Adventures of Venkateswara- Kodur to Talakona Trek

14 brave souls successfully finished the strenuous and adventurous trek in Venkateswara mountain range. Started from the east of the mountain range at the Kodur and ended at west of the mountain range at Talakona covering a distance of 40+kms (Including the exploration).

Adventurous trek:
We had done 13 hours trek during the Day 1 and 18 hours trek during Day 2, which includes

• Rock climbing
• Bouldering
• Rappelling (With the help of a Nylon rope after sun set)
• Deep pools crossing
• Vertical climb parallel to the water fall

The intro section before the start of the trek to know one and another.


The initial trek along a jeep trail and then a dry stream bed under the harsh sun. This makes us to finish the available water.


No signs of water along the stretch till 2:30 PM, this makes us to worry, after a long stretch of 12 km along the dry stream we finally met the live stream felt very happy and had lunch. The trail was full of big boulders,


The views of the rock formations was awesome...


Wonders of the Nature, The tree on a rock helping with its roots to climb.


After another long stretch we reach the cave pool


Fun at the pool


Again steep climb fully covered with 2 feet grass, took a wrong turn and reached the peak of the hill.. The sun took rest for the day leaving us on the top of the hill with full of grass, which is not the right place for camping. So, we decided to get down using the torches. Here are the real adventures.. Rappelled down the hill using a ordinary nylon rope with the danger of the sliding rocks, luckily no major accidents. Its tooks 4 hours to get down from the hill, So this states how difficult was the decent



Bravo for the team spirit and specially the girls. you proved that there is no difference between men and women. Finally 9:30 PM we reached a flat surface and camped.

During the trek to Ombattu gudda, we were welcomed with lot of viper snakes, But this trail welcomed us with lot of water falls


The human chain in passing the luggage safely to the other end of the 1st pool crossing


Carrying a tripod gives an opportunity to catch the beauties of the trek with slow shutters


Here comes with the most challenging pool crossing. The pool was about 100 mts length and deep with both sides vertical rocks. We had no other option, needs to cross this pool. Using the foam sleeping mat and swimming ring, Depankar and team safely carried all the luggage's and helped the non-swimmers to cross this pool...


The water was too cold, this makes the crossing more difficult.


Hmmm... Its the trek of water falls..




The next challenge is steep climb of 150 mt parallel to the water fall using the roots of the trees. We finally reached the top of the water fall and finished the lunch. posed for the group pic.



The next challenge was passing through a slippery gorge. Luckily my floaters had given me enough grip on the slippery surfaces

After another 1 hours trek we reached another beautiful water fall with a nice pool. Again a vertical climb to reach the top of this water fall.. The view was awesome, remembering the Canyon water pool in "127 Hours" movie.




The sun again down for the second day trek and we needs to cover another 10 km of stretch. Took the torches, filled the water bottles, energized our self with the left food.

Hmmm. Finding out the Jeep trail after the source of the water is difficult and finding it after sun set makes more difficult. Here, we took the support of the GPS based watch. hmmm. GPS shows low battery and we took the reference of it and linked the direction of the trail with the direction of three stars in a straight line in the sky.

Again a vertical grass land climb with full of bushes, traces of elephants and other animals. This increases the curiosity among us.  We keep walking and correcting the direction our path with the star reference. Again crossed couple of streams.

As the mountain range was too big (25 sq. km), the chances of getting last is more. So requested all the participants, to save the water and do not urinate until we find the jeep trail. Finally around 11 PM we find a small foot way and felt very happy, we switched on the GPS and came to know we are away 2.5 km away from the jeep trail. We followed the foot way and finally met the jeep trail around 11:50 PM. After another one hours of walk along the jeep trail we finally reached the top of the Talakona water falls.

Here again a vertical decent from 850 Mt to 500mts. Finally we reached our vehicle at 1:30 AM and started back to Bangalore.


The team posing for a group pic..

Thanks to all the participants for organizing me this trek susses fully. Special thanks to the swimmers Dipankar, Arun Karthik, Bharath, Sri Ranga, Abhilash for helping all the non swimmers during pool crossings.

Thanks to Dipankar and Jinu john for the GPS support. Rajesh P for the transportation vehicle support and Srikanth Gubbala for walkie- talkie support.

Snake work shop and wild life photography - Bannerghatta National park

Trekking is a hobby for someone, it’s a passion for someone and it’s a dream world for someone. We regularly go for treks into the wild, don’t know when we can encounter snake bites.

During snake bite, identifying the snake will helps in getting the right treatment at the earliest. It is good to have a basic awareness of the following

• Varies types of snakes
• Venomous and non venomous snakes.
• Identifying snakes by the skin texture, color and marks.
• Behavior of snakes.
• How to avoid snake bites during treks.
• And first aid after snake bite.

From a long time we are requesting Bannerghatta park authorities for organizing snake awareness work shop, They said no for such events. Finally, On request one of my friend Dr. Rajanna agreed to share his knowledge with us. Mainly discussed about the 4 major venomous snakes in India.

•  Indian Cobra
• Common Krait
• Russell's viper
• and Saw-scaled viper

how to identify them, how to avoid snake bites during treks and how to treat snake bites.

The butterfly park in Bannerghatta is worth to visit. You can find various types of butterflies and even there is a small museum about the butterflies. Luckily, one of the participant Mr. Jagadeesh’s friend is working in the butterfly breeding centre, so we got a chance to see it too.

Butterfly mating

The best thing in Bannerghatta is trek in herbivorous enclosures, where you walk to close to the animals.  But at least a group of 10+ people needed. For this you need to get the permission from the zoo director. They will send a forest guide along with us and covers the major part of herbivorous section. They charge Rs. 75 per head for a short trek (2+ km) and Rs. 150 per head for a long trek (4+ Km). During the trek maintain pin drop silent to see more animals from a closer distance and try to avoid reaching close to wild bison's as few of them are aggressive in nature.

Timings:

The Zoo opens at 9 A.M and the Wild life safari starts at 10 A.M. The best time to go for safari is morning before 12 P.M, since the animals will be active before noon. 

Our plan:

• 08:00 A.M – Reached Bannerghatta and finished the breakfast.
• 09:00 A.M – Visited Zoo.
• 10:00 A.M – Grand Safari.
• 11:30 A.M – Visited Butterfly park.
• 01:00 P.M – Lunch break.
• 02:00 P.M – Snake work shop.
• 02:00 P.M – Visited Zoo again and photography.
• 04:30 P.M – Review of photos taken and .
• 05:30 P.M – Back to home
  

The pride of India. Royal Bengal Tiger

What needs to carry:

• Small back pack,
• Camera & Lens,
• Umbrella (Protecting your camera gear if it rains).

Travel options:

BMTC bus service is the best travel option. The frequency of the buses is good.  

• For those who are travelling from Kadugodi / Whitefield to the national park, the best option is to take a daily pass in the Volvo which costs 75Rs. Then take the V335E or V331-A from the Kadugodi bus-stand to Marathahalli. Near the fly-over get down and take the V500C and get down at Jayadeva hospital stop. There you get the V365 which will take you to the park. Travel time on weekends is around 1.5 to 2 hours. The 500C actually starts from ITPL. So you may also board the 500C directly from the ITPL stop.
• People who are from BTM layout can simply go to Hospital Jaydev flyover stop and can catch any G4 or 365.

The team posing for the pic

Trip expenses:

Note: Zoo entry is free with grand safari ticket.

Sadly the rates have drastically increased, here are the new fare list 

A big thanks to Dr.Rajanna, for spending his valuable time and sharing his knowledge.

Here is the complete set of picassa photo stream

Snake work shop and wild life photography Banner ghatta (17th Oct 2010)

Bannerghatta National Park, Bangalore

Bannerghatta Biological Park offers a unique opportunity for people of all ages to observe wild animals in an almost natural environment up close, which will help everyone appreciate the wild animals, understand the importance of their existence.

Zoo area: It houses elephants, hyenas, crocs, leopards, snakes and a variety of other animals. It has a hospital with experienced veterinarians to treat the animals. A laboratory has also been set up within the zoo campus exclusively to support the wildlife.

Safari area: It gives an opportunity to see the rare Nilgiri Thar, the beautiful Chitals, the majestic Indian Guars, Black Bucks and the Sambhars. It also houses the rare Asiatic lions and the endangered national animal - The Royal Bengal Tiger. In collaboration with the Wildlife SOS, the safari area also houses bears mainly rescued from circuses and the infamously famous dancing bears. All these animals have got a new lease of life to roam free in this protected environment.

The best thing in Bannerghatta is trek in herbivorous enclosures, where you walk to close to the animals.  But at least a group of 10+ people needed. For this you need to get the permission from the zoo director. They will send a forest guide along with us and covers the major part of herbivorous section. They charge Rs. 75 per head for a short trek (2+ km) and Rs. 150 per head for a long trek (4+ Km). During the trek maintain pin drop silent to see more animals from a closer distance and try to avoid reaching close to wild bison's as few of them are aggressive in nature.

Timings:

The Zoo opens at 9 A.M and the Wild life safari starts at 10 A.M. The best time to go for safari is morning before 12 P.M, since the animals will be active before noon. 

Our plan:

• 08:00 A.M – Reached Banner Ghatta and finished the breakfast.
• 09:00 A.M – Visited Zoo.
• 10:00 A.M – Grand Safari.
• 11:30 A.M – Trek in Herbivore region of the park.
• 01:30 P.M – Lunch break.
• 02:30 P.M – Visited Zoo again and photography.
• 04:30 P.M – Review of photos taken and .
• 05:30 P.M – Back to home
  

What needs to carry:

• Small back pack,
• Camera & Lens,
• Umbrella (Protecting your camera gear if it rains).

Travel options:

BMTC bus service is the best travel option. The frequency of the buses is good. 

• For those who are travelling from Kadugodi / Whitefield to the national park, the best option is to take a daily pass in the Volvo which costs 75Rs. Then take the V335E or V331-A from the Kadugodi bus-stand to Marathahalli. Near the fly-over get down and take the V500C and get down at Jayadeva hospital stop. There you get the V365 which will take you to the park. Travel time on weekends is around 1.5 to 2 hours. The 500C actually starts from ITPL. So you may also board the 500C directly from the ITPL stop.
• People who are from BTM layout can simply go to Hospital Jaydev flyover stop and can catch any G4 or 365,

Trip expenses:   
Note: Zoo entry is free with grand safari ticket.

Here is the complete set of picassa photo stream

Bannerghatta National park safari (4th Sep 2010)