Agumbe Trip: Jain Temple and Sunset at Kundadri Hills

Date: 25th Jan 2015

Visitors: Arun, Shilpi, Harsh and Aarush.

Route: Bangalore - Shimoga - Thirthahalli - Guddekeri - Kundadri.

Road Condition: From the base of the hill to top its 4 kms of narrow road. The road is steep but good.

We started from the home stay at around 4:30 and reached there on top at 5:15. The drive to top of the hill was very good. Some of the turnings were so steep that ertiga had to be driven in 1st gear. 

After reaching the top i saw even Omni, Nano had made it to the top ;).

There is a good parking place. No fee here though Sridhar had told us that someone will collect Rs10 at the gate.

Need to climb 60 steps to reach the Jain temple on top and the sunset point.

A small pond on top of the hill. There are couple more like this but smaller.

View of the Jain temple before sunset.

Another angle.

Reach there early and sit and enjoy the view and the cool breeze.

Isn't it a awesome place to live after retirement? ;)
Big house surrounded with trees on all sides.

Some tree.

Sridhar told us earlier lot of people go to this hill and drink. He said now its controlled much.

When we went there was a good amount of people and mostly family groups. But while coming back we saw few young men gulping alcohol sitting in car. Not sure why someone will want to come to hill top and drink.

View of another beautiful house.


BTW, Sridhar is the owner of Amthi home stay.

A beautiful Sunset at the end. Though it was cloudy it was view for too good.

View of the valley during sunset.

Photography: Peacock in all its glory

A visual treat. Taken in Hotel Tamilnadu Tiruchendur.

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Agumbe Trip: Sakrebyle Elephant camp

Date:  26th Jan 2015:

Visitors: Arun, Shilpi, Harsh and Aarush.

Route: Bangalore - Tumakuru - Arsikere - Shimoga - Sakrebyle.

The camp 14Km after shimoga on the way to agumbe.

Timings: 8:30 AM to 11:30 AM

Fee: Adult - 30Rs

We visited the camp while coming back from Agumbe.

Reached at 11 AM. The feeding of elephants start at around 9 AM, we missed that.

The camp has some 17 elephants. The youngest is the one in above pic, 2 and half months old.

The elephants are trained to garland visitors who wanted.


There is also elephant ride but we did not see it, may be happened before we reached.

I feel the elephants are well fed and maintained properly.

A baby elephant garlanding to Aarush.

Shilpi next.

Then me. I was bit scared ;)

Then Harsh, after explaining him that its baby elephant and will not do anything.

The place was not crowded.

And the main attraction, bathing of elephants.

I really wanted to see this. I thought it might have been over but luckily it was only at 11:30.

All of us enjoyed seeing the elephants playing in water.

Especially the small one making lot of noise and creating fountain :)

The elephants after bath were taken to the forest and with that the activities gets over.

It was a nice visit and all of us enjoyed it.

For me to it was the first time to go that close to this giant mammal.

1 Km from sakrebyle towards shimoga is the Tunga dam.This is also called Gunjur dam.

We visited there to. Visitors are allowed only till a short distance and after that its closed.

Nothing much to see here, just clicked few snaps and started our journey to Bangalore.

Agumbe Trip: Tyavarekoppa Lion and Tiger Safari

Date:  24th Jan 2015

Travelers: Arun, Shilpi, Harsh and Aarush

Route: Bangalore - Tumakuru - Arsikere - Shimoga - Tyavarekoppa

Road Condition: Good. Expect delay in tolls till Tumakuru. There are few dangerous pot holes between Kadur and Tarikere

Timings: 10 AM - 1 PM, 2:15 PM to 5 PM.
Tuesday holiday. The board says holidays no entry into safari, not sure if it meant public holiday.

We reached around 10:30AM, the safari had not started because there were not enough visitors.

We waited for 10 min and few more people came. The safari started at 10:45. 

If you are going on regular weekend you may have to wait for long for enough visitors to fill the van.

There are 10 tigers in the park and like in Bannerghatta park they are in an isolated area.

Every day they let 2 tigers out of the cage and they roam around.

This gives a forest atmosphere in pictures.

The tigers are really huge. Not much of work for these giant beast. 15Kg of mutton fed everyday and finishing it of is the only task they have.


 

The tigers quench their thirst and cool down in these tanks.

Any one can adopt these animals. The forms are giving in the ticket counter.

Its aprox 2 lakh for a tiger per year.

Its difficult to control sleep after a full meal ;)

Look at those paws, huge, one blow and sure we will not survive.

The van goes close to the tiger cage and you can see them very close. The face is so big and so scary. Have never seen tiger at that close range.

Next was the lion section.

There are 3 lions in here. These are in cage and they don't let them out like tigers.

The safari driver said next month the park is getting 4 more lions from Gir and then they will let 2 lions out just like tigers.

Awesome eyes.

There was also a deer section where there are a lot of sambar deer. They too were huge. There are few spotted deer and blackbuck.


Fee: Adult - 30, Children - 10, camera - 50, car parking - 50. This is for the zoo and play area.

The safari fee is collected inside. Adult - 70, Kids - 35.

If you want to see only the safari then take only parking fee at the gate.

There were 10 leopards and a black panther in zoo. For me this was the only interesting thing in zoo so clicked few snaps and continued towards Agumbe.

I guess i got the manual focus correct ;)

This is just like bannerghatta safari but less crowded. Since not much is there to see the driver stops the van for long and let you take pictures till you are satisfied. 

The safari lasted for 30 min.

Kids will sure enjoy this.

Photography: A curious Peacock

Peacock in Masinagudi forest.

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Photography: Colurful Aquarium

Shot in New England Aquarium

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Photography: Blackbuck

Shot in the Jayamangali Blackbuck reserve Karnataka.

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Photography: Deers locking horns

In the forest of Bandipur.

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Photography: Our second leopard sighting

Early morning in the forest of Nagarhole. It's looking at its breakfast. There was a spotted deer on the other side of the road.

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Photography: Indian Roller Flying

Somewhere in the forests of Karnataka. One of my favorite snap.

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Bengaluru@Night: 2. Electronic City Flyover

Electronic City Flyover


Gear:
Body: Nikon D5200
Lens: 18-140mm
Tripod: Benro T-800EX
Mode: Aperture priority
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/11
White Balance: Incandescent
Flash: Off

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Bengaluru@Night: 1. Madiwala Lake

Madiwala Lake in South Bengaluru.

My first attempt in capturing Bengaluru at night.

Gear:
Body: Nikon D5200
Lens: 18-140mm
Tripod: Benro T-800EX
Mode: Aperture priority
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/9
White Balance: Auto
Flash: Off

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Weekend Getaway: 20. Belum Caves and Gandikota: Part 2

After leaving Belum caves we passed though these barren lands and winding roads to reach Gandikota.

We reached Haritha hotel around 5 PM.

We called it a day and decided to just walk around the resort.

Each room has a private terrace from which you can see sunset.

Just too beautiful.

Sun gently kissing the hill top.

The hotel was maintained by APTDC. The was spacious and has a small kids play area, individual cottages, restaurant.

The hotel is not listed on APTDC for online booking.

Call 09848190361 for reservation.

There is no other place nearby. The hotel is less than a Km from the fort. 

The room and bathroom are clean.

Its 1250+Tax for a AC room.

We were sitting in kids area and talking while harsh was busy playing in sand.

We finished dinner and had a very good night sleep.

 Next day we started from room at 7:15 and reached fort. Its 3 min drive. Park the vehicle at fort entrance and explore the places by walk.

 First there was charminar (not so charming minar) ;)

A cool drink shop and the only shop inside the fort. We decided to visit the gorge first and everything else later.

The rocky path will lead you to the Penna Gorge.

This is the main attraction of Gandikota.

My parents were able to climb till a certain point. After that it was bit difficult for old people.

View of Grand canyon of India ;)

 Panoramic view of the gorge.

The walls protecting the fort along the river.

Wondering how they built it and how long it took.

Shilpi and Harsh on top enjoying the view of the beautiful landscape and river.

Shilpi climbing back after going to the edge of the hill top.

Photo time ;)

Harsh saying something to his grandparents.

Its rocks everywhere.

Penna river flowing below.

Ranganathaswamy temple. This is next to the gorge. The temple has beautifully carved stone pillars. 

The temple is not worshiped currently. There is no statue at the garbagraha.

View of Madhavaraya temple tower from ranganathaswamy temple.

Granary. There are plenty of parrots and squirrel on this. May be they are still thinking animal feed is still stored here.

Jama Masjid

The path to Madhavraya temple is not so clean.
The hen, goat and cows defecated in the middle and humans on the sides :(

Iconic tower of Gandikota. The temple was closed and we just took a walk around the temple.

Two parrots having private time ;)

Sorry for intruding into your privacy :)

The walls protecting the fort and the village inside.

A Jail.

That ends one of our memorable trip.