Weekend drives around Bangalore for SUV's - Episode 2 (Benguluru - Mettur Dam - Benguluru)

This is one of the blog posts I always wanted to write so that I help the fellow SUV owners to explore the trails and places where the SUV’s can go, have fun and also enjoy the beautiful countryside of India. I like off-roading a lot and very often I used to look for places where we can do some off-roading which is not tough or extreme as done by many experienced off-roaders in these customised vehicles like Mahindra Thar or other Jeeps but that a different class. There are many SUV owners those want to go for drives in and around the city and want to do some off-roading as well but don’t want to risk damaging their SUV’s by doing the extreme off-roading and this is where it prompted me to explore the places where we can easily go in SUV’s, have fun doing some light off-roading and also explore beautiful places in around our cities. I’ve started this series of blog posts where I will be posting trails that are doable in any reasonable SUV with good ground clearance and specially those who have a 4x4 SUV’s like New Mahindra Thar, XUV 500, XUV 700, Ford Endeavour, Toyota Fortuner, Tata harrier, Jeep Compass etc. etc...

Please note I’m only going to narrate my experiences of These places and trails I’ve done and in no means I’m encouraging anyone to do these if you are not comfortable. Please do not attempt any trails that you’re not comfortable doing and safe yourself from damages to your cars or to yourself!

So, today I‘ll be narrating our drive to one dam sites near Bangalore in Tamil Nadu - called Mettur Reservoir or Dam

The drive circuit we took was from Kanakapura road to MM Hills and then towards Mettur reservoir and ame back via Krishnagiri - Hosure Road - Bangalore. It was an impressive drive circuit and quite scenic as well specially after Kanakapura. We went through a lot of country side, villages and scenic beautiful places. The drive took total of 8-10 hours Home to Home and we stopped a lot for photography, food breaks etc. If you have an SUV and want to enjoy a bit of off-roading near Bangalore for a day outing, this is a good circuit. Instead of going to tourist designated places, look for some off-road trails near the place and enjoy them - there are a plenty of them. You can get in touch with me for the map file if you want to do what we did. I've narrated all the details in this blog but still if you need any guidance, feel free to reach out.

The beautiful scenic place we went to, Mettur reservoir (TN)

The gang for the drive today!

The place we went. Its called as Mettur Dam but we didn't wanted to go to the tourist spot and just wanted to do some off-road trails near the reservoir so we ventured into the places nearby the dam. We took the Kanakapura - MM Hills - Mettur route while going and came back via Krishnagiri side to Bangalore. The drive was very very scenic with awesome views and off-roading trails near the dam and as well as en-route. While going it took us around 3 Hrs and while coming back around 4 hrs as we took many stops. Read further and enjoy the drive!

On the way we stopped for a Breakfast break on Kanakapura Road. This place is awesome and serves some really good Devanagere Bene Dosa's. We really like this now and often stop here for our breakfast. They serve dosa's made of Bene - Wheat dosa's and make them using the woodfire and that gives a good smoky flavour to the dosa's. Their Cutneys are also awesome! If you're heading out for a drive on Kanakapura road, this is a must try place.

Thatte Idli with Chilly chutney and Sambhar!

Ganne ka ras :) Sugarcane Juice!

Amla's - good for health! Superfood!

Entrance for the temple at MM Hills. This was looking like a very famous temple and there was a lot of crowd as usual on these places. We just passed though the place and paid around 50 Rs as entrance fee!

The temple!

We met these folks on the temple en-route to our destination. This male guy was the priest and was very nice person. We got down, visited the temple and took God and his blessings. We was expecting some money from us but was hesitating asking along with the ladies but we paid him some money and they were all happy.

Hope and Curiosity!

One of the Temples en-route!

Picture time :)

Blessings! Blessings! Blessings!

The stairs from the temple to the foothills of MM Hills!

The view of the temple!

The views from the temple of the valley. It was an awesome view!

Forest entrance

We were a little hungry by this time so we stopped at this small shop serving some local snacks like Vadas and she was making them fresh and hot. We savoured these and filled our tummies. And I must say that they were really delicious!

Vada's with a smile :)

Awesome view of the reservoir!

Enjoy the video of the reservoir..

We saw many people taking the motor boat to cross the reservoir to the other end. It looked like a local taxi service with awesome views of the reservoir!

Awesome view of the reservoir!

Our beast posing for a shot!

Coracle ride. This guy was after us to take a ride and we thought it would be good fun to take a ride so we did that and indeed it was good other than the hot weather. He gave us good spin at the end .. which was great fun!

Coracle ride!

Selfie time!

Awesome views of the reservoir!

Photo-shooooooot!

We were a bit hungry again and we had brought some bread and salad to have just in case we get hungry. This thing helped us satisfy our hunger :)

Vegetable sandwitches!

Coffee time!!

The off-road trail near the reservoir. If you want to do some off-roading, this was a great trail just near the water. We enjoyed this drive!

Photo-shooooooot!

Photo-shooooooot at the waters!

Local restaurant .. or shack selling fried fresh fish caught from the waters :)

Lovely Countryside!

The Island at the reservoir!

Chilly shopping :)

One of the temples en-route!

Lovely countryside!

Our gang!

Photu-shoot!

One of the off-roading trails you can experience at the waters! We were getting a bit late so we just enjoyed few moments and then went back.

Picture perfect background!

Phooootu shoooooot!

The circuit we did! Feel free to drop me a message if you need the Map file of this place and the circuit we did.

Some stats of the drive we did.

You can get the details of this via WikiLoc website or download the app for free on your smartphone. You can browse the trails directly and also record and share your trails as well. I use this app for all the drives we do and it serves really well.

Hope you'll enjoy the drive and do share if you happen to visit this place! You can easily do this on an SUV and if you have a 4x4 SUV, then its a piece of cake. It has all the scenic drive elements and you'll love the place for sure. Just avoid going in peak summers and carry your own food if you want to have a good time!

Enjoy maadi :)