Date: Mar 29, 2008
To get there: On Kanakpura road, go past the Khoday's brewery and take the road on the right opposite the first petrol bunk sighted. Go past Gubbalala village towards Turahalli village. Look for the hill with boulders on it. The road will head towards the main gate of a complex. Turn right there to reach the foothill and the start of the Trail.
Distance: Turahalli gudda is around eight km. from the Banashankari temple and around two-and-a-half km. from the Kanakpura main road.
Trail type: It is about 0.75km to maybe 1km at most. I would say elevation gain would be around 500ft. It has some loose rocks which one has to be careful of. Overall a very nice easy family friendly trail if you have kids younger than 5.
Facilities: Did not find any eating place or shop close to this place. It is best to pack a picnic basket with enough water for the trip. There are shops on kanakpura road for last minute purchases. Only rest room is the wide open natural space. :)
For some time now, we had been trying to find a nice family trekking trail close enough to do it in half a day. Veena suggested Turahalli which had been recommended by her friend. We decided to check it out.
Plan was to leave at 7am, Saturday morning. We all managed to squeeze into Sridhars Innova and were out of the gate by 7.30am. All the kids, Rohit, Tejas, Nithila, Siddharth and Swarup
were in good spirits and looking forward to the adventure. After a short ride and going around in circles asking for Turahalli, we finally managed to find the foothill of the hillock where the trail starts.As soon as we got out of the car, we saw the energetic flight of a Bee Eater looking for its breakfast. Elected to leave the hot coffee to be had on the return and took the food bags along with us.
The trail is up a small hillock to the temple on top. There are lots of boulders, trees and bushes. Nithila, Tejas and Rohit was out front with sridhar quickly and before long disappeared around a
bend. Veena with siddharth were next followed by Sangavi with Swarup and me with my camera. We could see Egrets, Herons and a Red wattled Lapwing in the fields below though we couldn't spot any water body. While crossing a rocky outcrop we disturbed couple of Raptors but did not see anything much other than a flutter of wings and something big flying by us into a copse of trees. There were several black kites hovering above us. One looked different and we soon realized that it was indeed a Oriental Honey-buzzard. Couple of the kites didn't seem to like him or her and they kept chasing it until all disappeared from our sight. Further up we noticed a little brown dove (laughing dove) on a boulder. It had what looked like a cut in its neck but later (after asking for some expert opinion) were told that's was just the feathers being ruffled.We reached the top in about 30 minutes. Both our 3 yr olds made it without a single complaint!
At the top there is a temple and a big tree surrounded by a concrete platform which one can use to picnic. By the time I got there, rest of the group were exploring the top as well as munching on the food. Kids were soon scrambling up the rock behind the tree and getting comfortable on the tree limbs. We explored the area for about an hour. Lots of boulders to try rock climbing skills and great views.The climb down was quick and soon all were sipping a nice cup of hot coffee which Veena had kept in a flask. I lagged behind the group to get some images of a Green Bee eater. A serene looking goatherd was sportive enough to pose for me also albeit unknowingly. He did like his snap though when I showed it!
Soon we were heading back home and planning on when we will make it back there, maybe this time for lunch as well!
More pictures of the trip can be found on Picasa.
If you do visit, please remember: Take only pictures and leave only footprints!
