On Saturday, 4th Feb, I traveled to the small village of Kokrebellur with my colleagues. We were discussing about few places from last couple of days when Anil suggested us to explore this village and the nearby areas in the weekend. We started early in the morning from Bangalore, in Anil’s car, the first halt was at the famous Kamath Lok Ruchi restaurant for a mouthwatering breakfast. After having the heavy breakfast, we started straight towards the Shivanasamudra waterfalls (around 135 kms from bangalore) but that was the biggest disappointment of the day, as there wasn’t even a single drop of water. The next stop was at the ancient town of Talakadu (on the bank of Kaveri River). Talakadu is a temple town, full of temple ruins, sand dunes and beautiful landscapes. It also has a small sand beach with availability of coracle rides in the Kaveri River. After spending some fun time near the riverside, we started towards the final destination of the day - “Kokrebellur” village. Kokrebellur is a small village which is also a bird sanctuary with a unique bonding between the birds and the villagers from 100’s of years. Pelicans and Storks are the major attractions of this place and they coexist freely, mostly in tamarind trees in the middle of the village with the loving and caring villagers. The village is near the Shimsa River and other large water tanks that offers the basic food supplies to the birds (especially fishes and frogs). I was totally amazed with the unique chemistry between birds and the villagers and the kind of response we received at the village. The locals informed us about the history of the place, the nesting season and even allowed us to click pictures from their house tops and stairs. While driving back to Bangalore, we stopped at a small food joint and enjoyed the bisibele bath with filter coffee. We reached Bangalore at 6:30 PM, evening.
Distance - Shivanasamudra falls - around 135 kms from Bangalore. Monsoon is the best season.
Kokrebellur - around 90 kms from Bangalore on Bangalore - Mysore highway, near Maddur. Famous for Spot billed Pelicans and Painted Storks.
