[longhorn]

What those guys prove that they were morons with a capital M. Anyways nice pics of the deer and elephants.

[himavanth_m]

Looks like you have been chasing the Qualis or taking a Qualis photoshoot.
But Wow...awesome greenery. I am jealous of ur lovely trip and experience. .

[Chevy_lover]

Thanks to everyone for the replies. The only reason why I posted the pics of those retards, is to warn the readers, never to get out of their vehicles. When you are in the forest, there will be a 100 eyes watching you, unknown to you. Even a small mistake can prove fatal.

What those boys did was totally stupid. The tusker could have reached the boys in 5 huge steps. Well, some people never read newspapers! The story about the french tourist was really an eye opener. I guess the boys missed that news!

@Himavanth, I wasn't chasing the Qualis. Everyone maintains a low speed inside the reserve. So overtaking is out of the question.

Coming up shortly, my 1000th pic in this travelogue. Stay glued!

[Chevy_lover]

We continued our drive through Mudumalai, which covers an area of 322 sq. kms of forestland and is a continuation of the Bandipur National Park. The jungle trail was so very beautiful. We thoroughly enjoyed our drive. The road condition was excellent.












Soon we crossed over to Karnataka. The border wasn’t very attractive. There was a small police check post, as soon as we entered Karnataka. But luckily, the cops did not trouble us.





We entered Bandipur forest and saw some small peacocks crossing the road. The condition of the road turned very bad soon and we slowed down to almost 40 km/hr.






We saw a breathtaking scenery. The tree was simply out of this world!

[KRRaj]

Originally Posted by Chevy_lover

We entered Bandipur forest and saw some small peacocks crossing the road. The condition of the road turned very bad soon and we slowed down to almost 40 km/hr.
We saw a breathtaking scenery. The tree was simply out of this world!

That tree is a nice catch. How much of a difference rain can make. When we passed this place by in Summer, the forest fires had done their dirty job.

And the Roads, yeah, the moment you cross over into Karnataka, the roads start becoming worse. The Road gets more worse as you come closer to Gundlupet.

[Chevy_lover]

We continued our journey through Bandipur forest. The forest was less dense than Mudumalai. The road was in good condition and we kept up good speeds.













Soon we crossed the forest and joined the road to Gundulpet. The state highway was in such a mess. We were disgusted after seeing the road work being done half heartedly. The road was full of potholes and we had to slow down to a crawl. The road was full of pebbles too.


















After sometime, the tar road vanished under the rubble. There were lots of Ox carts on the road and they slowed us down even more. The only consolation was that the natural beauty of the villages en-route was awesome. There were huge banyan trees flanking the road. The drive was really boring and we managed to cover very little distance. I now wonder how I managed to keep my eyes open!

[Chevy_lover]

The road condition was very bad till we reached Gundulpet. We thought that we might run into better roads, but there was no such luck. The trail was full of huge craters till we reached Nanjangud by 4 pm after covering 140 kilometres.



































We were really tired after the laborious drive, but decided to push on till Mysore. There were not many good restaurants in Nanjangud and there was no way we were going to have something from a shack that might jeopardize our remaining journey to Pune. We still had to cover over 1000 kilometres!

We finally reached the outskirts of Mysore by 4:40 pm after covering 158 kilometres from Ooty. We straight away went inside a drive in restaurant and had Parathas and Chilly Chicken for lunch. We were so happy to finally reach Mysore and stretch our tired legs!

We restarted our journey by 5.25 pm and took the road to Srirangapatnam.

[ElantraGT]

Hey CL, Nice narration. Asusual what else can we expect than the best from the master travelouge writer. Its nice to see the tusker in the natural surroundings. Those guys should have been complete idiots to take the risk of going near a lonely tusker. They havent seen the news clipping of the angry tuskers rampaging a town in Kerala. Gosh I still remember that video and feel pitty for those souls. Seeing the photos of the road in between the forest area is literally calling me for a ride. The photos are excellent. Keep it coming my friend.

[i.1979]

hi CL,
each snaps you loaded are awesome and your write-up is fantastic. For me and all it is always a dream to do such a long trip.
Instead of staying at Mysore you could have tried the Abhayaranyam rest house (run by forest department) at theppakkadu, mudumalai forest.

[Chevy_lover]

Hi Elantra, I thought you already hit the road, when I didn't see you here for some days! Thank you for the comments. I really appreciate you taking the effort to read my lengthy narrations! I just hope that I haven't bored anyone!

All I could say to those boys was to watch Nat Geo channel more. You'll never mess with a tusker all your life!

@I.1979, Thanks for the appreciation. My friend, you got it wrong. We just 'stretched our tired legs' in Mysore. We continued our drive towards Srirangapatna after a late lunch.

There was no way I was going to end a day's journey after covering just 150 odd kilometres, especially when we had a daunting task of covering 1000 odd kilometres more to reach home sweet home!

More on the onward journey coming up shortly.

[gopikb]

Hi CL, I have been a ardent follower of your travelogue and have been following it for a long time. When you post your travel from Bangalore to Pune, do post the road conditions and places of interest when you drive from Bangalore to Pune. Thanks Gopi

[PearlJam]

There's a nice hotel/restaurant called "Royal inn" right on the Mysore bypass road on the way to Ooty.

BTW, what's the name and location of the drive-in restaurant that you mentioned?

[Chevy_lover]

Originally Posted by PearlJam

There's a nice hotel/restaurant called "Royal inn" right on the Mysore bypass road on the way to Ooty.

BTW, what's the name and location of the drive-in restaurant that you mentioned?

Hi Pearljam, we went to a drive-in, on the left side, en-route to the city, less than 2km after the Mysore bypass. I don't remember the name, sadly! It was a mediocre bar attached restaurant, with individual huts.

To tell you the fact, we were in no mood to search for a fancy restaurant, as we were famished!

@Gopi, We did not touch Bangalore on our way back. For the road conditions, please refer to the first few parts of my travelogue. In short, road from Davangere to Chitradurga was a mess. Not possible to keep up speeds of above 50 kmph, if you love your vehicle, like I do.

We did not stop to visit any places of interest in Karnataka. I had thought of adding Coorg to our itinerary and sent a pm to a Bhpian from Bangalore for route advice, when we were in Ooty. Sadly, he never replied.

I wished that my dear HVK sir was there in Mumbai at that time. He would have surely helped me even in the middle of the night! But he was in Leh and I did not want to disturb him.

Well, no worries! There is always a next time!

[gajadonga]

Good travelogue. I have been regularly following your travelogue the tusker event was wonderful luckily no untoward experiences but these lonely tuskers are dangerous.

[Nutty Nair]

Originally Posted by Chevy_lover

I just hope that I haven't bored anyone!

We love to get "bored" like this. Pl. continue doing so. And a special to your wife for taking so many lovely pictures.
Ranjith