[Stryker]

Originally Posted by sudev

yeh dil mange more...lovely pictures and crisp commentary. Love your style.

Thanks, sudev. You can check my other threads on wildlife, zaroor milega!

Originally Posted by arunrajk81

Good Pics.
Also you are very lucky to sight Leopard, Wild Dog and Vulture in single Trip.
I haven't seen these three in Bandipur even I have Visited more than 10 times . But I have seen these in animals at Athirapilly-Vaalparai Road.

Thanks, arunrajk81. I find it surprising that you didn't spot a leopard or a wild dog in 10 visits! You may not see a vulture very often, but the other two are generally around. Actually, I was hoping to spot a tiger, but none of them co-operated. :(

[r.K]

Originally Posted by Stryker

Hey, cool, r.K! I'm like that too! I try to keep these descriptions as short as possible in a photologue.

I've upgraded from a D90 myself and the D7200 is in a different class. But I did that mainly because of the high ISO performance and the newer sensor. The D90 is a wonderful camera in itself and you can get very good photos indeed, depending on what you shoot. Of course, if you are a wildlife photographer, the D90 falls a little short.

I don't own the Tamron 150-600 lens, but it costs around 70K - 75K depending on where you buy it. I find that, given my usage frequency, hiring the lens is a much cheaper option.

Right you are about the D90. I started with the D90 about 4 years ago. Yes it is a wonderful camera, but the ISO range often leaves me wanting for more.

The second picture of the peacock posing is simply stunning. And the camouflaged leopard looks straight out of a Nat-Geo documentary! Great stuff. Pls post the rest!

Also kindly provide details as to where I can rent lenses here at Bangalore. Thanks!

[palsaumik]

Originally Posted by Stryker

The road from Mysore to Nanjangud is absolutely terrible, as they are widening the road into a four lane expressway. As of now, only one side is open and as usual, it keeps alternating between the left and right side. At these turning points, there is always a jam with no one willing to give way to vehicles from the opposite side. All said and done, it took a cool one hour to cover the 22 kms distance. The road from Nanjangud to Bandipur via Gundlupet is in reasonably good condition, with some occasional bad patches.

Awesome pictures, Stryker. This came in at the right time when I am planning to visit Bandipur sometime in April. Since the Mysuru > Nanjangudu road is not that great now, would you recommend I take the other one as indicated below:

[NPV]

Originally Posted by palsaumik

Since the Mysuru > Nanjangudu road is not that great now, would you recommend I take the other one as indicated below:

You can take Bangalore-Kanakapura-Kollegal-Chamrajnagar-Gundlupet-Bandipur.

[Stryker]

Originally Posted by r.K

Also kindly provide details as to where I can rent lenses here at Bangalore. Thanks!

I rent lenses from Toehold, a dedicated wildlife photo tour company in Jayanagar 4th Block. Check www.toehold.in for details.

Originally Posted by palsaumik

Awesome pictures, Stryker. This came in at the right time when I am planning to visit Bandipur sometime in April. Since the Mysuru > Nanjangudu road is not that great now, would you recommend I take the other one as indicated below:

Thanks, palsaumik. It is only 22kms, so I don't think it is worthwhile to take any other route.

Originally Posted by NPV

You can take Bangalore-Kanakapura-Kollegal-Chamrajnagar-Gundlupet-Bandipur.

Except this one maybe!

[Bakash4u]

Originally Posted by palsaumik

Since the Mysuru > Nanjangudu road is not that great now, would you recommend I take the other one as indicated below:

palsaumik If you feel you need to avoid Mysore, due to road or problems then you can take a small deviation:-
Drive upto Mandya -> then deviate to Bannur -> Go ahead till T Narsipur -> then join back to Najangud.
No difference in Time and KMs.

[smrsraja]

Hello Stryker,

Very good pics. Pics of the leopord in kabini is excellent.

Your post came at a perfect time for me. I am planing for a trip to Bandipur from Chennai by mid of April with my family.

I wanted to check about the forest dept cottages inside the park. Are they in good condition? Is the food provided in the canteen is good? Is there a possibility to get food from outside while staying in the cottages inside?

Thanks in advance,

Raja

[Stryker]

Originally Posted by smrsraja

I wanted to check about the forest dept cottages inside the park. Are they in good condition? Is the food provided in the canteen is good? Is there a possibility to get food from outside while staying in the cottages inside?

Thanks, smrsraja.

There are no forest dept (or any other type) cottages available inside the sanctuary. There are several resorts of various price ranges outside the sanctuary, ranging from the very expensive to the very cheap. You can book according to your budget. Just search for Bandipur resorts.

If you want to come for the safaris (there is actually nothing else to do there!) I would recommend you stay at the Jungle Lodges and Resorts, a Karnataka government initiative. It is extremely good, on par with any expensive resort. The food is quite good too, there is no need to get it from outside since it is part of the package. There are no restaurants near the sanctuary anyway. The nearest town is Gundlupet, about 25 kms from the sanctuary entrance.

If you want a bit of luxury and are willing to spend, I recommend the Serai. It is a very nice place with great service, drop and pick up for safaris and excellent food.

All safaris are run only by the forest dept and JLR. Even if you stay at any other resort, you'd have to come to the sanctuary entrance to get a safari vehicle. Some resorts will drop and pick you to and from this location. And charge you for it. With JLR, you can board one in the resort itself.

[jacs]

Decent spotting buddy. That too two spotted cats. BTW summer is best for spotting. Monsoons make soothing green backdrop for pics while carefully hiding the animals from us. And yes never seen a vulture in Bandipur-Mudumalai yet. Well framed pics other than cats which is very well understandable.

Bringing back nostalgic memories of my trips while in Bangalore.

[ARAY]

Some excellent pictures out there. Wildlife photography calls for a lot of patience and as the saying goes patience payed off. Please do share some more pictures.

[smrsraja]

[quote=Stryker;3934357]Thanks, smrsraja.

There are no forest dept (or any other type) cottages available inside the sanctuary. There are several resorts of various price ranges outside the sanctuary, ranging from the very expensive to the very cheap. You can book according to your budget. Just search for Bandipur resorts.

Thank you Stryker for the reply.

When I researched, I found one site www.bandipurtigerreserve.in where it had options to book safari tickets and rooms for staying. I have booked rooms thru it. Today when tried opening the site, it says domain name expired

Hoping it will be a short glitch and should be back.

But the point is, I thought that rooms are near the safari reception area..

[Stryker]

Originally Posted by smrsraja

When I researched, I found one site www.bandipurtigerreserve.in where it had options to book safari tickets and rooms for staying. I have booked rooms thru it. Today when tried opening the site, it says domain name expired

Hoping it will be a short glitch and should be back.

But the point is, I thought that rooms are near the safari reception area..

The Jungle Lodges site is http://www.junglelodges.com/. I'm not sure about the other website you have linked to. Not able to open it either, even Google Cache shows only a home page that is text only. Best if you get the number of their Bandipur property from the JLR website (link above) and check whether the booking is valid. Otherwise, it may be a different resort that I don't know about.

In any case, rooms are NOT near the safari reception area. I think the nearest is JLR which itself is about 2 kms away from the safari reception area. Definitely not walking distance.

[palsaumik]

On Googling, I came across this site http://www.bandipurtigerreserve.in/i...&id=2&Itemid=7 wherein if you click on Online Reservation tab > Book Rooms and Tickets, you can book Bus tickets after creating an account. Is this site authentic and safe to go ahead and book tickets for me and my family members?

[i20ian]

Originally Posted by palsaumik

On Googling, I came across this site http://www.bandipurtigerreserve.in/i...&id=2&Itemid=7 wherein if you click on Online Reservation tab > Book Rooms and Tickets, you can book Bus tickets after creating an account. Is this site authentic and safe to go ahead and book tickets for me and my family members?

Yes this website is authentic. I had booked safari tickets through this website. You need to carry a printout of the confirmation mail which you will get and produce it at the safari reception office in bandipur. Then that will give you the bus ticket and will guide you to the appropriate bus. You can check out my travelogue of bandipur in this link. http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...r-gudalur.html

[Stryker]

Originally Posted by palsaumik

On Googling, I came across this site http://www.bandipurtigerreserve.in/i...&id=2&Itemid=7 wherein if you click on Online Reservation tab > Book Rooms and Tickets, you can book Bus tickets after creating an account. Is this site authentic and safe to go ahead and book tickets for me and my family members?

Looks like the site is referring to the Government Guest House at Bandipur. I have no idea how that place is, as I've never stayed there. The bus ticket is for the safari bus, which is OK if you are not a photographer. Just be aware that is fully closed like any other bus, so you have to make sure you get a window seat for the best view.

No idea about the site authenticity, though it looks and feels like a government created and maintained web site!