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My journey through life.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Kokare Bellur

16 Nov 2008
It was Sunday morning and i was just going through newspaper. had thought in my mind that i have to go out somewhere today...i saw a picture of Painted storks giving signs of winter visitors :) It was a nice thing... Suddenly i decided to go to Kokare Bellur. it was around 9 in the morning. need to hurry up... should have started quite early in morning... but this was a last minute plan.
It wasn't that i was going to Kokkare Bellur for first time. Me and Anand had been there quite some time back when we used to go for Bird Watching every weekend. I need to get back that thing. :) hahahaha

Okie.. im ready. shall i take the water bottle or anything to eat... nya.... don't increase the luggage :) what about breakfast. no... no.... and this will also be a chance to eat Tatte Idli at Bidadi :) I generally don't miss this while on Mysore road. the cook also didn't come today.

it looked to be a cool morning as it rained earlier night. so i was happy that i don't have to tan myself. warmth in the air. i would have loved it more had it been utterly chilled morning :) afterall winter has started.

My bike's odometer reading was 35904... (i hadn't read it till i hit the inner ring road). henceforth i will keep showing you the last 2 digits from the odometer. this can be helpful for first time Kokkare Bellur tourists.

04 started from home in new thippasandra,
i knew that i had whole of today to enjoy myself, so i can travel at leisurely pace enjoying everything. which route to take. i have to go to KR market flyover... hmm then lets go to Richmond Road. I like this kind of roads in Bangalore... with less traffic. folks at Bangalore pls sleep for some more time till i hit the mysore road ;)

12 reached richmond circle,
So this is richmond road... now go straight towards the Hudson Circle, Unity Buildings and here comes the flyover...

17 it was end of KR market flyover,
This one is very nice. "Unche Log Unchi Pasand". (I like the double quotes than single quotes) On this flyover you feel as if you are driving in the air. ohh see on your right... thats the KR Market. I had come her with Chetan for buying flowers. you come early morning and you get very nice flowers of all type at very low prices. imagine the orchid 5-6 stems at 30 rupees. And thats a nice Masjid.

I couldn't take photos while driving. it would have given a nice photo-travelogue. i wanted to reach to my destination first. as if i was eager to welcome those winter visitors.

Hmmm it seems RajRajeshwari temple is undergoing some renovation. checkout on your left. Now you are actually on Mysore road. And on your left is the world famour "Mysore road Nile River". it has provided a sound ecology for my fishes (are they dead yet?), black kite (remember the Pirates of Caribbean... they look like so). Are you feeling like doing white water rafting? Please don't.

Ohh wow Govt of Karnataka has done a great job of putting our fabourite site (Kokkare Bellur) on milestone. a photo of this board would ad life to my blog... (next time).

wroom....wroom...wroom enjoy folks.
Smokey ... Somebody stop me.

46 Bidadi,
be on your right.... breakfast time Tatte Idli, Wada and Chai :) wonly 28. somehow im feeling that its not the same quality which i ate about 2 years back when i had gone for Rock climbing in Ramnagaram.

This city / village has a history about its name. will tell you some day.
Aren't you feeling like ..."Yeh banda bahut pakayega". Don't worry now you can't escape. ;)

64 Kaveri fishing camp left deviation,
Wow nice .... i should take a deviation here. Alas.....

69.6 Kanva reservoir right deviation (8km)
remember folks we had been here. samazane wale ko ishara kafi hai. its a nice place. please do take time out and visit it once. very calm. serene ... Please don't disturb it.
And the temple. My friend, Sandeep, told me that people going on trip on this road always visit this temple.

77 Channapatna,
Wooden toys anybody. twenty rupees... twenty rupees... twenty rupees...
No. its me making the noise. May be next time i can buy so many good toys.

91.5 (pls don't raise the eyebrows for decimal point) left deviation my my destination Kokare Bellur,
our destination is around the corner.... nice Kachcha road (mud road). its not completely tar road. but its okay.
lift please .... woke.. hop on. Yen hesaru? Asok. Asok got down at some village on the way.
wait whats that.... hmm rose ringed parakeet. shhhh.... let me take out my camera..... pls don't fly. oops ... it has gone inside the branches. move on...
wait.... shhhh. there is something. wow... it blue faced malkoha. my first ever sighting.
click ... click ... click ...
There is a drongo also. Check the list at the end.

97 right turn for Kokare Bellur,
well this is also a small cement milestone telling you take right turn for Kokkare Bellur. The path now will be very nice as you can see a tank bund on your left. Yup thats a big lake... on your right are lush green paddy fields.
Last time when we came here we saw blue tailed bee eater. This time also they were waiting for the birdwatcher on the same trees. having a glimpse of them i moved on...

i had crossed 36000 km reading for my bike Yooo......
celebrations !!!

05 Rendzevous Kokare Bellur
ok i am here.... its about 12 now. but i am not yet feeling hungry.
this is the main circle of the village. and you can see now the pelicans on the big tamarind tree on the right side of the road.
i went to the main road of the village (left turn). i couldn't see the boy who was selling tender coconut last time. but his shop was still there i guess. it was closed.
there were no painted storks... where are they. im i late for the season?
lets find the place where we spent more time picturing the storks and pelicans... i took a right turn from the main road and went straight inside. i couldn't see the place i was searching for. There was this elderly man sitting on the dirt road taking some rest after a day's work. i took 2 pictures of him without his knowledge. :) His name is ChikkaThimmayya, a local farmer. Check him out.

Then 2 other men came on cycles. we had a chat. one of the man had his son working in Bangalore.
They told me that this is not yet the peak season. they asked me to come in January. i have to come back here to witness the moment when the whole village will be having more population of birds than the villagers. and i would love doing that :)

Here they come....
the pelicans were taking flights over me high up in the sky. its nice to watch them fly in circles. and move up. i was taking their photos. i need to improve me photography skills. :(


Then i parked my bike below a tree and started roaming in the village for photographing the birds. You can see the pelicans everywhere. they were making noises by their long beaks. villagers don't get annoyed by that and they help the birds in some way.

i need to move on. i thought of exploring more on the other side of the main road in the village. but there were not many birds.
But, yes, there is a pond just beside the road. i think this will provide me a nice ecology for shooting and watching. its a small pond. there are some baya weaver's nest on the other end of the pond.

"baby you gonna move your body high ...." that's my sweet heart calling... some sweet chat. ;)

there was a green bee eater and king fisher who were having a competition to catch their prey faster.




wait.... there is something moving. Ab aayega maja. yup, you guessed it right. the snake. may be it was a bronze or checkered keelback. (Note: Yes, it is confirmed from an expert - Adesh Shivkar - that it is a checkered keelback)














Then i took photos of some dragonflies. Some more pics:















Then I started return journey. It was quite hot afternoon...
I stopped at the same place where i saw blue faced malkoha. and he was there :) This time there was an eurasian golden oriole.














While returning i met Vyankatesh, a local farmer. Who has around 4 acres of land. and he has Bananas and Raagi (i guess) in it :) It was a harvest time. He explained me how to ripen the raw bananas. This is yellakki banana. it tastes so sweet. i like it.










Check this Raagi cleaning. In marathi we call it Ufanani. Natural way of removing the chaff:
I thought of buying the fresh Raagi there itself :)















So here is the birdlist for the day:
Blue faced malkoha (bird of the day),
black drongo,
house sparrow,
house crow,
jungle crow,
wire tailed swallow,
blue tailed bee eater,
small green bee eater,
little cormorant,
Common coot,
Red whiskered bulbul,
Common Myna,
Rose ringed parakeet,
Keelback snake?
Eurasian Golden Oriole,
warbler?
Spot billed pelican,
black ibis,
black kite,
brahmini kite,
cattle egret,
medium egret,
indian roller,
Indian robin,
wagtail,
while returning black shouldered kite,
white breasted kingfisher,
purple rumped sunbird,
red vented bulbul,
un id tern?,
pond heron,
red wattled lapwing,
spotted dove,
blue rock pigeon,
ashy prinia,

I was feeling too much hungry while returning to stopped at Kamath Lokaruchi. So what do you have in the menu... Okay bring Raagi masala dosa. It tasted very nice and it didn't have much of the butter/oil which we generally get in any *.Sagar kind of hotel.
Some more to eat.
Now i am full :)

I gave lift to Sudarshan who works for Kamath hotels. He is a nice, simple guy.
I have to do some shopping in Jaya Nagar Shopping complex area. I reached back around 6pm to home.

that's all folks...
See you next time with some more trips.

Till then good bye!
Keep travelling.... safe journey!

6 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

Really nice Sachin,
I really appreciate the way of writting and the presentation skill you have.

Keep it up

26 November 2008 at 10:27:00 am IST  
Blogger Unknown said...

waw sachin
sahi re,
after read out ur journey, i also love to go to that places yaa..

26 November 2008 at 10:57:00 am IST  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

nice report ... we should start weekend trips again .. ;)

26 November 2008 at 11:08:00 am IST  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have not visited "Kokare Bellur" but after reading this it feels like I am just coming back from there. Really nice one keep writing.... :)

27 November 2008 at 2:03:00 pm IST  
Blogger Sachin Pandhare said...

thanks Manish and others too for appreciating comments :)
Anand we can sure start it again. it will be fun :)

27 November 2008 at 2:26:00 pm IST  
Blogger I am what I am said...

Nice blog man and photos are also good :)
Keep driving and posting

29 November 2008 at 3:59:00 pm IST  

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