[chaitanyakrish]

Hello BHPians,

As Diwali holidays were declared for my kid, she wanted to go on a road trip on our new Slavia but on a condition that, we should come back on Diwali day for bursting crackers.

So, I quickly checked nearby places where a kid can enjoy and shortlisted Ranganthittu Bird Sanctuary and the place of stay for the night would be either Lalith Mahal Palace or somewhere else near Srinrangapatna.

My kid already visited Lalith Mahal and she wanted a new place, which led me to shortlist "Wild Earth Jungle Camp" on KRS backwaters.

12th Nov 2023, Sunday :

We started early morning by 6:30AM and reached Srirangapatna by 8:10AM.
Slavia was a breeze to drive on highways and never disappointed. We had a quick breakfast at Hotel Ruchi Mane and started to Ranganthittu Bird Sanctuary.

As its a festival weekend, we didn't find much crowd and we got into a boat which is literally half empty. We had a good look at the birds and crocodiles and my kid enjoyed the boat ride.

View outside Ranganthittu Bird Sanctuary



A crocodile basking in the sun



Whenever I see boating in a lake with crocodiles, it reminds me of anaconda movie



After completing some shopping at the Souvenir Store, we started to Wild Earth Jungle Camp.

Wild Earth Jungle Camp :
Wild Earth Jungle Camp which is also known as KRS Fishing Camp is a river facing camp on the KRS backwaters. All the tents face the river and we can have excellent sunset view towards the backwaters.

The camp is easily approachable using Google Maps and there is ample network coverage as well, especially Airtel and Jio. The last 3-4km is a proper off-road experience and its not so bad and easily manageable in SUVs. I haven't hit the bottom of my Slavia with full boot and passengers, which shows the GC needs. Low slung sedans may struggle, but I've seen an Alto,WagonR, Spresso,Polo,Dzire there, so could be manageable.

Camp Location : https://maps.app.goo.gl/huEXdFBcz5sqFuJj6

If you are going from Bengaluru, take the Srirangapatna exit and its 25-30km from there on the KRS Brindavan Gardens route.

There are 3 sizes of tents available to choose :

1. Small ( can accommodate 2 adults ) : 3999 INR per day
2. Medium ( can accommodate 2 adults and a kid ) : 4999 INR per day
3. Large ( can accommodate 4 adults ): 7999 INR per day

Breakfast, tea,coffee is included in the package and they have a ala carte menu for lunch and dinner. Food options in the restaurant were good and we were so hungry, we didn't click photos .

We can do fishing, swimming, boating in the backwaters and water is crystal clear. We can even see fish with naked eyes. We can park our cars near our tents and have a relaxed view of the river and cool wind. Water is so still and it reminded me of Pangong Lake.

Boating/Coracle Ride : 99 INR per person
Fishing : 500 INR, we can fish for how long we want and there's no time limit.

Washrooms are neatly maintained and they're common for all. However, there are enough washrooms to ensure there's no queue. The camp owners are building new washrooms too to meet the needs.

Time for some photos.

When we are about to enter the camp



Some car pics with the tents and the river view

















Mesmerizing views of KRS backwaters all round the day. Afternoons between 12PM-3PM can get humid due to the proximity to the river.
However, we can relax under the trees by enjoying cool breeze. Carry sunscreen lotion, if required.



























Kid enjoying fishing experience



My wife and kid enjoying the sunset by putting feet in clear waters



The view in ORVM while exiting




The camp staff take care of Coracle rides and motor boat rides, where they take us to nearby islands. If we want to row the coracle, we can do ourselves too, but we do not want to risk it.

Overall, we had a great camping experience and back to Bangalore with lots of memories.

Some more suggestions would be, carry a torch light, blanket, towels etc. There are no mosquitoes at all but as a precaution, I had carried mosquito repellents.

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Travelogues section. Thanks for sharing!

Going to our homepage tomorrow

[VALLABHA]

Good one Krish. Pics are very good. Details will help me most for my trip there. Thanks for sharing the details on what is available and not. Helps anyone plan better. Well captured. Apparently this is easily one of the very best Riverside camps in India!

[Raghu M]

Those are very cool pics. Am sure your kid loved the place. I just had one question. While relaxing near the river bank, you said you can swim and enjoy the waters. Aren't these waters croc infested? Are there clear waters where it's absolutely safe to swim? Thank you.

[shiv4747]

Stunning pictures! Super Travelogue. Really enjoyed it. Slavia is dashing. Thanks for the information shared about the camping location. will give it a try.

[chaitanyakrish]

Originally Posted by Raghu M

While relaxing near the river bank, you said you can swim and enjoy the waters. Aren't these waters croc infested?

I had the same question especially while going to this place immediately after seeing crocs at Ranganthittu. However, there were no crocs and camp staff had never seen a croc in last 10 years.

The camp has KRS Dam on one side and its landlocked, so there's less chance of crocs.

Some other visitors who were there at the same time, went for swimming. We even went to the islands on Coracle and we had an amazing sunset view.

The view from the watchtower




We can see a coracle here

[bordeaux]

Absolutely beautiful! This camping location is on my todo list for quite some time now. Such a nice place to chill out!

[rudra_shiv]

Beautiful pics and I am sure you had a lovely ride and stay!!

One thing that grabbed my quick attention was the Blaupunkt dashcam in your Slavia.

How good is the one?

Can you give a quick dive on its:
1. Ease of use?
2. Price & VFM?
3. It's output quality?
4. Is it hardwired/Connected to fuse for 24x7 recording?

Look forward to your views on this topic.

[chaitanyakrish]

Originally Posted by rudra_shiv

One thing that grabbed my quick attention was the Blaupunkt dashcam in your Slavia.

Yes, this dashcam was installed by Dealership without any visible wires.

1. Ease of use? -- It's easy to use but it has no app support.
2. Price & VFM? -- Price is 10,999 INR. Regarding VFM, I would say, picture quality is good, however each file size is around 1GB for 30fps video with 2304X1296 resolution. So, the 128GB SD card can be filled up in 2.5 hours. I had to reduce the resolution to get more storage.
3. It's output quality? -- Output is good but no CPL filter, so you would get windscreen glare.
4. Is it hardwired/Connected to fuse for 24x7 recording? -- Not hardwired.

I was using 70mai before but the wires were visible. But now, dealership installed it without any visible wires and its part of the official accessories as well.

[gauravdgr8]

Is it safe to swim here. Any dangers due to stings or fishes?

[chaitanyakrish]

Originally Posted by gauravdgr8

Is it safe to swim here. Any dangers due to stings or fishes?

We didn't swim but some other residents did. The staff said, its safe to do and they accompany us to all water activities.