Parasailing - 18th April 2010

Socrates said - "Man must rise above the Earth, to the top of the atmosphere and beyond, for only thus will he fully understand the world in which he lives."

To fly like a bird has been mankind's dream for centuries. I was browsing through upcoming weekend activities of Bangalore Mountaineering club and I stumbled upon this para sailing event. I felt this was probably the closest I could get to realizing the dream.

I couldn't get any friends to sign up for this, not sure for what reason ??? So, I decided to do this alone and registered for it.

On the day of the event, I drove to Hoskote lake, going past maddening traffic of M.G.Road and K.R.Puram. Hoskote lake is one huge piece of empty land and there was nothing for as far as my eyes could see. Its basically a dried up lake and it is so huge that I actually got lost in the lake.


The day wasn't really great for para sailing with the winds not at their best. But, the flight itself was a very enjoyable, although very short (2-3 minutes). It definitely felt it was worth every paisa of the Rs 300 that it cost me.



On my way back, I saw a herd of sheep grazing in the lake. Among the herd was a mother and child pair that was literally inseparable.



Some tips

1. The event happens almost every weekend during the dry seasons.
2. There are multiple organizations that conduct para sailing here. BMC is one and you can register online for the event with them.
3. Don't forget to take lots of water to drink since you might have to wait for a while for your turn to fly and there's not much that you can buy nearby.
   

Bannerghatta - 24th April 2010

It was a lazy Saturday morning, Chetan calls up and says "Lets head to Kemmangundi". I was just recovering from a bad cold and had heard a friend's bad experience at Kemmangundi a couple of weeks back - scorching sun, no water in water falls etc. and didn't find myself up for a all weekend outing that point.

I suggested we do something closer to the city. We thought of catching a play at Rangashankara, but didn't find any interesting ones showing that day. We then thought of revisiting Bannerghatta national park. Word spread quickly and soon enough (around 12:00 noon), Chetan, Sridhar, Ashwin and I were off in my Maruti 800 driving on Bannerghatta road. We stopped at Atithi restaurant for a quick byte and Chetan and Sridhar stuffed themselves with a full fledged Andhra meal while Ashwin treated himself to milkshake and ice cream. I decided to respect my "not fully fit yet" tag and starved.



We reached the park around 2:30PM and quickly got tickets for the Safari (Rs 160 per head inclusive of park entrance). We got onto one of the Safari queues. We left Sridhar to secure our place in the queue while we sneaked out to get pictures of a white peacock that was tirelessly posing for photo shoots. Returning to the queue, we spent the next 15 mins people watching :-)


Sridhar was at his entertaining best all through the Safari. After endless spotting of deer, wild cows, and bears, we finally reached the much awaited sections of the Safari - lion and tiger. The lions were resting and in no mood to move. The tigers were impressive, two white tigers and one yellow were actively patrolling the place.



After the Safari, we spent a couple of hours walking around the park and headed back. The journey was extremely pleasant, thanks to a steady drizzle. We stopped for hot Masala puri at our road side adda near National college fly-over in Basavangudi.


Some tips

1. Don't pick a Tuesday. The park is closed on Tuesdays.
2. Try to do the Safari before you walk around in the park, or you might be dead tired when you get to the Safari.