Christmas 2013... @ St. Mary's Basilica

Neither I am a kind of person who loves to go to temples, churches on special occasion nor a religious person. But still this Christmas I decided to visit the oldest & one of the most famous Church of Bangalore i.e. St Mary's Basilica which is located in the heart of East Bangalore Shivajinagar because  i love to visit each and every place that I can see and one of my friend asked me to accompany her.

Front view of St Mary's Basilica

It was undoubtedly a magnificent Church I have ever seen in my life. When we got down from Bus at Shivajinagar it was unusual crowded. We proceeded towards Church and number of heads around us kept on increasing with every step.

Side View

Another side view

Surrounding of the Church was full with people of all faiths who were desperate to enter into it and pray to Mother Mary and Jesus as soon as possible. Anyhow we kept on moving with the crowd and entered into the Gate of Church.

Illuminated view

St Mary's Basilica's architecture is of Gothic Style designed by a French architect. The facade of the Basilica is 172ft tall and 50ft wide. It seem to be a very huge church having lot of space for people and offer their prayers. Its pristine beauty can't be easily explained in the words. The six feet tall attractive shrine outside the church inspires the people who visit this unforgettable church of Bangalore. Since my knowledge about Christianity is not good so I consider myself ineligible to explain it. But what I got there is an inner peace instead of hundreds of people who were present there.

Shrine of Mother Mary with Baby Jesus

There were so many different statues of the Jesus, St Mary.. which were decorated very beautifully. People were busy to take different snaps with different angles.

Another Shrine of Mother Mary

Basilica was decorated in an unusual way making it unexceptionally beautiful, tough to believe on my eyes. St. Mary's Shrine was illuminated with lights of various colors. In evening all lights of the Church have been switched on to making it a different place altogether.

Inside view of the Church.. simply amazing & keep on gazing :)

People were trying to write their names on the Glass which was used to cover Statues of St Mary, Jesus but it was clearly mentioned that we should not write on the glasses.  

Savandurga Trek..

Intro:

Not to mention that I was dying to trek Savandurga from a long time but because of some reasons it took this much time that I did it after 6 months after getting in Bangalore. It was my first trek after coming to Bangalore :) .

First a few words about it.. it is said to be second largest monolith in Asia... the word "monolith" was very new to me so I googled it to find out what exactly it is.. But when I came to know that it means a single rock then I was really surprised and wanted to see it very badly that how can a one single rock be this much big that trekking on this is this much difficult.. (as I have already done a lot of trekking).. But it was really giant even much more than my expectation.

This hill goes upto the height of 1226 m or 4022 ft above sea level with the union of two peaks having names Karigudda or black hills and Billigudda or white hills. In older times it was famous with the name "Fort of Death". It is around 60km from Bangalore.. off Magadi Road.. u can go there by KSRTC/BMTC buses if u don’t own any vehicle.. or else ur personal one is always the best..

The entire area is full of greenery and on the way you will find lot of plantation of coconut trees. This region is quite famous for medicinal plants and shrub forest.

Bangalore to Savandurga:

Road to Savandurga

Another road.. m crazy for roads

On Friday night ultimately I was able to find two of my friends to come with me and we decided to leave at 7 in morning the next day.. but we left at 8AM on Saturday morning instead of 7. Then I took tea as usual and also some kinda snacks.. caught bus at around 8:45AM for Majestic.. and then at 10:15AM we reached at MCTC… from there caught bus for Doda Aalada Mara but it was going till TG Reservoir and dropped us there and then got KSRTC bus till Magadi Road.. from there 1 auto finally dropped us at foot of Savandurga.

From TG reservoir we were able to catch a glimpse of Savandurga and again roads and weather.. all were increasing our excitement.. and then slowly we had started feeling like it was pulling us like a magnet towards itself.

Starting of much awaited trek with visit to Temple:

Swamy Narasimha Temple in foot of Savandurga

And then we visited Swamy Narasimha Temple and in between making our mind to how we are going to conquer this monolith as it was really looking slippery and very slippery. In temple they were carrying PALKI of Swamy Narasimha that was really very beautiful.. ultimately we started our much awaiting trekking at Savandurga at around 1:15PM after carrying some water bottles as we were not supposed to get anything after that point…

Savandurga as seen from Narasimha Temple

First desperately needed break:

Taking rest before the first Wall of ruined Fort

Here our trek started

And here we started our trek and it was really very steep much more than expectation. This first part of trek was really very slippery and we had to maintain ourselves so that we didn't slip down and on top of that temperature was also increasing at that point of time. But we were going up continuously.. following yellow arrows as marked by previous trekkers.. cracking jokes in between.. and then we took our much needed first break at First Wall of Fort. This wall was looking like a wall of the ruined fort that would be here but it was really having quaint charm. But this thing was growing my excitement and I wanted to be on top asap as we have started catching amazing views while ascending. We were able to catch the glimpse of TG reservoir.

First Wall of Fort

To 2nd break point:

We continued towards the second point as there is some other wall also.. but instead of normal route we took the unusual one.. and here I have to confess that it was deadly slippery making our feet to go down with each step.. and this thing I realized while coming down that what path we taken was really dangerous.. scary.. but here I won and took some rest while both of my friends were coming up with the help of some folks as they were also going till top…

Try to spot two gals who were almost going to die..

Third Halt:

After that point we started towards our third and final point but it was really very comfortable as were not feeling any trouble now.. also here at this point there were very few people.. but we took a short break as at a point at a big puddle with lots of water in it but please dont try to go into water as nobody knows how deep it is. Beside it there was a ruined structure but good enough to take shelter from scorching sun on the head and then we started towards Nandi statue as we wanted to see it very soon..

Puddle found on the way

Finally behind Nandi statue:

That part was really very exciting as we were going through space created between very big stones.. full of adventure… and as soon we reached to top we have started feeling a hard blow of air and when we reached behind Nandi statue.. wind speed was like.. we were unable to stand on our feet and feeling like we will definitely will go away with this wind today..

Try to imagine wind blow..

Why people go there:

Ultimately we touched feet of Nandi and could not stand without holding the pillar.. standing there we could see like whole bangalore.. TG reservoir on 1 side and Manchanebele Reservoir on another side.. and were in no mood to go down for atleast 3-4 hours… but suddenly it started raining.. so we decided to go down as it would be very difficult if that would turn into heavy rain.. but after some time it was off and now we were like filled of accomplishment feeling.. cheering and all..

Back to foot of it from top.. voww:

While coming down again we went on some wrong direction but this time it was by chance as we were the only girls or shud say only 1 there at that time.. but after sometime we found the right way.. coming down while catching nice views of reservoirs.. our songs jokes were going on.

Way down

Back to namma Bangalore:

Then we visited Veerbhadeshwara Temple.. a very nice temple in foot of Savandurga..  came to Magadi Road by auto..from there caught KSRTC bus that dropped us at Majestic..

We were really very hungry by that time.. had a nice dinner and left for our places…

General Information with Day Plan:

Date of Visiting : 15-Jun-2013 Saturday

Distance from Bangalore : approx 70 Km

Entry Fee : No Entry Fee is there

Mode of travelling : By Bus(BMTC and KSRTC)

Plan for the day : Bangalore->Majestic->Savandurga->Manchanebele->Big Banyan Tree->Bangalore.

Days required : 3 hours to go up and 1 hr on top and theen 1.5 hr to come down.

Kind of place : It is famous for moderate level of trekking but picnic can also be enjoyed in the foot of the hill at temples. Camping can be done at foot of hill.

Some important points:

Have some food items with you as u will not find out any good eating point there.

Can go for enjoying picnic and visiting temples.. very famous amongst locals.

Also can go to Manchanebele Dam and Big Banyan Tree while returning.. u will feel refreshed.

Avoid to go in rainy season for trekking as it is already very slippery and rain will make it worse..

Wear proper footwear having good grip and take proper precautions because trek is nice enough. 

Directions To Savandurga via TG Reservoir:

View Larger Map

Trip to Big Banyan Tree & Manchanabele Dam

View inside Big Banyan Tree Premise

Here starts a fun-filled Day

Intro:

Impossible to believe that it is a single tree

It was an awesome day full of fun and quite adventurous too. My roommate Pragati has got her joining location as Pune and she has planned to leave Bangalore on 2^nd May 2013.

But before that she wanted to explore(she realized it very soon ;)) Bangalore as much as possible, but was left with almost no time. So we decided to go to any place possible as we did not had any personal vehicle.

She had one exam on Sunday morning (28^th April), so I decide to proceed after that. We started out around 12:30PM when I left my room for Majestic. She was already there waiting for me and killing her time anyhow. By that time it was quite hot.

Majestic to Doda Aalada Mara:

After I reached Majestic, we enquired about the bus and some other details. Within 10 minutes we caught the bus from Platform no. 19 as we were already kinda late. As the bus proceeded towards Mysore road, we started to feel cool breeze as temperature was degrading slowly and after sometime temperature was quite good.

lovely roads

We were really very happy as bus was going with a good speed but Pragati was like somewhat worried that how we will return back but I just wanted to see that Big tree which is famous with name Dodda Aalada Maara (DAM) in local people. After sometime we got off from Mysore Road.. we have to take right from Rajarajeshwari Engineering College and from there a narrow road was there. And then we were able to see small villages of Bangalore and they were really very beautiful.. houses were really well constructed and have good designs. I was really surprised with the road condition as there was not a single pit even in such a outer area. Roads were narrow but definitely wanna mention that this kind of road we could not expect.. and also BMTC is running bus with such a good frequency in such outer areas.. heads off…

Astonished while realizing what am I watching:

Temple inside Big Banyan Premise

We reached at Big Banyan around 2:45PM.. and we literally jumped off from bus. I was astonished and could not believe on my eyes that what I am seeing is one tree only or is it a bunch of trees.. but then we entered in its premise.. I shud say premise as it is really a very very big area that you even can’t imagine and they have maintained it really well and constructed a boundary around it( to feel it u have to visit it).. just after the entry gate is a board on which basic details about this tree is written which says that it is the fourth biggest tree in World which is spread in a area that is around 3 acres.

Then we began to move ahead.. yes u can walk in between tree stems/branches as they have built a kind pavements in between them.. but it was really tought to believe on my eyes and my mind was not ready to accept that it is a one single tree only.. but after sometime I noticed that it was like.. its branches have been fallen off towards the ground and after reaching to it they have started growing again.. (honestly I don’t have words to describe what I saw)

DAM to Dam:

Then suddenly it started raining.. but it was very slow so we were enjoying it initially and then it turned to heavy rain.. we ran and took shelter. After sometime when it slowed down we came out and took bhutta.. it is always awesome to have hot bhutta in slow rain.. I always love it and this thing really made ma day.. then I decide to head towards Manchebele Dam which is around 9 kms from there but did not disclose it to Pragati as she was not aware about it as what exactly is there.. so we jus took the bus that was coming and ran and caught it.. in between we got wet somewhat but it was really grt..

When conductor of the bus knew that we were going to Dam.. he was also keen to know that were we going to catch fish.. but we told him that no.. we are going there just to have fun as this is our first visit.. and he was like surprised that only 2 gals can also do this kind of adventurous thing..

At Manchebele Dam:

Manchanebele Reservoir

As we were reaching there our excitement was growing.. till then Pragati has also known that we were going to some dam.. and as she loves water so she was even more excited than me. Then driver asked us to get off and we head towards the Dam.. just after we got down we were able to see such a scenic view.. we were in completely lap of nature and that’s only 30-35kms from Bangalore.. around walking after 200mtrs we were able to see a glimpse of Manchebelle Reservoir and that was Heights of surprise for me that bus has dropped us to such a close point and BMTC is really providing a very nice facility to mango people..

Then after some more steps we were able to see the bunch of people including families, boys and small groups who were enjoying in the cool water of reservoir. But till then my eyes were searching for only one thing.. as I was still unable to get any view of Manchebelle Dam.. although I was excited enough after seeing such a nice view of water and nature.. but still.. and then I decided to head towards the opposite direction of that crowd and then after walking some more we were ultimately find out that Dam and that time we were like Mission accomplished.

Manchanebele Dam

Back to BBT:

Tell me which is branch and which one is stem

giving a hard hit to brain-- that it is a single tree only

At that point there was no rush at all as people were enjoying water and were busy there.. and we rested there for sometime.. tried to catch that view of dam and water in our eyes and camera.. and around 4:30PM we decided to head back towards Big Banyan tree.. we came back to that point where bus dropped us and waited for around 15mins and came back to Banyan tree again..

Now we enjoyed there a lot.. there were lots of monkeys.. and tried to find out some place to eat but could not.. so plz whenever u plan to go there have some food with u.. as many families were enjoying picnic under that Banyan tree.. and it was cool enough to sit in between such a wide arms of such a giant tree.

To Banglore:

Then again we took bus and came back to Bangalore and this much is also in only Rs. 50/- as we have taken pass while going.. and it was really a wonderful day.. not planned but still much better than expectation and that tree deserves atleast one trip.. but I can go there any no. of times.

Other Plans:

If you love trekking than you can plan a trekking to Savandurga Hills that is around 14kms from Manchebelle Dam and then can come back to Dam itself and then in evening u can sit under tree.. as I am planning the same on any weekend.

Time to visit:

You can go to Big Banyan Tree any time of the year as it is really very cool under and around it but don’t forget to take some food items with you as u won’t be able to find any good restaurant here. But if you go in some cooler months then you can enjoy more at Dam and Tree and also trekking to Savandurga..

Food Availability:

Good Food is not available there.

How to go:

You can take BMTC buses as frequency is really very good and last bus at Dam is available at around 8:30PM, but if you have your own bike/car then that is also a very good option as roads are really well built.

Directions to reach there:

If you are coming from Silk Board side and have your own vehicle then its better to take Nice Ring Road and then take Mysore Road.. after take take right from Rajarajeshwari College.. and now u r on Doda Alada Mara Road..

General Information with Day Plan:

Date of Visiting : 28-Apr-2013 Sunday
Kind of Place : Picnic can be enjoyed under Giant Banyan Tree and drenching in Manchebele Reservoir.. :)

Distance of tree from Bangalore : 35Km, Dam from Tree : 9Km.
Days Required : 1 Day is enough.

No. of People involved  : 2
How we went : By Bus (BMTC)

Plan for the day : Bangalore ->Majestic ->Doda Aalada Maara ->Manchanabele ->Big Banyan Tree ->Bangalore

Direction to reach Big Banyan Tree & Manchanabele Dam:
 
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