[ampere]

Originally Posted by nilanjanray

Somehow the typical smell of the jungles is missing in forests around Cauvery. Maybe this region is too dry. Or maybe I am missing the fragrance of the Nilgiris

I think Nilgiris has a much higher altitude. Hence the greenery also holds on I think. Cauvery basin remains green mainly due to monsoons. It may not be as dense as the Nilgiris,
but still fun for a weekend out. I have been on the Anchetty Hogenakkal route as well. But I am holding on till the rains for the Hunasanahalli/Thally section to be more greenery.

For more birds you should also cover Harohalli-Thattekere-Banerghatta section.
They form the part of Mahadeshwara state forest range.

[nilanjanray]

Originally Posted by ampere

For more birds you should also cover Harohalli-Thattekere-Banerghatta section.
They form the part of Mahadeshwara state forest range.

Thanks for the suggestion. I might do a drive today or tomorrow afternoon. Today the weather is nice, so might take the plunge!

Edit: looking at the map, I realize that I had driven on this route a couple of years back on my SX4. Didn't go near the Thattekere lake though - did the Bannerghata - Harohalli circuit.

Anyone wants to join me, give me a PM in the next 1 hour.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by nilanjanray

Thanks for the suggestion. I might do a drive today or tomorrow afternoon. Today the weather is nice, so might take the plunge!

Edit: looking at the map, I realize that I had driven on this route a couple of years back on my SX4. Didn't go near the Thattekere lake though - did the Bannerghata - Harohalli circuit.

Anyone wants to join me, give me a PM in the next 1 hour.

Here is the picture of the lake.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/team-b...ml#post2528621

[nilanjanray]

Drove to the lake through BNP. Took a route that made me do some offroading. Had to go through some very narrow village roads - otherwise I would have taken the same route back.

Weather was nice and cool while I was driving. The sun came out when I reached the lake. All vehicle/trail pictures shot with the SGS2 camera.















The Google maps route recommendation is wrong - one has to take next left turn (when coming from Jigani side). I had to turn back after going on the wrong route. If you have a cycle you can reach the lake using that route, but I wanted to take the vehicle to the lake. So got proper directions from a couple of helpful folks in a village.

Spent a couple of hours at the lake. In terms of beauty, the lake was underwhelming - I was expecting it to be wilder. It was also rather hot. But saw some water birds, and managed to click some photos of flying Grey Herons.

Thattekere Lake.









The Grey Herons. Saw them flying towards me, and started clicking. They were on the other side of the lake near the island, but then did a circuit across the lake and went back.











The Woodpecker. While walking around the trees lining the lake, heard a machinegun like sound. Guessed it was a woodpecker, and after some stalking saw it on an Eucalyptus tree. After Googling, I think this is a Rufous woodpecker - a birder can confirm. I am used to hearing regular tap-rap from a woodpecker, but this one was like a top of the line DSLR on full burst mode :-)





The ducks. Saw a swarm of birds at great distance. They were flying around looking for a place to land. When I zoomed the photo, I realized that they were ducks. Don't know the species can someone identify? Pictures heavily cropped, the ducks were on the other side of the lake.







A Snake Bird doing a splash down. Pity about the distance (had to heavily crop the photo).


Heron about to land


A small Kingfisher. Too far away :-(


Thirsty Raven


Small island


High flying Eagle (seemed large, that is why I felt it was an Eagle; image heavily cropped)


Singing practice


Drongo silhouette


Came back through Jigani, NH7 and then Chadrapura Road. This is the fastest route for me to visit the lake, given that I stay on Sarjapur Road.

[Asif 6959]

Can someone please share the exact rout to the place. Google maps doesn't seem to recognize the place.
Please share directions from Bannerghatta Road onwards, probably after NICE road intersection.

[raghunandanj]

First of all, your wildlife pictures are simply awesome !

On a second note, try booking the Sunkadkatte camp guest house within the Antharasanthe range of Nagarhole national park...you can book from Bangalore and drive down into the park, and you can take your "bison" right into the park, through forest roads ! No facilities or electricity out there, but when the deal is having 3 waterholes nearby having excellent wildlife haunts, it is worth it !

Enjoy !

[nilanjanray]

Originally Posted by Asif 6959

Can someone please share the exact rout to the place. Google maps doesn't seem to recognize the place.
Please share directions from Bannerghatta Road onwards, probably after NICE road intersection.

This is the route I took while going back (well, actually I traveled from Point B to A). Shortest for me. The small blue waterbody near point B is the lake. There is an arch on the left (when you come from the North) and a spiky barrier that marks the start of the trail to the lake.

You might want to decide what route works for you e.g. one through Bannerghata. There is also a thread on TBHP meet at this lake - search for Thattekere - that thread has a few route options.

Originally Posted by raghunandanj

First of all, your wildlife pictures are simply awesome !

On a second note, try booking the Sunkadkatte camp guest house within the Antharasanthe range of Nagarhole national park...you can book from Bangalore and drive down into the park, and you can take your "bison" right into the park, through forest roads ! No facilities or electricity out there, but when the deal is having 3 waterholes nearby having excellent wildlife haunts, it is worth it !

Enjoy !

Thanks Raghu. Will try out that place, It could be a wee but warm right now, but I guess animal sightings would be good as well. Any idea what is the best procedure for booking? Anyway, will Google and figure out how to go about it.

[srikanthpotluri]

WOW!! Simply amazing photologue. Great passion is show here. Love all the wildlife you had shown.

Especially the Eagles in second page & the one with fish is awesome

[nilanjanray]

Originally Posted by srikanthpotluri

WOW!! Simply amazing photologue. Great passion is show here. Love all the wildlife you had shown.

Especially the Eagles in second page & the one with fish is awesome

Thanks Srikanth! I too like the picture of the flying Brahnani Kite with the fish - came out well. There are some more wildlife pictures in my other threads if you are interested.

Will post a few photos from my Bhadra stopover on my way back from Goa.

[nilanjanray]

A couple of weeks back I had driven down to Goa for a big company event. Took the Bangalore - Bankapur - Yellapur - Ankola - Karwar - Bambolim route. Was staying at the Bambolim Grand Hyatt (btw, rooms were available for Rs. 5.5K when I left - off season discount!). The day before I was supposed to return, I started feeling feverish so decided not to drive straight to Bangalore, but stop over somewhere. Considered the options, and decided on Bhadra Sanctuary/River Tern Lodge of Jungle Lodges.

I wanted to check out the Sagara and Shimoga forests (had read about them in Kenneth Anderson's books - those jungles are supposed to have harboured maneaters for hundreds of years) - so took the following route:

Bambolim - Margaon - Canacona (btw, a man was attacked by a leopard a few days back near Canacona - apparently that area is prone to leopard attacks - to think that I have been to Palolem and passed through Canacona forests so many times without thinking that big cats were around!) - Karwar - Ankola - Honavar - Sagara - Shimoga - Lakkavali - River Tern Lodge

I had decided to take it easy and left late in the day, driving sedately. And so missed the evening safari. But I had negotiated with the manager that I will do lunch and evening safari the next day instead, and then do a late checkout. Btw, the manager (forget his name) is a very helpful and friendly person, the most helpful among the Jungle Lodges managers I have met.

I reached after sunset, and got a room which I didn't like too much. Got it changed to one that had a better view from the balcony. My cottage was in the island - a longish walk from the reception. It was pretty warm, but soon it became cool with the breeze blowing across the reservoir.

The balcony was lovely. I spent the evening sitting there and listening to the River Terns calling from a nearby island. They make quite a racket! Heard a jungle fowl, but no deer or alarm calls. I had checked with the staff, and was told that apart from monkeys (and once a sloth bear), no animals come near the cottages. Pity!

Had a heavy dinner (chicken and rice) and crashed early. It got cold in the night with fan, ac and the rain outside. Woke up at 5.45am to be ready for the morning safari. I decided to do the jeep safari in the morning and the boat safari in the evening. I was excited because a couple of days back a black panther had been sighted after years!

The safari track goes parallel to a canal and then towards the forest for a couple of kms before the Bhadra Sanctuary entrance gate comes up. Which means that one can drive on this track till the gate if one has a suitable vehicle.

In that 2-3 kms stretch in the morning, I think I saw more birds than I saw inside the sanctuary. Robins, Drongos, Bee-eaters, Peafowl, Jungle Fowl, Parrots, AND Hornbills! The Hornbills flew away after hearing the sound of the jeep, so could only click them at great distance.

Bhadra has less prey density than the Nilgiri parks, which means fewer predators. Saw very few deers, but many peacocks. A few Gaurs. Another Hornbill. Some elephant spoor. No big cats. Overall, disappointing. The experience was somewhat like my Dandeli forest safari - nice drive within the jungle, but the x-factor was missing. Whether animal sightings or the typical smell of the jungle and vegetation.

Before coming back, we stopped at an anti-poaching camp for 5 minutes. A couple of forest guards took a lift with us ad dropped off at a junction where there were spoors of elephants. They were tracking wild elephants (seems Bhadra got some money sanctioned for managing its elephant population).

Came back, had a heavy breakfast and then took a nice nap. The more I sleep, the faster I seem to recover when I am down with flu or fever. Besides, I had the Bhadra - Bangalore drive in the evening.

A pond somewhere between Sagara and Shimoga


View from my balcony


Bhadra dam


Hornbill sighting in the morning


@ Bhadra Sanctuary entrance gate


Serpent Eagle. The diesel vehicle was shaking too much to take a sharp picture. Why don't the parks in the South use petrol Gypsys like the ones in MP?


Stopped for a few minutes here during the safari. Reminded me of the MP forests


Dancing peacock


Gaurs


Malabar Pied Hornbill...cropped photo taken at long distance. We tried 4 times to get close to it, it would fly off when the vehicle came within 75 metres.


The bridge between the mainland and my island


Morning tea in the balcony before the safari. Birds have started calling, sun yet to rise.


Lapwing


Chameleon on Sanctuary entrance gate post


Notice board @ River Tern Lodge


This portion - between the mainland and the island where I was staying - is covered by water during rainy season


I missed the black panther sighting by a few days :-(


Seems pretty bored


The blue waters of Bhadra reservoir. I saw the water colour change a few times while I was there.


Same Hornbill, from a distance

[cool_dube]

Originally Posted by nilanjanray

A couple of weeks back I had driven down to Goa for a big company event. Took the Bangalore - Bankapur - Yellapur - Ankola - Karwar - Bambolim route

Nilanjan - how is the Bankapur-Yellapur stretch?

[nilanjanray]

Originally Posted by cool_dube

Nilanjan - how is the Bankapur-Yellapur stretch?

Narrow and picturesque. Passes through jungles. Broken in some stretches, but very much doable in all sorts of vehicles maintaining 50-60kmph speeds.

[deepak_misra]

Originally Posted by nilanjanray

.....

I wanted to check out the Sagara and Shimoga forests (had read about them in Kenneth Anderson's books - those jungles are supposed to have harboured maneaters for hundreds of years) - so took the following route:

You seem to be following KA quite closely :-). There is an interesting KA group on facebook that has a lot of rare photos, videos etc. If you are on facebook look at it.

Deepak

[ampere]

Originally Posted by Asif 6959

Can someone please share the exact rout to the place. Google maps doesn't seem to recognize the place.
Please share directions from Bannerghatta Road onwards, probably after NICE road intersection.

Originally Posted by nilanjanray

This is the route I took while going back (well, actually I traveled from Point B to A). Shortest for me.

The best and easiest one through Kanakpura road. Drive on Kanakpura road till Harohalli.
At Harohalli take left. This is a SH which takes you behind Bannerghatta National Park. This SH is alike concentric
circle to the NICE road. About 10-15 km you would get the point where you need to get out of the SH
(more like descend from the SH). There is a board (I think in Kannada) which points to the Mahadeshwara temple.
The lake is behind the temple. The Thatekere village is farther from this lake/temple.

Originally Posted by nilanjanray

Considered the options, and decided on Bhadra Sanctuary/River Tern Lodge of Jungle Lodges.

Considering the season, there seems to be enough water, though lesser than what it there normally. But those views
from the balcony are amazing. In my opinion if wants to visit a JLR property just for stay and not for wild life, then this is the best.

[rjstyles69]

nilanjan fantastic pics man. The fact that most of those birding shots have been taken with the 70-300mm VR is kinda hard to believe. No offense, but yeah they are crisp and pretty sharp.Kudos. I have this lens and it looses its sharpness beyond 240mm or so.