[Dr.AD]

New Year Drive to "Old Magazine House"

The first drive of a new year is always special to me. I believe it sets the tone for the drives through the rest of the year. I love solo drives, and a solo drive on a new year is even more special, as it gives me a chance to introspect and reflect on the past year, and also dream about new drives in the new year and look forward to the rest of the year.

For these new year drives, I usually try to explore new areas or at least visit places I have not been before. A new year deserves a new experience! For example, last year, I did a 3000km solo drive via Samruddhi Expressway to kick-off my 2023 drives.

While thinking of new places to visit this year, one constraint that hit me was that I had just one weekend - Saturday and Sunday - for this drive, and that meant I could not drive to really far away lands. I like to drive about a 1000km on a Saturday-Sunday drive, and I started thinking about a 500km one-way destinations where I had not been before.

And that brought me to a place that I wanted to visit for a long time, but had not visited before. That place had a mysterious name,"Old Magazine House", by Jungle Lodges and Resorts, located near Dandeli, Karnataka. It is about 520km from my house, and that was the perfect distance for my Saturday-Sunday drive. I would end up driving 1000+ km in that weekend, and that is apt to kick of a new year.

In my mind, starting from the name itself, this place had a mysterious feel. This is literally an old house, as the name suggests, located in thick forests near Dandeli, near backwaters of Supa dam across Kali river. The word "magazine" in the name, which adds that mysterious feel in my mind, refers to the status of this house in 1970s, when this was a "magazine house" or a bunker built to store ammunition used during construction of Supa Dam.


This place is famous for bird watching and bird photography. And that meant that instead of my usual automobile and landscape photography, I had an opportunity to spend a weekend trying something different - bird photography! That sounded like a perfect new year drive plan for me: drive to a new place, drive about a 1000km, and try a different experience, which would be bird photography for me. My new year drive plan was set!

Now that the plan was set, the question was which car to take. The roads to Dandeli are mostly good (6-lane national highway till Hubli, and then 2-lane or single lane forest roads after that), but the jungle lodge guys told me there are some bad patches for about 15-20km after Hubli. And then in case I got time, I thought I would drive around Supa dam area and explore some local landscapes and terrains. That meant both my BMW 320d and
"Dusty", my Thar 4x4 would be great in different sections of the journey, and neither would be the obvious winner in the overall mixed conditions. Finally, I decided to take my Dusty. I convinced myself that Thar would be the more thematic choice given the jungle theme of this drive. Dusty would be at home in Old Magazine House, and would be a great choice of vehicle to explore some local landscapes near dam backwaters. As it turned out, I spent all my time in bird photography and did not get time to explore any local landscapes. But nevertheless, Dusty was great to have to drive around the last mile road (which was all mud-track) near Old Magazine House, and also blended perfectly in the jungle ambiance at Old Magazine House.

So that is the story of my new year drive, which lead to me hitting the roads in my Dusty, in the early morning hours of the first Saturday of the new year.

Let me share the travel and the lodge pictures here, and then in the next couple of posts I will share the bird photographs.

Early morning start meant I had already driven for 2 hours before a breakfast stop by sunrise:


From Bangalore to Hubli is a regular 6-lane highway, which is my regular road (part of my routine Bangalore-Pune drives). Dusty isn't the best vehicle for such a highway, but it was able to keep munching miles at a steady albeit not too fast a rate. In that "not too fast and steady" mode, I reached Hubli, and then took a left turn towards Karwar, and then further right turn in the forests heading to Dandeli.

Once I entered the forest roads, the scenes looked like this:


Overall this was a good road, but it did have some bumpy patches, some narrow and potholed sections, and some narrow sections going through crowded villages. The biggest pain was the traffic of the super slow tractors carrying sugar cane. Those tractors caused a mini traffic jam at many places. But keeping aside these few things, the forest road was fun.

The last 25km to Old Magazine House (OMH) was the best section of the road - smooth tarmac through a lovey forest.

Lovely roads through forest, leading to OMH that made me miss my BMW:



Lovely forest roads:



Such lovely roads made me wonder if I took the wrong car for this drive:


Funny how I was literally "hoping and praying" for some bad roads just because I was driving a Thar.

Thankfully, my prayers were answered when I exited the tarmac and this was the last mile road leading to OMH:



The last 600m to OMH is a pure dirt track, and Dusty suddenly felt at home here:



Finally the right road for Dusty:



Could not resist clicking a few more shots here, after wondering for 500km if I took the wrong car:



Arrived! This sign welcomed me after traveling on that mud track for just about 600m:



Dusty in the parking space at OMH. This is where she fits so well and blends in the surroundings:



This is the famous Old Magazine House, which is literally as old and dilapidated as the name suggests:



My room, which was one of the five rooms in the old house. The room and the interiors are definitely better than the dilapidated exterior:



I could see Dusty parked outside from the common areas of the house:


Jungle Lodges and Resorts (JLR) properties are never known for luxurious interiors or facilities. These properties are nice and comfortable, but basic stays in the middle of the forests. Their location and the experiences they offer is their USP, not the luxury amenities. However, even by that humble JLR standards, this Old Magazine House is even more basic. This is one of the most basic and most simple JLR properties I have visited. It is a very small place with just that old house, and not much more. But again, although basic, the room was very clean and comfortable, and the room was definitely better than what the exterior would make you expect.

Once upon a time they had these cottages, which are now totally dilapidated and out of service:


They are building new cottages there now. Till then, all they have is those five rooms in the main house, and an additional dormitory.

OMH has this simple and small terrace restaurant, which was very basic just like the whole place, but offered great jungle views and fantastic fresh food (the food here was really great - simple but fresh and very tasty- and deserves a mention for sure!):



The main attraction in OMH, this "hide" setup there for bird watching and bird photography, which was crowded by photographers of all levels with all kinds of photography gear in the afternoon and evening hours:



The same area gets converted into a bonfire area by late evening:


I spent my entire afternoon and evening time there in and around the hide, clicking photos of birds, watching birds, and also watching other fellow photographers (there were many pro photographers there in action) and leaning from them. Overall I had a great time and it was a great learning experience for me in bird photography.

I will share my bird photographs in next posts.

[Dr.AD]

Photographing Birds at OMH

I am still relatively new to bird photography (my usual photography subjects are cars and landscapes, not birds), and spending the entire weekend just dedicated to bird photography was certainly a new experience for me. I was very much looking forward to this new experience, and I enjoyed it a lot. At OMH, many pro photographers and bird experts were in action, and I got to learn a lot from watching them and just casually a chit chatting with them. Overall this weekend was both a fun weekend and also a good learning session in bird photography for me.

My knowledge of birds is so little that I did not even know the names of most birds I saw there. However, OMH has an excellent resident naturalist, one Mr. Vinayaka, who was very helpful in telling me names of the birds and giving me some basic information about those birds. I spent a lot of time chatting with Vinayaka and he was a great source of information for me. The other photographers there, who knew a lot more about birds than me, were also telling me bird names and I learnt a few names thanks to them too.

If I get any bird name wrong in the below pictures, please pardon me for that and please feel free to correct me.

Black-naped monarch:






This monarch spent some time there giving interesting poses:



Puff-throated babblers:



Indian paradise flycatcher, male:



Then this "Oriental magpie robin" came there and entertained us for some time:















Black-throated munia:



Indian paradise flycatcher, female:



Blakc-naped monarch again:



Another photo of Indian paradise flycatcher, female



Then this "Yellow-browed bulbul" came there:



Closer look at the Yellow-browed bulbul:



Bulbul and babbler playing in water:



One more Yellow-browed bulbul:



Another Indian paradise flycatcher, male:



White-bellied blue flycatcher:



Robin again ("Oriental magpie robin" to be precise) giving nice poses:

[Dr.AD]

Photographing Birds at OMH (Continued)

Indian paradise flycatcher - female:



Indian paradise flycatcher - female:



Indian white-eye, three of them on a perch:



Tickell's Blue flycatcher:



Indian white-eye, two of them playing around:



Puff-throated babbler:



Puff-throated babbler:



Indian white-eye:



Indian white-eye:



Indian white-eye, a pair:



Indian white-eye, a pair:



Emerald Dove:



White-rumped Shama:



White-rumped Shama:



White-rumped Shama:



Malaysian(?) blue flycatcher (not too sure about the name):



Forest rock thrush:



Blue flycatcher, wet after playing in the water:



Water splashing by Indian white-eye:

[Dr.AD]

Morning at Timber Depot, and Return

The next morning plan was to spend a few hours at a nearby forest place known as the "Government Timber Depot" in Dandeli, which is a place to spot "Malabar grey hornbill" and also "Great hornbill". While we did not see any Great hornbill, we saw plenty of Malabar grey hornbills (or just "hornbill", to keep it simple).

This Timber Depot in Dandeli is a large forest area where they cut and auction dead wood in the forest (hence the name). But more than that, it is a nice reserved forest area that is officially open to visitors after paying a small entry fee, and it is a lovely forest walk.

The plan was to start from JLR at 6am, and visit this Timber Depot, and return by around 10am. We spent about 3 hours (excluding 30 minutes of driving time there each way) walking around there in the forest and looking for birds. Irrespective of the birds, I just enjoyed the early morning walk and spending time in that beautiful forest.

There is no safari or official trips as such from OMH. What we did is a few of the guests there who were interested in visiting this Timber Depot formed an informal group and guided by the JLR naturalists, we did our own visit and walk through the timber depot. One group of photographers (a photographer couple actually) joined me in Dusty. They were very nice and friendly. It was nice to talk to fellow photographers and travelers. We chatted a bit about our travel and photography hobbies while on way there. I joked with my friends that Dusty became the safari vehicle that morning.And of course, Dusty loved this safari duty.

6am start for Dusty, in the dark and cold winter morning, on a jungle safari duty:



Timer Depot, the trees here are home to hornbills and many other birds:



Morning walk through the forest, with photographers' group, looking for birds:



Lovely woods all around (I enjoyed just being there in the winter morning in the forest as much as I enjoyed watching birds):



We spotted what we were looking for, Malabar grey hornbill:


There were a large number of horbills there, flying from one tree to another, and eating fruit on the trees. However, unfortunately the light was very poor for photography. It was a cloudy and gloomy winter morning. There was no sunlight even past 9am. When we started our walk around 7am, it was just overcast, foggy and dull, with extreme poor light. Because of that, unfortunately I could not get any good light photos of hornbills. All I got were some high ISO dull light photos.

There were a large number of hornbills there, eating fruit:






Silhouettes of hornbills on top of tall trees:






Back to some fruit eating hornbills:






Brown-headed barbet, on top of a tall tree:



Brown hawk-owl:



A small Asian brown flycatcher on a log of timber:



A parting shot of hornbill on another tall tree:


After that we wrapped up the morning session. We saw many birds there but unfortunately only got high ISO photos due to very poor light. We drove back to OMH, had a sumptuous breakfast (food at OMH was really nice), and then I checked out and drove back to Bangalore.

Even after checking out of my room, I stopped back for a while and joined a group of photographers who were busy spotting more birds. By then the sun had come out, the light was lovely, and if I had waited, I could have seen some nice birds in that lovely sunlight. The ambiance was magical and I did not feel like leaving. Along with me, a few others who had checked out of their rooms, had the same temptation to stay back, and they decided to stay back for a few more hours and continue clicking birds there. That place is indeed magical. It is hard to leave that place. You keep seeing other photographers busy spotting birds and you just want to stay back with them. But I had a long drive back home, and I had to avoid the temptation to spend a few more hours there and finally I decided to pack up my camera and start driving back. But I loved the place and I would surely be back there soon.

In addition to the magical location and the forest, the hospitality and the food at OMH were both top class. The resident naturalist became my friend, and I told him I would be back soon. I surely had a memorable weekend there.

Talking about food, I love North Karnataka food, and especially "jowar roti" meals which are big part of North Karnataka food. Anytime I drive to North Karnataka, I do not miss an opportunity of having jowar roti meals. This time too I had jowar roti meals, not in OMH, but at a Kamat restaurant on highway, in my return drive.

Jowar Roti meals on the highway, to wrap up a perfect North Karnataka trip:



Finally, when I reached home, the trip meter showed 1090km, a nice distance to drive on a weekend to get the new year drives going:



Overall, a memorable new year drive for me which I enjoyed thoroughly. Learned a few tricks about bird photography, and saw many beautiful birds and enjoyed my time in the forest. And that is all for this weekend travelogue.

Wish you all a very happy new year, and thank you very much for reading!

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[busydrive]

Excellent capture of the place and the birds. This place is on my radar for quite sometime but the distance is little more for a weekend trip.
My colleagues who have been there have spoken of the huge variety of birds one gets to see there.
Your travelogue is inspiring me to plan it now. Maybe club few more JLR properties in that area and make it a 4-5 days long trip. Let's see.
Thank you for sharing the details.

[corneliu]

Very nicely written, and great bird watching log. Great snaps too!

As a entry level birding enthusiast myself, I fondly remember the time I spent birding in the forests around Dandeli when I was in Goa, and the pics you shared have been a nice refresher course for me to remember the birds I saw there.

[sjain2054]

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

New Year Drive to "Old Magazine House"

Early morning start meant I had already driven for 2 hours before a breakfast stop by sunrise:
Attachment 2556023

I did not even realize that you were showing the sunrise in this photo. I was just ogling at that beautiful Mahindra of yours! It was only later, when I read the line above the photo, that I saw the sunset.

#teambhpianthings

[procrj]

Thanks for rekindling memories of OMH Dr.AD.
OMH is a beautiful place and has its own rustic charm. Looks like you missed the special visitor to OMH - Malabar Trogon.

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

We spotted what we were looking for, Malabar grey hornbill:
Attachment 2556129

This is a Malabar Pied Hornbill and the other pic of the grey bird in silhouette is the Malabar Grey Hornbill. The Indian Grey hornbill tends to have a small peak on its beak.

It also makes sense to visit Kali Tiger Reserve (KTR), which is a short distance from OMH. if you are very lucky, you may get to see a black panther

[cooldip]

I've been planning a visit to OMH for well over a decade. Your travelogue has made me realize that I should do it before this winter runs out.

I adore the early morning forest walks. Very few experiences can live up to a tropical forest's sounds and smells.

Keep travelling...

[Dieseltuned]

Hello sir,

Those bird photographs are excellent.

Would you be able to publish the route taken from Hubli to OMH ?

Last time when I was driving down to Karwar from the Belgavi we saw a diversion to go to OMH but that road from Belgavi - Khanapur - Joida is very bad in some stretches. I drove my Honda City on this stretch with my heart in my mouth and my city was just 1 month old at that time . Will the city be able to reach OMH ?

Regards
Diesel

[jkrishnakj]

Great pictures AD. Terrific.

I love the simplicity of the JLR properties and I might have stayed in almost all, but the OMH. I've heard so much about this place but all from bird lovers and I'm unfortunately not someone who can do that. Maybe the drive is something that'll take me there sooner. But then what's with going to OMH and not capturing birds. Let's see if I have a change of mind.

Aside, loved the quick read and enjoyed the pictures.

[kumarsanthoshkr]

Lovely pictures .. One of the excellent places for bird photography in Karnataka. The only hard part is getting the reservations there.

[Dr.AD]

Thank you very much everyone for your comments and appreciation!

Originally Posted by procrj

This is a Malabar Pied Hornbill and the other pic of the grey bird in silhouette is the Malabar Grey Hornbill. The Indian Grey hornbill tends to have a small peak on its beak.

Thanks for correcting me. Looks like I messed up in the name of hornbills.

Originally Posted by Dieseltuned

Would you be able to publish the route taken from Hubli to OMH ?

Sure! The route I took from Hulbi is shown in the map below. I joined this route from Karward road, from the new bypass connecting Bangalore-Hubli Nh48 to Karwar road.



Google Maps was suggesting several shortcuts over the above route. But those looked like very narrow village roads. Hence I avoided those and stayed on the exact route highlighted in the map above.

Last time when I was driving down to Karwar from the Belgavi we saw a diversion to go to OMH but that road from Belgavi - Khanapur - Joida is very bad in some stretches. I drove my Honda City on this stretch with my heart in my mouth and my city was just 1 month old at that time . Will the city be able to reach OMH ?

I do not know about the roads from Belgavi side. But the road I showed above is definitely OK for a Honda City. These are narrow roads which sometimes pass through crowded villages, but that is not a problem as such.

Also, there are many extremely slow moving tractors carrying full load of sugarcane which were blocking roads and causing traffic jams at many places. These slow vehicles and the village crowds are the only problems - not the road surfaces. Any vehicle can be driven here.

Finally, the last 600m to OMH is a dirt track as I showed in the pictures. Even that is easy for Honda City, as long as the track is dry. Other than my Thar, the rest of the vehicles there were sedans or hatchbacks, and all of them reached there fine. So no problem in reaching OMH, as long as it is dry.

In the monsoon, when that dirt track becomes mud and slush, then it may be a challenge to travel on that unless one has a 4x4. I would not recommend driving a sedan to OMH in the monsoon. But in the dry seasons it should not be a problem at all.

Originally Posted by jkrishnakj

Great pictures AD. Terrific.

Thanks a lot KJ.

I love the simplicity of the JLR properties and I might have stayed in almost all, but the OMH. I've heard so much about this place but all from bird lovers and I'm unfortunately not someone who can do that. Maybe the drive is something that'll take me there sooner. But then what's with going to OMH and not capturing birds. Let's see if I have a change of mind.

I agree with you about JLR properties. I also love them for some reason, and I have been to many different JLRs and never regretted.

Regarding OMH, apart from birding, one can try river rafting there. But yes, birding is the main activity there. Of course, you can still drive there and just enjoy the drive and the scenic location. Further, Supa dam backwaters have some locations where you can take your Jimny and enjoy a scenic landscape.

[Buzzard_storme]

Wow! Nice captures.

This has been my go to place for wildlife/bird photography since 2009 and I know how it has evolved and how crowded it gets of late.
Nevertheless, the diversity you get to see in a small place is just so amazing.

Dandeli is the home of the hornbills and the 'Malabar Pied Hornbill' is the flagship species of Dandeli. You should the read the interesting nesting behavior and the folk tales of the hornbill species that is such an eye opener.

From BLR, I used to take this route (which is often broken) through
Bankapura toll - Mundgod - Kalaghatgi - Haliyal - Barchi pass - Ganeshgudi that is apt for the Thar's and Jimny's. Not sure if in the last couple of years this stretch has been asphalted.

The OMH property of jungle lodges has an interesting history as well. It was used as a storage place for magazines during the British rule and hence the name. The dormitory has been there forever since I've been visiting and another old building was modified into rooms a few years ago. Construction activity there is regulated as it is within the forest landscape.

Btw, the flycatcher is the Tickell's Blue flycatcher.

Cheers