day 26th april, 2008

26th april, 2008, Early morning 4.30, I got a mobile call from Praba in next room- wake up call. We had plans for going to Skandagiri. We managed to start from home at 6am. Skandagiri is a small trekking spot near bangalore, which we were planning to trek for the last 2-3 months. Six of us drove through hydrabad highways in three motor bike to reach chikballabur, with some breaks for relaxing and fueling motor bikes & ourselves. Around 5 km from chikballabur, we parked our vechicles and started the trekking at around 9 am.

Initially it was a flat walk through the basement of skandagiri hill - nice moon light walk, though the intensity of sunlight was bit more. Then we climbed through small passage between rocks and plants. Though it was hot, there were lot of kotages on the way for taking rest. There are also some wells on the way where one can ring bell :) But there is no water. We carried only 1 bottle of water which was very less.

After walking for about 1.75 hr, we reached the hilltop (10.45am). The sun's heat was overridden by the cool breeze. We took some nice photo's and started back at 11am. Actually, sharp 12 noon one could see moon, sun and a star with tail from the hilltop. But since praba had to travel in the evening, we could not wait for that valuable view. Coming down was not so difficult, but we were starving for water. Without water we din't even want to eat biscuits which we carried.
It was once again a good drive through hydrabad road during the return journey. As we entered bangalore we stopped at Eden park for Lunch, and with heavy stomach we reached home at about 3pm.
photos at http://picasaweb.google.co.in/vijayakumar.balasubramanian/Skandagiri