Sangam and Meke­dattu are ideal for a day’s get­away from Ban­ga­lore. Though the peak of sum­mer is not the right time to head there, we brave­hearts decided not to be fazed by the intense heat any­way. On a warm Sun­day morn­ing, we packed some lunch and our equip­ment and started off at around 730 am in the morn­ing when all sane folks were snoozing.

A colour­ful win­dow of a vil­lage house on the way to Sangama

By the time we reached Kanakpura, it was around 930 am and we had our break­fast of idli-dosas there.

The coun­try­side is extremely dry in this sea­son and the trees are all leaf­less, wait­ing for the rain like eager lovers. We passed by many such dry fields and water bod­ies. I remem­bered my last trip down this road — it was all ver­dant, green and lush. What a dif­fer­ence now!

The long and wind­ing road, some­where on the way

Despite the heat how­ever, there were droves of peo­ple at Sangama. Frol­ick­ing in what­ever water was avail­able or play­ing in sandy river bed in the hot sun. If there’s one thing to be said, it’s the fact that Ban­ga­lore inhab­i­tants are quite adven­tur­ous! We watched for a while and waited for our bus to Mekedattu.

A view of the dried-up Sangama river bed and vis­i­tors throng­ing the spot

There is hardly any shade at Meke­dattu. Just a small shel­ter where a ven­dor was try­ing to make a quick buck by sell­ing cool drinks and but­ter milk. We walked down the rocks, where an enthu­si­as­tic bunch of young­sters go all the way to the edge invit­ing an acci­dent or a mishap. The lone police­man on duty, blows his shrill whis­tle but no one seems to pay any heed to him.

With the sun becom­ing sig­nif­i­cantly angrier, we walked back to the shel­ter and watched the antics of local guy who started a gam­bling game tempt­ing a few onlook­ers to par­tic­i­pate. The lone police­man got a whiff of the going-ons and rushed to the scene of the crime and broke up the party. We watched the antics of the nearby mon­keys after that, wait­ing for our return bus to Sangama.

A cou­ple of peo­ple enjoy­ing the view from the rocks

The bus arrived, creak­ing and grum­bling. About 20 min­utes later, we were back where we started and then we tried find­ing some shade to eat the packed lunch. Unfor­tu­nately, there’s hardly any nice shel­ter around, so we set­tled for the rel­a­tive cool com­fort of the car, park­ing it on a slightly des­o­late sec­tion of the road.

The Art of Liv­ing Cen­tre on Kanakpura Road

After lunch, we headed back towards Ban­ga­lore stop­ping enroute at the AOL’s impres­sive premises on Kanakpura Road. There, the cool and com­fort­able can­teen beck­oned us and I over­dosed on coconut water and grabbed myself some snacks. We roamed out­side and watched the sun go down behind the main dome, and then it was time to get back on the road after a hot, tir­ing but enjoy­able outing.

- Flickr Album