Krishnagiri Dam

It was a quite weekend without a long to-do list.. So Saturday evening I suggested the idea of going on a short outing on Sunday morning and Anurag accepted.. The idea was a half a day kind of trip. So Lepakshi was shot down and we decided on Krishnagiri.. Even when we were going to bed there were no plans made, no decision on whether Amma and Pappu were coming and I was not sure whether it will happen.

Tried waking up everybody around 6am and found nobody was really interested. And decided to read a book instead of trying to force everybody on a trip. After sometime, Anurag got up to go, Pappu decided not to come and Amma said she will join, more out of pity for me than wanting to go on a trip. Only person who was enthusiastic seemed to be little Govind.

We took the Varthur-Sarjapur-Begur-Hosur-Krishnagiri route. After Krishnagiri, asked for directions to the dam. You have to go under the flyover that comes after the Kaveripattanam flyover and take a right. The dam is 2 kms from the right turn. This is a well maintained road through a village and on both sides you can see lots of hay stacks. We were explaining that this is hay to Govind. Next time he sees a hay stack he might recognise this as hay but I doubt if he will recognise a single hay strand as hay.

From the gate to the dam, there are two roads. One on the right takes you to the top. But the gate to the bridge above the dam is locked and hence you cannot walk in there.. We spend sometime around observing the flora and fauna there. Amma was trying to figure out how many plants among the "dasapushpams" can be found here. After spending some time here, we went back on the route to the left. Straight on this road, you just reach the walls of the dam. We could find some people trying to catch some fish from the water coming through the gates. Otherwise, there was not much water on this side of the dam.

There is another left turn before you reach the dam walls and that will take you to the huge park adjacent to the dam. This is a really big park and there are steps to go to the top of the dam from here. The sun was really bright and we were looking for shades to sit. This is a really good place where you can easily spend half a day on a cooler day. With a large group, there is enough place to play games and for kids to run around. But the park definitely can look better with a little more care from the authorities. And no food or water is available nearby. So be sure to carry enough to spend time there.

Another issue I noticed is there is no proper drive in restaurant on the left side when you come back from Krishnagiri to Bangalore while there are at least three while going from Bangalore towards Krishnagiri.

Epilogue:

We saw a group of goats on our way. This was his response when we pointed this to Govind.

"Oh! arent there any "kids" in the group of goats?"

From Govind's books, I have recently learned the a young goat is called "Kid".

"No.. There arent any."

"May be these goats are not married. When we find a group of married goats,we can see kids with them."

Ranganathittu & Mysore Zoo

After lots of discussions for a destination for a one day trip from Bangalore, we decided to visit Ranganathittu and Balamuri falls on a Saturday, 9th of January. We(me, Anurag, Govind, Amma and Pappu) started off at 6am from home and after an eventless journey we reached Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary 8:45.

The first thing that one notices about this place is cleanliness. I had not expected a tourist place to be so clean. We soon hired a boat for ourselves and went around the lake. The sight was amazing. There are so many varieties of birds so freely flying around making it a treat for the eyes.The guide was telling us the names of all the birds spotted there. We really felt the lack of a good camera here. Our little point'n shoot digican couldnt get us any good pictures of the birds here. After the boating we spent some time in the garden there and had breakfast at the canteen there.

After Ranganathittu, we changed our plans and decided to go to the Mysore zoo and then go to Balamuri falls after that if time permits. After lots of enquiries about the route, we reached the zoo. Govind enjoyed the zoo more than the bird sanctuary. He was happy to see all the animals that he reads in stories and has only seen in pictures. Though we were all really tired, he was all excited. But even after seeing giraffes and deers in the zoo, he still confuses between the two in pictures. He is not able to relate to the difference between giraffes and deers to this day.

Towards the end of the zoo, Amma noticed that her watch is missing. We thought she would have lost it in the zoo and talked to the security there to let us know if somebody finds it there. After coming home and analysing the photos, we figured that she had lost it in the boat at Ranganathittu. But we tried calling them up to see if they have found it but they said they didnt get it.

By the time we finshed the zoo, we were all tired and it was past 2 o' clock. So we decided to skip Balamuri falls. We had lunch at a restaurant in Mysore and then drove back to Bangalore.Anyway, it was a nice and memorable trip. There were many talks of making more trips like this but nothing much has happened yet.

I have photo similar to the one below from my childhood.. In that I had taken my brother in my arms and was helping him feed the girafees at Trivandrum zoo. Here, 20 years later, my brother is showing my son giraffes.