170 Km from Bangalore this is supposed to be the nearest hill station to Bangalore. To reach there the best way is to drive toward Krishnagiri along the hosur road (NH7) . At Krishnagiri take the Golden Quadrilateral toward Chennai. There are a lot of accommodation available there. so a casual ride would and searching room over there may still be fine.
We started in the evening and in some 3.5 hrs we were there in yelagiri. We stayed at ideya deepam a "dyanakendram" and it was a finest way to take off from the cars and traffic of Bangalore and enjoy the sleep along with the rhythmic cry of crickets.. (By the way it was also the final in world cup cricket of 2007.. and we did not even have a TV or radio to know any status..) We had a nice dinner and directly went for sleep after a small walk through the semicircular garden.. it was nice to see the stars in the sky after a long break..
Morning we went to don bosco center where they are into a novel project.. they freely teach kids from rural area toward their BCA or MCA degree.. Only criteria is that after course they have to work for 1/3 yrs before they can fend for themselves.. during this period they are provided accommodation free of cost for the needy or Rs 200/- who are bit better off.. they get some work outsourced from chennai and this is done by the student after their formal courses are over.. Work included making a soft copy of their "hard" counterpart.. it looked the old time typewriter institutes except that instead of type writer they had a computer in front of them. they were typing really really fast looking into the hard copy and never into their comp.. The students were claiming that they have more than 99% accuracy.. I saw a physically challenged girl among them.. it is nice to see such a novel endeavor which as per the principal were providing the students upto 40K per month salary. right now the college is not accredited to any college and the principal wants to make it an autonomous institution rather than joining some other university. As the teaching process is quite different it would be hard to get accredited to some university. Right now the student gets the degree from IGNOU. This was a place worth the visit..
After this we went to a artificial lake not at all a small one and had a one round boating.. it is Rs 15/- per person.. if u take a 25 rupee ticket you can get a half hour trip.. there is also a pedal boat option at a higher cost.. There is a decent children park next to it and could be good place to visit with children..
Next we went to swamimalai.. this is a good trek and starts from a "base camp" called mangalam.. it is around a 1 hr trek and at the top we can always see a long antenna.. ( a good guide to motivate you when ur exhausted) at the top there is a small temple and u can get some unripe mango and some biscuts.. there is no water.. though the lady at the top selling these goods told she used to carry water .. but when we went there it was over.. so please carry water.. The trek is quite simple as there are steps right till the top.. there is a good viewpoint from the top..
Afternoon after the food we left for bangalore.. In toto a real good trip..
