05 July 2009
As every Sunday gets more excited for us, this Sunday
too, ended up being very special. Our pick for this weekend adventure was a Peacock Sanctuary very close to Bangalore. Though
not much information was available either from the websites or blogs about the sanctuary itself, we went. ahead to explore this place. Both, I and my husband being nature lovers,
were equally excited about sighting a beautiful peacock amidst lush green
landscape during our visit. We decided to leave as early as possible since we
knew early mornings and late evenings were the best times to sight the pride of
India!
We packed our stuff and left around 6:30
am. We drove non-stop taking the NH48 and took a right towards the Adichunchungiri mutt arched entrance. Since we failed to get any kind of information from the web,
we totally banked upon the locals for the route to the sanctuary. To our
dismay, many of them, on inquiry replied to us in kannada, 'Navila' (a peacock?) 'Illi modhlu ithhu saar, ivaga
enu illa, dhaama noo illa, naviloo illa'! (peacocks were seen here long time ago.Now there is nothing here, neither the sanctuary nor the peacocks). Another old man, who heard less,
filled us with hope for a moment by saying 'idhe' (meaning it is there), until we realized he had actually misheard
the ‘Navilu Dhaama’(peacock sanctuary) as ‘Ravi Dhaba ’!!!! It was kind of funny but it filled us
with furt at that moment. A couple of auto drivers too replied negatively.
Both of us felt disappointed and consoled each other
saying it was okay. We still took chances and drove around in search oft it,
inquiring people. One man pointed us towards a place that turned out to be a ‘Sasya
Kashi’. The guard there made it clear to us about the non existence of any
peacock sanctuary around. More disappointment encroached on us. And to be frank,
I was really down on hearing such a thing. We went back to the Mutt, drove
all around a few kms just to check if there were any sign boards leading to
the sanctuary. But no luck. My husband suggested that since we’ve come this far, we should
go visit the hill at least. With a heavy heart, I went along. The pain of not sighting a peacock still lingered. To our surprise, the mutt offered
us more than we expected! After the dharshana of Lord Bhairaveswara, we followed the
track to Gavi Siddeswara and Kathle Someshwara atop the hill. Since it was a
religious place, we had to trek the hill bare foot. Initially there were huge
granite steps to walk up the hill and then later on, it kind of got slippery as he steps were carved out of karikallu (black stone). We spotted a beautiful
yellow crested Bulbul and three different lizards at the hill top. The only thing we
were missing was our camera! Anyway, we decided to trek further towards ‘Kathle
Someshwara’, supposedly a cave temple where Nandi god is
worshipped. The little priest pointed us towards an exit which led to the 'sthamba' (pillar),
our second destination. This was the most exciting of all. We experienced a bit of
rock climbing and some hard trekking.
On viewing the ground from hilltop, my husband spotted a route, that we thought could’ve been the one taken by jeeps for rounds in the sanctuary. We decided we would walk around
that place and explore. Also, on asking the little boy (who guided
us), if he had spotted any peacocks around recently, he replied to us…‘irithve, bandegal
kelagade malgirthave’(peacocks will be there, resting under rocks!). And he vaguely pointed out to the place from top. Our
hopes became strong as this was the first positive response we heard. During our climb, we had asked another boy priest about he same and he answered, ‘now there
are very few or no peacocks as there is quarrying work going around and the
sound of the blasts keep the peacocks away from this place’. It was justified. But
we kept our hopes alive. After we finished our trek, we drove towards the Kalyani
and a pond filled with lotuses.
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| Water Tank |
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| Pink Lotuses |
With hope filled in us, we started the walk into a
place just behind the mutt, which we thought could’ve been the non existent
sanctuary! It was lush green everywhere, a perfect place for butterflies and
birds! As soon as we started to walk, we met an old shepherd who told ‘navilgalu mosthaagive’(there are many peacocks here). We were happy now, since it filled in a lot of
confidence of finding one! We explored the place, found lizards, insects and
some colorful butterflies.
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| Lemon Pansy |
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| Spiny Lizard |
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| Crimson Rose |
We walked a little further along the boundary, to a place full of rocks.
A group of four birds of unknown identity just fluttered past my husband. For a moment, we thought it was a peacock but no! Keeping our hopes alive and telling each other we needed the luck factor
too to sight a peacock, we started walking back towards the car. We heard the cries of a peacock, loud and clear, and tried tracing the peacock. Every now and then, we rested and kept silent. My
husband walked keeping the handy cam on, while I spotted an amazing swallow
tailed butterfly that was waiting to be photographed! I was pretty
happy to have photographed a butterfly so closely.
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| Peacock on Rock |
It
started to drizzle and looked like it would get heavier. My husband advised we
reach back to the car as quickly as possible. We walked together talking about the peacock and
gosh! What an amazing moment it was, for the both of us….we witnessed the
presence of the most beautiful bird in the world, the Peacock! It was a mighty
one. At that moment, we couldn’t believe what we’d seen. It looked like
as if the peacock came out and showed off just for our sake!!! It was so
colorful that one can hardly miss it amidst the background of rocks. We actually got to see a peacock. And a mere glimpse of it had
filled our hearts with joy. It made our day and we secretly felt we were lucky.
At least lucky enough! I would’ve waited there all evening to watch that
beautiful bird. Since we had little time left, we had to hurry back. We
climbed up to the place where we had sighted the bird, but found nothing, since
the bird had escaped to another place. I could see something big fly away from
us. We at least had the mercy of god and the peacock, that we could sight one.
It was enough for the day. Just while we were getting down a small hill, we saw a peahen fly over us. We had almost reached the end of where we had started
the walk and looking back, we witnessed another
amazing moment.
Yes, it was another beautiful peacock. This time, far away and
high above, it stood atop the hill as if to say good-bye to us and, revealed its
beautiful feathers, showing off its colors and left a message of being happy to
have seen us around and to come back again!!! We waited for sometime
appreciating its beauty, while it flew to a tree close by. My husband could
spot the peacock very distinctly though its bluish green color made it
difficult for me to spot it amidst the greenery of the tree. It sat there
waiting for us to leave.
This is our first travel story written long before the inception of this blog . Entire credit of this post goes to my wife. 
