Some Stuff: Ride to Vani Vilasa Sagara Dam

Long way: After finally hitting the road, we started enjoying the ride. the cool breeze, lush green farm lands on Mysore-Bangalore road and sun rising at a distant was a treat to watch. Soon we passed the historical town of Srirangapatna and took a left deviation after we crossed the final bridge exiting the town.
The roads started to be very curvy again surrounded by sugar cane fields emitting sweet smell of sugar coming from small factories processing sugar canes and storing the waste product next to the huge boilers. Soon we hit a road block where he had to stay put for few minutes. This time the reason was the train crossing! A train had left Mysore and it was crossing the Pandavpura rail crossing. This gave us an opportunity to start discussing on Out of the World Objects (our another favorite topic). Sur started talking about the Galaxies and how much he wants to click few shots of the MilkyWay. We were all immersed in our Intergalactic discussion which was broken by huge sound of the incoming train. Our discussion instantly shifted from Galaxies to the origination of train. Soon we were on the road again but as destined, Surendra got confused with the road and took a wrong left turn. He soon corrected it and we were back on right track to our destination without any further issues. We crossed many places such as MelKote, Nagamangala and Bellur (not to be confused with Belur). Soon our tummies were screaming for Breakfast and somewhere near to Turuvekere, we saw a small hotel and stopped to fill our tummies. I ordered a plate of Idly and Sur went for Chitranna (Lemon Rice). The hotel owner was very courteous and brought in a plate (Tatte) about a size of regular Pizza. Then a single Idly was placed into it with Coconut and red chilly chutney. The hot Tatte Idly along with some Bonda (made from gram flour) was a delight in its own kind. Without wasting much time I munched whole idly and took some additional bonda's, while Surendra had to wait for few more minutes for his Chitranna to arrive. After a surprisingly delicious breakfast we hit the road again and soon the bike was exceeding over 100 kmph. After crossing Huliyur, Sur decided to take the route of Hiriyur and then taking a reverse left turn to reach the destination. I was not sure what made him took this decision but this was a very good decision (the reason I will tell later). We were crossing huge Air Mills on the hill locks. Which we were circling around. Thanks to Sur who had brought his spare camera 'a Sony DSCHX1', I was clicking passing nature.

Destination: We soon reached the gates to enter the dam. It was already near to 12 noon. I saw a lot of shacks near the gate and went around to purchase a bottle of Pepsi from one of those while Sur got along with his usual business of puffing. I had to put on a long wait as the shack where i went didn't had a change and a kid went around to get that. Finally I also ended taking Mirinda bottle 1 ltr and rushed to Sur who was honking furiously. We ended right in front of the dam. There was a temple in front of it and as usual, there were lot of people from different communities thronging on to visit the dam for a weekend picnic. Sur negotiated with a push cart vendor selling toys to have a look over the bike. We kept our helmets and Sur got ready with his D3000 Nikon Camera with Tamron 70-300 mm lens. He had to keep his tripod back with the poor lady who was looking over our stuff. After finishing our chores, we took guidance from the locals on how to climb that dam. Soon enough I was witness to a gory scene "A man butchering few chickens to appease the Dam Deity". Arghh.. even though I am a staunch Non-Vegetarian, I hate to watch the poor birds getting their heads cut off! Well we soon passed the butchering spot and started climbing the stairs behind the beautiful Temple. There was a canal passing by, which was originating from the Dam (from the left hand side if one is facing his back towards the dam). This was the only one gate that I could notice from where the water was released! A gentleman was taking bath in this canal which had about a foot of water stagnant against a wall break. I wonder if he noticed some dead frogs next to him :-).. Once we climbed, we both got busy with our work. Clicking the beautiful dam and surrounding nature! The wind turbines on all hill locks, fishermen trying to catch, Birds swooping down on water (Pic: Bird) etc.,. We also noticed some cute couples getting cozy, and also some girls dipping in water on the other end of the dam (Pic: First Look) enjoyed by some locals! We were also annoyed by some locals trying to act smart. Ignoring them we proceeded to the other side of the dam, where we noticed some stairs going up the hill (Pic: Other Side). The scene was much more beautiful from that hill lock (Pic: Scene 1). While climbing up the hill clicking pics and enjoying Mirinda, I was totally unaware of what was in the store for me... An AMBUSH!