Horsley Hills - From Chennai to Horsley hills by road

Horsley hills are a range of mountains on the eastern ghats which offers a cool climate for
tourists to hang out for a day or two. I felt it is more or less similar to the Yelagiri hills in Tamil Nadu.
Horsley Hills is named after a British officer named W.D. Horsley, the Collector of Cuddapah
district. He visited this place around 1840-43 and was impressed by the beauty of the hills
and chose this spot for his summer residence. Now the Governor of Andha pradesh uses this
house as a summer residence and hence this house is called the Governors bungalow.
How to get there:
From Chennai/Bangalore/Tirupathi, you have to go past Madanapalle. From Madanapalle it is 26
kms to Horsley. The best route from Chennai to Horsley is:
Chennai - Kanchipuram Bypass - Walajah - Ranipet - Serkadu - Chittoor - Palamaner -
Punganuru -Madanapalle - Horsley

The distance from Chennai to Chittoor is 210kms and from Chittoor, Horsley is 65 kms away.
So the distance between Chennai and Horsley is around 275 kms. By road it will take you
around 4 hrs in bike with all the pitsops included. If you are going by car or even better with an SUV, it might take you just 3-3.5 hrs.

Route :
From chennai you have to take the NH4 (Chennai - Bangalore highway) and leave the highway at
Walajah in order to go towards Chittoor.
My experience:
I drove to Horsley from Chennai to Horsley by bike(Royal Enfield Thunderbird) and it
was a very nice drive. The road till Walajah is a NH and it is a four lane with a divider
also. So no complaints on that. But after walajah you dont have a divider though it is
equally a NH, but the quality and smoothness of the road is equally good. I suggest the
drivers should be a bit careful while overtaking as it is jus a two lane without a divider.

Activities to do at Horsley:
It's a place to chill out especially if you are there after a very hectic week. It's not the kind of place where you get a list of things to see just like anyother place. If you are with friends, i suggest you should have a drink first and then roam around in the parks, have a chit-chat etc.

However, there are quite a few adventure activities organised by the AP government and they incude Rapelling, Trekking and Zorbing and ofcourse if you are with a bike,then ejouy your drive throught the hair-pin bends there.

You should also visit the Yenugu Mallamma temple which is built after little girl named Mallamma who was taken care of by elephants. She used to heal the tribal people on the hills. When she disappeared suddenly, people thought that she was a goddess and built a temple for her. Befor these hills were called Horsley, they were actually referred to as Yenugu Mallamma konda.

Things you get on top of the hills:
AP tourism has provided cottages and restaurants for travellers who wish to stay there. There is also a Bar
on top of the hills, so you may not worry of bringing liquor from below.

Video of Our Ride