Yogavana Hills – Short Ride Beats No Ride, Everytime!

Another early morning run. This one was brought on by parenting pressures. My kids had to be ferried to a basketball match. So, I had to be back home by 8-30 a.m. We decided to do a quick dash to Yogavana Hills on Kanakapura road. Not much of a run at all if you look at the overall distance covered. But a short ride is better than no ride, everytime.

We met at the usual point on Bannerghatta road. This time everyone was already there by 5:15 a.m. and we took off. We reached the NICE expressway just as the Sun was coming up and the colour of dawn was spreading in the east. Gave me a chance to grab a couple of nice pictures.

We ripped across the NICE and turned off at Kanakapura road. There we drove down for a few KMs, south of the Sree Sree ashram. There are directions painted on trees on the road which tell you where to turn off for the Yogavana hills.

We did that little turn off quite neatly and got on to a nice little side road. We roared through a small village and soon lost our way. A local told us that there was no way to get to Yogavana from there as the road ahead was bad. We went ahead for a bit but decided to be prudent and turned back. We roared through the same village in the other direction.

Upon driving for about 1 km we saw the directions painted on a stones and trees pointing us back where we came from. We stopped for a bit to discuss how we could do this so predictably. Right across from where we had stopped was a house where a dog was tied. The little chap went absolutely berserk. He seemed to firmly believe that dacoits had come to loot the master’s house. Luckily there were no other dogs around or if they were, they must have been far more liberal in attitude than the vociferous chap tied to the house. Ironically that’s where we got help from when the person inside stepped out on his Luna. He was on his way to the market. He was of course unperturbed by our presence unlike his pet. He told us that the route was through that village we had been passing through.

So off we went again, by now we had become like old-timers in the village and they all greeted us with a little celebration and some garlands. There was moonlight dinner organized for us too. Unfortunately we could not stay for any of those since I had a basketball match to go to. 🙂

Taking a left from the village we got on to an even smaller road. This road had an astonishing green cover and almost no traffic. The best part of living in Bangalore is that within 30 minutes you can hit such lush greenery in almost every direction out. Since most of us are in the south of Bangalore, we mostly get in to the greens around Kanakapura and Bannerghatta. Fully recommend it as a wind down mechanism for all of you. You can get the same experience even with four wheels. 🙂

 We were shortly at Yogavana Hills. The approach road is no road at all really. Since it had rained a bit the previous night, this was quite slushy. We had to maneuver carefully as we kept sliding quite often. The Superlow in the group bore the brunt of it though. Since it is heavier, the tires lost all traction with the slush getting stuck in to the treads.

The destination, the actual Yogavana hills is not much to write home about at all. There is barely a mound, leave alone a hill over there. A temple on the top of it is all there is. The penchant of the Yogavana chaps to paint signs on all things standing is very much on display. Right from Kanakapura road where they have painted various trees and walls to the actual hill (I am being magnanimous) where ever standing thing is painted. At the hill, it is not directions that they have painted but the miraculous cures that the hill can provide for things such as hairfall.

In conclusion it is a largely oversold place. Nice view and all that but really not worth your while, unless you are a biker and enjoy the ride more than reaching a particular place. Though the place was uninspiring the route was nice and as always we managed to get a few nice pictures.

Soon after I had to leave the rest of the group and head back home. The group continued to what is threatening to become our regular breakfast haunt on Kanakapura road.

While the gang got idlis, for me it was the joy of seeing the kids do their best on the basketball court of course.