Explore. Dream. Travel

Solo travel. I never knew something of that sort existed till I landed accidentally ( luckily ) on one such travel blog. Ever since that I was curious to explore the joy of traveling solo. Eventually I happened to see many of that kind in Twitter and FB who preferred to travel solo which increased my curiosity to try it atleast once. But as always laziness and procrastination made sure I didn't.

Champakadhama swamy temple

I had borrowed the 17-70mm macro lens to shoot flowers at the Lalbhag flower show. We also planned a ride to Bannerghetta National park the next day hoping to shoot some butterflies in action before returning the lens. Owing to laziness everyone backed out at last moment and surprisingly me being the most laziest decided to ride solo. I started at 8 AM and the initial signs of traffic free roads, soothing breezy weather and added solitude made the ride more enjoyable. Thanks to the pleasing climate the speed never clocked beyond 50Km/h. To add to the bliss had Idly Vada drenched in Sambhar for breakfast.

Pleasant Surprises

The first surprise of the solo travel happened when I took a wrong turn which lead to a temple instead of park. Wrong route leading to a temple seemed like a divine blessing, I switched plans and decided to explore the temple. The CHAMPAKADHAMA TEMPLE dedicated to incarnation of Lord Vishnu. The atmosphere and lighting was good, and with the cloud patterns inviting for a HDR shot, I clicked few shots of the temple. I got to know there was another temple at hill top. It took about 10 mins of uphill trek to reach NARASIMHA SWAMY temple. Amused by my photographic antics, the lady selling water bottles outside the temple suggested me to visit the ANJANEYA temple located at a distance of 3 Kms on the other side of the hill.

The trail looked suspicious as I couldn't see any traces of crowd heading towards the temple. I still took my chance and walked for 2 Kms into the forest till I spotted this.

Beware - Bear ahead

All alone in the jungle, unable to read kannada, my mind interpreted the poster as BEWARE - BEAR AHEAD. Mission abort, I said to myself and returned back. Disturbed a couple asking route who were trying to have some private time in the jungle. The grandpa who was looking after his grazing cows assured me that I was on the right path which prompted me to start all over again. This time it was a 4 km walk till I spotted a similar sign board with a TIGER in it. No more adventure. Walked back all the way to where I started. Luckily when I almost called it off, I met a passerby who was heading towards the temple. I requested her to take me along and she gladly agreed. She doesn't know English and in my case its "Kannada baralva". But we still managed to have conversation which lasted for 30 minutes. As the long walk came to an end, I took some photos of the temple and I bid adieu and thanked her for making my trip more memorable. I also clicked a pose of her. She certified that my Kannada ain't that bad. I was back at the base around 11 AM and as planned I visited the butterfly park and caught some butterflies in action too.

"5 varusa, ee kannada sakku" , She said.

Did I enjoy traveling solo ?

Well I did enjoy. There was ample time for introspection, freedom of taking decisions, relaxing and most importantly getting lost in the nature. And as always happiness is not in the journey but the experiences that you encounter in the journey. The experience of being helped out by a stranger, joy of conversing in a fairly known language made my day.

Photos