A day on the banks of Kaveri

I can't think of a better way to spend a Sunday than lazing in the midst of nature - far away from the maddening city crowd. It was quite an unplanned trip with the five of us leaving early on Sunday morning (well, 7.00 AM is early for a Sunday!) with the vague destination in mind as Kaveri banks .. somewhere around Bheemeshwari. We had a beautiful drive - with Gulmohar trees in full bloom forming an orange canopy over our heads for as far as eyes could see. We first stopped at the Sangam - it is the confluence of Kaveri and Arkavathy rivers. Thankfully we had arrived early and had the river almost to ourselves for an hour or so before busloads of tourists started arriving. The water here is not very clean (probably due to large number of people) and sadly the banks are badly littered. Water was only knee deep here and we loved it when the small fish nibbled dead skin off our feet. We all sure saved some bucks in the pedicure :).

By the time we came out, we were so hungry we could almost eat an elephant! After a breakfast of rotis, omelet, coconut chutney, fried fish and chai (yes yes, it was only breakfast and we ate everything that Parveen and Irshad, the shop owners, had available). Colin even helped them fry the fish! We then headed to Golibore which was just 9 kms from Sangam (it was an untarred road that led to Golibore). We did not go to the fishing camp & jungle lodges as it required prior reservation but the gatekeeper let us go the the Kaveri banks (it did come with a small price though!).

This part of Kaveri was much better - clear water, clean sand, very few people & many mountains. A board near the river bank warned us of unexpectedly deep waters and crocodiles, so we tried not to venture more than 10 feet inside water. After a while Colin & Pallab started displaying their skills in skipping stones across the river. After trying our hand, and failing miserably at it, the rest of us decided to find the perfect stones (medium-sized, flat ones) for them. We enjoyed watching them hurl stones and relishing the applause for doing good job at times; and all of us happily turned brown under the hot sun.

Once the sun started going down, we decided to head back home after a big late lunch at a restaurant at the Sangam. And before we knew it, we were back to the hustle and bustle of our daily city lives.