Ranganatittu and Kanva Dam

A Quick trip with lot of incidents and a few of my first “Bird in Flight” shots.

Left home at 6.30 with one bar in the fuel indicator and 450 rupees in the wallet. Thought of withdrawing some cash from SBI ATM, entered three different wrong PINs and successfully blocked the card. My only other card had Rs 200 Balance. Thought that we can fill fuel with the Credit Card and continued the journey. Stopped at Mysore road BP and asked him to fill diesel worth Rs 200 and started again. After Bidadi, I was driving at ~80 Kmph and a stone few like a bullet from tyres of car in front and chipped my front windshield. Wow!!! What a start.

Next stop was BP Petrol Bunk with Kamath Upchar in Chennapatna. Had a breakfast and went to fill the fuel. Before telling ‘Full Tank’ asked the attendant “Anna, card tagoLthira?” and he promptly replied “Card Illa saar!!!!!!! “. Low fuel warning was on! Asked him to fill for another 250 Rs and continued. Checked with wife, total cash we have now is 200 Rs + Some change + 200 Rs in my other account.

Saw and ATM, thought of withdrawing the last 200 Rs from the other bank account and pulled over. Entered the ATM, withdrew 200 Rs, feeling all time low collected the slip and walked out. While walking back towards the car, gave a casual look to the slip. Voila!!! It said, available balance is 1257 Rs instead of expected 57 Rs. Life is all blooming flowers again, could feel the beautiful fragrances. Walked back to the teller, took out Rs 1200 and drove straight to Ranganatittu,

Reached Ranganatittu at 10.30 AM. Entry Fees for car + 2 adults + camera was Rs 105. Went in, roamed around the sanctuary and hired an independent boat. One can opt for boat ride in two ways, 30 Rs per head in a large boat or 250 Rs for a small boat. We opted for a small boat. He took us for a beautiful boat ride of around 30 minutes and showed the birds available in the season. Some of them were open bill stork, painted stork, white ibis, night heron and some other birds. We also saw two baby crocodiles.

It was 1 PM when we left the sanctuary. We started driving back to Bangalore. En route we had lunch in Adiga’s after Maddur. Tasty and simple vegetarian lunch. After Adiga’s, when we were approaching Ramanagar, we saw a board on our left side indicating “Kanva Dam – 8 Kms”. Without thinking twice took that road and reached Kanva Dam in 20 minutes. There was nothing to see except a medium sized dam, which was almost empty. The place was very deserted.

It was a nonstop drive back from there and we reached Whitefield at 5.30 PM.

Route: Bangalore -> Ramnagar-> Mandya -> Srirangapattana -> Ranganatittu

Photos :
 

Ranganatittu and Somanathapura

It’s been a long time since our 'Thomson' group went for a trip. We had been to Ranganatittu ( a bird sanctuary near Mysore) and Somanathapura Temple ( an old temple built by Hoysalas) two weeks ago (24th Nov 07). It is one day trip. We started from St. Marks Road at 7 AM, after waiting 30 mins for Maheshwar. Had nice breakfast at Kamath Lokruchi. It took nearly 2.5 hours to reach Ranganatittu. (One has to take a right turn towards Hunsur, 3~5 kms after Srirangapattana). Its was off season and we could see only 5/6 varieties of birds.

Two type of boat rides are offered here 1) Public (need to wait till boat gets full and 15 mins, 25 Rs per head) 2) Private (30 mins - 250 Rs). We opted for second and shared the cost with another group of two. The gurd who took us for the boad ride was very helpful and he showed us all birds in their natural habitat and helped us in photographing the birds. We had Lunch in the Canteen there, which was not bad.

We spent nearly 3 hours there and started towards Somanathapura. This is an old temple built by Hoysalas. Architecture is similar to Belur and Halebidu. One good thing is that this temple is not destroyed. Most of the sculptures are intact. Its took an hour and a half to reach Somanathapura. Spent an hour there clicking the photos.
Reached Bangalore by 7 PM .

Team: Myself, Chetan and Maheshwar
Date: 24 - November -2007
Route:
Ranganatittu: Bangalore -> Ramanagara -> Mandya -> Srirangapattana -> (3~5 Kms) Road towards Hunsur on the right side -> (500 mts) Ranganatittu Sanctuary.

Somanathapura : Ranganatittu -> Srirangapattana -> Srinivasa Agrahara (After 1~2 kms from Srirangapattana, need to take a right turn immediately after a bridge. Ask locals) -> Karighatta -> Banoor (Roads are BAD) -> Somanathapura (Very BAD roads)

Expense: 600 per head.

PHOTOS:
Link to Ranganatittu photos.
Link to Somanathapura photos.