After spending a couple of weekends dissolved in Marathi novels, last weekend was the one on which I had a chance to head out to see some sun. Over the last week I kept dropping by Ajay to keep me posted about any outing. It was first the plan for para-sailing with Bangalore Marathi group. But it did not materialize due to heavy rains Saturday - the day before. We had discussed such a scenario and had our plan 'b' ready. The plan 'b' was Pearl Valley.Ajay's roomies had been to this place a week ago. Also I had heard of this place being towards Banergatta. We started from shoppers stop on Banergatta road at 7:20 am Sunday morning. We thought it might be a well known place and could get directions easily. But very few people knew whats and wheres of Pearl Valley. So we had to call Ajay's roomies a couple of times. And that helped a bit. The description told was "you ll get a lake, after the lake you get two temples, get the right turn after that. Its somewhere in the middle of a town" And this description applied to almost every village we crossed :). What we learnt was "You ll get the directions better if you know the nearest town well. Not the name of the spot."
Reaching there:We followed Banergatta Road till we took a right turn towards Jigni Industrial area. After some way inside Jigni, we spotted a decent South Indian restaurant and decided to have a breakfast break. Here we inquired about Anekal road. Eureka, this Hotel was the point where we needed to take a turn towards Anekal ! We spotted some BMTC buses till this point. I guess the number was 365 and some alphabet after it. From this point on it was a 7 km drive and the prophesy came true :) ! We crossed a quite big lake on both sides of the road and crossed two temples after it. Followed a thin market lane in Anekal and took a right turn from the Junction at the end of it. Followed that road till we saw a Pearl Valley board. But alas that was nothing looking like the place to visit. It was a walled compound board. After that point on there came a board on rhs of our road where there was a "Nature Valley" sign board. We inquired to the people to know that Pearl Valley is 3 km away on that road.
Vegitation closeby:
That 3 km was quite like a misty Jungle road at 8:20 in the morning. It was a downward slope hence I wisely switched off the bike to nutral noting the absence of petrol pumps from Jigni :). It was a dead end soon with a the road suddenly terminating taking us till the edge of a Valley. KSRTC boards and a few hotels comforted us indicating we reached the right destination. Of course at that time in the morning the place was lonely and hotels were still closed. We spotted two conductor dressed people and inquired about the entry point in the valley. And they pointed towards the steps to climb down. The steps led us to this point of a mini waterfall. From there goes a small walkway up along the hill. After taking a couple of snaps we were on the way up.
We climbed up the hill for some time. Soon we reached a point panorama of the valley. It was quite pleasant [Look snap 1]. From here we decided to abandon the walkway. It looked too easy for the seasoned trekkers like us [that's boasting you know..:)] . So, we took way up the hill on our right side making our way relatively easily. Now we had 2 options either walk a longer along the top to avoid bushy terrain or cross the bushes. We opted for the later. It was quite an experience. The thorny bushes were ruthless and it took some perseverance to cross a small stream through them. Though it needed sacrifice of some blood drops, we managed to climb up to a walkable terrain on the other side with the help of a helmet. The joy and tiredness is evident as you see on this timere
d pic [snap 2] .We treked along hilltop. Saw a farmer ploughing in his field. From there took a less bushy way planning a to follow a roughly circular path to return to the point we started in the morning. At the bottom of the V of the valley, we met the familiar stream. Again we were to make a choice between a familiar walkway and an unknown trek up through bamboo trees. Again we we choose the later option. Absence of thorns from the bamboo trees was inviting. Only fear being any wild beast. Ha. Now that's something you need to convince yourself. Remember the recent Corbet Tiger census, feel the helmet in your hand, know to the brave even camera flash can help. And go on. Thats what we did. It was tiring uphill avoiding throny bushes in some parts. But it was fun. Rested a few minutes on
finishing denseness. And then it was the walk completing quarter of the peripheral completing the circle to the start point. We tried to be least harmful to the environment along the way. See me avoiding a spider's web :) [snap 3]. There was a small stream rushing in the valley taking a small jump between rocks on our way. We just washed the sweat away, poured some water on the head. Felt heaven.From there we could see some tourists just starting the trek in the valley. It took us 20 minutes to reach the back side hotel near our start point. Now the hotel was open. Decided to have some tea. Oh goodness. It was really good valley view from the basement sit
ting arrangements of the hotel. The view made so so tea taste better. And we were on our way back at 10:45 am!On the way back in Banergatta we went to a hilltop temple. There is a Balaji temple at the base of the hill and uphill there is a renewed Narasimha temple. From the structures it looks to be at least 500 year old. I had been here when I visited Banergatta previously. It feels good to spend an summer evening on this hill. This time it started drizzling. So we returned without spending much time. [snaps 4 and 5 - Ajay@Banergatta hilltop; renewed Narsimha temple.]
