theladywanderer

Bananthimari Betta is a lesser known hill located around 3 Kms from Kanakapura town and 60 Kms from Bangalore. This trek was long pending in my to-do list but somehow the timings never matched. It was already more than a month since my last trek. So it was trek time and I signed up for this trek with BMC (Bangalore Mountaineering Club). We were picked up from the designated pick-up points of Bangalore early in the morning by BMC team. Since around 35 people had enrolled for this trek, two mini vehicles were arranged and 3 trek leads were appointed to manage this big group.  After all pick-ups were complete, we drove towards Kanakapura. Enroute we stopped at Nasa's food court which is famous for varieties of Benna (butter) Dosas. I took tatte idli since I wanted to have light food before my trek. Tatte idli was good. We were asked to bring empty lunch boxes from home by BMC. In this hotel, Vangi (Brinjal) Bath was packed in our boxes as our lunch post trek. Bit disappointed with res

Srinivasa Sagara Dam is located in Chikkaballapur and serves as a perfect picnic spot for a weekend getaway from Bangalore.  If you are driving, you will easily need around 2 hours to reach  Chikkaballapur from Bangalore. Would suggest plan this post lunch since there aren't good options for food along this route.  Once you reach Chikkaballapur, switch on google maps which will give you directions to this place. People who wish to explore this place by local transport can take the KSRTC bus from Bangalore to Chikkaballapur. Upon reaching Chikkaballapur, you can hire an auto to this place.  As you enter Sri Venkateshwara Temple Road, you will be stopped to pay parking fee here.  Parking fee = Rs 20.  After taking parking ticket, you drive for another 350 meters and reach parking lot. There is a huge area dedicated mainly for parking but we drove up to Sri Venkataramana temple and there is enough space to park your vehicle here also since there were less visitors on this day.  We got