Nandi One Trail (Also known as Brahmagiri Trek)

 The monsoons are here! Or so we think they are but weren't too certain when we went for this hike, mid May. The trail begins on the same road as the one that takes you up to Nandi Hills, and unfortunately, we missed our AM window on this trek, and ended up getting stuck on the way to Nandi Hills. The India hikes site India hikes site has clear instructions on how to get to this site  So we turned around and decided to do the straight up the hill hike from this location on maps location on maps. 

The location itself leads you to a random spot on the road- take this random spot as the place where you can park the car and navigate using through Maps the directions towards the foothill. Once you get to the spot, there are clear trails that lead you upwards- the overall hike took us about 45 mins, and then 20 mins downhill. 

Section 1: Just rocks, mud and Peacocks. We saw one gliding across from one part of the hill to the shrubbery below and well, that was the first time we'd ever seen that happen. Needless to say, no pictures or videos exist of this moment but the moment was pretty regal. 

 

Section 2: This part flattens out into a eucalyptus forest, as we were heading up through it Gigen saw what he called a Komodo dragon, but given we don't have them in India, much less Bangalore (unless a pet Komodo was smuggled into the ports and then escaped to find itself living on this relatively sparsely populated hill) I'm guessing it was a Bengal Monitor Lizard from his description of it scurrying away from us. I should mention at this point, that it was just the two of us on this hill, with 2 litres of water between us and a protein bar. 

Section 3: Back to the steep climb up, but as we went up the vista opened up in front of us, as we realized that Nandi Hills (the closest hill) in this picture was only one in a series of hills. In fact, the trail we were on and Bhramagiri itself is called Nandi's twin peak. That meant, same view, no roads and thus no traffic, open access and most importantly no noise but the birds! As we approached this part of the steep climb we saw what I think was a wild boar, again running away from us, but in the distance. Thankfully most animals can see us approaching before we see them, for at least that way there is safety for everyone. 

The Peak: 

This part was everything it was meant to be, abandoned, quiet with a lot of whistling birds running around probably digging up worms from the rains in the previous day. We also had an undeterred view of Nandi, just as we would be able to see Brahmagiri from Nandi and amongst the clouds this was a view that was just beautiful We sat for some time and enjoyed the silence, the wind, the birds and the view- this is the best part of any hike- where you have reached the destination and have time to kill before needing to move again. 

We made our way down fairly quickly and easily, save for those tiny rocks that roll when you put your feet on them and propel you forward. I fell straight on my bum but is it even a descent if someone doesn't fall at least once because of the pebbles? We also saw our last animal sighting, a lone kingfisher singing away to glory- this was a curious sighting given there weren't any water bodies too close by but maybe there was a stream we couldn't see. 

This was our quietest trail so far and we enjoyed solitude in this one!