Saturday. 18th September.

Packed into two cars. Seven of us.

Shankar’s Ford with Vivek and Anu. Vasu’s Wagon R with Zeeshan, Kalyan and me.

We set off early morning. Kalyan gave me a wake-up call at 5.30 am, when he was supposed to pick me up. I was still fast asleep dreaming of nice things 🙂

A cup of hot chai woke me up a little.

We hit Kanakpura Road at about 6.30 am. It was overcast and cool and it looked like the rain gods were in their element. We were lucky that they changed their minds!

First stop. A lily pond by the highway. We jumped out. With 5 cameras and 8 lenses between 4 people – Canon Rebel (Vasu), Nikon F75 (Zeeshan and me) and Nikon F80 and Nikon D70 (Kalyan) – there was some furious clicking.

As we made our way towards Sangama (confluence point of the Cauvery and Arkavathi) about 100 kms from Bangalore, we were treated to some lovely weather. The sun played hide and seek for some time. There’s beautiful scenery on both sides of the road. Vasu is so awestruck that he nearly drives us off the road a few times. We need to remind him to pay more attention to the road.

Many stops later we arrive at Sangama. Unfortunately, it is littered with plastic and quite dirty. The journey in this case is actually much more beautiful than the destination.

After spending a few minutes there, we drive on to the village of Muthathi (the Cauvery fishing camp is located in this area). There are so many picture opportunities on the way, that we make another 3-4 stops including a small village. Before we know it Kalyan is surrounded by about a dozen excited kids. They are jumping up and down when they glimpse themselves on the camera’s LCD. Kalyan almost looks like the local ‘Pied Piper’!

The drive to Muthathi is through the hills and extremely pleasant. By the time we reached the village we are famished and settle for rice, sambar and omlettes at one of the food stalls by the river. Zeeshan and Anu get some sleep. Kalyan is still clicking away happily. The joys and advantages of a digital camera 🙂

The sun is out in full force. After lunch, we go towards the Cauvery river but again, it is littered and dirty. People obviously have a good time here and don’t bother to clean up after they leave. Even campaigns like this have not helped increase people’s awareness towards the environment.

We leave Muthathi and catch the afternoon sun. On the way, we hunt for Vasu’s elusive machan (he saw it on the way and is determined to click it). Unfortunately, even with all of us searching for it we can’t find it! Kalyan however manages to capture this one machan beautifully.

More pit stops on the way. A while later it begins to rain. I realize we have gotten every kind of weather in a single day – cloudy and overcast in the morning, sunny in the day and afternoon and then rainy in the evening.

We had originally planned to go to a third place called Mekadattu but have run out of time! Shankar and company reach Bangalore and we are still in Kanakpura! Though all of us are a little tired, we still have that last dreg of enthusiasm left. In fact, Vasu still had the energy to go into long winded explanations about things that I cannot quite remember now (I was beginning to sleep off at this stage!). Every once in a while he would exclaim, much to our amusement, “Guys, I have just this perfect picture in my mind…” We are just hoping he manages to translate it into film!

We catch a beautiful sunset on the way. After it gets dark, I try some experimentation setting up my tripod to capture the moon beside the highway.

Back to Bangalore and home at about 8.30 p.m. A day well spent!

Kalyan having the advantage of a digital camera, has already put up his pictures. I experimented on slides this time, so mine will have to wait for a couple more days to see the light!

Have a dekko at Kalyan’s shots with his super cool Nikon D70 that we all drooled over 🙂

A bug’s life: This was on my side of the car beside the highway. Shot from inside the car by Kalyan who was sitting on the other side. And he still managed to get a nice shot. Impressive!

Back in black : On the way back it began to rain and the umbrellas came out!

Litter: Along the Cauvery river, Sangama.

Green fields forever: Lovely scenery along the way.

Goodbye to another day! The sun sets. On the way back. Kanakpura Road.

Long walk home : A little boy along the highway.

Picture perfect: A view of the distant hills…

Standing guard: One of my favourite shots. A solitary machan against the hills.