Trip to Gopalaswamy Betta

It’s been one week we all M.tech friends went for the trip to Gopalaswamy betta and I started to write this blog to cherish the memories:)

It took quite some time for me and Abhi to schedule and organise this trip. Initiated and interest shown by Abhi for this trip, he started collecting the information of our M.tech friends availability for the trip. Lot of e mail chains and phone calls (those who don’t see emails) were done to accommodate everyone.

We could make a group of 8 people initially but due to the unavailability of the few people at the end we postponed to next week. I got the hint that the trip would be successful at the start of the week by seeing the enthusiasm of our friends who had agreed for the trip. Abhi started messaging about the preparation for the trip one week before. There were few hiccups about the driver availability for the trip, but it was managed by Abhi.

So not explaining much about the pre preparation of the trip I will get into how the trip was.

11 JUNE 2011, the day when everyone agreed to start Bengaluru by 7am and join me at Madur at 9 didn’t happen. Abhi, Jadoo ,Punith, Santosh and Keshav started late at 8.30am by Alto car and meanwhile Darshan started bit late because of his friend Shiva who didn’t make it for the trip as he adhere to our plan. Darshan came in Bus and joined me at Madur .We all met at Madur highway junction at 10.30am.

I started from my home town Kunigal in my Swift car at 8am.Icould have reached by one hour at Madur junction, but as my friends started late I spent some time along the Kunigal Madur road and drive the car slowly and I made it at 10am.

My friends had the Puliyogere as a breakfast which I had brought from my home

Myself ,Darshan,Jadoo and Santosh in my Swift car and Abhi,Keshav and Puneeth in Abhi's Alto car and we all started towards Mandya to pick up the driver for the journey. On the way I made a full tank diesel for my car.

From Mandya we took a turn towards Melukote along the village route.The road was excellent to drive.The driving was enjoyable.

We stopped at Nagamangala melukote junction to have coffee break at 12.30pm.After few mins we headed towards Melukote which was 10km from there.Since it was Saturday the Yoganarasimhaswamy temple was crowded.We parked our car and started climbing the small hill towards the temple.

After having glimpse of god Yoganarasimha swamy , we all spent some time up on the hill taking photos of the beautiful background.

The driver guided us to other places in Melukote.

The time has gone past 3 pm and didn’t have lunch till then. We then started searching some hotels in Melukote and we found one hotel named Sukha Bhojana.We had the Melukote special Puliyogare and some rice and the lunch was sponsored by Abhijth  Naik.

We finally  headed towards Ranganathittu after having some discussions of where to go next.

We were shocked to hear that we need to pay Rs 50 per head for entering!!!!.

And again it was Rs50 per head for boating.We all went for boating and we were the last tourists as it was closing time at 6pm.The boating was worhful after seeing different kinds of birds so closely and also the sleeping crocodile closely!!!!!

It rained for ten mins while we were about to leave which made our cars cleanJ

Evening at 6.30pm we left the place and moved towards Mysore to pick up friend Shivtej in Bogadi.

I started feeling the pain of long driving by thenL and also it was first time I was  driving with lights.Slowly asking the route on the ring road of Mysore we reached the Shivtej home and we had coffee there.After half an hour there we moved towards Nanajanagudd where our friend Kumar Shiva had arranged rooms in the lodge. I was tired and I gave my car to Driver to drive till Nanajanagudd. Shivtej drove Abhi car till Nanjanagudd.Devendra Kumar joined us from Nagara while we were having dinner.Finallay we came to our rooms at 10.30pm.Darshan left to his hometown in the midnight as he had some function  his home.He really missed the enjoyment we were about to have on SundayL.

12 JUNE 2011,the guys got up as early as 5.30am and started freshing up.As hot water was available after 7am we were made to use the cold water as we had planned to move by 7am.

Since we had made 3 rooms, everyone got ready on time and we were geared up to reach the Gopalalswamy betta.

Darshan was replaced by devendra in my car and he was in driving seat today!!!.Again the road was excellent along the way.We stopped in the middle to capture some photos.

We knew that no eatable were allowed on the top of the hill,Abhi took the parcel of idly vada for all of us.We all of them reached the gate of the Gopalaswamy betta at 8am and we saw that many vehicles were lined up as the opening time was 8.30am.The entrance fees was Rs 50 per car.We had the breakfast there itself and throwed all the waste and the plastic items there itself as there was checking going on by the forest guard on each car.

The vehicles started moving up the hill at 8.30am.The raod condition is worst there and the space is too narrow. My car stopped  while climbing up the hill and it took some time to go ahead.

We stated feeling that we were entering into the different as the clouds welcomed us to the HIMAVAD GOPALASWAMY HILL

We saw some of the cars parked and people were getting down and were running to see the beauty of the nature.We saw them and we also parked the car and went down the hill by walk.We saw 3 elephants dwon the hill and some of our friends were excited on seeing them and went towards them.We others tayed on top and started taking the photos with different background.We were unable to find our friends who went down as the clouds were heavy.

We spent sufficient time and while going back to our car,we find one forest guard standing up there and started scolding us as we were in the reserve forest area.He noted our car numbers along with other cars and stared saying that we will not be allowed to go outside.

It was not our fault as there was no sign board or the guard standing there before.wwe went nad just enjoyedJ

We then moved towards temple.It took quite some time as there were many people inside.The poojari started explain the history while performing pooja inside and we were staindg ver y close to the god there.

The below photos were taken at 10am !!!!!

It was really a chilling experience for all us as were experiencing something unusual from our daily routine.If you have the special permission from the forest department we will able to see more restricted places there .

We all enjoyed the environment around us. We left the place by 10.30am getting ready mentally to fight with the guard below the gate. But nothing happened as we moved silently pass the gateJ

We then decided to the Nanjanagudd temple and we were there by 12pm.The temple was since it was Sunday and took the special ticket for the god’s Darshan.

We had some coffee break there in the hotel and left towards Bengaluru by 1.30pm.

Shivtej and Punith dropped down in Mysore. Everyone went in Abhi car and I was alone in my car from Mysore.Since the driver was  drving abhi car I thought they would reach Bengaluru early.At the time I reached the Madur junction at 3.30pm to take the turn towards Kunigal I was surprised to see the Abhi car then for stopping at Adigas to have some food. I joined them for lunch and we had some refreshment. At 4 pm I started towards Kunigal and Abhi stared driving towards Bengaluru.I reached my home at 5.30pm.

Uuuuffffffffffffffffffff  what an experience for me in 2 days. I dreamt about these days some years back in my struggling days and I was very much thankful to GOD, my family and my friends that my dream had come trueJ