocking through the night - Lady Gaga, Katty Perry,Cascada and so-on.. Basically we stayed up whole night each for a different reason -
Sandeep, Srikanth and Ravi just couldn't handle Lady Gaga; like the foxes, myself kept the fire rolling through the night.

From 2011-05-21 - Fire after the Rains

2011-05-21 - New Day
We danced 0530 hours not 'cause of Gaga, it had started to rain down heavily, we just weren't prepared for it. Packed our bags and kept them below a maiden tree and started a photo session. We got lukcy, the foxes and the deers showed up in large numbers. The rain didn't last more than 30 minutes to our relief. The camp fire wasn't disturbed we heated MTR pre-cooked food - had breakfast and soon left. On way back we had Srikanth's tyre fixed and zoomed back home safely. In the end it was a rocking trip.

From Foxes Hole

Finale:
1. Fun for Free
2. FYI, Fuel & Bajji's didn't come free spent about INR 300 here.
3. Deers & Foxes don't like Gaga
4. My next adventure - Mogala Betta PART - III [I am somehow obsessed with this place]

Nijagal Betta

Grasshopper on Nijagal Betta

Chameleon Smiling
Introduction:
After a lot of hasty decision it was decided we head off to Nijagal Betta after hari-sadu shared a blog about nijagal betta, even though it lagged detailed directional information we decided to find out on the way. Just 5 showed up on Saturday morning. Preetham(the man who lives horrific dreams :P), Vinay(‘Kulla’ – the short one), Ravi (‘mari’- small boy), Jatin(my nephew) & Rohit(myself).

Hard Dive!
Breakfast:
We had a quick breakfast at a local restaurant on Tumkur road within city limits, we left the place soon after having parceled 3 idlis each for lunch. Our next stop was Dobespet for directions at the local post office.

Shivagange view
Nijagal Betta:
Nijagal Betta is not popular; it’s got a Dargha on top with a temple in ruins at the base and a twin-kalyani. Nice place for photographing birds, monkeys, insects and reptiles. The climb to the top was not tiring at all. The peak had flat land and seems like a natural stone maze. We saw 3 stone enclosures what looked like a pre-historic temple shelter & temple ruins. On the way up we stopped by the Dharga, the place did not look inviting and we left soon. On the way back we also got into a cave. Its cold and dark inside with limited access. We also found a lot of beehives clinging dangerously to the rock surfaces over the cave entrance.

Stone Enclosure on the Peak
The view of the NH7 from the peak is excellent; a railway track runs parallel to the road. We saw a couple of passenger trains and goods trains pass by. After a bit of photography we left the place by 17:00 hours.

Reliance Petrol Pump & Resturant
We stopped by A1 Plaza Resturant (Affiliated to Reliance) adjacent to Nijagal Betta.

How to get there?
The place is 65 km from Bangalore city. To get there, take the NICE Road [Nandi Infrastructure Corridor] Once on Tumkur Road soon after Dobespet look for Reliance Petrol pump on the Right hand side of the Road. The hillock on the Left side facing it is Nijagal Betta. To get to the peak we took our bikes under the railway pass and parked bikes adjacent to the path leading to the peak.

Tripple Engine powered Goods Train [@300mm Zoom]
MORE PHOTOS: http://picasaweb.google.com/rohitc/NijagalBetta