Worth a Drive

Traffic, smoke, noise; all these are the characteristics of any city; but Namma Bengaluru surely shows it all in abundance. Any weekend will beckon for a peaceful get-away; but the finances/time constraints will not support every other weekend. So this time we decided to explore the vicinity of Bengaluru, a reservoir called Kanava dam. A cool highway towards Mysore has a lot to offer; but this reservoir being least visited by the people, keeps it noiseless and green; rightly called the unlikely paradise!

Kanava dam is about 65km from Bengaluru; so our plan was to start at about 11:00hrs and stay till we could witness the sunset. After picking up the last man, iJag, we were cruising towards nature's treasury of silence. We stopped at Kamat Lok Ruchi at around 1PM, about 3km after Ramanagaram; to relish the very delicious "jolada rotti". A mere 2km from here is a deviation to the right that leads to the Kanava dam. The journey gets rough; but the last 8km drive cuts through a few lovely villages, mango and coconut groves; making it a memorable drive.

A glimpse of green pasture, herds of sheep and cows grazing at the grass, welcomed us to the peaceful and isolated Kanava Reservoir. There were couple of cars visitng; but only to depart soon, leaving us with the entire reservoir. We spent most of the time shooting pictures, lazing around, spotting birds and listening to the music of silence. It definitely delivered no nonsense; but clean peace.

We started the return drive at about 18:00hrs. We visited the Irrigation Department’s Inspection Bunglow to get contact information for stay; but failed to get any. But this bunglow is surely a cool place to stay given that one gets the booking done at their office in Channapatna. We did a pit stop again at the Kamat Lok Ruchi for snacks and coffee. We then cruised back to reach homes before 20:30hrs. Yes, we were back in the concrete jungle only to have spent less than a day's time in a NO nonsense Kanava dam. Surely worth a drive!

The squad: Vinay, Jagadeesh (iJag), Megha and Myself.

More pictures at http://picasaweb.google.co.in/thyagaraj.annaswamy/KanavaReservoir
Also visit http://www.deccanherald.com/Archives/jan292004/metro16.asp

Serenity down under the Arabian sea

Scribbling over the brain, easily noticeable question was "what's next?" with the inbound Easter holidays. Sunbathing at Goa beaches, flavored with adventure like trekking to Dudhsagar & scuba diving at Grande island were the immediate thoughts! But with most of the Goa doors closed around the time, exploring scuba diving at the Netrani island was THE thing to do! Thankfully BMC guys had vacancies & 6 of us squeezed into their adventure plan.

Leaving behind the office slavery early Thursday evening, few of us were waiting over a meal of Chopsuey at the Green Onions restaurant. The bus arrived around 23:00hrs at Symphony theater, planned schedule being 21:45hrs. This was just the beginning of a jinxed plan and went all along the trip; thankfully over shadowed by the Arabian Sea blue waters in an aura of ingenious simplicity.

The rain showered Murdeshwar's dusk (yes, it took us a few hours short of a day to travel 495km!) invited us to take refuge at a swimming pool for an immediate scuba training session. The session turned out to be fun & informative; only then to realize that scuba diving is a serious affair! The instructors' lessons included equipment usage, useful underwater signals, underwater breathing techniques & a lot more. Closing the day at almost 21:30hrs, we drove 16km to Bhatkal for the dinner & stay.

"Knock, knock! we are getting late!!" - these words woke us up at 06:00hrs & the rest is the usual. A bunch of folks had already departed to get their scuba gyan session which they could not complete the previous evening due to the time factor. As we stepped out of the lame bus & walked towards the world's tallest idol of Lord Shiva, with the roaring sea to the west, the towering hills to the east & the coconut groves nearby; we could witness an amazing atmosphere. Also the frequent spotting of dolphins surfacing over a bright blue sea and serene skies left a lovely scenic-postcard in the memory.

We were aboard couple of motor boats at the Murdeshwar beach with all the equipment & we were cruising through the Arabian sea to Netrani island, 18km off the Murdeshwar shore. It was a sight to watch the changing colors; muddy brown - green - light blue - dark blue . . . As the world's largest idol diminished in our sight, we could watch the the island growing in size; but not completely until we anchored close to the island after almost 2hrs of boat ride. Netrani island, locally known as Netraguda, is sporadically used for target practice by the Indian Navy.

Scuba diving at Netrani were managed by 2 clubs from Goa namely Goa Aquatics and Dive Goa. They charge about Rs.3500/-, which includes a training session at a swimming pool followed by the actual dive at the Netrani island; inclusive of the return boat ride to the island.

We were immediately diving over into the seas with life jackets, people taking turns to snorkel & scuba. Scuba diving was a venture for most of the folks & clearly everyone was excited. The instructors taking the utmost care, ushered 3 folks at a time into the sea of colorful secrets. Wow, it was THE experience of course! Landing 8 meters down under on the seabed, swimming across the coral & the sheer pleasure of witnessing the colorful marine life is definitely a beautiful frontier to be explored. We took off from the island almost the moment it started pouring heavily.

After a quick tour to the Pranalinga of Gokarna's Mahabaleshwara thrown by the demon Ravana and the idol of Lord Shiva, the rest is the cliche. Yes, I meant the tiring journey back to the concrete jungle! Some highlights were dancing crazy to unheard Kannada songs; the gang knows who the item boy was :-) All in all, it was a serenity down under the Arabian sea!


More pictures can be viewed on my Picasa web album.
Underwater pictures can be viewed on Bikram's Picasa web album.