kaleidoscope: Blue Lagoon, KRS, Mysore.

It was 2011’s Republic day and we decided we will show our Eeshaan some animals at the Mysore zoo. On the way, we thought of having some fun at the Blue Lagoon. Blue Lagoon is an island formed with the backwaters of the reservoir behind the KRS dam. It’s a beautiful place without any amenities what so ever. One should carry everything required to spend some time at the shores of a lagoon – my mates know why I am saying this. I forgot to take the most important thing to carry when the intension was to play around in water. :)
On a serious note, please carry enough snacks and take proper precautions. There could be small whirlpools anywhere – so better be careful and don’t go too far from the shore.
We started off at 8AM, had breakfast at Lokaruchi and reached KRS by 11:15 AM. Good speed considering the traffic we encountered. It was as if I was driving a little faster within the city. At the end, for about a kilometer, we drove through the road between some private farms before touching the shores of the Blue Lagoon. We had a grand guard of honor from some local villagers. They ask you some money for visiting the place. They have their sticks in hand and do not hesitate to damage your vehicle. Better bargain and pay them. I could bargain from 200 to 40 bucks per person. There were 3 of them and we ‘thought’ 120 would do. Nope. They came back again and they asked for more. We gave 50 more and they were off us.
The water had receded a little bit leaving some part which we can call as a shore. My son loves water and he had a great time in the water before he started shivering with cold. We took him off and then we all got into the water, played for a while. It is such instances when the child in each of us takes a rebirth. There is an island very close to the shore. You can ask the locals there to ferry you to the island. When we went there, the boat was on the island and he took a lot of time to come to us. We had time as a constraint. The Mysore zoo closes at 5:30pm and that was our second destination. We left the Blue lagoon at around 1pm. We reached the Mysore city after having some tea en route. Every one was very hungry and finished our meals in a jiffy.
We then started off at 3pm towards the Zoo. We were into the zoo by 4. Giraffes welcomed us and to a tiger roared to announce himself to my son. My son saw a Zebra peeing and said that the Zebra wasn’t wearing diapers. :) He was lucky to see an elephant taking bath. Poor jumbo was trying anything and everything to beat the heat of the sun. Deer, Bears, Bohr, Lion all gave us a picturesque silent poses while walked past their areas. At the end, the Giraffes said bye to us at exactly 5:30pm.
We went to a restaurant to refresh ourselves with some pakodas and teas and coffees. We left Mysore only to be back soon. We were at the signal near Columbia Asia hospital at 6:43pm. Lot of traffic did not allow me to get past 100kmph. I kept the car at 80kmph to have a break-less maneuver. We stopped again at Lokaruchi for dinner and spent close to an hour there. When I parked my car at home, it was exactly 10:43pm.

Salient points for planners:

The Route:

Take the right after Srirangapatna in Bangalore-Mysore highway. Follow the signal boards to reach KRS dam. Ask locals for the route to Blue Lagoon. It is 7 kms from there. Carry food and drinking water along if you plan to stay on for a longer time. Take some loose change (some rupees 10/20/50 notes) to give it to the villagers. If you show off a 1000/500/100 rupees note you stand a chance of loosing it.

Best time to visit:

I reckon March-April-May would be good; definitely not in the rainy season. And if it’s an afternoon to early evening affair, it will be very good.

Technical Stuff:

Road condition: Very good barring a couple of kilometers. Last 500-600 meters is a mud road.
Top Speed: 120kmph
Average Speed: 54kmph.
Total Distance travelled: 342 Kms.

In Pics:

The Last stretch... you can get a glimpse of the water.