Nandi Hills-lots of photos

We finally got out of the city yesterday. The Nandi hills are an outcropping of Rock which reach out above the local Plateau about 50 Kilometers north of Bangalore (or at least the part we live in) , just a bit past where the new airport is going to be located. Another link. We left at a little before 11 in the morning, intending to leave earlier, but a certain sleepy teenager slowed us down at the start. The drive out started through the outskirts of Bangalore, looked very busy with development and industry. We passed a large quarry, more about that in another post. Close to the new airport there was a large construction site which was remarkable in a couple of ways. First there was a lot of large equipment, something you don't see too often here in and around Bangalore. Second, there were no women. In all the local construction, you see men and women, though they definitely have their own roles. Mostly the women seem to carry and move construction materials, i.e. sand, rocks, etc. Men do the actual constructing. Maybe in this case the women were replaced by the equipment. I believe this is an actual overcrossing/turnoff to the new airport. The current road is about 2K further and is a narrow dirt road.

Once past the Airport, things got really rural. All kinds of things were growing along the road, bananas, wheat, grapes, coconuts. There were a couple of small villages we went through to get to the base of the hills. On the way we got to some spots where there were piles of what looked like straw on the road. It was obvious we were intended to drive over them. Then we asked the driver what was going on. He said that it was wheat. We saw them winnowing the wheat along side of the road. I just love Indian creativity and innovation. Don't have a threshing machine, too expensive. Let the passing motorists do it for you. Why not, it is probably cleaner than having animals walking in circles on it to do same.

The road up to the top reminded us of the SF Bay Area, mixed with the Sierras. The grass was dry, the scrub was low, and the road was narrow and windy. The rock outcroppings looked like some of the big ones you see in Yosemite. The biggest difference was the Eucalyptus trees instead of Aspen. And then the Monkeys wouldn't have fit in back in CA. Anna remarked how the road reminded her of the road up to Hearst Castle. Very similar actually. And it led up to a castle, or fort, of sorts.

We arrived up top, and there were monkeys everywhere, and dogs. Anna took some pictures of puppies with my camera and they are on my flickr site. The monkeys were obviously trying to steal food from the vendors and tourists. The vendors were using sling shots to scare them away from the stands. I spotted this one on top of the local police station.

Once up top, we started wandering around by ourselves. We walked towards the very top where there was a closed building. Obviously the Sultan's house. The gardens around were beautiful, with many kinds of flowers. Were followed by an old bow-legged man with a walking stick, not too clean clothes, and a knit cap on his head. I thought he was just begging so I ignored him, but he managed to engage Cindy and then offered to show us the temple etc, so we had a guide. He was very nice to Cindy, picking various plants and flowers for her along the way, even though this is prohibited. He spoke very little English, but managed to get his point across. He took us to Tipu Drop, where there was an incredible view to the north, and almost straight down. The picture doesn't show the drop, but it is pretty steep. Several hundred meters of rock, then scrub. I certainly wouldn't want to fall down anywhere there. There was also a wall around the top of the hill. We had to drive through it to get in, didn't get a photo of that, but it was just wide enough for our car to fit through. There were also spots where you could get through a door in the wall and see the view. Here is one N/E view.
I tried to get Anna facing me in the picture, but my phone camera is too slow and when she saw that I was taking a picture, she turned around again. So you only get to see her backside.

Our guide took us to several other locations, one river source, which was all dried up. And we saw two temples. The Bull Temple is the most famous on the Nandi Hills. As you can see, it is covered in grease (which we think is Ghee) and flowers. It is a bit of a crude statue, which is typical of the Chola style. I have more pictures of the bull on Flickr. The temple went up, and into the rock behind the bull. It was possible to go in a small door on the side, about 4 meters up the hill. Our guide didn't join us because he had trouble walking on the hills. I spotted several carvings in the rocks. I captured this one to share.

I would like to leave the post with this. We saw many flowering trees, and often they had no leaves, just flowers. This is one particularly beautiful example.