Horsley Hills

This was one of the wildest trips I'd ever been. I picked the place out of Andhra map and planned the trip... route, schedule, logistics & all. The planned route was Bangalore - Kolar - Madanapalle - Horsley Hills, approximately 160 km, estimated travel time was 3.5 hours. Plan was to reach our destination by 9-30 and have dinner there. The group: Satish, Prithvi, Ganesh, Mama (my maternal uncle Praveen).

We took off at 6PM on three two-wheelers- my Kinetic Honda scooter and two Yamaha RX 100 bikes. We were carrying one 3-person tent, booze, soft drinks, and a 12" Rambo style knife. We had hardly travelled 60km, these guys stopped (against my wishes) at a road-side bar & restaurant on the outskirts of Kolar. The booze session started, followed by dinner. When we settled the bill it was 10PM. Great!

Our journey resumed, we continued towards our destination... Madanapalli & Horsley Hills. We crossed Karnataka-Andhra border and after few kilometers, we had to stop at a fork, unsure of which road to take. And the map was confusing me even more. So we waited for some vehicle to come by... a KSRTC bus came, Satish waved his arms at the driver but the bus didn't even slow down. We were puzzled at the driver's behavior. After a few minutes, an Ambassador car came by, this guy stopped but a good 30 meters away from us. Satish ran towards the car and yelled which way to Madanapalle. The driver quickly told us to take the same road he was on and sped away. We were wondering at the drivers' impatience... it was Mama's doing- he waved the knife at the car driver and done the same at the bus too. Also, who would risk stopping for a gang on a desolate road? Trusting the Amby driver's response, we took the right side of the fork.At 2-30 AM all of Madanapalli was sleeping except for two guys loading some stuff from a shed into a car on the main street. We asked them directions for Horsley Hills which was easy to remember. The road to Horsley Hills was superb, we rode like maniacs, my Kinetic Honda maxed out in 90s, the bikes cruised at 100. Road on the hill was narrow, full of turns and hairpin curves, we rode carefully. We reached the hill-station around 3 AM, the place was sleepier than Madanapalli, not a soul to be seen anywhere. Not a single sign board saying "lodge." The hill was dark, cold & misty. We were exhausted, gave up looking for a lodge. We found a level grassy patch next to the road, pitched the tent.

Prithvi, Ganesh, Praveen, Satish

The tent was too small for five grown-ups and especially with four drunks. I did not sleep at all... foul air, snores, stones poking from beneath and cold air. I was just waiting for dawn and the moment I saw light, I asked these guys to wake up. No response. I just crawled on them out of the tent! Freshened my mouth with 'Sprite' and started looking for a tea-joint. Nothing in sight. We rented a guest house for few hours, had tea and freshened up. By the time I finished my bath, Mama, Prithvi and Ganesh had started a booze session! At 9 30 AM!

Drunk at 10-30 AM

We rode around the place... not a very big hill-station but a beautiful one. It's named after a British collector W. D. Horsley. Andhra's highest point is situated at Horsley Hills. We climbed up and finally reached a point where we had to climb through a tree's branches to cross-over to another rock. Only Prithvi and I went right to the top. Mama and Ganesh were too drunk for the adventure and Satish isn't a sport for such adventures.

We did some more sight-seeing before we decided to head back. The down-hill ride was fun, we free-wheeled most of the way, leaning heavily through the curves.

Dog eying Prithvi

This time, we took Madanapalle-Chitamani road instead of Kolar. At Chintamani we stopped lunch, we tasted one of the best Andhra meal at a mess. Our return journey had plenty of stops, there was no dearth for reasons to stop.

An unforgettable trip!!
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