Trek inside Bannerghatta

Time: Jun 19th, 2020

Place: Bannerghatta National Park (not zoo)

Company: Wife and Daughter

Highlights: After being cooped up in the house for close to 3 months due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we were itching to get out for a long ride. Came across a dam called Muninagar which is apparently close to our place. Using Google maps, we set out on our Dio 2-wheeler. It was a cloudy day and we were hoping it wont rain.

Instead of the usual hustle-bustle of the Bannerghatta Main Road, I opted for a road that passed through several rural villages (even over the Nice road, where we stopped to wave at the travelers!) and it was a wonderful drive amidst lush greenery. It was fascinating that within a few minutes from my home, we were in the midst of such a rural setting that one could hardly imagine we were already out of Bangalore! Just goes to show how far I am out from Bangalore urban now, compared to Jayanagar 4th Block where I spent almost 3 decades!

We lost our way once. Realized and got back on track. And then we lost our way once more. Realized and got back on track. But it was not even a paved road. Nevertheless we forged ahead. Thankfully we got back into paved road. And then we lost our way once more and realized Google had screwed it up this time! The track was asking us to navigate through Bannerghatta Park limits to get to the dam, which we could not because it was barricaded and fenced up using electricity.

Disheartened that we could not get to the destination, we turned back. We were at that time in a small village called Hakki Pikki Colony. Just when we were about to go back home, a guy met us and told that he could take us inside the park limits since he works inside the park as a driver and sometimes even as a mahout, promising us to show elephants. Half-believing him and half not-believing, we thought we might as well take a chance as we had come so far anyways. It was about an hour's ride. 

We parked our bike and followed him by walk. Just a short walk later, we came across the barricades for the vehicles which we went through and then electric fence which we crawled through while the guide held it up for us in a stick. We followed him in what was now inside the Bannerghatta National Park limits. It was a short trail that climbed steadily. Some outgrowth here and there but mostly rocky. Very soon, within a few minutes, we were atop a hillock. The view was great. One side was the thick national forest region of Bannerghatta and another side was the view of Bangalore. In the latter, we could even see our multi-storey apartment building from where we always used to see this hillock!

From the hillock, we saw an elephant, just as what the mahout had promised. It was a baby wild-elephant - so it kept walking to and fro. Very restless but it was tied. It seemed to be in what was a shelter for the elephants. There was also a pond. But we were very far from it all, and pretty safe atop the hillock. We spent some time atop the hillock, admiring the beauty of the nature and clicked few snaps.

Daughter suddenly had this urge to attend to Nature's call. Seemed very strange and she seemed unable to control any further. So, while the guide and I gossiped, my wife attended to the daughter. This unexpected turn of events later, we made our way back to the bike. The guide tried to market his skills and his influential capacity so that we could get back with more references which I acknowledged. 

Once back at the bike, he didn't ask for much but I offered him Rs 200 and he seemed happy with it. The whole trek had taken about 45 minutes. I still had hopes to go to that dam but wife and daughter had had enough. Anyways, it seemed it was going to rain any time and in fact, it had even drizzled too some time back. So, we decided to head back home and this time I took the BG main road.

So what if we could not go to the dam. The objective was to spend time with nature and we had abundance of it! A day well spent!