[fiery enzyme]

Hi Guys,

I'm planning a trip to one of the many jungle resorts in areound the Bandipur area. So my questions are two fold.

I have never really driven beyind bangalore from Chennai. I can make it to Mysore since it being a big city and all. I have no idea how about the route to take after Mysore. I tried reading on all the posts but the places mentioned in the various travalogues are all greek to me (which is natural since I live in Chennai). So can you help me with the simplest route to take after Mysore. I dont think Bad roads will be too much of a deterrent since I will be doing the trip in a Qualis. I know it would be easier for you guys to give me some tips if I gave you my exact destination, so that brings you to my second question.

All the travelogues here for that area have been immensely helpful (a special thanks to Samurai for those wonderful travelogues) however I'm yet to choose between K Gudi or Bandipur jungle lodge Resorts. Would welcome any inputs in this direction too?

P.S: I'm planning to travel on May 15th, I hope all this tension dies between so I can travel without fear.

Thanks in advance guys!!

[gypsyFreak]

Well, I'll answer your second question first, since your first question depends on the second.

K Gudi and Bandipur JLR are in totally different places, to get to them you'll have to take different route from Nanjangud (15 KMs after Mysore). K Gudi and Bandipur JLR are both some 80 KMs from Mysore.
Bandipur lies on Ooty road and so is more crowded. K Gudi lies on the way to Biligiri Rangana betta (which has a temple of Lord Vishnu on top). This is not that a big tourist place and hence less crowd.
You can check out details of these two at Jungle Lodges & Resorts Eco Holidays
I personally haven't stayed in any of these resorts, but have done numerous trips to both these places (i am from Mysore). So no idea on the quality of the resorts. Maybe some others can help you here.
In general i would say that Bandipur is good when compared to K Gudi

Now coming back to your first question...
Bandipur is on the way to Ooty. So when you get to Mysore you'll have to ask for Ooty road. You have three routes to reach Ooty road as soon as you enter Mysore from Bangalore. You'll get the Ring road signal from here you can take a right and head all the way to the dead end of the ring road (which merges into Ooty road). The road is well marked. You'll pass many intersections and two signals. This is the longest route. You'll travel 15 KMs extra on this one.
In the second route, you can take a left at the ring road signal. Then proceed upto Bannur road (where the ring road ends). Take a right, proceed towards Lalith Mahal Palace - Race Course and Ooty road. This is the shortest route and avoids the city traffic as well. I would prefer this route.
The third route cuts right across the city. This is best avoided unless you have dine in or tank up.

Once you are on the Ooty road, you'll get a temple town - Nanjangud. From here you'll need to deviate towards Chamarajnagar, if you are going to K Gudi or continue straight towards Ooty. After Nanjangud you'll get Gundlupet and then Bandipur JLR.

Hope this helps...

PS: Chamarajanagar is the hotbed of the current contorversy.

[fiery enzyme]

Thanks so much gypsy for the pointers.
My family is still undecided about the whether it is going to be K gudi or Bandipur. Will be decided in a weeks time.

i have one question, do I have to go through Chamarajnagar only if I was to go to K gudi?

Thanks,
Bala

[gypsyFreak]

If you have to go to K Gudi, yes then you would have to go through Chamarajnagar.

However, there is another route, but it is too long. In this you would first go up BR Hills and come down to K Gudi.

It's like BR Hills has two roads coming to the top, one from south-west, this starts from Chamarajanagar - K Gudi and BR Hills. The other one is from the north side, through Kollegal and Yelandur.

In terms of road condition, the first one through Chamarajnagar is OK. Not sure about the second route.

[akroy]

One more link that can help you
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...-bandipur.html

Abhi

[pypkmsrikanth]

In case if you are still to decide, I would suggest you think about Kabini as well, Kabini in summer is by far the best place to be in South India as far as sightings are concerned.

While Bandipur and K Gudi are good places by themselves, I suggest you look at Kabini especially with the backwaters is a very good place to sight Asiatic Elephants. Since you are planning this trip sometime in mid May, due to the onset of summer, the water would have further receded in Kabini giving you a better chance for sighting. JLR has a property here as well.

With regard to the route to Bandipur and K Gudi, gypsy freak has answered the Bandipur one well. My suggestion for you would be to take the left at the ring road signal, and go on towards the ooty road as explained by gypsy freak.

For K Gudi I can suggest an alternate route considering you are going in Qualis which would skip Chamrajnagar. Go upto Mandya on the Mysore road, then take a deviation to Malavali - Kollegal - Yellandur - BR Hills and then onto K Gudi. In this route the stretch between Malavali - Kollegal - Yellandur is bad to say the least, but it would allow you to explore places like Shivanna Samudra etc on the way.

[bblost]

you might want to read thru the following threads.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shifti...highlight=wild

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...highlight=wild

[fiery enzyme]

Thank you gypsy, akroy and pyp for all your inputs.

@akroy: that is a very nice travalogue was helpful.

@PYP: I did consider Kabini however I figured it was a little expensive, but I will let my family decide once i give them the option of Kabini as well.

@bb: nice threads thank you.

One small thing guys, my family is insisting we go through Ooty to these places because of the Hogenakkal issue. I dont know whether their fears are justified. If that happens K Gudi and Kabini are out.

[pypkmsrikanth]

Originally Posted by fiery enzyme

@PYP: I did consider Kabini however I figured it was a little expensive, but I will let my family decide once i give them the option of Kabini as well.

@bb: nice threads thank you.

One small thing guys, my family is insisting we go through Ooty to these places because of the Hogenakkal issue. I dont know whether their fears are justified. If that happens K Gudi and Kabini are out.

Please note that Mudumalai was closed a month back until May, am not sure if it has been re-opened after the unseasonal rains. If its open then you have the option of taking safaris in both Bandipur & Mudumalai. Also you can look at taking a look at Muthunga which is near Sultan Bathery where you can take a jeep at a cost of Rs.300/- + entry fees (possibily the cheapest of all in terms of taking up a vehicle all for yourself) among the three parks. Muthunga has made a lot of check dams and waterholes hence had seen concentration of animals before the unseasonal rains in March. I typically used to do 1 safari each in Muthunga, Bandipur & Mudumalai over a (evening+morning+evening) weekend. The road between Gundlupet & Bathery also provides good sighting during the evenings and early mornings, similarly would be the Bandipur - Teppakadu - Gudalur highway as well. You can go towards the Masinagudi side as well from Teppakadu, but the check post is closed after 8 PM, but you have a point before the check post where the shoulder is wide enough to allow you to turn back.

Keeping summer in mind your sighting would be pretty much restricted to near water holes, the sightings would be limited during this time in both Bandipur and Mudumalai which is the reason why I was suggesting you Kabini, typically elephants migrate towards Kabini come end March & April and then start to migrate back from Kabini towards Bandipur and Wayanad areas after the advent of premonsoon showers which typically happens around early June.

Because of the presence of herbivores near the backwaters the carnivores also follow them towards the backwaters hence the higher possibility of sighting the bigger cats.

The choice is ultimately yours & your family's, and wildlife sighting is pretty much chance, so it could be that you end up seeing nothing in Kabini despite planning it to co-incide with the best time or possibily have a good time at Bandipur despite going in peak summer, the only time I have seen a tiger in the wild was in Bandipur amidst the noisiest safari van (a group of youngsters) I have ever travelled in. And some of my best elephant sightings in Bandipur & Mudumalai has been on the highway rather than inside the forests through the safari van.

I assume you have shortlisted of staying at JLR, since you have enough time what I would also suggest you to explore is staying at the Forest Department Guest House either in Bandipur or Mudumalai (if its open), Mudumalai has some very good forest house especially near the Reception Centre. The only downfall in this case is you would have to possibily take a Gypsy ride in Bandipur to give you a simlar safari experience as that of JLR (actually better than JLR) but costs you about Rs.1600/- per trip or live with the Van Safari's in Bandipur & Mudumalai and the Jeep safaris in Muthunga.

Ohh...How much I miss these places ever since I move to Chennai.......if you want any other details PM me will give you my phone number.

Cheers

Srikanth

[arindambasu13]

Hi fiery enzyme,
Well I would be in a decent position to answer your question since I was in Mudumalai during the Ugadi weekend 5th/6th/7th April 08. We were a group of eight, travelling in 2 loaded 800s, and boy did my car respond well to the gruelling road stretch just before Bandipur! It came off without a scratch and gave me a mileage of 19+, including several kms of hill climbing in first gear en route to Ooty.
Anyways, there is absolutely no problem whatsoever on account of the Hogenakkal issue, even though we were in a similar dilemma right till the point when we started our trip on 5th early morning. But you see, the point is that these places, especially Bandipur and Mudumalai, are essentially very small, and I got the impression that the locals couldnt care less whether you were travelling in a Karnataka registered vehicle or a TN registered one. So you can go ahead and enjoy your trip, because apart from the 10 km aforementioned potholed stretch, the rest of the drive is just pure unadulterated bliss!! Especially the winding roads through the jungles, much talked about on the forum. I was consistently touching 120 in my 800 on the Mysore highway, and close to 80-90 on the forest approach roads. Of course, I slowed down while in the forest so as to avoid collisions with animals and to enjoy the beauty of the forest.
The route is basically a straight one after the circle at the Mysore palace, where you take the road which clearly indicates OOty and Bandipur...
Have a great drive and enjoy the beauty of the forest!!
Arindam.
PS- pypkmsrikanth, Mudumalai is very much open, and now is a good time to visit, since there are no rains now

[fiery enzyme]

Hey! Thanks guys for all the advice!! I'm Leaving for the trip this weekend. Will post a travelogue once I'm back.