Jitu

A nice cycle tour from Bangalore to T.G. Halli. We went on Magadi Road which was very bad with heavy traffic in the beginning. However once we crossed the toll road, the quality of the road increased and the traffic decreased significantly. Between T.G. Halli and Manchanabele Reservoir is a trail next to a river. The trail can be quite narrow and at one point in time the cycles need to be carried for about 20m over loose rocks. Otherwise it is manageable, but not recommended for road bikes. Carrying puncture kits or spare tubes is also a good idea.

From Manchanabele Reservoir we went to the Big Banyan Tree. After having lunch at a hotel near the Tree we continued to cycle back to Bangalore by using side roads through the villages to avoid the heavy traffic and pollution of Mysore Road (SH-17). The roads through the villages are excellent most of the times. For long stretches the pavement got renewed. If not, then it was not as bad as the trail between T.G. Halli and Manchanabele Reservoir.

Distance of the tour: 85km

GPX files

• Bangalore-TGHalli-Manchanabene-BigBanyanTree

.

From Bangalore there are basically 2 routes to reach Nandi Hills which are something like 55km each: from Bangalore to Hebbal from there on NH7 and SH104 to Nandi Hills or from Bangalore to Yelahanka and from there on Doddaballapur Road and SH74 to Nandi Hills. However while the traffic density on the State Highways (SH) is fairly less, it is much worse on NH7 and the Doddaballapur Road which makes the ride not a pleasant one. So one day an expedition started to find another route trying to avoid the heavily used highways.

To shorten the time to find a new way, we used a bike. The found route is not recommended for road cycles at all. Taking along a puncture kit, reserve tube, air pump etc. is a must.

A short description

We went from NH7 to MVIT educational college (north of Yelahanka airfield). There we turned right to the north to go straight to Nandi Hills. The road was awesome. Twice as wide as IISc roads with excellent pavement. But after the Stonehill International School the road degraded rapidly. It became narrow and many parts of the pavement were missing. After a while the road became invisible and was only a path or better trail through the woods (photos are included below). Although this road is marked like a yellow highway in Google Maps, it is hardly visible and 30cm wide. After a while the path ended in a mine (some blueish stone is mined), but we continued anyway through the mine. The problem is that you cannot see, where the people went previously, so sometimes you have to give it a good guessing to continue. Anyhow after mastering this, we came out at a small village close to the Hills.

On the way back, we tried another route. It was very smooth. First 30km nicely paved, but then a little bit “under-developed”. So typical village roads with LOTS of speed breakers. I think, we went over a hundred or so in total. Then we came out on NH7 and went south a bit to cover some distance. We went back to MVIT college and turned right at the crossing at which we turned left in the morning.

Nice road, till you come to that part, where you have to turn right again near the Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology, but the Kenchanahalli Road has been swallowed by some huge construction, so it does not exist anymore. So we found a trail through the fields. On the satellite images you can recognize many trails (and some round shaped markings) and on one of them we went. I am really curious what that was a long time ago. The square in the center is formed by ruins of small houses. After some trail and error, we found a residential area whose roads led to Doddaballapur Road.

It was a really nice trip. Especially the trails. We went through them with the opinion: If Google shows a road there, there must be a road. If it says, turn right, we do that no matter how the road looks like.

The whole tour would have been manageable with a BSA Photon Ex, but an MTB is actually recommended (at least partly). Since there were many shrubs with thorns (you can have a look at my legs, when we “biked” through them with force), there was a high chance to get a puncture. And the next repair shop is very VERY far. Attached to the post you can find a map showing the route from OpenStreetMaps. I included the trails into the maps which makes it more accurate (apart from the free license) compared to competitors. The blue track marks the route we went to the Nandi Hills, the red one our way back.

GPX files

• 20100417-061816_NewRouteToNandiHillsCleaned (blue track)
• 20100417-113413_NewRouteFromNandiHillsCleaned (red track)

.