I never knew Nandi Hills would such be a wonderful place to visit near Bangalore until the night before the ride. I was in Banglore in last week of November 2013 with some personal stuff. Vishwanath (my friend in Bangalore) and I were planned to utilize the free day we had on 24th November 2013.

Here is a short background. We were in Hebbala (north of Bangalore city) around 55-60km from Nandi Hills. Somehow, we had managed an interesting version of Pulsar 150. The bike was without RVM, I wonder what fun people get that they remove their mirrors and keep it safely in their house. RVM are very important and must for riders safety. Further, applying rear brakes would not reduce even 1 kmph speed unless the brake almost touched the ground, the electric start was not functional, the dashboard was completely gone.

Ignoring all this it was decided to start the bike trip at 4:30 AM. We decided to start early just because the only thing interesting at Nandi Hills was Sunrise (this is what we read at forums).
As decided, we woke up at 4:30 AM, took necessary materials (Camera, Helmet, Water, Jackets) and left our PG room. Roads were no doubt traffic less and it took just 10 minutes from Nagwara to NH7.

The highway was not as empty as I have expected. If not thousands, several hundred bikes/cars like us were rushing to see the sunrise at Nandi Hills. Almost 40 KM of the highway stretch was under construction (Construction of flyover was going on throughout the highway) and we had to slow down at every diversion.

We had read at some forum that after Devanahalli there is a hard to detect left turn which goes towards Nandi Hills. We were about to reach Devanahalli, before which we got the Tollbooth. Some policeman asked us to stop there. I thought they will charge two wheelers also to cover up the grand construction.

But NO. One police asked us to show our RC Card. I was confident since I had asked Vishwanath’s friend to give me a photocopy of the RC Card. I searched the first chain, then second, then smaller ones and at last the water pouches but RC Card was nowhere. Now it was time to worry. He asked us to wait till morning 9 AM, we had to present us in a court nearby. I asked if there is any other option, which I knew certainly it was. He said ‘200 but no bill’. That was enough for me. We paid and made sure on my return journey we would not be bothered. He confirmed and let us go.

Started again, took the left turn (which was certainly visible). Road ahead was just awesome extremely straight almost 8-10 KM. We realized its beauty on our way back. The straight road going up then coming down again going up. At the end of this road, there is ‘T’ junction

For Nandi Hills, we took left from T cross road. After riding 10-15 minutes we took another right from where ascending starts. Our bike started struggling in 5 minutes. I had to ride continuously on 1st gear, but still I could feel shortage of power and I was doubting whether we could make to the top. Then came and ancient pillared Nandi Temple to the left of the road. Stopped our bike there to shoot this temple.

Just as we finished watching the pillar temple, we noticed some distance a small police check-post and they were very consciously checking every vehicle passing and importantly RC Card for 2 wheelers.

Heavy hearted and cursing one another for not bringing the RC Card from our bag we came down, parked the bike next to a small Hotel and started climbing up with the hope that the Bangalore city would certainly have some good people. Our hands were tired asking for lift and we almost decided to return.

Then came our luck in a small yellow colour Zen. Within 20 minutes we were at the ticket counter. From there, only 4 wheelers are allowed, 2 wheelers have to park near the ticket counter itself. They charged Rs.100 for 4 wheelers and we were on the Hill station. We both started singing Hobbit song ‘Far over the misty mountains cold, two dungeons deep and caverns old’ because the scene was such mesmerizing. Although we missed Sunrise by some minutes but we hope after rise must be equally beautiful as Sunrise.