Friday April 8, 2011
The main thing which anyone thinks in Bangalore on Fridays is about the weekend plan. We are not any exceptional IT folks!! Our [5 of us] plan was to go for a weekend drive in my roomie’s car. After an hour long discussion with my colleagues and friends on where to head to for the weekend, we zeroed in to Bandipur National Park. With some googling we were able to get some lead on the jungle homes for accommodation. Got the contacts and went to the Indira nagar office and got booking done for accommodation in their tent house in Mudhumalai. It costs around Rs.500/- per tent which can accommodate 3 person and Rs.450/- per head for food [lunch, dinner and breakfast]. So, Now all excited about the drive and the night stay amidst forest :).While on our way back home in my bike, I got the idea of taking the bike along for the trip, immediately got it checked in the nearby Service center. A CBZX and an ALTO is awaiting the drive. Yeah now we are all set to leave the next morning.
Saturday April 9, 2011
Though the initial idea was to leave from our house by 4AM in the morning, to avoid the Bangalore traffic and the hot sun during our journey, we ended up starting by 5.30AM which was pretty earlier for a Saturday morning. :P.. When the clock ticked 6.30AM we were still inside Bangalore near the Rajarajeswari circle, thanks to Bangalore traffic!!! Then entered the Bangalore-Mysore road SH17, on which we started racing in my CBZX and the ALTO. Thought of stopping by Maddur Tiffany's for the breakfast, but by the time we reached there it was just 7.30AM and none of us were hungry by then. Continued our drive till Mysore and reached there around 8.45AM and had breakfast. Resumed the drive after an hour break, with a few hurdles to get into the Ooty road from Mysore, we somehow managed to take the right road via Nanjanagud, Gundlupet, to Bandipur. The roads were pretty good except for a few unexpected speed bumps, which were not visible at all. Any first time drivers in that route would find it difficult with these speed bumps. We entered Bandipur national park premises at around 11.30AM, from then started slowly cruising inside the forest route with a high expectation of getting a glimpse of the wild animals. Luckily we could see a few Deer at the start of the jungle route itself, stopped immediately and enthuse took some snaps. To add on to that saw an elephant at a distant sight after a while. We were all elated that at least we could see one or two animals :) en route.
Reached the Jungle homes in Mudhumalai around 12.45PM, it was not that exciting as it was when we booked. They have a few tents and a couple of bamboo huts. The place is completely fenced. Our enthusiasm went little down as we were expecting some kind of tents amidst forest!!
 |
| The Tents where we stayed |
Had lunch there relaxed for a while inside the tent and started again from there around 4PM. Having decided not to go on the safari in the Bandipur national park, we took our car and went again on the same route inside the forest, hoping to see some animals. The drive inside the forest till Masinagudi at evening was exciting and little adventurous and thrilling for us (as it was the first of this kind for all of us). Fortunately we could get to see a herd of elephants beside the road very close and a lot of peacocks. The Nilgiri Thar who was awaiting us was really a surprising one for all !!! Got back to the tent around 7.30PM, after the dinner jus chilled out for a while and went to sleep with the early morning trek plan the next day.
Sunday April 10, 2011
Started for the trek at around 6.30AM, it was a 2 and half hour trek inside the forest, the route was easy and was not tiring at all. The whole trek was for 8.5kms, we could see nothing but the elephant shit during the whole trek:(. Again little disappointed!!!
 |
| During the trek |
Got back to the tents had breakfast and checked out by 11AM and headed back to Mysore. Stopped by Mysore for lunch around 1.30PM and did a sudden plan to hit Ranganathittu bird sanctuary before getting back to Bangalore. Reached the sanctuary by 3PM, spent around an hour or so, went for boating and took snaps of a few Birds which came down from UK, Australia [that’s what we were told] and resumed our drive.
 |
| Orange Painted Stork at Ranganathittu |
With a short break to taste the Maddur vada at Maddur at around 6PM, we managed to reach back Bangalore by 8PM. When we reach our apartment, I could read 540KM in my trip meter.
More photos are available in the link below:
Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary:
Bandipur:
Overall, the trip was EXCITING and enjoyable not for the fact, about the stay in the jungle experience with which we went -The jungle homes were not that great as we expected, that was a little let down- but for the enthralling drive/ride, and for the glimpse of the animals en route.
