Maidenahalli

Well if you are sick and tired of Bangalore traffic then this place is a very good weekend camping ground. Not very far from bangalore but very calm and scenic. Even though i did most of my schooling in Tumkur i was not aware of this place until very recently. Maidenahalli or Jayamangala Black buck Santuary gives a good feel of interaction b/w humans and animals. I heard from locals over there that they have to guard their fields all night in order to protect their groundnut yield from the protected black buks.

I wanted to do some photoshoot of the blackbucks but then even though the sighting was good, they were very shy to face my camera the moment they saw me they would just run. I just managed to get a couple of pics defnitely not the kind i wanted off. Any away beautiful calm place very relaxing you can just pitch a tent and enjoy the silence of this place watching black bucks moving around.

Visit this place if you are a nature lover, love watching birds. You can talk to local forest guards and also pitch a tent outside. But then you don't get anything to eat, you should prepare your own food. There are 2 rooms with toilets in the forest guest house probably you need to book in advance. Also you can go for a walk in the forest and if you are lucky you might see jackle or wolf. Since its pretty open grasslands i would say the best time to visit this place is during winter or else be prepared to feel the heat. Best time for sighting is early morning or evening so camp overnight and enjoy sighting.

Also there is very good temple, fort and huge rock for trekking and rock climbing in Madhugiri. Madhugiri is a decent small town to get some food.

Team : Poorna,Jyothi and Diwi

Route: Bangalore - Tumkur - From tumkur bipass ask any one and take a right to Koratgere/Madhugiri -- From Madhugiri take hindupura road (don't go towards chikbalapur or gowribidnoor) -- kodigeneahalli -- reach puruvara village --ID halli -- Maidenahalli/Jayamangali Blackbuck Reserve. Around 163kms one side. Road is very good until tumkur and from tumkur to Maidenahalli is bad due to recent rains.

Contact: Harish (RFO) -- 9448731686/ Ranganath -- 8105224893

Hogenkal

Hogenkal is the perfect example of how a so called civilized human spoils the beauty of nature. Just like shivanasamudra this place is badly littered, full of plastics all around, people take bath spoiling the sanity of the place, booze and then throw liquor bottles etc into river. Sorry to say but this is not the scene from a civilized society. Lots need to be done in many ways like banning of plastics and also educating and charging heavy fines for people who do not adhere to rules. I have been visiting this place again and again but then every time i visit, its worse then the last time. Its so expensive but not a penny is put for the development. Probably i will not visit here any more for a long time.

108 Emergency Service

I just started from my office today evening @5:15. A couple of guys
helped a person lying on ground to footpath. It was a minor accident
but person on bike had a broken leg probably either a ligament tear or
fracture with enormous pain. No one knew what next. I called 108 for
an ambulance. I was so impressed with the service
1) Is the patient bleeding? Can he talk? Don't panic give me the
adress and ambulance will be there in 5min
2) Immediately after that police gave me a call asking do I need any
assistance? Is there any jam or is it a major accident. At the end of
the call they said thank you "poorna prajna". I was so surprised that
they even tracked my name so fast.
Amazing service the ambulance was there in 7min that's something
really good with the kind of traffic in bangalore
Keep up the good work guys hats of to you :-).

Blog from mobile

I learnt about a cool feature of blogging from mobile :-) trying it
out for the first time hope it works. I am posting this from my mobile
!!!!!

A Mistake

As a kid I was very fond of playing just like any other kid. My parents enforced me on reading newspaper every day as soon as I got up, even though I was not interested in knowing about rest of the world. I was in my own world those days. Enforcement on that day has turned into an addiction today. I need newspaper on my coffee table everyday in the morning.
But now I feel I get into depression reading newspaper every day its full of corruption, murder, misuse of power etc not one constructive message to improve society. I wish I can come out of this addiction and stay away from this biased media who have lost their ethics and only value for their circulation and TRP :-(

AmediKallu & EthinaBhuja

It was quite some time since we really trekked. Its always fun to trek as it really tests once mental strength to reach the peak. I started up the mail chain of going for a trek, even though the plan was to trek with CSP and then make it a send off trek for CSP, he backed out at the last moment due to some issues. Our initial plan was to trek in Kudremukha but then we found that we will not get permission to trek if it rains. Finally we were 7 of us who decided to trek Amedikallu and EthinaBhuja in the rains.

Rains in westren ghats are pretty hard and also it would make the trek lot more slippery and the worst would be, you would dare not take a break with fear of leeches in the forest. You need good fitness levels to trek in the rains. This was the reason we picked up a small team . We booked a Tavera and started around 10pm on friday night. We reached Gundya check post around 6 in the morning. Our cab driver was very tired and even though he collected full bata it was Sripad who drove from Kunigal to Sakaleshpura. Well I had an outing on friday and was dead tired playing football and cricket the entire day. After dinner at a Dhaba near Kunigal I slept till Gundya. However rest of the team had great fun watching Jaggesh and Kashinath movies almost the entire night.
We reached Sishila village and we were received by Gokale at their home. After freshening up and having our breakfast we met our guide Chennappa. We started to head towards the starting point for our first trek to Amedikallu. Sripad dropped within few minutes due to sprain in his back and headed back. So it was 6 of us who were trekking towards the peak. Without baggage and with just few water bottles and food it was not very difficult to begin with. We were maintaining good speed and this helped us to catch up BMC group who started one hour before around half way. Most of their team stopped there and had no plans to continue, only 3 guys joined us till the peak. The forest part of the trek was infected with leeches all around and there was no way you could rest even for a min. But then once you get grasslands the terrain was pretty steep as well. We even had a small water falls en route, took a small shower under it and wow what an experience to stand below a falls during rains. We stopped near a huge rock rested for some time and had our lunch. From here the terrain is very difficult and slippery . It had a bit of rock climbing as well . Due to rains rocks were slippery and it was pretty dangerous . We covered Amedikallu in around 4hours and it was amazing to sit on top of a huge rock when it rained heavily. We spent some time on top and then we started heading back. We took around 3hours to come back and every one were dead tired by the time we reached the starting point.
We had some food at one and only hotel of Sishila village opposite bus stand, it was not good though. We had great dinner at Gokale' s house and spent the night there . Most of us were badly cramped and dead tired. Next day Vikram and Sumanth dropped out for Ethinabhuja due to cramps. However Sripad felt lot better and was ready for the trek. We had to cross kapila river which was around waist height with good force. Chennappa had warned us that if it rains heavily then it would be impossible for us to cross it back and we would have to walk another 7kms extra to reach a bridge.
Most part of the trek to Ethinabhuja from Sishila village is through thick forest. Due to heavy rains the trail was covered with fresh green plants all along and was full of leeches. It was a bit difficult to walk through this forest as we had to walk together all the time, it was very easy for one to get lost in this forest. Worst thing about this trek i would consider is, my camera batteries were dead. Due to rains most part of the time the peak was covered with mist. However at one point i did get a look of it and it was amazingly beautiful one huge rock. Even today we covered the peak in around 4hours. The last trail to the peak was very challenging, covered with mist completely and also very slippery and dangerous. We had our lunch at the peak. Peaks are only place were we get signal for our airtel and vodafone service providers, we called up our homes telling we are safe. Walking back was not easy for me and Sripad. I got rashes and Sripad's slippers came off making it worse for him to walk. We took a bit more than 3 hours to come back.
We went to the Sishila temple had a glimpse of huge fishes in the river and then had hot water bath at Gokale's house and headed back to bangalore. In 10years of Chennappa's experience he had not met a team who did both Amedikallu and Ethinabhuja during rains in consecutive days. He did appreciate our fitness levels and spirit. However we did miss our team members CSP and Gilli a lot.

Amedikallu

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Ettina Bhuja

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Team : Loki,Sripad,Diwi,Vikrum,Sumanth,Prabhanjan and Poorna
Route: Bangalore - Magadi Road - Kunigal - Hassan - Sakaleshpura - Gundya check post - 20kms from here take a right towards Kokkada (there is home stay out here stream of joy) -- take a right again and reach Sishila Village.
Contact : For stay and food -- Gokale : M- 9483211246 , Guide: Chennappa : M- 9379081785

Canon Beach

Chandru and Sahana knocked at my room door at around 11.30 to drop their things which was supposed to be carried back to India. We were really very hungry and yes Sahana our chief Chef had Bisibele bath and Curd rice for us. I was a bad host though even the potato chips in my room was emptied the previous night. After a quick lunch we decided to go towards Canon beach. Boby was not interested to join us for Canon Beach, well he did regret for not joining us the next day.

We didn't know that we had to drive through Chandru's house, we did regret that we had to waste a bit of fuel. But the drive to Canon Beach is very scenic with thick forest along both the sides of the road. We really can't make out that we would be reaching sea until the end. It was a bright and sunny day, saying so one good thing i did was not forgetting my jacket in the car. Chandru did regret for doing this mistake. Even though it was a bright sunny day, breeze from sea is very chilled. You would be shivering of cold with in few minutes of walk.













It was a perfect day for me and chandru with bright light and beautiful landscape for me and chandru to do some photo shoot. We had a bit of extra light though, probably we should have waited till the evening. But then its summer time and it was a long day. We waited till almost 6 and still sun was in no mood to set. Usually during this time sun sets by around 9 and it gets dark by around 10. We didn't have so much time and we were even getting tired and feeling cold after the long long walk along the beach.

Major attraction of Canon beach is huge rocks along the sea, Haystack Rock is the biggest of all and is the main attraction of all. It was great to sea a huge rock and it was home to thousands of sea birds sitting all along the rock. Probably it was breeding time.Haystack Rock, at 235 feet high, is the third largest coastal monolith in the world. Haystack Rock is protected as part of the Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge as well as a designated National Wilderness Area.

What caught our attention the most was the low tide, while we were about to return in matter of minutes we could see that the sea went back by atleast 100-200meters back. I had never seen it happening so fast, I did scare chandru about Sunami :-). But then read that this beach area is under extreme high tide and extreme low tide line with almost 300 yards radius.

It was a pleasant walk, I really don't know what exactly to write about this place, can only say that its a place to be visited with loved ones and then just go for a walk holding hands. One thing about places in US is you can get all the details in an organized manner, so i should really be trying to give details about the place in a stupid manner. I would just point to the right link http://www.cannon-beach.net/cbtranspo.html

BackLogs

I have been wanting to write for quite some time, but for no reason i know off i am unable to update my blogs. Keep watching for these travel logs which will be updated pretty soon

1) Bird watching in Bannergatta
2) Drive to Nandi Hills
3) Drive to Kukke and Bisle Ghat
4) Silver Falls
5) Trip to Trivendrum
6) BhadraRiver Camp Trip
7) Canon Beach
8) Mount Hood Drive

I may not update the same in an order but will try to write up at least a few words at the earliest on each of my outing.

Silver Falls

It was a beautiful accidental trip. I got up around 6 and then was checking my mails all of a sudden I saw Chandru online, bugger he wanted to stay in invisible mode and wanted to travel alone with Sahana leaving me but then I tracked him down and forced him to tell the plans for the weekend. Poor guy was left with no choice but to disclose his weekend plan of visiting silver falls.

I called up Boby my colleague to get ready in 15min and then we started to Chandru's place in Beaverton. After a quick break fast we started driving towards Silver Falls.













As expected most of the places in and around Washington and Oregon are really beautiful and scenic. One surprising thing was I thought all roads in US were like 6 lanes but then once you enter the smaller regions roads are very much smaller with lots of cross roads as well. As soon as we reached Silver falls we thought of starting our 14mile trail hike but then thought lets first finish our lunch rather than carrying it. I would say that was the wisest of the decision for that day :-). Sahana had prepared amazing pongal and curd rice. But well myself and chandra had some contributions for curd rice as well probably that's what made it the best.
Silver Falls really spectacular, the best part of the trip though was a bright sunny day which is very much unusual in Portland area. Also what i liked the most was the trail which goes under the rocks and behind the water falls, which gives one the feeling of standing behind the water falls and feel the beauty.
It was really a good feel, to walk in bright sunlight watching 9 out of 10 good waterfalls on a single day. Still unlike India what I missed the most was getting into water and play under the falls. Neither its warm enough to get into water nor its allowed. Probably we might be fined here if you get into water :-). As a result I ended up feeling like walking in a man made forest with man made water falls. But no question on the beauty of the place its just spectacular its just that i couldn't feel it wild the way you get to feel it in India :-). At times you can say like too much organized makes life so boring, there has to be thrill to explore that's when you get the rush in adrenalin.
We laughed a lot the entire day there were quite a few funny moments, few of them were a joint venture say a business proposal b/w me and chandra to create Minchi falls beside Frenchi falls with Sahana being the toll collector. And then embrassing moments for Boby to find a restroom and being caught by fellow hikers when Boby tried to tresspass for a nature call :-)
After we returned from covering 9 out of 10 falls we were like dead tired from walking almost 10kms on a single day and were really hungry. What came to our rescue was again Pongal and curd rice. We dropped back chandru and sahana at their home, had a nice dinner and headed back to our rooms. End of a wonderful weekend in Vancouver,WA.
I didn't write much about the place becuase there is already lots of information about the place in the offical website so me writing in bits and pieces doesn't really make any sense. Find more details about the state park under the link http://www.oregonstateparks.org/park_211.php

Some of the Best Movies I Enjoyed

I keep loosing track of some of the best movies i have ever loved watching. This is a small attempt to put up a list so that many more can enjoy as well. There are a lot of good Hindi and Kannada movies I just love to watch but here I am only trying to give a list of some good English movies. Every time i watch a good movie i will try to update this list. If I start adding Hindi and Kannada the list is going to explode that's the only reason I have kept it aside.

English:

1. Into the Wild
2. Touching the Void
3. Munich
4. The Hurt Locker
5. Titanic
6. PS I love you
7. Blood Diamond
8. Catch a Fire
9. Reign over me
10. The constant Gardner
11. The Kite Runner
12. The Bucket List
13. Bella
14. Kung Fu Panda
15. Gladiator
16. Patriot
17. Top Gun
18. The Last King of Scotland
19. Brave Heart
20. Sixth Sense
21. The Last Samurai
22. Cast Away
23. The Terminal
24. Matrix Series
25. The Phone Booth
26. Taking of Pelham 123
27. Wild Hogs
28. Inception
29. Social Network
30. Sanctum

There are many more good movies, especially some of the action movies but this list is special as I can just watch these movies any number of times.