Monday 31 October 2011

The First weekend in the Tech City.....

06/05/2011


It was the first weekend in the tech city (Bangalore or Bengaluru). The first week of work in the company was amazing. Every day we (me and avinash sharma who was there with me in doing this internship programme) had lunch with the team in the company canteen. It was an amazing experience which i cannot describe. Playing Basketball and solving the rubix cube was my pass time in the company. A guy named Anoop who worked in my team always gave me his rubix cube for solving. In the first week, while having lunch I used to ask the people in the team for places of trek, so that I can go on for the trek, which is always my favourite pass time. I was introduced to the XMECian in the team who was working in the company for the past 6 months. And then from him I came to know about rest group as well. We had only two malayalees in the team. One was the XMECian (Vishnu Prasad) from Calicut and other one was a guy called as Sajeer from Kottarakkara who was an active trekker. He (Sajeer) told me about a place called as Honnermardu near Jog Falls and said about its beauty. He also added that the place was used by the IAS trainees for their BHARAT TOUR.


For the initial week we (my family -me, my bro, mom, dad) planned a visit to Mysore not to pay homage to Mysore Maharaja but to visit my grandmother's sister-in-law who lives in the outskirts of Mysore. We thought of visiting her, as it was her birthday which came in that weekend and the same time we thought of paying visit to a close by National Park - Nagarahole (South India's Largest National park). 

The route to Mysore from the Tech City was through SH 17 one of the major state highways in Golden Quadrilateral. It was a 4-lane highway. Saying the highway being a 4 lane one would mean that the route would be really quick but, the fact is that people there do not follow lane traffic. They drive as if like there is 6lanes or maybe 8 lanes. In the highway there were areas where there are a lot of speed breakers. Imagine speed breakers in Highway. ‘Incredible India for sure!!!’

The distance from Bangalore to Mysore is like around 130kms. But due to congestion factor it takes around 4hrs to reach the destination. We took the NICE (Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise) road which was really a nice road. Road is apt in its name. But not so apt if the cost was concerned, it was nearly Rs 50 for driving a distance of 25kms.


NICE Road


We left Bangalore at 5:30 pm and reached Mysore by night 9:30 pm. In between we took a small break near Ramanagara where there was an amazing drive-in veg restaurant - “Kamath Lokarucchi”. Food was far better than the ones in Local Highway Dhabas. We had our evening snack at about 6:30 pm. Kamath is well known for it’s ‘idly’ which is steamed in coconut leaves it shows a great resemblance to the Kerala dish ‘Puttu’ (Steam Cake).  

KAMAT Lokaruchi – a drive-in highway restaurant

Though I didnt take snap of the steam cake here is a pic of the idly which is there in kamat. Idly is steamed in cocunut leaves just like in the photo.



Outside Kamat

07/05/2011

Next Day we got up at 6 am decided to go to the Nagarahole National Park.  It was about 80kms from Mysore. Route was like we have to take the Mysore-Madekeri Road (SH 88) and drive till Hunsur and then take another state highway which was SH 86(Hunsur – Kattikulam Road). ‘Kattikulam’ the name sounds familiar; it was a place in wayanad which was close to Thirunelly temple. We knew that we have to pay a visit to this destined place at some point of time which may be not in this trip.


 





Mysore-Madekeri Highway..



Drive till Hunsur in the Madekeri highway was like a heavenly feeling. Even though the road was 4lane, it had speed breakers in between. This state highway becomes completely 2lane when it reaches near to Hunsur. 


After reaching Hunsur we took a left turn to the SH86 (Hunsur-Kattikulam highway).


Left deviation in Hunsur bye-pass


Mysore-Madekeri road 



 Another major road which connects the two states Kerala and Karnataka. From that moment onwards it was like we were heading to national park where there were no human inhabitants but only wildlife. The road became narrower when we reached close to the National Park. We took some stops before reaching the national park. We witnessed some amazing sites on those stops. It was very hard to believe that there was state highway passing through this amazing route. Although, there was very rare buses which, pass through this route.







Hunsur- Kattikulam Highway


my dad,mom and bro..


Most of the national parks in India are named after the leaders of India except for Corbett national park. Here, in Nagarahole it is named as ‘Rajiv Gandhi National Park’. We reached the Gateway at about 8 am. We decided to go to the safari point all the way. On the way we witnessed a lot of deers, elephants, etc. It was like a mini safari. The national park has an area of 650 sq kms. The national park is considered to be one of the main reserves which, is certified to be a TIGER CORE area. Timing is 6am - 6pm (in-out).


Hunsur -Kattikulam highway through nagarahole national park.















Royal Stag....






Another royal stag...





Here is a video of the route in Nagarahole:



Deers in National Park: 




Stag:






Wild Elephant:



 Wild Boar:


We reached the safari point at about 10:30 am. 





Black Macaque in Nagarahole



Deers in Safari Point










An interesting caption which was placed at the safari point..




Safari route











They (forest officials) said the next safari trip was about 4 pm from now. So we thought spending time somewhere else. When we enquired about the places of visit, the forest officials told us that there was a waterfall close to the Kerala border which was the ‘Irpu falls’. So decided to leave the safari point and thought exploring areas other than the safari point.



Heading to Irpu falls....



 Irpu falls was like 20-30kms from Nagarahole. While going to Irpu Falls we thought of taking a stop at Kutta where had our breakfast at 11 am. From Kutta it was like 10-15kms to the falls. Before going to Irpu falls we checked the fuel status it was like quarter tank. We enquired for petrol pump stations. For our amazement most of the people said that there is petrol fuel pump in Kattikulam which is like 25kms from Kutta. They even gave us another option of ‘Black fuel’ which is like selling petrol fuel in Black (meaning Black-marketing). They said 1ltr Black fuel is like Rs 80 whereas fuel cost in Kattikulam is like Rs65 per litre. So we decided to go to Kattikulam after returning from Irpu falls. We left Kutta at 11:30 am.













Irpu falls come under the great Brahmagiri Hills. Irpu Falls wasn’t big deal of waterfalls as everyone says it to be. It was a small and decent waterfalls, not so much of water rush. Water flow was less as it was the end of summer. We took bath in the falls.
The water was mesmerising, it seemed heavenly when compared to the salty hard water which we have in the ‘Tech City’.








Irpu Falls...




Sky sight at Irpu falls



Honey combs at Irpu Falls...







 We had our lunch in a home-made restaurant near the falls. We left Irpu falls at about 1:30 pm and headed towards Kutta and then to Kattikulam. Route to Kattikulam was amazing.
No words to describe!!

Tholpetty Reserve lies in between Kattikulam and Kutta. Tholpetty reserve was an extension of Nagarahole national park. After seeing road I was amazed of the fact that such an excellent road existed in Kerala. We reached Kattikulam at 3pm. Fuelled the car as well as ourselves. There was nearby tea shop where we had tea and evening snack as Pazhampori (banana fry). It was getting late; time was 3:45 pm already. The last safari is at 5pm. We were needed to reach Nagarahole safari point within 5pm. And it was nearly 25kms from Kattikulam. 25kms in 1hr and that too in a Ghat road was very risky. But still we somehow managed to reach the Safari point within 4:45pm. We took tickets for the Safari from the Forest officials.
In the safari ride, we witnessed about 20-30 deers wandering over a plateau. And also witnessed a group of elephants drinking water from the lake. It was barely visible from our safari truck. Truck which was allotted us was very noisy, and probably any animal which was close by would surely run away from the route the sound of the truck.


Here are some snaps of the safari:

































Wild boar

















Peacock (Our national Bird...)








Sambhar deer in Nagarahole National Park....


Safari was not worth at all compared to sightings which we had when we were driving through the National Park. It was only saddening part which we had on this trip. It was not at all cost worth. Safari was over by 5:45 pm. It was getting dark. We need to drive again around 30-35kms to exit the national park. Night driving in the national park is risky. So we have to be careful of animal sightings.






Deer crossing the road at night :







We drove for about 1 hr and finally reached the exit gate and guards started checking the car for any animal marks. We left the gateway by 7:00pm. We decided to head back to Mysore and visit Chamundi Hills the next day and, also to greet our grandma with warm happy birthday wishes. We reached Mysore by 9:30pm.



08/05/2011


Next day we left to Chamundi Hills. We left to Chamundi at 9:30 am. We reached the top of hill at 10 am. It was very hot. Summer heat was striking on to us. The rush in the temple was very high as it was a ‘Sankarajayanthi’.



In chamundi hills


View from Chamundi Hills




We left the temple at 12 pm.


We had lunch plans with our grandma sister-in-law who was celebrating her 82nd birthday. We had our lunch in her house. And we had Palpayasam as a birthday treat to all of us. We left Mysore at 2pm.

On the way back we took some snaps of Tippu's palace and also the famous St.Philomena's Cathedral :





Tippu's Palace....


St Philomena's Cathedral..




Again we had a stop at ‘Kamat’ for the evening plan. 
We reached Bangalore at night 7pm.
The trip was excellent...


The ‘venture continues.....................