Kanakapura Explorations

The beginning: 

During the Trek in Kanakapura

On a fine sunday morning we were supposed to meet around 6:30  Banashankari bus stop for our explorations in Kanakapura. As 500C was not running from my place to Banashankari that early, i need to change 3 buses to finally reach meeting point around 06:40. Our guide for the day and organizer Suresh Babu was waiting for us there with fellow trekkers Apoorva Gajanan, Srivatsa, Uday  and Arpita. By the time i came there Amulya and Santhosh joined the team. Soon after Poornima , Renu and Sushma joined the party. Last entry was Skanda and Sayantan was further late and had to catch us later :-)

We started towards Kanakapura in a KSRTC bus and were there around 08:30 AM. First exploration was Vasu hotel, which seemed to be one of the most popular hotels in Kanakapura and the busiest and oldest as well. After our breakfast and tea, we came back to Kanakapura bus station to catch our next bus towards our destination. 09:00 o clock bus which we were supposed to take had gone by this time and we had to wait till 09:30 bus. We took that and traveled towards  our destination watching the green farms and silk farming baskets. Although the place was not very far from Bengaluru it seemed unaffected by the modernization and real estate as we could see the farmers coming out of traditional houses and  ploughing the lands in good old traditional methods. We reached our destination around 10:15 and were told by the conductor that return bus would come back by 03:30. So, we had a whole morning and bit of afternoon for our explorations and were also warned to be carefull about elephants in the forest

Villagers were very friendly and were showing us the way towards the hill. Found a modest guy as in below pic who wanted to take the pic of his beloved goat. Both of us were sure that he would not get this picture delivered to him. But he was somehow sure that the memory of his beloved goat would be preserved somewhere safe in some unknown tourist's album. So is the pic as per his wish !

Here is the modest villager and his goat as i could not take only his goat pic :-) Say a hi to him if you happen to meet him during your trek here

About the place: 
The place which we went seems to be untouched by fancy trekking groups and irresponsible trekkers as we could not see any plastic bottles or covers on the way and the trekking trail was clean as well.

We had to take the tar road initially and then into the village road as in above pic which lead us to the forest road until we found the steps leading to the top of the hill

Steps leading to the top of the hill

In a while, steps disappeared and we started seeing the temple towards our right in the opposite side of the hill. Here we have to take the trail and ascend the remaining of the path

In one of the pitstops

After few pitstops and photography breaks, we reached a temple and thought we reached the destination. It was a Ganesha temple and guide told us that the main place is still ahead.

View near the Ganesha temple

The Villagers consider this place to be holy place as well and except the localities only a few trekking enthusiasts seems to visit here as per few posts which date back to 2009.

Legend about the place:
One of the Legend about this place  goes like this... "villagers were surprised to observe that their cows were not having any milk after returning from this hill. So, one day they followed their cows and were further surprised to see them giving their milk to a tree on the top of the hill. Their was an idle of Lord Hanuman formed on that tree and they took out that idle and built a temple for that." Every year a fair is held here which involves many events like "Rathotsavam"(Car Festival).  We can see the car shelter near to the Ganesha temple.. There is a small pond or "Pushkarini" next to Lord Ganesha temple and is known as "Sanjeevini Teertha".

Our Group sitting next to Sanjeevini Theertha

We went ahead to see the main temple of Lord Hanuman. The View from there is amazing as well and noticed that there is a motor able road as well to directly reach this temple instead of taking the hilly trail. The view of surrounding mountains of Kanakapura is amazing and worth the 2.5KM hike(one side) from bus stop.

Our Group 

We had our packed lunch where we shared the different items brought by different team mates and descended with many picture breaks in between.

One more view near Sanjeevini Theertha

 Descend was easier as well and we reached the bottom by 3 and waited at the bus stop with some chitchats with the villagers. Could reach Kanakapura around 4:15 and were in Bangalore around 7. Overall trip cost was around 200 Rs and was a decent and memorable one day trip with BASC. Enjoyed trekking with new set of friends on friendship day and wish to see them again in some or the other trip in some day.. Till then, keep trekking, blogging and reading :-)

Last line: 
Let us not only explore nature, but also conserve and preserve it for the  generations to come as did our previous generations.

Our Group after the descend and heading towards the bus stop