Cycling around Tattekere
October 31, 2011 1 Comment
There are not many lakes around bangalore which have been spared from pollution. A chat with a friend of mine a few days back lead me to tattekere lake near anekal. Googling for info on the lake showed the lake is pristine without any pollution. Reading a few blogs i came to know this is elephant territory and elephants normally come to the lake to bath and to drink. The place is also a haven for bird watchers as one can find various types of birds flying around
With the place decide I now had to finalize the route. One can reach tattekere either through banergatta or via harohalli. I decided to take the banergatta route as i would get a chance to ride inside the NP. The place and the route mapped out, headed out for another solo ride with hopes of meeting a few cyclists enroute. Reached banergatta in an hour and took the route to anekal. A km or two after crossing birla academy came across the signboards indicating the distance to ragihalli and shivanahalli.Confirmed the direction from a person standing there and took the road to ragihalli
The road to ragihalli is pretty much empty and in a couple of minutes I entered the banergatta national park
Roads inside BNP
The cloudy skies and the greenary made the ride more pleasent.
Greenary
A couple of kms of riding with a rolling terrain I was out of the national park , it was pretty much downhil till ragihalli and had a nice time zooming in the bends. Crossed ragihalli and shivanhalli where I again asked for directions. I was to take a right and keep going straight till I reach the main road from there tattekere was just a couple of kms
The descent
The tarmac ends after a short while and the road was filled with craters and loose mud everywhere. Since it was downhill one gets a feeling of doing off road cycling or a km or so. Reaching the highway I proceeded towards tattekere where I met another guy coming via harohalli. A brief chat with him and we headed to the lake.
One can go to the lake either by taking a left at the arch on the main or from within the village. It was another downhill off road ride and we got to the lake. There are electrified fences around the lake to prevent people from entering the lake
Electrified Fences
There was a small trail going by the side of the fences and we took that to reach the far end of the wires. Since there was enough space for the cycle to squueze through we did that and managed to get to the lake. The lake itself is pretty vast n serene. A small photoshoot there and after some relaxation we headed back to the main road
Thattekere Lake
Note: There are no boards around the lake to prevent people from trespassing. If anyone intending to go to the lake trespass at your own risk
There might be another route to the lake from the arch or from the Kanve Mahadeshwara temple located close to the lake, which we couldnt do. One can ask for an easier approach path to the lake from localites
We headed back to the main road and it was continous uphill ride to jigani which we covered in an hour or so.
It was already 12 by the time we reached jigani. A short stop for some snacks and it was a non stop ride back home which took another hour and half in the traffic. Reached home at 1.30 thus concluding a good ride to this little known lake
Thattekere Fact File
Name of the Lake: Thattekere Lake
Location: Mahadeshwara Forest
Distance From Bangalore: 40 Kms
How to Reach:
Route 1: Bangalore – Bannerghatta Police station. Take left towards Anekal route. Move further for 1-2 kms after crossing Birla Academy, take right. From here you really get into Bannerghatta National park. After 6-7 kms you will reach Ragihalli then cross Shivanahalli. Take right at shivanahalli and keep on the same road till u get a fork on the road, take left and keep going downhill. You’ll see the highway after half or one km. Tattekere is a km or two from here
Route 2: Bangalore-Kanakapura-Harohalli-Tattekere
The place is good for cycling and bird watching
Snaps can be found here
Comments