Lion Safari+Gajanoor Dam+BRP+Jog+Sigandoor+Kollur+Shringeri+Horanadu+Kalasa+Shimoga Local 8th October 2008 to 12th Oct 2008.

To break the monotonus working atmosphere, decided to make a trip to gateway of Malenadu “The Shimvamoga” with my life time buddies Putti, Guru, and my sweet heart Savitha and my papa. On the 8^th Day of October 2008, Myself, Savitha, Papa, and Putti left Bengaloru to Shivamoga.  Guru reached us by train.

9^th October 2008

We reached Guru’s house by 6.30, got refreshed.  By that time hired maruthi van arrived, we packed in to the vehicle and headed towards the lion safari on the way to Gajanur dam. 

The safari was a good outing, the lush green, the dense forest, the endangered Lion, Tiger was a visual treat for us. 

Gajanur Dam was extremely lively.  We remembered Annvara hadu “Endendu Ninnanu marethu from Eradu Kanasu and many more of his movies were shot here.
The haranakere, famous for life size statues of the lord shiva, Subramanya, Ganesha, Parvathi, and Shiva’s subjects in Kailasa was a viewers delight.  Our manasu saluted the master craftsman Kashinath from Shivamoga.

The Bhadravathi River Project was amazing, water water water everywhere.  We played with water for sometime, then headed towards Shivamoga the sun was signing off from his duty for the day.

Our visit to Kote Anjaneya temple in Kote brought down memories of my childhood spent in the vicinity of the temple. 

Ramanna shresti’s park was a very good.  The giant statue of the lord Ganesh welcomed us.  Again the master craftsman Kashinath’s hand did a magic.

10^th October 2008

We left Shivamoga in a Maruthi Van by 6.00 Hrs in the morning.  Guru mom joined our gang.  Our first stop was Sridhara Ashrama in Varadahalli.  The Ashrama, the Dwajastamba were a great piece of peace.  My ears were echoing “Hindustanavu endu mareyada” song from Amrutha Galige which was picturised in this location.

The second stop was the majestic Jog falls.  Even though it lost its majesty due to less rainfalls during that time, but it is, and the deep valley, and gorge point will sends chill the down the spine through the year. We happened to stand on the gorge point to assume ourselves as a hero from the kannada blockbuster “Mungaru Male”.

We hoped in to the Launge in the backwaters of the river Sharavathi to take us to the Sigandoor Chowdeshwari temple.  The cruise on the backwater was really breathtaking with the scenic beauty around.  Then we ran in to Kollur in the latenight, and halted.

11^th October 2008

Next day, we had Mookambika Darshan and headed towards Shringeri.  The goddess Sharadamba was a any devotee’s delight.  The vidyashankara devasthana was a architecture wonder. On the way to Kalasa we found a nice waterfalls, played around, and then headed towards Kalasa and then to Horanadu.

We had dinner there and returned to Shivamoga late in the night.

12^th October 2008.

Since we had booked the seats to Bengaloru late in the night, we were forced to spend the whole day wandering in Shivamoga.  So we hopped in to Shivappanayakana Aramane.  It was a very old palace of Nayaka’s.  The museum was equally impressive.

This was my sojourn to my childhood days.  Memories brought down like a thunder from the rainy sky.  Many thanks to Putti, Guru for providing me the necessary back support for the trip, eventually after this  trip  our friendship faded in to the smokes, but the snap shots, which proves to be, breathing moments of my life.

Belgaum+Amboli+Jamboti 28th – 30th Aug 2009

Contact of Rohit – The man with a magic wand when camera in his hands.

Am a hardcore follower of Rohit’s photography, surprisingly received a well planned trip to Belgaum on our company’s mailer list.  High on enthusiasm to travel, accepted to join a bunch of 8 unknown people for the life.  But it proved to be opening the flood gates of trips and treks in Rohit’s company.

27^th August 2009

The team consisted of Rohit, Harish, Gururaj, Satya, Naveen, Subhojit, Sangram, Yeshwant and myself. We started from Dhanvantri Road near Majestic Bus stand in a Temp Traveller at 23.00 Hrs.

28^th August 2009

Travelled overnight, reached Belgaum by 9 O’ clock in the morning.  We started very well, by taking blessings of the Lord Ganesh in a make shift temple in a public place.

Then headed towards Hidkal Dam.  It was ocean of water al-round.  Then our visit to Godachinamalki water falls was really a breathtaking one.  With water al-round, it reminded us to Ksheerasagara in vaikunta- the abode of the lord Vishnu.   The words will not describe the water splendor in the form of falls, even though water was not falling from a great height, still it was a picturesque place around. Took bath there, played with water close to an hour, then headed towards Gokak falls.

The Gokak falls seems to be a damp squib with no water in the falls, it brought enough tears in our eyes.  It reminded us, how cruel the mankind is, who is simply on a machine to destroy the mother nature.  The hanging  bridge across the water falls was simply awesome.  Almost a century old bridge, which is mainly built for the people, who are working for the Gokak mills, to cross the water falls, still in its glory.  The walk on the hanging bridge in the windy afternoon was really awesome.  We just imagined how it will be when the water falls will be in its glory during the monsoon times.

Our temp traveler turned towards Belgaum, stayed back in a hotel, played poker – a playing card game launched and taught by Rohit till 2 o clock in the night.

29^th August 2009

Woke up by 7.00 in the morning, decided to take a Bus to Amboli in Maharastra, as the permit for tempo traveler was found to be around Rs.2500/-

There we hired a Maruthi Van on payment of Rs. 800/- if my memory is correct to take us around in Amboli.  Our first point was a temple on a rainy ghat “Hiranya Keshi Kund”. It was a good temple, but the path leading to the temple was maintained extremely well.

 

Then we headed towards Kavaleshad point – The star place of our trip.  The scenic beauty, playing “I spy you”,  to give a glimpse of what it was storing on a misty weather.  As The sun god showing little mercy, we could able to see the spectacular valley with “n” number of waterfalls around.  We ended up loosing the count every time, coz, whenever we start counting, either rain gods completely covered the valley or sun gods were at the mercy of chilling misty winds.  I lost at my words to describe the breathtaking valley, only some my snaps can provide a glimpse of what I was trying to tell.

Then the driver took us to one more magnificent place, The Amboli Ghat.  The falls in the ghat was at its glorious splendor inviting us to enter its house of water covered with mist.  We couldn’t resist the temptation, entered in to the water climbing the neatly constructed water flowing steps, which lead us to the basement of the waterfalls.  The chilled bath was a memorable one. The drive down to the Bus stand in Amboli was even more scenic.  Our camera didn’t disappoint us; it heeded our words, and swallowed all the scenic locations in its memory card to keep a memento through our life.  

30^th August 2009.

The drive to Jamboti forest was really amazing one.  Our driver had a tough time driving through the moist, slippery, winding, muddy path.  Finally he had to bow his heads down, as the Tempo traveler refused to go further. We started trekking on a treacherous route to reach the Mandovi river, then a local jeep driver gave a lift till the jamboti village which was a good 2-3kms away from our last stop of tempo traveler.  Then we hired a localite to take us through the Jamboti forest to reach the Vajrapoha waterfalls.  But eventually we couldn’t make it to the falls, as the river was in full flow, to reach the waterfalls, we were suppose to cross the river, then cut through the dense forest, which was next to impossible.  We were forced to satisfy with the glimpses of the Mandovi river and the Jamboti forest.  With a half hearted we headed towards Belgaum and then to Bengaloru. 

Bike on to Gopalaswamy Betta+Nanjanagoodu+Chamundi Betta+Nimishamba – 10th & 11th Oct 2009.

A casual talk in the cab proved to be a turning point for the biking trip.  The photos in Gopalswamy Betta travelogues in the net ignited the passions of all six of us to ride on a bike even though the distance proved to be a lengthy one, our enthusiasm provided the required energy level to go on for this trip. 

Vinay, Sandeep, Ravi, Tribhuvan, Chethan and myself formed the bike gang.

As per our plan, we assembled near the Shell petrol bunk opposite to BHEL in the mysore road at 6.30 Hrs in the morning. 

It was chilled, misty cold morning, cold winds swept us on our bike.  The kengeri falls which is dreaded for its smell, proved to be mesmerising view point.  Please look at the snap below.

On our way, took enough breaks to give necessary rest to our body and gadi.  We decided to take a breakfast in Kamat restaurant on the way to Nanjanagoodu.  The breakfast served was really a mouth watering.  The Tender coconuts on the way were really provided a soothing effect on our energy sapping ride.

The stretch till Gundlupet was really a good one, then treacherous stretch started, the next 10-15 Kms took our energy nicely, till we hit the village Angala. Then we took the deviation as per the sign board by KSTDC.

After that turn the route was like a heaven, the nature was at its best, the view till the top of the hillock was awesome.  On the way we had n number of photo sessions.  The ride up the ghats were really amazing, at more than one points, our two wheeler refused to obey our orders, nevertheless it carried us without giving much trouble.

The archaka in the temple clearly explained the significance of the temple and also the name HIMAVAD GOPALSWAMY.  We started trekking behind the temple, we crossed one mound, and took a lunch break.

Started going down to the second mound, and reached the zenith, by the time it was already 17.00 hrs, we decided not to ride in the dark to Bangalore, instead stay back either in Nanjanagoodu or Mysore.  While on the way to Nanjanagoodu a small shower welcomed us with a Rainbow with faint colours.  We reached the Srikanteshwara temple around 20.00 hrs, after the Darshan, enquired about the rooms, but was not available, so headed towards Mysore. 

We found out a room with reasonable comfort, and price. 

We decided to visit Chamundi betta  the next day then to Bangalore.  Since it was a Sunday, the crowd was like a ocean, we stood in the common que, it took us almost 3 hours to have a glimpse of the goddess.   Then came to down to visit the Nandi, there sugar cane juice wala offered a wonderful service, we drank as much as we could, then started towards Nimishamba temple.

Myself, Sandeep, Ravi and Chethan left Vinay and Tribhuvan back, as they skipped us to visit Mysore palace.  By the time the duo rejoined us, we were in the middle of the muddle in the river.  We spent a good time in the river, and then took the darshan of the goddess .

It was around 16.30 when we started our journey back to Bangalore.  Took snacks near Mandya, then zoomed past  to Bangalore. 

This trip was like a hitting bulls eye at our first go.

Even though the trip extended to the next day, no one complained either, but enjoyed to the maximum.

Melukote+Shravanabelagola on bike – 6th December 2009

The team included me, Sandeep, Ravi, Vinay, Chethan, Tribhuvan. Our assembly point was near Shell petrol bank opposite to BHEL in mysore Road at 6.30 in the morning.  It was cold, misty morning.  The wind was blowing nicely.  Our first stop point was our regular Hanuman Temple near Bidadi. 

All the three bike riders were caution personified, they were on the average speed of 50KMPH.  We decided to take break near Kamat – Lokaruchi.  The guys were impressed with our seat findings, as there were many butterflies around J. 

After the breakfast, slowly but surely started towards our next target a right deviation just before Mandya. 

The route to Melukote was good enough, the smell of jiggery invited us.  On the way Tribhuvan stepped in to shoes of a villager cycle.  He had a pretty good photo session. 

The temple in Melukote was interesting.  After the darshan, we headed towards my favorite “Raya Gopura”.  Whenever I used to watch Annavara hadu from Chalisuva Modagalu, the passion of visiting this place ignited forever.   This place was a haunting shooting spot for many  Rajani kanth’s film, not to forget Shankarnag’s way ahead movie “Janma Janmada Anubandha” and many more.

It was a fabulous piece of work by the architects, even thought it was incomplete stage, still it arouse enough interest in me. 

During lunch session, we knew that Shravanabelagola was just about 30kms from Melukote.  We decided to visit that place as well, even though it was in not our list when we left Bengaloru.

The stretch between Melukote to Shravanabelagola was a good enough.  We reached Shravanabelagola by 16.00 in the evening.  We climbed the hillock which was about 500 plus steps.  It was taxing for us, but the climb was worth  enough, when we saw the giant monolith statue in the world. 

A brief photo session promised us to take more, but since the lights were fading and we had to take path of the deadly Hassan road, which was dug up in each and every corner for road widening.

The ride in the pitch dark Hassan Bangalore road via Kunigal was bit scary, but we managed to reach Nelamangala junction by 23.00Hrs.  Then  safely reached our house by 1.00 in the midnight.

1.       Highlight of this biking were, Raya Gopura.

2.       Riding on a highway in the pitch dark

Antara Gange Night Trek – 9th Sep 09

After a wonderful  scenic trip to Belgaum, craving for more from Rohit, couldn’t resist call for a moon light trek.

The team was big enough to accommodate 24 members, literally I was clueless who is who in the gang, except few names myself, Rohit, Gururaj, and Shwetha. 

I joined Rohit’s barmy army at RNZ millennium adjacent to Ulsoor Lake by 22.00 Hrs. We started in the direction towards Kolar on a moon lit night track.  The ride about 70 plus Kms was a first of its kind for me during the night. Earlier I had ventured in to Tumkur, Mysore, Shivamoga on a bike, but all were during the day time, but it was a thrilling experience for me. 

We reached Antaragange in Kolar around 2.00 Hrs in the morning, but government officials didn’t allowed us to trek in the night to the peak, instead they asked us to come back to the point by 5 0’clock in the morning.  To kill the time, we rode back about 14kms to reach Coffee day.  After a small introduction with the gang, somehow managed to turn the clock 4.30 Hrs to the morning.  Again reached the point of our trek, and started going upwards to reach the hillock.  We were there on the top by 6 O’clock.  Our waiting stated for the principal of our mother earth, The Sun god. 

Our waiting was in vain, as his security in chief “The Clouds” safegauarded him nicely.  We waited till 7 o’clock to catch a glimpse of him, and we were succeeded. 

We came down around 8 O’clock, had refreshment in Kamat restaurant on the way Bangalore.

It was a good time to spend on a hillock in a moonlight night, even though we were disappointed for not able to witness sunrise, but I enjoyed the ride down to Kolar on a cool breezy night.

Ramadevara Betta + Mukthi Naga Devasthana on bike – 25th April 2010.

The month of April 2010 seems to be an trip & trekking month.  This is my  4^th stint on my bike.  Again I stepped on my favorite humsafar with my Jeevan sathi  to Ramanagara, a small hamlet on Bangalore Mysore highway, which became a global brand after the magnum opus, my all-time favorite  “SHOLAY”. 

Reached the base of the hill by 12.00 Hrs.  It was a scorching noon, My Jeevan sathi refused to climb the never ending steps to the hillock.  But somehow I persuaded her to reach to the top by regularly inspiring her taking nice snaps on the way. 

The Ramadevara betta was not a new for me, as in our college days there was no hill in the vicinity of the ramanagara which escaped our attention.  As my soul mate from early school days stays there, we use to hop to ramanagaram at our will.

It was a good biking to Ramadevara betta which stands testimony to many films climax shooting excluding Sholay, in which the whole film was shot in that location.

After sharing the snaps, my biking gang from the previous treks scolded me left and right for not informing them about this biking.