Date: 26th of March 2017
Destination: Devarayanadurga Hills and Irakasandra Water Reservoir
No. of people: 2 solo bikers
Total Distance covered: 175kms
Route Taken:
It was late Saturday night and I wanted to ride somewhere on Sunday. A few of my buddies from Road Thrill had ridden to Irakasandra Water Reservoir and the pics shared by Vinod Bhai enthralled me to explore this destination.
At 12.30 am I called up Ganesh (my riding buddy from Gixxer Club Bengaluru)
Me: Shall we go for a day ride on Sunday to DD Hills? Few of my buddies from Road Thrill had been to Irakasandra, the place is awesome, let’s go there as well ! !!!
Ganesh: Haan macha, let’s go !!!
Me: Cool, let’s meet at 5 am at Goregontepalya Junction and start from there, Good Night
Ganesh: Ok Macha, Good Night
I started from my home at 5.15am and reached Goregontepalya junction by 5.30am to see Ganesh had already reached there and was waiting for me.
Ganesh: Macha, waiting for you from the past half an hour. We planned to see the sunrise atop DD Hills, but I guess will see it on the road before reaching the hilltop.
Me: Let’s leave now bro, will watch the sunrise on the move.
We headed straight on the NH4 (Tumkur Highway) and upon reaching Dabaspete (50kms from Bangalore) we exited the highway and took the right turn that leads to DD Hills.
As we saw the glimpse of the first light, that yellow shining sun that started rising from the ground which filled the sky with mighty colors of red and splashed the clouds with endless rays of orange. It was bright and spectacular and invited us to stare, deep into the horizon.
My “Warrior” #Sunrise Kiss #Nature……. Don’t Stay at Home, Get up and Ride, Chase the beautiful Sunrise !!!
Ganesh and I (Gokool Kini, The Soul Warrior)
To give a brief introduction about the destination, Devarayanadurga Hills and is very commonly known as DD hills which are located in Tumkur District. It’s a small hill station with an altitude of 3900 feet above sea level and is surrounded forests and hilltops and the very famous Yoga Lakshmi Narasimha Temple located on the hilltop and Bhoga Lakshmi Narasimha temples at the foothills are located there at DD hills.
The Bhoga Lakshmi Narasimha Temple is located on the foothills and the Yoga Lakshmi Narasimha Temple is located on the hilltop.
We first went to Yoga Lakshmi Narasimha Temple on the uphill and riding those twisties uphill is always an awesome ride. There are steps that also take you to the hill-top temple, but as a biker; I would always suggest riding those twisties and corners. After reaching the top, we got to know that the temple opens only at 10.00 am. We picked some snacks from the nearby shop and took some pics and watched the view of the mountains around and also a troop of monkeys that were playing and jumping while the visitors fed them.
It’s not only with Dogs I am playful with, Man’s Evolution from Monkey to Man.
Since the temple was yet to be opened, we rode to the nearby viewpoint. Ride to roads that will take you to the guest house nearby and there is a viewpoint to which not many people go.
As we were clicking few pics, Ganesh and I discussed each other’s trip experiences from our recent past and checked if any Rides were on the cards.
We met a local who suggested us to ride to another viewpoint behind the temple located at the foothills and said; the view there is awesome !!!.
The only safety advise the local gave us; “Be careful near the cliff, especially if you taking your bike towards the edge”
We thanked them and rode back down the hill and reached the backside of Bhoga Lakshmi Narasimha temple and rode straight to the viewpoint.
The view from there was amazing, rocky mountains all over, a few coconut plantations and the Irakasandra water reservoir was also seen from the cliff. And yes, the cliff is very dangerous and please be very careful especially when you take selfies and pose for those crazy pics along with your bikes.
Big Bang Biker along with his subscribers was also here that day and we have Raghavendra aka Big Bang Biker.
Post a few photo sessions here, we visited the temple and followed by Breakfast at the eatery near the temple.
We then rode uphill again to visit Yoga Narasimha temple as it opens only at 10.00AM. You have to walk through over 100-150 steps to reach the temple from parking space. As we walked over those steps and at the middle, there are few shops if you want to quench your thirst or to rest for a couple of minutes.
The best memories I have from most of my travels are pets, I have always found their companion during my trips. Here I meet and play with a Labrador named “Princey”
It is true that Dogs are indeed a Man’s Best Friend.
We continued climbing those steps to reach the hill-top temple.
Post visiting the temple here, you can also trek/climb over those rocks beside the temple pond that leads you to a viewpoint.
Ganesh: What you say, shall we climb those rocks?
Me: The climate is a too hot buddy, you can trek to the top and I shall wait for you at the parking space and have some cold drinks and rest for a while.
Ganesh: Ok Macha, I will trek and be back.
He was back after a couple of minutes completing the trek and with all the excitement he said: There were hardly few steps that reached the top while he showed his pics from there.
The view was nice indeed !!
Those were the last few steps to reach the topmost point at DD Hills.
By now the seats of our bike were damn hot, so we poured some water on the seats to cool it down.
From here, our next place to be visited was Irakasandra Water Reservoir which is 15-20kms away from the hills and took us approximately 30mins to reach there.
Riding alongside of the water body and we found some shady area to park our bikes. As we parked our bike and walked towards the reservoir, we said to each other, how this place went unexplored before.
We settled on a small rock and watching all over the reservoir and wondering “How this reservoir is full of water when even though the temperature was around 38 degrees Celsius.
Ganesh: Had I knew swimming, I would have definitely dived into the water and would swim peacefully here !!!
The Single Titanic Pose on a Rock in the middle of the reservoir !!
We had a nice time clicking photos of each other and taking a hell lot of selfies.
Ganesh went on and on clicking selfies and that’s why we call him “Selfie Ganesh”
After all the photography we walked back to the place where our bikes were parked.
Me: Maccha, we should come here once again, but we should reach here early morning, I hope the view would be more beautiful on an early morning.
Ganesh: Yes we should definitely ride here sometime again.
The White and the Black Machines at Irakasandra Water Reservoir !!!
After riding to Irakasandra Water Reservoir, I was thinking where to ride next with my “Warrior”
My Machine, My “Warrior” always ready to take those roads that were never taken and always ready to explore the places that were never seen ! ! !
We started our journey back to Bangalore and we stopped over for lunch at Hotel Kamadhenu on (NH4) and then rode back home.
Thanks a lot Ganesh for yet another awesome road trip that added to our Travel Memoir.
This was the story of our 175kms journey to Devarayanadurga Hills (DD Hills) and the unexplored Irakasandra Water Reservoir.
Stay Tuned….!!! until I explore yet another destination, another place to be marked as “Completed” from my “To be Travelled List” and share my experience.
See you all, Stay Safe 🙂
Warm Regards,
Gokool Kini
(Soul Warrior)
Also Visit: Day Ride to Nandi Hills and Lepakshi
