Trek in the middle of the city?

Location: Lalbagh Botanical Garden, Jayanagar, Bangalore 

To get there: Use the map at the above link or ask any pedestrian for directions or if going by auto or taxi, just mention the place. 

Facilities: Near the stone mountain or glasshouse there are shops which sell ice cream and junk food. Lots of roadside vendors ( no idea how they get in.. bribe? ) sell mango, corn, etc. Best to pack a healthy picnic. There are public paid restrooms (Nirmals) at the West Gate and the North gate. Other informational links: Karnataka Horticulture website

When I created this blog, I wanted it to be a repository of all the public places where we go for a trek or a nature ramble, if you will, which is family-friendly. By family-friendly, I mean that kids as young as 3 can tag along and enjoy nature. This I hoped will be useful for other parents like me looking for good and close by places for kids to run free and explore and not having to pay exorbitant money to go to some resort for an artificial nature outing. So, we had 2 really nice treks, both close to Bangalore which certainly came under the definition I had. Then I added the birding places in Chennai city on a whim as I enjoyed that day very much with my 7 yr old daughter, Nithila. In a similar vein, it will be remiss of me if I don't mention the best place for a good nature walk right in the middle of Bangalore which I enjoy at least once a week! Yes, I am talking about Lalbagh. It is certainly overcrowded these days and losing some of its charms but I feel it still is the biggest jewel in the Garden City crown. 

Lalbagh has plenty of things to offer to everyone from a casual walker, jogger, photographer, nature lover to just being a place for a simple family picnic. We can combine it all and look at it as a nature trail and experience it that way. The park has 4 gates. The east gate from the double road is the largest entrance and has plenty of parking. It is close to the stone mountain which has a small temple structure. All other gates have limited parking mostly roadside. The west gate is towards Basavanagudi and is next to the lake. The north gate has a welcoming arch and can be entered from the circle near MTR. 

 

Possible Trek options: Lake Trail: There is a mostly muddy track all around the lake. It is about 1.5 km in length. There are lots of water birds, like Egrets, Herons, Pelicans, Swamphens, Coots, Waterhens, Lapwings, Cormorants, etc., to spot in the lake when taking this trail. At the start, there is a tree-covered strip where we can find scrub birds also like Parakeets, Mynahs, Orioles, Sunbirds, Flowerpeckers, etc., Don't forget to pay attention to birdlife in the swamp from the bridge. Purple Swamphens are a certainty here. If you are lucky there will be a Purple Heron and/or a Grey Heron also. 

All around the park: The track going all around the park is about 3.5km. From the Westgate turn right to go along the lake. Cover half the lake and turn right after the bridge to skirt the stone mountain, go along the right of some expansive lawns, then find the East Gate entrance and go along the compound wall to get back to the west gate. Near the stone mountain, you can take a break and do some scrambling there or check out the Glasshouse. There is a floral clock also near the East gate which is worth finding. The lawn is also a good place to picnic and play some frisbee or soccer if it's not too crowded. 

 

Random walks: It is also fine to walk around randomly and find other good spots. There is a large Rose Garden, Bandstand with lawns all around, a Japanese garden, and interesting trees all over the place. If you do plan to go, keep plenty of time and enjoy what Lalbagh has to offer in a leisurely manner. They charge about 10rs per adult and 5 per child from 9am to 6pm. The entrance is free early morning before 8.30am. As always, do not throw any trash other than in a proper litter bin. Don't play loud music and shout/scream which not only spoils the ambiance but defeats the purpose of the park as a horticulture and nature showcase. 

Birding in Chennai City

Last weekend we had to be in Chennai for 5 days to attend a wedding. 5 days! Yes, wedding was only for 1 day but the other days were all the receptions which could not be skipped. Now that we were stuck there, birding seemed like a nice way to make it somewhat worthwhile. So, me and my daughter, Nithila, got up at 6am on Friday and headed out to Adyar Theosophical Society, following up on the location as mentioned in a Chennai trip report on bngbirds. Father-in-law gave us a drop in his car so that we could be there before 7am. Unfortunately, only card-carrying members were permitted into the premises from 5am to 7am for walking. No amount of pleading moved the guard. Public Visitors were allowed from 8.30am to 10am. So, we shifted over to IIT Madras campus which was close by. This is also "technically" closed to public. However, one of our relatives is a professor here and using that link we got in.



We started walking along one of the avenues from the main gate and were immediatly greeted by calls from Koels and Mynahs. The vegetation inside the campus is quite thick and almost jungle like. Though vehicles and people movement is heavy the animals/birds seem to have gotten used to it. It was not very long before we came upon several Spotted Deer. We also saw a herd of pigs which from the looks of it were probably domesticated. Our highlight was a Black rumped flameback woodpecker. It gave us views for several minutes moving from one tree to another. Other birds we saw were Oriental magpie robin, Rose ringed parakeet, White breasted kingfisher, White breasted waterhen. and lots of Babblers (not sure of the ID). There were actually 2 parent Waterhens watching over 5 chicks, fully black in colour.

About 8.30am we got out and caught an auto and made it back to Adyar Theosophical Society. Now we were allowed inside and it is indeed a nice place for birding. We managed to walk upto the banyan tree and back. My daughter was quite tired by this time so we did not venture any deeper. Here too we got good views of a Black rumped flameback. All the other birds spotted in IIT were also found here. We also got to see a tree full of huge sized bats making quite a lot of noise. This was just before the banyan tree going from the main gate.

Overall, quite a nice experience for both of us. It was like walking in lalbagh except that here there was vehicular movement also. Hope to do this everytime we go to Chennai!

Trek to Muthurayana Betta

• Location: MuthurayanaBetta, Kanakpura Road, Near Bangalore
  Date: Apr 12th 2008
  To get there: [Click here for Google Map]. Go on Kanakapura Road from Bangalore. After Kaglipura or Kaggalipura, you will get Somanahalli. Less than a kilometer later you will hit Ravgodlu junction. There is just a bus stop platform here and a large arch across the Road (29.6.2020: The arch is gone. Road widening. Junction comes right after NASA Hotel). Turn left onto a tar road. Drive for about 2km, passing the village Ravgodlu on the way, until you see a dirt road turning right towards the hills. The hill on the right is Muthurayana Betta. There is a huge tree and platform here where you can park the car and walk the rest of the way or you can drive your vehicle on the dirt track along the hedge, all the way to the foothill.
  Distance: Ravgodlu turn off on Kanakpura Road is about 30km from Basavanagudi. From there the hill is about 2km.
  Trail type: There is no real proper trail, just paths made by the local folks. It is about 1km to 1.5km to the top. Elevation gain should be about 1000ft is my guess.
  Facilities: Nothing much close to the "trail head" near the main road. There was a village about a kilometer before where there may be small shops. Other than that its shops along Kanakapura road before the Ravgodlu turnoff for last minute purchases. No rest room facilities either...
  
  We had decided on this trek based on very little information in the Internet. However, the kids had done this with Woody Adventures, so at least we knew there was a hill and it was climbable by 6 yr olds! Based on just this much information, we left Basavanagudi around 7.30am in 2 cars with 5 adults and 6 kids from 3 yrs to 11yrs and lots of food! Along the way there was a partially dried up lake, few kms after NICE interchange, with several Painted Storks. A good start to our trip!
  
  Reached the turn off to the hill around 8.30am and decided to park under the tree and walk the dirt track. Turned out to be a good decision as we saw Indian Robins, Bulbuls, Green Bee-eater, Pond heron, Night heron, Egrets and a White breasted Kingfisher! Everybody now got into bird watching mode and were able to enjoy the energetic morning activity of these birds. Kids enjoyed watching several frogs in a muddy pond, which chose to stare at us for a while and then disappear into the muddy depths. After maybe a kilometer of walking, we were at the foothill and decided to energize ourselves before tackling the climb. Soon, all were munching on biscuits, buns and sandwiches.
  
  
  
  Stomach filled, we enquired with a local person as to any paths to the top. He suggested a way and was confident that all of us will be able to do it quite easily. With the new found knowledge we started our climb and were soon scrambling up boulders etc. Soon we were half way up in a saddle like area with great views. But we had run out of time as it was now nearly half past 10. Goal was to get back to Bangalore by noon, so reluctantly decided to spend some time at this "base camp" and then head down.
  
  
  On the way down, we were able to enjoy the flight of an Egyptian Vulture which hovered for quite sometime over us. Once back to the foothill area, we helped ourselves to some refreshing Rose milk and grapes to counter the hot summer sun.
  
  
  
  Cars were fine where we had parked. Kids still had some energy left to play word games all the way back to Bangalore which we reached by 11.45 or so. Overall a great trip. During summer its probably advisable to get there earlier say around 6.30am to be able to climb all the way comfortably and get back before the heat gets too much.
  
  Remember if you do plan on doing this, enjoy the nature but ensure that you leave the place as it was before you graced it. Yes, I mean no littering or disturbing the wild life.
  
  More pictures from the trek can be found here.
• Pictures from another visit on Nov 2017