This is my first travelogue after I moved to Bangalore, from Kolkata, a couple of years back. Did travel to a few places, but did not find any compelling reason to pen a travelogue. Most of these destinations are much traveled and you can find umpteen travelogues on TBHP, on these places.
But then, what makes this one special? Well, as the name suggests, this is about a trip to Nagarhole Tiger Reserve during the Durga Puja weekend. It would have been another run of the mill visits except, that I was to visit a National Park after a long break in between, and the forest did reward with some excellent moments. The high point was what we witnessed at Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary, on our way back.
More on that later...
Day 1 : 12th Oct
Left home at 6:00am. The benefit of staying near NICE road is that, you can make a quick exit from the city. Took Bannerghatta Road - NICE Road - Mysore Road exit - Mysore Road. There was considerably high traffic on Mysore road, than other weekends. Most cars were headed to Mysore to witness the Dussehra celebrations. Stopped for breakfast enroute and then took the exit towards Ranganathithu, after crossing Srirangapatna town.
The road surface deteriorates beyond Ranganathithu. We were undecided whether to visit the bird sanctuary on the way to Nagarhole, or do it while returning. Seeing the road conditions, we planned to proceed to Nagarhole and Ranganathithu was left to be covered during the return journey. The next 10 odd kms were quite bad with a stretch of about 1 km, where the road does not exist at all. However, once you are back on SH88 (Mysore-Madikeri Road), its back to driving delight, with undulating roads and sweeping corners. The speed breakers does play a major spoilsport, is what I would say.
We entered Hunsur, instead of taking the bypass and took a left turn along SH86, towards Nagarhole. The road, here onwards, has very sparse traffic. We had booked ourselves at Jungle Inn for 2 nights. The entire route was pretty straightforward and we reached the resort by 10:30am. Total distance covered : 195kms.
On way to Nagarhole
Checked in at the resort. We had booked a Swiss tent for ourselves. The manager was quite cordial and showed us our tent. It was quite clean and decent, with all the basic needs one may need in a trip. The toilet was clean as well, with a small dressing area in front. The tent of course, did not have any TV and I was rather glad about it.
Inside the Swiss tent
We left our luggage at the tent and reached out to the manager's office to gather info regarding the forest and options to explore it. The resort arranges for safari, in their own vehicle, but along the metaled periphery road through and along the forest. It does not take you inside the forest though. The only safari option at Nagarhole is arranged by the Forest Dept, in small buses. You may choose to opt for it just for the heck of it (we did) but it may well be avoided. The other option is to have a safari at Tholpetty, where the resort jeep will take you, if you wish, and then you will have to opt for separate vehicles to enter the forest. You can as well take your car till Tholpetty.
At the National Park entrance
Since there was some time left before lunch, we drove out of the resort and reached the forest checkpost which is hardly 1km from the resort. Here, you have to register yourself and the car and you are allowed to drive through. We drove slowly for about 10-12 kms and returned back to the resort for lunch. The drive was uneventful. We had planned to take the safari at 5pm, which starts about 20kms from the forest check post.
The food at the resort was good, with decent veg and non veg options. Post lunch, we planned to drive out once again, towards the safari start point.
It was around 3pm and the sky was getting overcast. As we rolled out of the resort gates, the skies open up. Beyond the forest checkpost, it was a beautiful scenery. It was still raining very heavily, the forest was verdant green and the roads were smoking, to let the heat out. We were the only vehicle around. We had all the time in hand and planned to drive slow through the forest, taking in the views, sounds and the smell.
The rain continued but has turned into a drizzle by now. As the road meandered through the forest, we came across hoards of deers grazing happily on either sides of the road. They looked at us curiously but did not seem much bothered, as they are pretty used to vehicular traffic.
We moved on, only to be stopped by a herd of deers who were crossing the road.
Due to the overcast sky, it was darker that what it would usually be in the afternoon. As the road meandered, we suddenly came across a herd of elephants crossing the road. There were no cars around, neither behind nor on the other side.
It was an excellent photo-op as I stopped on the road. The engine was kept running, rolled down the window and clicking all the way to glory. It was a hed of around 8-10 elephants, who were taking all the time in the world to hang around, play with the calves and cross the road. As they kept moving away from us, we kept inching forward.
It was almost 20mins that we were held up at that place. By this time, other cars have arrived and lined up behind. A couple of them overtook and moved forward.
The elephants seemed disturbed and gradually disappeared inside the forest. But, not before they had given us some excellent shots.
Once the road cleared up, we moved ahead, only to agree that nothing could be better than this and the safari has just become a formality now.
The safari point was another 8 odd kms from there. We drove through along with a number of other cars who had lined up behind. The safari was done is a rather noisy bus with a noisier crowd inside. We came across another herd of elephants, a few bisons, deers, Sambhar, wild boars and more deers.
Lone Sambhar
Bison behind the bushes
On our way back, it became dark. The drive through the forest in the darkness was pretty interesting and reached the resort by 7:30pm.
A campfire was arranged at night and dinner was served at the restaurant.
Day 2 : 13th Oct
We decided to skip the safari at Tholpetty. Instead we decided to laze around. Post lunch, we decided to take another drive inside the forest. It was rather hot and the sun was beating down, as we left the resort at 3pm. Drove around 15kms inside the forest. Due to the heat, there was not a single deer that we came across. There was one solitary peacock sitting on a branch. We decided to turn back at around 4:30pm. As we started on our return journey, just around the corner, I screached to a halt. Something bulky and black suddenly moved across the road and
settled itself on the other side.
It was a black bear, which was feeding on the plants on the side of the road, about 80mts from us. Once again, it was only us on the road, with no sign of any other car. The bear continued to graze without even caring for us. After about a minute or so, an indica cab arrived on the opposite side with a few hooligans inside.
The cab drove past the bear without even caring for it. The bear got upset and as the cab drove past us, the bear came out on the road. It was walking straight to us, in full view.
As I rolled up the glasses and clicked away through the windshield, it came up to the Figo, encircled it, went on the other side of the road and disappeared inside the forest.
We were blessed with this awesome experience and once again thanked ourselves for not going for any other prescribed safari. We gradually rolled back towards the resort and reached by 6pm. The evening was similar, with a campfire, followed by dinner and a wildlife film show. We retired for the night.
Day 3 : 14th Oct
Today we woke up without any hurry, packed our belonging and headed for breakfast. Today we will checkout, visit Ranganathittu and return to Bangalore. Little did we know what was in store for us at the otherwise humble bird sanctuary. Depending on what unfolded barely 10mts from us, for a span of about 1 min, I was probably the luckiest photographer on Earth. More on that coming soon.