Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Nijagallu | 22 Feb 2009


Waking up late after the 'adventure that never happened' in my previous post, the original intentions of going to Hessarghatta close to sunrise, was out of the question. So we decided to go there in the evening, while in the morning, we would go to this place called Nijagallu, off Tumkur Road (NH4).


Who: Myself, Vinay, Achutha, Chetan
Where: Nijagallu, Off Tumkur Road, just beyond Dobbspet


The idea initially was to go to the top of the tiny hillock and see what Chetan said would be a nice 'romantic spot', away from the humdrum of the temple just a little distance below the hilltop. But, we being we, had to find a way that was hard enough to go through.... Chetan was new to this, but was willing to try....


Soon enough, we found our way into thorns and big boulders and crevices..... It offered some variety in techniques needed to climb, including my personal favourite - the spiderman climb.... the spiderman climb is when u have a 60-80 degree incline, of flat rock, and u r climbing it with just the friction of ur hands and legs and the tiny surface features of the rock..... these are stuff that look impossible at the onset.... terribly risky if u screw up.... and terribly satisfying once u conquer the stretch.....


Somewhere in between, we found a tree that had branched a lot... a tree perfect for beginers like me and chetan to climb.... spent a lot of time doin crazy stuff on the tree (including sleeping on it!). Camera batteries died by now, w enough power to last a few snaps


A few more spiderman climbs and we reached the fort on top. took pictures conserving remainin battery power.... then headed down into the valley, to go to the other side where the temple was, so that we could finally go to where Chetan originally wanted to take us!


The temple area was filthy with all the pollution brought in by the devotees! (Unlike the pristine areas we trekked through moments earlier). But the spot that Chetan showed us was a nice place, and was away from the chaos of the temple.


We got down to our bikes and then headed to Hessarghatta as planned. Where the usual joys of the place brought in a peaceful finale to the heavy work of the earlier part of the day. Achutha, who hadn't been here before, just began jumping around and yelling, like a mad guy!


Current mood: sleepy
Currently listening to: Story of my life - Bon Jovi

2 comments:

Praveer Nijagal said...

Man u guys are so lucky to have seen the beautiful place which happens to be my last name! I have been yearning to go trekking atop this nijagallu betta for some time now. I have been to the narasimha swamy temple in the village where my forefathers used to be priests!

Unknown said...

@praveer: Cool! Its a nice trek if u don't take the conventional route to the top. U should do it sometime for ancestry sake atleast