Horsley Hills - A drive in tranquility

Wikipedia says ‘Horsley Hills, elevation 1,265 m, is a famous summer hill resort in Andhra Pradesh, about 160 km from Bangalore, India’. History goes back to 1840-43 during which a British officer W.D.Horsley chose this place to be his summer holiday destination and the place supposedly was named after him.
The drive to Horsley hills offered quite a different reality. Our trip was made in a Ford Figo Exi fully crammed with food, clothing and an Ego laptop that had the directions for us. Thanks to Tata photon that picked up network even in some of the remote villages of AP. A little bit of reviews from team-BHP helped truly.
At 6AM, on a Saturday we were ready with our bags with the notion of blindly following the route that Google maps had in store for us, that took us via Hoskote (after KR puram) to NH 4, then the entire length of Kolar on NH 4 till Nangali after crossing KA border. Then a left to hit NH 219, follow the road to Madanapalle and thence a diversion on the left to reach Horsley hills.
We managed to do 80-100kmph constantly on the NH and the best part of the connecting roads was that there was hardly any civilization found except for a very remote village or two in say, 25kms.
The estimated driving distance was 160km, while we ended up doing 190. Blame it on politics, as the ex-CM of AP was visiting Madanapalle at around the same time. We missed noticing a sign board, which was royally hidden behind the billboard (his portrait), that indicated the diversion to Horsley hills, that which charged us an additional 30+km. We discovered this whole obscurity while driving back only when we got to notice the rear side of this sign board.

Nevertheless, the additional drive gave us another stretch of beautiful scenery with a lot of fields and some forests and mountains on both the sides and a million other stunning things of nature which I really needn’t strike down, most importantly no human lives. The roads throughout the drive were smooth and neatly tarred. The drive from the mountain base till the hilltop is 9km with 6 hairpin bends, that are not so dangerous, covered on both the sides by dense forests at some segments and a lot of Eucalyptus trees grown on the slopes. We reached at 11AM with a couple of stopovers.

Once you reach the hilltop, AP tourism’s picturesque resort awaits you with variety of cottages, lawns and parks surrounded by giant mountains, foggy valleys, plains, forests with a lot of peace and solitude. Into the resort, there is a big banyan tree that marks a history. The whole land area of the hill station would be covered within approximately 1km radius. There is only one restaurant that serves quality food, and beverages. There are a few chai-walahs and shops that sell the most basic stuff required.

We enjoyed the striking sunset, sitting on the plains that slopes down to the charming valleys. The plan was to stay put that day and start driving back the next noon. We picked the cottage that had the best view out to the heaps and the one enclosed by good number of trees. They had some basic adventure activities that come for nominal rates. With a complimentary breakfast and a long chit chat under the banyan tree, we packed up our baggage at 11.30AM and started to leave.

The drive back was through the SH99, a left from Madanapalle and 100km straight down the single lane highway towards NH9, with a couple of villages alongside and villagers selling lot of fruits and veggies here and there. We stopped several times and piled up a lot of them into the already loaded car. Back in Bengaluru at 4.30PM and this time only 160km.

Pros:
- Best for a weekend drive, actual driving time - ~3hrs.
- Leisure holiday - Lot of nature, peace and solitude.
- Good weather. Ideal time to visit: Nov-Jan
Cons:
- Expect nothing beyond nature and yourself.
- Not ideal for family outings.