A Birdy Weekend

Highways empty for a good part . . . your partner by your side . . . a sumptuous breakfast at Kamat Lokaruchi . . . sights of the Kaveri gushing by  . . . and some eye popping sights of exotic birds and crocodiles . . . . .that pretty much sums up an excellent weekend road trip for us!

Good Morning!

When the idea is to do a leisure road trip, the “leisure” sentiment makes it tough to even get out of bed on a Saturday morning! Well 7:30 am and after a lot of alarm snoozing, we finally were ready to press on the gas! Leaving home at around 8:30, we soon were heading towards Mysore Road. This time we decided to take the Banerghatta road route.  The tarring of connection between the BMIC corridor and Bangerghatta road has been completed. This is a pretty good option to reach the Mysore Road. Except for some clogging near Gottigere, traffic was a breeze. Once we hit BMIC corridor, things moved pretty fast.  We cut through the traffic on Mysore Road pretty fast, and by 9:30 we were at Kamat Lokaruchi with our stomachs eagerly grumbling for the delicious breakfast buffet!

After downing generous helpings of Chow-Chow Baath, Vadas, idlis, Bisi-bele baath and shots of strong filter kaapi, we were ready to hit the road! First stop – Kokare Belur . . .

Kokare Belur

When we started out from Kamat, the distance to Kokare Belur was put around 22 kms. But we ended up doing much more than that and spent more than 2 hrs before we found the Kokare’s (pelicans)!

Firstly, the sign to Kokare Belur is pretty inconspicuous! And the sign is written only in Kannada.  If you dont already know, you are bound to miss it. So much for a heritage site! The turn to Kokare Belur comes on your left (when you are headed towards Mysore) around 2 kms (approx) before the Maddur Junction (this is the junction where one road take you to BR hills, one to Mysore etc). As  I said, the sign is pretty small so you need to watch out. Another thing you could do is to watch out for this sign after around 10 – 12 kms on your trip-meter from Kamat Lokaruchi. Once you take this turn, there’s another 12 kms to the village. As we passed through the village, there were pretty nice views of paddy fields -

A canal runs through the heart of the fields

We drove down through the village … 12 kms … 13 kms ….15 kms…no sign of signs to a sanctuary….and we were looking for one! Somehow we thought there had to be a sanctuary here too . . . When we asked people about the pelicans, the best we got in terms of info was “pakshis” … people did not really know or were oblivious to the existence of the pelicans.

As we retraced our path, we finally struck gold … and were really surprised with what we saw … the pelicans were freely flying around and they inhabited quite a few trees in one part the village . . .

Pelicans on a tree . . . lots of 'em

We parked our car and walked around generally watching the pelicans flying from one tree to another  . . . some had created nests on the trees …. few had brought back food home . . .

and were sitting down for lunch

We spent some 20 -25 mins in this place taking pictures and then decided to hit the road again for the next destination – Srirangapatna, capital town of Tipu Sultan.

Srirangapatna

Getting to Srirangapatna again is very easy. One straight road on SH – 17, and you basically pass through the town. Turn left at a sign which lists of the places to see in Srirangapatna. In this direction, you can get to Gosai Ghat on the banks of Cauvery, Sangam – where Cauvery’’s meets back – and few monuments built in the Tipu Sultan era – his summer place and Gol Gumbaz – place where his remains are buried.

The first place we stopped here was the Gosai Ghat. It is a small ghat on the banks of the Cauvery. Very neat, only few people (at least when we went), and the water current was also very friendly. Everyone out there was beating the heat taking a dip into the cool fresh water.

Me and Sham at Gosai Ghat

We chilled here for about half an hour and then proceeded towards Sangam.  There was nothing new really there, again the Cauvery, but the “switch off” was the number of people out there..it was too crowded. So we called it quits there immediately and decided to pay a visit to the Gol Gumbaz.

Tipu Sultan's Gol Gumbaz

Its a nice place with big garden, lots of trees and the monument where Tipu Sultan is buried. We generally took a walk around the place, clicking a few pictures.  A small piece of trivia which I recently came to know of – Tipu Sultan is the only Indian king whose photo hangs in NASA! and the link is apparently rockets; Tipu being the first king to use them in battles.

We stayed there till 3:30 pm and decided that it was time now to hit the highlight destination of the day – Ranganathitu Bird Sanctuary!

Ranganathitu Bird Sanctuary (RBS)

This is what the trip was planned for! RBS is about 6 kms down from Srirangapatna. Watch our for signs….there is a right turn which you need to take off the highway. You pass through road thickly thicketed on both sides.

The sanctuary is itsef pretty beautiful and well kept; neatly manicured lawns, colorful flowers, and you  see the birds flying in the skies above.

There are two ways to see the birds – one is to walk around and use the aerial view stands available and the other is to take the boat ride. If you want to get close to the birds, boat ride it is. For about 25 bucks a person, we get a group boat ride of half an hour. The ride takes you on one full circuit around the (small) islands inhabited by the birds.

A full view of Cauvery where birds co-habit with crocs

Hmm . . . so let see – there were birds from North America, Siberia, Italy, China, India (ofcourse) …there were birds called Open Bill Stork, Painted Bill Storks, Kingfisher . . .

A family of Painted Bill Storks, I guess

And then there were some birds which posed for us very nicely . . .

Open Bill Stork - A Natraj Pose

For more pictures from this road trip, please visit me here flickr

The only uncomfortable part of the boat ride is that you got to do it,  along with crocodiles swimming in the waters. We got a view of some of them lazing on the swampy banks (of course on the other side of the human habitation!). But as per out guide/boatman, these are “friendly” crocs and they don’t attack humans! Ya right! wait till they taste one .

After finishing off the boat ride, we generally walked around the sanctuary, tried out the aerial views, and clicked lots of picture.

Sayonara!

We finally called it quits around 5:30 pm and hit the road back home. We did the 130 odd kms in about 2.5 hours and hit home around 8 pm, bringing to an end an awesome enjoyable day.

An ideal weekend getaway and enough to do to keep you busy! We are already planning a trip back to Gosai Ghat, and this time we will be armed with towels, change of clothes, and sleeping mats:)