A Morning at Horsley Hills

When the plan was hatched, it was supposed to be a day outing at Horsley Hills. The team was Manish and his roomies: Jassi and Deepesh. The idea was to drive on Jassi’s Angelina (read Honda City), to some nearby place and have some time-out from Bangalore. Truly speaking, the weather in Bangalore was as good as any hill station after the first monsoon showers, so I was not in a mood, but then I could not resist the temptation of a long drive. So, Horsley Hills was the destination, and everyone agreed. The plan was to start early Saturday morning and back by the same night, but looking at the pictures, me and Manish decided that we should be there during the dawn. Better said that done, the Friday work was spoilt as we went on calling the Resort there and deciding on the different aspects of travelling that night. The plan changed sooner than expected, and we were driving on Friday night, and spend the morning there, and will be back by Saturday evening. And it was a superb plan!

Horsley Hills is about 170 KMs from Bangalore, and an ideal weekend gate-away for the laid-back class (those who are lazy and don’t like to trek, or those with lots of baggage). The route is via Hoskote-Kolar-Madanapalle (this is the 170KM route, other routes are longer). We started our journey at about 9:30 pm. It was 4 of us in a comfortable Honda City. We got a bit late because of me, as I was stuck with some stupid deployment  for some time. I was in the navigator’s seat, as both Manish and Deepesh were scared of Jassi’s driving and denied taking any chance with their life. I checked the seat belt and found it working, so armed with Jassi’s Blackberry with Google Maps installed on it and a GPRS connection, I was all set to be the perfect navigator.

Dinner was on the way, at The Bay in RMZ Infinity, and before that we fueled up our car. We went to Au Bon Pain as I felt I would not get a better chance to redeem their coupons. It proved a wise decision as they were providing one-on-one free offer since it was late in the night. After a dinner with chicken sandwiches, pastas, brownies and muffins, we were set for the long journey. The navigator’s seat also added another responsibility on me, the role of the DJ (or IJ or CJ, whatever you call it). And I played that role quite well. Soon we were cruising over NH4. The car was awesome, and Jassi an awesome driver, I started wondering why was Manish scaring me!

Near Kolar, we had to take an exit from the NH4 and enter the state highway which goes through the town. A little bit of confusion there as the locals do not know that the pathetic road is actually was  a state highway (SH 99), but Google Maps did help as we could see a Reliance Petrol Pump on our right a few metres ahead.

Now the road was not very good, we slowed down a little bit, the fact that it was about midnight was an advantage as there were no people on the roads. The rest part of the drive was uneventful, just that at few places we had to take detours due to some road-repairing work. Except one case of a huge truck speeding directly towards us, Jassi’s driving was the best, and no doubt about it. At 1:30 am we reached Horsley Hills. There is only one resort there, the Haritha Resort which is run by the AP tourism department. We woke up the people at the reception and it seems there was only one suite available for the four of us. We did not argue much and decided to take that as it was anyway nice of them to answer us in the middle of the night.

The suite was huge, a hall, two bedrooms, two bath/toilets and dressing area too. We were ok with the deal of 2975/- for the night including breakfast. It was already 2 am and since we were here to catch the dawn, we had little time left. We decided to snooze till 4:30 am and catch the dawn, red or blue handed! As the alarm sounded 4:30, we were up on our feet, I did not expect so much enthusiasm though. As the dawn broke, we were at the edge of a cliff. Though it was cloudy, the abrupt height of Horsley Hills made the view nice. It was as if we were at some peak and everything else was lower. Pretty cold winds were blowing, and it was an amazing experience to see the midnight blue turn into amber and then to red and blue again. I am sure none of my co-travelers had been awake at this time of the day in the past one year. The cold winds sweeping the face and taking away the nights fatigue and the sleep was an awesome feeling.

Though it was not a full-blown sunrise, we were not disappointed. By 6 am we started to make a move, had some coffee from the local stall, and went around the place. Yes, it was a small place. There was a small zoo and garden and the President’s Cottage, which is at the topmost point there and provided great views. There were different viewpoints also. We also saw the tree wonder: two separate trees joined in the trunk, nature is always surprising. We roamed around the gardens, taking pictures here and there, and discussing about the lone person who had came here for 3 days and found the place utterly boring. We agreed that this is not a place to actually expect a lot, it can be seen as a nice resort where you can spend one day with yourself and your family and/or friends. Coming to the resort, I found it quite well-maintained. There were cottages as well has rooms, ample parking, a nice swimming pool, a spa and massage centre, and a nice restaurant which also served drinks. What more you can want?

We went back to the room to take some more rest (after all we slept just 2 hours), then came back to the restaurant to have our breakfast. After a sumptuous breakfast of idli, vada, pongal, kesari bath, we were fully energized. Jassi went to get some more rest (since he is going to drive us back), and we went on a photo-shoot. Well Manish was the natural model and Deepesh wanted to get married, fast!

We discovered a better place which we did not see in the morning, the sky was amazing now and this place was more windy. One thing I disliked about the people visiting there is that they have this habit of breaking the glass bottles of alcohol and leave them behind, I am not sure who started this habit, but it surely has to stop, by choice or by force.After filling our corroded lungs with lots of fresh air, we were back to the room for short nap. The nap was really short and powerful, we were ready up, bathed, packed and ready in no time. By 12 noon we checked out as that was the strict timing for check-out. We then roamed a little bit, had few ice-cream bars, and then we were ready to bid adieu to the place.

The return journey was un-eventful as usual with me navigating using Google Maps and DJ-ing with my Ipod. Lunch was at Madanapalle, it was good and cheap too, just 320/- for four people. While entering Bangalore, the sky looked awesome, and we even saw a rainbow. We could see the monsoon clouds looming over Bangalore. Though it was not raining on us, but the weather was amazing. Got down near Sony World Junction and got a bus to home. There ended another eventful weekend, another place where I put my footprint in this small life-span.

PS: I wrote this for many days, guess I am getting lazy day by day. The Puducherry trip will be in no time, I hope J