Champakadhama Temple Trek & Zoo Visit
Yet again I trouble BTC organizers with my last minute decision
to join them :-P Well this time the victim was Anthony to experience my
insanity !! My fault that I thought Friday was the
last day to register for the Champakadhama temple trek. I check my mail Friday noon and I was all shattered to see that
the names of the members are already shortlisted :'(
My last resort was to call Anthony and see if I can join. He was too kind to say yes you are most welcome, (As there were few drop outs)
Well before he did that he asked if I knew the trek plan and he was giving me
the details about it but my mind was only screaming "Dude! First tell me
if I can join, only then ill care to listen to the trip plans" I had to
interrupt him midway and ask him is it yes or no (sorry for that!) and after
getting a yes from him I smiled, anticipating for one more day of BTC
fun.
Saturday morning: I leave home by 6.00, by the time
I reach Banergatta via Majestic it took me solid 2.15hrs.. So I was late by
half an hr. I was just praying that they haven't forgotten me and started the
trek. So just to remind, I call up Anthony and was relieved to know that he was
still at the bus stand taking breakfast parcel for all of us.
I reached Banergatta bus stop and met Anthony there. I was so tempted to ask
him if he's "Anthony Gonsalves", since I was late I didn't risk :)
As a punishment for being late I had to carry parcel with him till the temple
foot hills where everybody were waiting. Five mins of walk and we reached. I
was glad to see my first trek friends - Gautham, Uday, Prakash, Satish, Rithvik
and ofcourse Chaitanya! and more new members to the club. We hadn't even stepped into the Banergatta National Park, we were welcomed by
monkeys and more monkeys of all sizes!
Couple of them paid visit to the temple before we started the trek while others
waited till they were back. After formal round of introduction, we took a route
which was beside the main temple, it started with about 50 steps on the
boulders which led us to the top in a slender spiral fashion. It was our
breakfast spot! It was just 9.30. This trek was different from other treks, for the reasons that, any pre-planned events can get delay to any extent but this was one of its kind wherein
we had reached our first stop an hr before we had planned to (10.00-10.30 was
our breakfast plan) and We had taken breakfast parcel (idly) and not lunch.
The view from this point was a combination of city with beautiful blue church,
tiny houses of the village for short sighted people and greens of all the
shades stretched all around with scattered white clouds for long sighted people
:-P After breakfast we progressed. We followed the mud trails which led us into the
jungles of Banerghatta. As we walked in, the jungle got thicker. We were totally
locked between various bushy shrubs, bamboos and trees on either sides. It was
like literally being between the greens!
It seemed like the Sun was angry with us and it didn't show its face to us at
any point of the day. (Good for we girls that we didn't have to bother about
Sun tan or Sun screens:-P) From being locked we now were released into a wide open space. It had a weird
maze made of stones, and at the middle of it a huge tower like structure. It
reminded me off the maze in Harry Potter! Goblet of Fire. I took off my shoes
and with a feel of being a "Hogwart"ite I went to explore the small
maze. Fortunately it wasn't any kind of "You know who" (Lord
Voldemort)'s trap :-P. I easily could get out of the maze with a smile of victory.
Another interesting sight around there was hundreds of small and big heaps of
arranged stones in different structures. Apparently its a belief that doing
this would bring you good luck and you would own such a house in real life ;-) That's the beauty of Indian culture I believe, we see goodness and God in small
things around us. So now everybody are busy making 1bhk, 2bhk and bungalows! I myself made a
structure which I called it a pent house :-P
After everybody were satisfied constructing their miniature houses we continued
into the jungle. We then reached the Suvarna Mukhi Kalyani. There was a temple
there. Surprisingly it was only us there and no other visitors. The entire trek
was as easy as a nature walk. For hardcore trekkers it must have been a letdown
however for beginners this was a good one to start with. We sat on the steps
and under the peepal tree chatted for some time and then walked further inside
to explore the jungle. We landed on some rocks. This spot was awesome coz we
could get the good view of the Samba dears inside the Banergatta national park
without even paying for the safari (Cost of safari- Rs.500/per head!!) we could
also see the huge boundary walls of the park which tempted us to reach till
there and say hi to other animals! But we had to restrain ourselves from doing
that as we were scared that we may get shot by the security, they taking us for
poachers! It was time for small games. It was similar to tug of war but this was in a
circle. The second game i name it as "Air Lifelifters"! as this trek
wasn't about climbing more elevation, couple of us were given a feel of zero
gravity up in the sky by the members with great zeal!
We then decided to return to the foothill. We were busy chatting and then
almost reached down. I was named lemon grass Deepthy but the irony was I hardly
found any lemon grass plants during this trek :'( (Missed Santosh who would
have helped me to find some)
We reached temple foothills by noon and decided
to tour the National park as we were just a km away. All of us who wanted to go
to the park had a quick meal at one of the fastfood and planned to go to the
park by bikes rather than walking to conserve time so that we spend more time
in the park. Myself and Ganesh were the first one to head, after about five
mins of ride we realised that we have come a long distance, then checked with
few pedestrians about the location of the park. We had taken a wrong road and
had to ride back. So we came back and met the others who were waiting for us.
Reached the park in five mins. We bought tickets for the Zoo and some opted for
Safari. The place looked different from what I had seen last (that was 10 yrs
back!).
I remember then, at the entrance there was a cage sort of thing titled "
World's dangerous animal" which had a mirror, but I didn't find that this
time. The first thing that catches your attention as you walk in is the elegant
white peacocks, truely white equals the beauty of all the colors. One by one we checked all the animals and birds. Parrots,
Alladin's macaws, owls (looked so much like Potter's Hedwig), turtles,
intimidating snakes, leopards ramp walking within the cage, lazy bears sleeping
their way to the glory. I simply run out of adjectives to describe the beauty
of each creature that resided here. Everybody kept peeping into the cage like
lil kids with curiosity! So true that everyone is still a child inside. Monkeys
tried so hard to get limelight jumping here and there but sadly they failed. We also checked out the Wildlife museum. It was almost 5 by
then. The prideful magnificent peacocks raised its long beautifully painted
blue/green tails and waved us bye when we were just above to exit. Our park
tour seemed complete with it! Altogether it was a nice simple day. We then left
the Zoo by capturing nice pictures on our camera and minds!
Thanks BTC organizers and all the members for another nice day :)
Written By : Deepthy Jagadish
Organized By : Anthony George
Date of event : 7th Sept, 2013
Place : Bannerghatta
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