Pearl Valley Bike Ride (19th Dec 2010)

One of us had chanced upon a place called Mutyala Maduvu (also known as Pearl Valley) in the google search results, when scouting for suggestions on a half day getaway around Bangalore. Pearl Valley is located around 40 km from Bangalore, 40km from Jayadeva flyover to be precise. It is a tiny waterfall on the outskirts of Anekal town, to the southeast of Bangalore city. There are 2 ways to reach this place - one route is by taking the NH7 expressway (Hosur road) via Silk board junction and taking a right near Attibele. The other route is to take Bannerghata road state highway, pass bannerghatta national park and later pass Anekal. Direction boards are put up after around 2-3 kms of driving past Anekal guiding us to Pearl Valley. After a few kilometres of driving/riding on this interior road through village roads and agricultural fields, you will reach a dead end where vehicles can be parked and you can descend the steps to the bottom of the falls.

Coming back to our schedule, we were 7 friends and had initially teamed up 2 people on 3 bikes and there would be 1 solo rider. After some confusion on who would pick up whom, finally all of us assembled at Adiga's Nalapaka restaurant opposite IIM-B on Bannerghatta road by 8.00am, 19th being an idyllic sunday with the usual wakeup woes :( After a heavy breakfast at Adiga's, we left Adiga's by around 8.30am towards Pearl Valley.

Taking a break on the way to Pearl Valley

The narrow roads through the Bannerghatta- Anekal route

We stopped at a couple of places to take a break from the tiring bike ride in the hot sun (despite this being during the peak of winter!) . Most of us kept swapping bikes amongst ourselves, apart from switching turns at the handlebar. The roads were good from IIM-B to the NICE road intersection. After that it turned pretty bad until Bannerghatta national park, millions of potholes to keep us busy with the handlebar. Once we crossed Bannerghatta park, the roads started curving here and there, more of agricultural fields now as we started to move away from the city. The state highway from Bannerghatta to Anekal was very narrow, just a single lane for both sides of traffic to struggle in. There was some kind of procession in Anekal town, rendering the state highway blocked for almost half a kilometre. Thankfully we could manoeuvre our bikes in between the cars and trucks, used a couple of village crossroads to bypass the procession and rejoined the highway later.

One more group photo on the highway between Anekal and Pearl Valley

Stopping by for another breather on the highway

Switching our bikes as per the agreement ;)

From Anekal to Pearl Valley there is a small signboard around 3-4 kms after Anekal. This deviation through the village roads will take you to Pearl Valley. We took the help of local villagers who were on the road at that time, wherever we faced any confusion in forks / turnings. 3 out of 4 bikes reached Pearl Valley and regrouped at the parking lot. 2 of my friends had missed that deviation and travelled an extra 5 km before they realized their mistake and returned :) The time was 10.15 am when we started the descent to Pearl Valley.

Another view from the pillion rider

Stone steps are laid down all the way till the bottom of the falls, so accessibility is not a problem even for the elderly or those with young children. However, the steps are pretty steep and might need frequent breaks to get your breath back before you can resume. We reached the bottom of the falls and were surprised to find absolutely no water there. The pond was probably just a foot or two in depth. A small stream of water was flowing down from the 20-30 feet high rock formations which protruded from a small hillock, adjacent to the hillock we used, to climb down to the valley. The regular signs of human interference were visible here - used cigarette butts, empty alcohol bottles, biscuit packets, chips packets and all kinds of plastic garbage strewn across the place. The amount of garbage was astounding and staggering, to say the least. I wish there was some authority which could penalize tourists for littering the place :(

Beginning the descent towards Pearl Valley

The 300-odd stone steps to the bottom of the falls make this place easily accessible

The place in itself is very small. The bottom of the falls has pebbles spread across an area of around 3000 sq ft. This area was mostly dry since there was no water in the falls itself. In fact one of my friends remarked that his house overhead tank overflows with a greater pressure of water when the pump is switched on :) I assume we visited this place in the wrong time (in December when rains are almost nil). Perhaps this place would be brimming with water during the monsoon season. The water runs down to the villages in the form of a small stream from that catchment area. There was a small Shiva temple on the other side of the hillock. For people who are really interested in trekking through forests, there is a pathway into Bannerghatta's sanctuary from this spot. We were neither interested in getting lost in the mosquito ridden forest, nor were we compelled to stay in Pearl Valley after finding out it had no water at all. So we quickly made alternate plans to stop by Confident Cascade (for a game of Paintball) on the return route back home. We came back to the parking area, went to the adjacent KSTDC Mayura restaurant (which serves decent food and refreshments) and had cool drinks to quench our thirst. We didn't eat anything since we had already stuffed ourselves till the throat with a heavy breakfast at Adiga's Nalapaka an hour earlier.

The hillock adjacent to Pearl Valley extends all the way to Bannerghatta forest reserve

The narrow stream of water is all that remains in Pearl Valley for now :( Monsoon should be a better time to visit here

Dried up stream with water from Pearl Valley waterfalls

Another group photo, this time at Pearl Valley

All the 7 of us at Pearl Valley

On the return journey, we switched bikes amongst ourselves again. After a short break for tender coconut water on Bannerghatta road, we began searching for Confident Cascade resort. One of our friends had to leave early to meet a visiting relative at home, so the remaining 6 of us proceeded. After hunting around for almost half an hour, asking locals for directions, we finally reached the place at around 12 noon. Another corporate outing was already in progress so we had to await our turns till they came out.

Stopping for Yelneer (tender coconut water) on the way back

Avinash in a jovial mood

For those of you who haven't tried Paintball, it is a game where you are given a gun loaded with 40-50 paint-filled pellets. You form teams amongst yourselves and each team fires paint bullets against members of the other team. There are bunkers and other obstacles to hide behind while you stealthily attack your opponents with effective teamwork. If a paint bullet hits you (you get a paint stain on your dress), you are busted and you have to go back to the starting point of your team ( fixed points in the map for both teams) and restart from there. We were given directions on how to use the guns, how to reload the shells and were briefed about the game rules. The half hour game was fun and I got shot 4-5 times in the process :(

Gearing up for the Paintball game

I hid myself behind a bunker for 15 mins and by the time I came out again, the rest of the opponents had run out of bullets in their guns. I took revenge on them with 20 odd remaining bullets and started firing from close range despite them pleading me to let them go! :)

Paintball game - group photo - 3 on 3

After the game, we went homewards after another drink of tender coconut water. All of us were at home by lunchtime. A sunday well spent, and a nice feeling for us 7 college friends to be able to meet again at the same time (quite rare considering each one has his own busy schedule and work) :)

Cheers,
KK