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Saturday, March 21, 2015

Birding Trail - Ramakrishna Mission Ashram campus, Shivanahalli, Bangalore (25th March 2015)

Ever since I developed a fascination for bird watching, I have been thinking of adding the bird watching direction to my travel photo blog. Last weekend, I was on a bird watching trail with the BngBirds group. The trail was at the Ramakrishna Mission Ashram campus at Shivanahalli, near Bannerghatta National Park, Bangalore and I was fortunate to get my first sighting of the Asian Paradise Fly Catcher. That re-ignited the thought of blogging about these little bird watching outings. So, here's a bunch of shots of the stars of the day.

Also spotted a Tickell's blue

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Bhivpuri Falls - A Sahyadri adventure 27th July 2014

I have been shuttling between Bangalore and Mumbai often in the last couple of years. But, this was the first time I was in Mumbai during the peak monsoons and I was determined to explore some of the hills around Mumbai and Pune. I had been looking at options for a potential destination when an opportunity came along in the form of a hike organized by our community.

The destination was Bhivpuri waterfalls in Karjat and the group was big. I did not know what to expect, a leisurely picnic to a waterfall or an adventurous hike. The destination was about a couple of hours drive from the heart of Mumbai. We were a group of 100 and traveled in 3 buses. We had breakfast on the way and carried packed lunch to serve as fuel for the hike. We had a bit of a confusion on the route and had gone a bit further along the Mumbai-Pune highway before getting back on track.

We reached the base of the hike around 10 AM and started walking towards the falls as a group. It was about a half hour walk to the main waterfalls. The walk took us through paddy fields and we were accompanied by a steady drizzle all along which added a magical color to the surroundings.

The main waterfall was at its thundering best and everyone enjoyed getting water blasts at the waterfall.

The noisy crowd at the falls was a slight dampener. So, some of us more decided to hike to the top of the hills in search of more serene and tranquil surroundings. The hike to the top was adventurous to say the least and the views of the waterfall from the top were amazing.

Time flew very fast and it was soon time to head back. We started back to Mumbai at 4PM. A day well spent. All in all, it had turned out to be both a enjoyable picnic to a waterfall and an adventure filled short hike. Given that it is easily reachable from Mumbai, I would highly recommend it, but I would suggest choosing a weekday to avoid the crowd.

Monday, January 6, 2014

Mugilu - Beyond the clouds

It had been a long time since we had made a weekend trip. This time we wanted to pick a place where we could drive to, in about 4-5 hours. So, Sakleshpur was an obvious candidate. After researching a bit, the two places that stood out in Sakeshpur.

First was Kadumane. While every place in Sakleshpur talked of coffee estates, this one was about a heritage tea estate dating back to British times. This was ruled out since it was closed for maintenance this weekend.

The second was Mugilu, a plantation stay run by a couple - Chandan and Sapna. This one stood out by the sheer quality of reviews that it had received from guests.

Mugilu has just 4 cottages. So, it was unlikely that we get a place there given that I was calling as late as Friday for a booking on Saturday. With fingers crossed, I called up Chandan. Luckily for us, they had one cottage free and and we booked it right away :-)

We started from Bangalore at 7 AM on Saturday and reached Mugilu by 11:30 AM and were welcomed by Chandan and his pets, Shunti, about which a lot has been written in blogs and Keechu.

Mugilu does full justice to being a "homestay", be it the cottage, the people, the conversations or the food.

As we took our first walk in the plantation, a series funny looking spider webs caught our attention . These were very different from any spider webs we had ever seen. Each web was like a thick pipe with a huge spider within. We learnt from Chandan that these were funnel spiders.

Funnel Spiders

We had lunch in the common dining area which also doubles up as a mini library, rested for a few hours and went for a walk just in time for sunset.

Sunset at Mugilu

Smoke caught in the valley looking like clouds

The next morning, we started the day early around 6:30 - 7 AM and went for a longish walk accompanied, rather guided by Shunti. We had the company of Girish and Sushmita, who we had met the previous day.

Walking into the clouds at Mugilu

For a small walk with our guide

The huge meadows around Mugilu were gleaming like pearls in the early morning Sun rays.

Early morning Sun

Walking into wilderness

Paddy fields after a harvest

After the walk, we had a delicious breakfast, had some more conversations with Chandan and headed back to Bangalore. This time of the year is probably not the best time to enjoy the beauty of this place, but this visit has let us get a taste of this place, let us venture into places we might not be able to reach during monsoons and of course left us wanting to come back for more - a longer visit to this place, probably around the post monsoon season.

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Bhoga Nandeeshwara Temple - 01 June 2013

We had seen and heard references to a 1300 year old temple in the Nandi village near Nandi Hills. But, in spite having made innumerable trips to Nandi hills, we had never got around to exploring this. This time however, we were determined to make it to the Bhoga Nandeeshwara temple .

The weekend trip to Nandi hills was set up nicely with the monsoons hitting Bangalore with heavy rains on Friday. So, when we started from Bangalore on Saturday at 7:30 AM , it was pleasant all along the way. We reached the hills by 9 AM and were welcomed by chilly winds. This time again, like the last time, we were pleasantly surprised by some new additions to the place. The new additions were a number of new view points (See picture below).

We spent a couple of hours inhaling the fresh air, paid a visit to the temple atop the hill and then headed down and got on our way to the Bhoga Nandeeshwara temple. The temple is about 7-8 km from the base of Nandi hills. When you start back from the base of the hills towards Bangalore, at Karahalli, instead of turning right (for Bangalore), continue straight for a few kilometers to reach the temple.

The temple complex was much bigger than we had expected, with large, well maintained lawns on both sides of the walk way.

There were a few huge stone wheels at the entrance, possibly part of a chariot in the past!

The section right after you enter is the main temple area with the sanctum. The main temple deity is Shiva Parvati and Nandi (Shiva's mount or Vahana)

Apart from the main gods, the temple houses a idol of Ganapati, in a unique form, Ugra Ganapati.

There was also a window with an interesting design which looked like creating a silhouette of Nataraja

To the right of the main temple, there is a structure similar to a Kalyana Mantapa (marriage hall).

Further right, is the temple lake (Kalyani), a huge structure with the hills in the background.

We heard that, thrice in a year, 1,00,000 lamps are lit in the temple. Our next visit would be on one of those days :)

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Top 5 things you must do on your visit to Hampi

The iconic stone chariot

1. Rent a motor bike and go around Hampi
If you can ride a motor bike, I would say this is the best option to go around the town and is definitely recommended. You get full flexibility of how much time to spend at each site. Also, the best time of day to roam around Hampi is early in the day (8AM - 11AM) and late in the afternoon (3PM - 6:30PM) since the temperatures shoot up around noon. Having a bike lets you adjust your schedule based on the weather.

Bike rents vary from Rs 150 to 300 based on the type of bike plus the cost of fuel @ Rs90 per litre. Make sure you get a fairly new bike.

2. Stay on the other side of the river
The town on the other side of the river (Virupapura Gaddi) has a lot of resort like stay options with some of them offering cottages facing paddy fields and the river. We stayed at one such place - Mowgli and we totally enjoyed the experience. This is probably one of the better ones among the lot.

There is one drawback of staying on the other side of the river. The boat facility to cross the river is only till 6 in the evening. So, you need to get back by then. If you are on a 3 day trip, you could plan staying one day here to relax and shift base to the other side for the other days.

Cottage at Mowgli

3. Trek to the top of Anjanadri hill around sunset
Anjanadri hill, near Hampi is another sunset retreat. The place is closer if you are staying on the other side of the river and the visit can be combined with visits to Pampa Sarovar and Durga temple.

The trek to Anjanadri hill involves climbing 500 - 600 steps and the best time for this is around early evening. The climb unfolds some breathtaking views of surrounding landscape.

View while trekking up to Anjanadri hills

4. Enjoy sunset from the royal enclosure, especially on top of Mahanavami Dibba
The best time to visit the royal enclosure is around early evening. You can reach there around 3PM, visit the surrounding monuments like Lotus Mahal, elephant stables, queens bath etc. and be at the Mahanavami Dibba around 5:30 PM. We were there around 6 and witnessed some of the magic.

Sunset at Mahanavami Dibba

5. Eat at the "Mango Tree"
This is probably the best place in Hampi to head for a lunch or dinner after a long day of site seeing. The place has a unique ambiance with most of the tables being open air and facing the river. The food is awesome with choice of cuisine ranging from Indian to Mediterranean There is, however a catch. The place is a 10 minute walk from the town center near the boat point. So, it is not very convenient if you don't have private transport. That is what makes point 1 even more important.