PAYANIGA

Last journey of year 2007 & my first visit to Nandi hills. Travel plan to Nandi was decided on the previous day at 9.30 PM. And our plan was to reach the top by 6-6.15 to catch glimpse of Sunrise. But we were late in starting reached Nandi only at 7.45. End result along with Sunrise, we missed the misty moring.

Bird’s eye view

Leaves & clear blue sky
As soon as we got down, all four of us split and roamed around aimlessly for almost an hour before regrouping for breakfast. After filling our stomach it was time for us to explore the place – Yoganandeeshwara temple, Tippu drop, Nellikayi basavanna & then a quick nap at the view point ;)

Another view from top

FlowerI missed the mist covered mountain top. May be I’ll go there to catch them.

How to reach:

There are different routes to reach Nandi hills – via Doddaballapur & Devanahalli. Suggest you to go via Devanahalli as the road conditions are better.

Similar One Day Outings from Bangalore:

• Devarayana durga
• Achalu betta
• Gopalaswamy betta
• Kambadahalli
• Manchanabele

The story dates back to Aug 2006, when I came across some nice photos of this small hillock Achalu betta (or Achchalu) on DKM’s blog. Collected information from DKM on how to reach the place & four of us started in a car. It was nice drive on the country-side & we took our own time to reach the place. We had a small pit-stop en-route near a village where SJ got busy shooting birds. Rest of us had a nice time talking to the village kids who were helping their parents in the farm. And then we packed breakfast at Kanakapura & proceeded towards Achalu.

Achalu is a small sleepy village just 15 KMs after Kanakapura. Just as we enter the village, there is a small pond; but there was no water when we were there. TO reach the foot of the hill one need to cross the village along a narrow lane. When we asked an elderly villager for directions, he called a small kid to show us the way. Two of his friends joined him and they were our guides for the whole day.

We parked the car at the foot of the hill. Finished our breakfast & started the climb. To reach the peak it takes around 1.5 to 2 hours. Achalu betta is a rocky hill covered mostly of shrubs. There is a Muneshwara temple & a Nandi statue at the top & hilltop offers a panoramic view of the landscape. On the way up, we stopped many times for taking snaps & spent an hour at the top listening to the stories told by our little guides about the village & festival that happens every year at the top.

Getting down was easier & took less time. Bid adieu to the three musketeers & in less than 2 hours time we were back stuck in a traffic jam in Bangalore.

Instead of trekking at Kumara Parvata on a winter Saturday morning, we were driving down towards Mysore for a lazy weekend get-away. Our initial plan was to go on a trek to KP and 8 of my colleagues were ready when it was announced. That was a week before the execution day. Come Friday, headcount came down to 2 – me and Shashank. As both of us had a weekend to spare, we were eying to visit lakes of Mysore* and photo-shoot the birds. Raghavendra Ananthanarayana (RA) came out with a suggestion of driving down his car. Thus began our lazy weekend.

We took our own time to reach Mysore, with a breakfast stop near Maddur. We killed time watching TV and overturning few magazines at RA’s place. Headed towards Lingabudhi lake by 3PM after lunch. A park is being maintained around the lake by forest department & we had wait for an hour out side as entry is only after 4.30PM. Straight we headed towards the other end of the lake in search of birds.

We weren’t disappointed at Lingambudhi lake. There were plenty of birds – Pelicans, Stilts, Swallows, Sandpipers. We spent a good 2 hours, witnessed a beautiful sunset and returned. Hit bed early after a sumptuous dinner as we planned for visiting Ranganatittu bird sanctuary early in the morning next day.

We got up early and were at Ranganatittu bird sanctuary by 6.30AM, but we were too early again for the second time. Sanctuary opens only at 8.30. As we had 2 hours time we went to Nimishamba temple in Srirangapatna and returned by 8.30. We hired a boat for 20 minutes. Ranganatittu is a real heaven during Jan-Mar duration. Where ever you turn, you can see plenty of flying friends. Since these birds are used to tourists and know there is no danger for them, one can go as near as 5-10 meters. It was a real treat to watch them – Painted storks, Asian open bills, Spoonbills, Night herons, River terns, Egrets etc.

After having breakfast at the sanctuary restaurant, we headed back to Mysore. After a quick visit to Jaganmohan palace museum (No photos as cameras are not allowed), we started our journey back towards Bangalore. Just as we reached Maddur, Shashank suggested a quick visit to Kokkare Bellur. Just after Maddur, we took a deviation and a bumpy travel for 12 KMs took us to Kokkare Bellur. The season had just started, again there were plethora of Painted storks & Pelicans. All of them reaching home as Sun was getting ready to retire for the day. A short roam-around, and then back to the car. Stopped for coffee at Channapatna and reached home by 8PM after a wonderful drive on Mysore road.

So that was the date with those flying friends.

* Shruthi has some nice photos of lakes of Mysore – here & here

We got up a little bit late on Sunday. Got ready and headed towards Meppadi. Our first destination – Chembra peak, which is the highest peak in Wayanad, at 2100m above sea level. Trekking to the top takes 3-5 hours depending on the trekker. We took 4 hours to reach the top, including an hours break for photo-shoot & resting.

Initial 25% of the trek is very steep. And we have to walk through the bushes. Luckily we were there just 2 weeks after the rainy seasons & were spared by leeches. We stopped at half way mark, the Heart shaped lake & spent more than half an hour. It was a very clear sky, with scaattered clouds here & there. Chembra was giving us chance to enjoy the view from up above.

We put on our backpacks and headed towards the top. the fonal stretch of about 20-25% is also bit steep. And we reached the summit around 1PM. We stayed there for almost an hour – Shashank got busy clicking & I took a short nap :D. View from the top was awesome. It was almost 2PM and we were hungry as we had a light breakfast in the morning and few bread slices while trekking.

Descent was very quick we took less than 2 hours to come down. We had a late lunch @ Meppadi and headed towards Soochippara falls. In this place, one has to walk down for a kilometer to reach the falls. Though we were tired, we went down to the falls. Sat there in silence watching the water flowing down. It was a refreshing thing to do, just sit and watch.

From there, returned to our base-camp, Shashi’s place. Packed our luggage, bid Shashi & his family adieu. Caught an overnight Kerala transport bus to Bangalore.

Still there are plenty of places which we didn’t visit like Kuruva dweep, Pakshi patalam, Meenmutty falls. But with a good experienced driver Sathish, we were able to visit lot of places in three days. He knows Wayanad region like back of his hand, he took us through lot of short-cuts which saved us a lot of traveling time. If you happen to visit Wayanad in future & plan to hire a jeep, then let me know Sathish is the best person for that. I can give you his contact details.

Kerala, I’ll be back soon. thats for sure :)