Cauvery River View SRIRANGAPATANAM

 2^nd and 3^rd October 2010 being holidays, Vilas planned for an outing. We wanted something close to the city yet a quiet place. He booked an a/c double cottage at the Mayura River View KSTDC Hotel through net for a day. (The charges were somewhere around Rs.2000/- per day but the value for money we got was really high, we realised this during our stay.)

           We normally prefer driving on our own and started around 8.30 am in the morning, from Bannerghatta road. We took the nice road to get on to the Mysore road and had our first stop over at Bidadi (some 40 Kms away) for steaming hot tatte idlis, our favourite breakfast.

          After the breakfast we headed towards Channapatna. Here we bargained for some wooden artefacts and pushed ahead on the same road for sometime.

          Maddur Tiffney’s is another favourite. Few friends who are proper Bangalorites had recently informed us that the original Maddur Tiffney’s is on the left side of the road while heading towards Mysore; here we had the taste of original bisi bisi Maddur vade.

         With 3 short stop over’s we finally decided to stop only upon reaching our final destination as the day was getting hot with the bright sun. 

          Mayura River View KSTDC is on the out skirts of the Srirangapatnam town, after passing through the town area, one sees a petrol bunk on the left and just after this is a small lane where one needs to take a left.

           As we entered the place, we had a serene and calm and cool feeling within us, much to our likings. The cottages are newly built and in an excellent condition. The décor within was unmatched and everything seemed really clean and tide.

            After some rest we walked around the place. The garden and the kids play area was well maintained, everything was lush green, with the river flowing just next to the garden. We climbed down the steps towards the river and were enjoying the scenery.

           We spotted trails of birds flying in V shape in the sky. The kingfisher flying and humming on the spot and then within a fraction of a second dipping into the river to get its priced catch. Lots of such wonderful experiences we had.

           We boarded a rubber boat with life jackets on and 1 oar in hand. We had a life time experience of mixed feelings- fear, fun, scenic beauty and so on.

          Mayura hotels have restaurants and hence we decided to have lunch in the river side open tent shape restaurant. While having our food we spotted Indian Roller or Neelkanth. We could not have expected more than this….

           Later in the evening we went back to the town of Srirangapatanam and saw some popular tourist attractions of Tipu Sultan. We saw the Captain Bailey’s Dungeon, Tipu’s palace, his place of death and the Sriranganatha Temple. This dungeon was a prison during Tipu’s era, where he kept British prisoner under arrest. This placed is named so, as Captain Bailey a British breath his last while in the prison. The palace is in ruins and one can understand only by reading the display board which gives a fair idea about it. When Tipu was fatally attacked, he ran a distance and he fell on the ground, this place is marked and is protected. However, surprisingly the temple though is 1200 years old is still in an excellent condition. The courtyard is huge and is maintained well.

            Next day the chirping birds were a wake up call for us. We strolled around and recorded the mixed sounds. We went by the river side and sat for sometime watching the birds, the sound of water flow and much more.

           Later we drove upwards to the Rangantithu Bird Sanctuary which is again beside the Cauvery River, with greenery all over the driveway it was a refreshing day.

At the sanctuary we spotted various species of cranes, some were black billed, some yellow, some were small in size and some big, all with subtle differences. This is the hatching season and nourishing their young’s ones and when they are ready to fly back all the birds fly back to long distances.

          We explored all the inners spots while on a boat and the boatman giving us a running commentary.

          We spotted few crocodiles afloat and some resting just below the hatching places, to gulp the poor babies of the birds who fell down while practicing to fly.

            One and more all such tiny experiences made us relate more to the basics. On the way back we explore some green farms and fields. One was a farm which was growing vegetables. We plucked the fresh lady’s fingers and the cucumber and enjoyed freshness.

            It was time to return back home. We had lunch at Kamaths’ Lok Ruchi and could feel the start of the city life being extremely crowded.

            However, we brought back home wonderful memories of this trip which fully recharged ourselves and motivated me to document my trips and travels.

                                                                                                                                                                            -Adv.Vandana Vaidya.