A Day ride to Markandeya Hills

A short day ride from Bengaluru to Markandeya hills (Kolar) | The Crew: Prashanth, Pallavi, Kaushik, Pratiksha | The Ride: Duke 390, 390 Adventure. #CouplesRide :)

Background: Two weeks of 2023 had passed; work was getting hectic and bike was lying in the parking without any action for almost a month now (Not considering the basic city commute). Our (Prashanth & Pallavi) resolution for 2023 was to travel more and wanted to kickstart (or self-start :P) the travels ASAP. Got the pillion seat upgraded from a local vendor and installed backrest and a top box for my bike and a message went out to Kaushik - "Bro, what plans for weekend?"

About the place: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markandeya_Hill 

323V+XGX, Kolar, Karnataka 563137

The Day: So, we had decided to start early and reach home by lunch time and planned to start by 6:30-7AM and meet just after KR puram bridge. As planned we left at 6:45AM and took Indiranagar road to reach KR puram while Kaushik and his wife took the ring road as they live in the other side of bengaluru and at around 7:15-7:30AM both the couple met. 

We had to wait there for a while thanks to Kaushik's choice of buying his wife a half face helmet :D as they were searching a mask to cover her face from dust and started the ride. 

We stopped at Hotel Nalapaka that comes right after the hoskote toll for breakfast. The Service was quite slow, it gave us a chance to have some good talk. After enjoying the hot Idly sambar and Masala dose we continued the journey. 

The open highways welcomed us with everything it has as usual and we started to rev the bikes, but since we are now responsible (aka married) we had to make sure our pillions did not fly away, hence started cruising at 80-100KMPH. The Dark tarmac and fog covered farms and hills on the side of roads were a bliss to watch. Since the distance to destination is too less, the highways ended quickly and we had to enter village roads now.

The speeds started to change and so did the view, we could smell pure soil from the farms as well as eucalyptus trees :) . The roads were narrow but they were decent enough sneak our bikes easily. After about a hour we got to the foothills of Markandeya hills only to find out that the road that takes us tot he top is closed as they were laying new tarmac.

So we could not take the bikes on the 4-5 hairpin bends that were earlier available. Hence, we decided to lock our helmets to the bikes, dump the jackets in the topbox and started to take the stairs. It took us under 10-15mins to reach the top (The steps are really tiny, if you have big feet like me walk carefully).


Now that we reached the top, we started to enjoy the view and also the talks about random subjects kept us occupied for a long time. The temple opened sometime after we reached and we took a round inside to admire the architecture and also offer our prayers. I had carried couple of sandwiches which me and Pallavi finished.

Return journey was not too smooth. We stopped at a decent hotel as Kaushik's tummy was cursing him to feed it with something and again the traffic on the highway increased drastically. We both waved goodbye to Kaushik and Pratiksha at KR puram bridge and started our way back home. The road on google map was deep red, the sun was on top of our head, even though I was riding for 30mins it felt like I have been stuck in traffic for hours. We ordered food on swiggy while we were on road and thanks to all the blocked junctions we reach around 3PM and within 5mins our food arrived :).
Advice time: For the folks planning to visit the place I would suggest you to carry/follow :

  • Get water from home as buying bottles out side will only result in plastic dump.
  • Food is optional, but would recommend you to carry some snacks as there are no shops on top.
  • Do not try to over speed in village roads.
  • Wear seatbelts if you are driving and helmets and basic gear if you are on motorcycle.
  • Parking is free and once roads are laid out you can take your vehicle to top.
  • There is a washroom on top for namesake but I would advise not to use it.

A humble request would be to not litter at the location 😊 lets be mindful of our planet and our future generation. If you visit the place do let us know your experience.

Location: 323V+XGX, Kolar, Karnataka 563137

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