1. Shivagange Hills (Jun 29, 2013)

Place: Shivagange
Distance: 50 KM (~60 KM via Dobbaspet)
Participants: Srinivas | Malli | Nanda
Travel: Train + Shared Auto
Route: Bangalore City Railway Station (SBC) > Yeshvantpur (YPR) > Dobbspet (DBS) > Shivagange Hills
Cost per Head: 50 /- (we paid 10/- extra which includes, otherwise 40/- for travel, not incl. food etc.)

IN SHORT:
Shivagange Hills is one of the main tourist attractions near Bangalore. This is a hill area, looks like the shape of  the Shiva Linga from one of its sides (see below pic), which houses many temples (Gangadhareshwara temple, Olakal Teertha, Nandi Statue, Patalagange) and is known as Dakshina Kashi. The area is also a popular site for rock climbing. (wiki)

PLAN:

Initially I planed this trip a week before by bike riding, but somehow it got flopped (Tamilarasan, simply "Tam", my great labmate not interested in this place! He already visited and had some memories - bike accident, but safe... :P). Then we, my brother (Malli) and I, decided to go by train. One of Malli's friends Nanda also wanted to join us, so we decided to go together by train.

JOURNEY:

Train is at 7:50 h from City Railway Stn and will reach at 8:01 h to Yeshvantpur Stn. I woke up at 5:30 h and got ready by 6:30 h and had some dry fruits and Green Tea (I like it very much!) in my room. Around 7:10 h, I started to YPR Stn, it's walkable distance from my room. On the way I had breakfast (of course, Idly Vada). I reached YPR Stn by 7:45 h, brought one water bottle and waiting for train. In between, I called to Malli, he said they were at SBC Stn (their room is near to Majestic) and brought ticket (each costs Rs. 10/- to Dobbaspet) for me also. Train was late, it started at around 8:10 h from SBC and reached at around 8:30 h to YPR Stn. I got into the the bogie where other two were there. Finally, train reached Dobbaspet at around 9:30 h. There we found many shared autos to Shivagange Hills (cost per head Rs. 10/-, but we paid more 30/- per head, keep reading some twist at the end!). It took nearly 15-20 min to reach Shivagange Hills and we paid Rs. 90/- for 3 people.

SHIVAGANGE:

TIME: 9:50 h

After getting down, many people ask us to leave our footwear at their stalls before enter into the Shivagange Hills (through GOPURAM, see the pic). Then we went to a old man sitting there and asked for the entrance of Shivagange Hills (as we came here first time, we got confuse), he suggested us to visit first another temple opposite to GOPURAM (Koneru/lake pic below) and then Shivagange Hills through GOPURAM. We decided to visit another temple first. We left our shoe (a mistake!) near a stall run by a old lady (good Grandma! How good will see at the end of this post) and entered into the temple compound. We found a lake (KONERU) and many chambers around with 108 Shiva Lingas in a row. Also, there was a temple that we visited and came back to the GOPURAM (entrance to the Hills).

TIME: 10:00 h

When we were entering through GOPURAM, a man accompanied us and said some story/history for 2-3 min about the temple and hills and asked some money, we gave Rs. 10 /- and left. We found few monkeys at the beginning while stepping up. Fortunately, no monkey caught us. We visited all temples and start climbing hills slowly. On the way many food stalls were there, so no need to worry about missing the way! Soon after some time we realized that we did a mistake, that we left our shoe at the entrance. Small stones start bothering us, but we decided to go with out shoe as we can't go back and get the shoe at this stage. I suggest you don't leave your footwear at the entrance, you can leave footwear at each temple that you visit in your way. So go with your footwear.

TIME: 10:15 h

We keep going with few breaks. As I already read "Road trips - Bangalore." blog, we know our targets: 1. First Nandhi (on the way), 2. Shiva Parvathi statues (on the way near top), 3. Second Nandhi (at the top, our destination). We missed first Nandhi, as we could not find it on the way - after going certain extent, we realized that we had crossed it.. :( We had a break and continue towards Shiva Parvathi statues. Climbing went cool till we reach statues. Around statues there were 12 JYOTIRLINGAS, don't miss to see!

 

TIME: 11:00 h

We went bit away from the statues and got shock... :( Oops! we found steps to go top of the hill (our destination), but steps were not proper, mostly rocks and some what steep too! Other two were nicely climbing, but I took more breaks, nearly 6-8, to reach top of the hill. First we went to Nandhi statue and then temple. Fully tired, had "Bellpuri" (cost Rs. 15/- one must have, it's tasty - may be bcz of hungry, TIME: 12:00 h) and took some rest at two towers. Actually, I wanted to have one more Bellpuri, but Nanda suggested to have on the way back, yaa it's good idea! Destination reached! Now back to the bottom of the hills... :)

 

 

TIME: 12:45 h

So it took us nearly 2 h to reach top of the hills. We started from the top at 12:45 h and followed the same way. He had 2-3 breaks while climbing down and had, as I said before, one more Bellpuri, brought one water bottle (costs more! Rs. 30/-). Remember: one must carry at least two water bottles per head or at least one. We carried only one and got over in between... :(  Finally, we reached the bottom of the hills in less than 1:30 h.

TIME: 14:00 h

Have to go for lunch. We went to Grandma and collected our shoe and looking for a auto. Meanwhile, we had some chatting with Grandma and she asked about auto fare while coming to Shivagange, we said we paid Rs. 30/- per head. Then she got shocked and asked who is that auto driver, fortunately, he was there only that time. We shown him to Grandma, she called him along with some other auto drivers and she explained this to them. Everybody scolded him and ask him to drop us back to Dobbaspet railway stn with no auto fare (so Grandma is good! We try to give some money to her for keeping our shoe, but she refused!). He agreed and dropped us at a hotel in the Dobbaspet center (railway stn is near by that). We had nice idly there and walked towards railway stn, TIME: 15:20 h. Train was at 16:20 h, we took tickets and sat there. Finally, train came at around 17:10 h and we reached YPR at around 18:10 h. Nanda got down at SBC. Malli and I got down at YPR and went to my room in IISc. Oh! next day I have to shift my room, yaa shifted. Now staying at BTM.

Fun at railway stn: When we were sitting on the platform, one rail engine went towards Tumkur very fast, we were laughing at that bcz engine was very old but going very fast... :) Finally, we came to know that our train (for which we were waiting) engine gone bad and this engine going to pull the train. Fun right!

See you soon with another post. Have a nice time... :)