One day Outing on 25th Oct 2015- Inclusive of Birding Trail and a trek in the evening to watch the Sunset.

Itinerary:
Reach Ramadevara Betta in Ramanagar by 7:00 AM
Hunt the hill to look for the vultures
Sholay Shooting spot visit
Team building activities -Dodge Ball, Jaguja
Trek to the top of the hill to watch the sunset.

This adventure was planned for Nature watch by Jungle Wilderness. Nature watch is a bunch of nature enthusiasts who are keen to learn more about the Flora, Fauna with the details of their characteristics. The Main motto of this adventure was to know more about cultures and to educate students about their behavior. Me being open to all kinds of experience, It was more like a self-exploration trip with a group of 31 members.

That was incredible to watch the sunrise on our way to Ramanagar, it was the chilled breeze of the early morning empty roads due to Dussehra vacation and the Sunrise view which added spice to the journey.

Below are few of my sunrise clicks:

On reaching the base camp by 7:30 Am, we planned to take a small coffee break and starting the birding trail looking for vultures. We have begun climbing the hill in search of vultures, below are pictures of the dogs that accompanied us, view of the mountain from the bottom and the flowers found on our way.

Vultures started to show up as the sun rose little by little, they sat on the rocks heating/energizing themselves. There was a pair which was busy building nest, while the other took a small fly going round and round in the clear blue sky. Few clicks from my Note 4, tried my best to get a good click, wished for a good lens DSLR.

In the Above picture, you can notice that there are holes on the hill; that is where the Vultures live.

It was a little disheartening to see the life around, every place you visit has a new story to tell. We forget what we have and always look for more, but there are people out there who are still struggling for their daily lives, there is Anganwadi, Midday meal facility and even washrooms build around the school. But there seems to be no proper management nor did it look like a place that was given good care by the government. The picture above speaks a lot more than my words, it was the girl playing with so much innocence filled in her that forced me to click this pic.

After the Birding Trail, we all assembled in the base camp for Breakfast, followed by a visit to the Sholay shooting spot and then played a lot of team building activities. By then it was time for lunch, we were served with hot Ramanagar special Ghee Rice Tomato Chutney, white rice sambar, and curds. Heavy lunch and an hour’s time to relax before the trek, with few playing games and few clicking pictures and the rest playing Antakshari were just busy making memories.

We Started hiking to the peak at 3 pm, it was a medium trail of total 9 Kms up and down. The challenge was when we were to jump from a tunnel back to a hill, that adventure made me realize what seems impossible might actually be very easy. I had made my mind that my legs aren’t so much time and I will not be able to jump, even if I do I shall slip into the gap between the rock and the tunnel. But to my surprise with a little bit of caution I jumped at once, and then the trek was like a cake walk. It was a combination of Skandagiri hill trek and Channarayana Durga trek, on reaching the hilltop we saw the Ram temple which holds a history that there are no crows in that region. Yes, that’s true, we were not able to find even on crow on that hill alone.

Few clicks on my way up the hill and the view from the top which covers Bangalore and Mysore

The beauty of nature increases every second as the sun starts to set. I was happy to catch all the shades of sunset and was so excited to see my first sunset, on the same day I saw the sunrise. Since even the Full Moon day was near, I was able to watch the moon rise simultaneously in a big size.

Sometimes, we stop ourselves from being in a place where we are not comfortable, say for instance you are not accompanied by your close friends, or you are little agitating to mingle with a new group. It is actually in that instance you experience the best and learn the most about a place or thyself. This trip was somewhat like that too me, I learned a lot about myself and was able to get the most out of the visit.

With many more adventures lined up and many more places to cover, I suggest you visit this site some time to watch the Bengaluru and Mysuru together from the top and also to see the beautiful sunset.

Whats-App group messages coming one after another spamming my phone and irritating me while I concentrate on work, a message pop’s “Cherry, My admissions are Confirmed, this weekend I shall meet you all, and probably it will be my last week with you all in Bengaluru.” This was the message from Abhijith one of the good friends I made through “Nature Watch.” Nature Watch is a small group of naturists which was created by the students of Acharya Institute of Technology; it personally gave me an opportunity to meet young students who inspire me in many ways and to meet nature.

Abhijith, Student from AIT, studied Computer Science and is a 2015 BE pass-out, while his friends were busy searching for Jobs, he was inspired by Artificial Intelligence which led to him choosing Masters in it. After a lot of search and discussion, he decided to stick with University of St. Andrews, where he shall pursue his M. Sc Artificial Intelligence under Science Faculty. He is like this cute Humpty Dumpty, always smiling with a pure heart.  My first trip with Nature watch consisted of 30 students,  while only a few stayed connected one of whom is Abhijith.  We planned to give him a surprise Farewell during his last visit to Bengaluru especially to spend time with us.

We batch of 7 decided to trek Channarayana Durga; and visiting some of the surrounding areas like – Devarayanadurga, Madhugiri, and finally the Jayamangali Black Buck Reserve. Along with Abhijith were my close associates Rajesh Gopinath, Vetrivel, Harsha, Arun, and Pallavi. We started our journey to Devarayanadurga from Bangalore in XUV, on reaching Durga where the temples remained close we explored the surrounding where a monkey fell in love with me. Below are few of the clicks and the view from Devarayanadurga.

Channarayana Durga Trek: To describe it in less than 50 words: This is one of the best and toughest treks we ever went on. Channarayana Durga standing at about 3800 feet, was no easy mission to complete. This hillock is hardly known to people I can say confidently as we were the only ones climbing it (Considering it as a weekend, but the shopkeepers around said usually there is small crowd during Sundays) Trust me,  we had not expected such big hillock; we were awestruck. With an inclination of about 60 degrees, it was challenging for most of us, since it was the first Trek for Pallavi, while Abhi had to carry his weight and Harsha feared heights. Vetri as always flew like a bird and was the first to reach every resting spot followed by me. This did not stop any of us from conquering it.

Motivating Abhi to climb was more fun, every time I look back at him show him chocolate and ask him to come collect them from me on reaching the top. With all the chit chat and motivating one another to climb it was the real beauty of nature that kept us going. The below is the collage of few clicks from the collection, we found a water reserve, did a little of bird watching and a lot of my nonsense talks without which all our trips are incomplete.

Last but not the least:
Dear Abhi,
All the best for your future, we look forward to seeing you succeed in every step you take. And remember our bets and trades made. Hope you have a beautiful journey ahead. We will miss you for sure, but then don’t forget to book our flights to come visit you this summer.
With Lots of Love,
Cherry.