[Dr.AD]

Impromptu Drive to Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary

Before this, the shortest trip on which I wrote a travelogue was a day drive. And now here I am, writing a travelogue on a drive that did not even last 7 hours. At first I did not plan to write about this one at all. But then on second thought, I felt there is still a story here that could be told and then could not resists telling it. Please bear with me as I write this story of a less than 7 hours of travel, including time spent at the destination walking around.

So the the story goes like this: After a few back to back weekend drives, I finally got tired of "get up early and drive all day" routines , and decided to take a break and take it easy at home this weekend. I got up late on Saturday. Had a nice late morning coffee and enjoyed lazing around and browsing internet and catching up on WhatsApp groups. Replied to a couple of office emails too.

Although I was having a nice lazy time at home, by around 11am, I started feeling restless. I felt I was missing out on driving on a beautiful sunny Saturday, and felt like an idiot for sitting at home with such lovely weather outside and a free day at hand. That feeling of restlessness grew, and eventually by noon, I decided to plan a drive and make the best of the remaining day.

Some quick search for destinations in my head - for places which would offer a good drive and also a nice experience on this lovely winter afternoon - lead me to Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary. I have been to Ranganathittu several times in the past, but this is one of those places where one can keep visiting and it never disappoints. This place is perfect in this season, and the road to there is a beautiful fast expressway now. Google Maps showed zero traffic till there, and Google estimate was of a superfast arrival there that afternoon.

My BMW 320d needed a drive too, and this fast expressway drive sounded like a perfect Saturday afternoon run for my 320d as well. So it felt like it all fell in place, and I got a perfect plan for the afternoon.

I got up from my desk and closed my laptop, quickly got ready, ate lunch at home (my wife had cooked a delicious lunch this Saturday, but it helped me that she was busy with her own plans that afternoon ), took my camera and car keys, and stepped out for this totally impromptu drive.

By the time I got in my car and cranked the engine (pushed the start button, to be precise; I miss those old school and dreamy key turns to crank the engine) it was 1:07pm on a beautiful sunny Saturday. Funny that till an hour ago, my plan was to stay home this Saturday and take it easy.

Trusting Google Maps' predictions, I was expecting a super quick drive with zero traffic. I was quite excited about that.

However, my excitement changed to frustration when I reached Hosur road, on way to NICE road which would take me to Mysore Expressway. Hosur road was full of heavy traffic, and at one of those long and complex traffic signals there, it took me 15 minutes just to cross that one signal. Looks like Google Maps had got it all wrong. I was cursing myself for trusting Google Maps on the roads being all empty. What was shown in green in Google Maps earlier had now turned dark red.

After managing to find my way out of that Hosur road traffic and joining NICE road, I saw a huge red line in Google Maps and a long line of trucks in front me leading to the toll booth. Looked like Google Maps had got it all wrong again.

At NICE road toll entry, I saw such line of trucks in front of me, and an apt writing on this truck "Khel Kismat Ka" which described my drive plan:


However, once I crossed NICE road toll both and started driving further, my faith in Google Maps got restored back. It turned out it was indeed all clear on the highways after this point, and in spite of the delays so far, Google Maps estimation for total driving time was still the same.

Once I entered Mysore Expressway, I was happy to see no traffic. I absolutely enjoyed that drive. Gorgeous sunny Saturday, pleasant winter weather, lovely six-lane roads, and no traffic. The conditions were so perfect that my drive felt like it was too short. I would have loved a 1000km drive in those conditions. But Alas, my drive was just about 100km once I entered Mysore Expressway.

The conditions were so perfect that even without having to overspeed, I reached my destination is very quick time. It does help that Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary is very easily accessible from the expressway, and when there is zero traffic, it is a mere 10 minutes away from the expressway.

I reached Ranganathittu well ahead of my estimated time in the end, and had a plenty of time to spend the evening there walking around, taking a boat ride, and taking bird photographs.

Parked in Ranganathittu, after a lovely drive through the best of the driving conditions:


I spent the next couple of hours walking around there, enjoying the lovely weather and the scenery, and also took the customary boat ride for bird watching.

The boats are a great experience at Ranganathittu, and now it was the best season too:



I often enjoy just these peaceful boat rides as much as I enjoy watching birds there:



Beware! Crocodiles in the water. The waters are full of crocodiles, and I love photographing crocodiles as much as I love photographing birds:



This croc gave a lovely pose:



This one was sleeping happily, just like what I had originally planned to do at home on this lovely Saturday afternoon:



Another view of the sleeping croc:



One more large crocodile that looked quite photogenic:



And finally one more crocodile, who had found a lone rock in the middle of the waters and was basking in the sun:



The scenes of boat rides there looked as photogenic as the crocs and the birds to me:



And finally, coming to birds, yes the sanctuary is actually famous for birds, and I will share a few bird photos in the next post. Sorry about the overload of crocodile photos above.

But not just the bird close-ups, the sanctuary offers great scenes of birds flying through green trees and over the water, and I loved taking many "environmental" photos there too. The evening light was perfect for me to try some of these environmental shots there.

This one, for example, is something that I liked a lot:


Anyways, sorry for the long preamble. Let me share the more conventional bird photographs in the next post.

[Dr.AD]

Bird Photographs

It was fun spending a couple of hours there trying my hand at bird photography. I got plenty of shots of birds in flight, as well as a few shots of stationary birds. Please allow me to share those here.

Asian Openbill against the evening light:


The place if full of pelicans. The trees were full of large groups of pelicans, and plenty of them were flying around too, giving me an opportunity to photograph them in flight.

Pelican in flight:



One more pelican in flight:



A group of painted storks enjoying the evening:



A painted stork standing still:



One more painted stork, giving nice pose:



A painted stork flying over water:



And landed perfectly on the rock:



Pelican flying over water:



A few photos of a pelican in flight:















Pelican flying over the green trees in the golden light:



Painted stork in flight:



River Tern, flying over water in the golden light:



Missed focus! I totally missed the focus in this shot, but for some reasons, liked this composition anyways (and I reminded myself again that photography is about compositions more than anything else):



Pelican flying over green trees and the water (another "environmental shot"):



Pelican flying close to the water:



Painted stork in flight with its wings spread:



Pelican in flight against the evening light:



Another environmental shot of a pelican in flight:



One more of a pelican in the evening light:



Crocodile enjoying the sunset light from a lone rock in the middle of water:


And with that, I wrapped up my photography session there, and decided to drive back. Of course, before heading back, the landscape photographer in me wanted a few sunset photos there. But the sunset was still an hour away, and further, I only had a telephoto lens which was useless for sunset photography.

But I managed to take a customary sunset photo using my mobile phone camera, before driving back:


The return drive was peaceful too. Lovely expressway, nice dusk, fantastic winter evening, and no traffic. I played my favorite music and drove at a constant speed, enjoying the perfect driving conditions again.

And in the end, when I hit the "local traffic" on Hosur road, this was the total trip statistics (the driving stats were only possible because of the lovely expressway with no traffic; I never did any overspeeding):


The entire trip, including all the time spent there, was less than 7 hours! I was still in time for a dinner out with my wife, and we enjoyed a nice dinner at our favorite restaurant. It was a totally impromptu plan, but it did turn out to be perfect - a perfect drive for me, got some decent photographs (a good workout for both my car and my camera), and still back in time for a dinner out with my wife.

That is all from this very shot drive. Thank you very much for reading!

[Sheel]

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

[Rajjay]

Excellent pictures Doc. I have downloaded some for my desktop background.

[justwheels]

I read the post @Dr. AD and then saw your signature "A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving"

So apt for this travelogue!

Thanks for sharing these wonderful photographs, and I agree, the Crocodiles of Ranganthittu indeed present themselves as an equally mesmerizing subject as the flying birds above.

It's been a long time I made a visit to the place, but the memories of the last time when I did, are still afresh all for the wonderful avian and reptile subjects against the green backdrops.

Look forward for many more stories through your spectacular lens and your penchant for penning down such wonderful write ups. Keep them coming, thanks!

Deb

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by Rajjay

Excellent pictures Doc. I have downloaded some for my desktop background.

Thank you very much!

Originally Posted by justwheels

I read the post @Dr. AD and then saw your signature "A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving"

So apt for this travelogue!

Thanks for sharing these wonderful photographs, and I agree, the Crocodiles of Ranganthittu indeed present themselves as an equally mesmerizing subject as the flying birds above.

Thank you very much @justwheels!

It's been a long time I made a visit to the place, but the memories of the last time when I did, are still afresh all for the wonderful avian and reptile subjects against the green backdrops.

It is a very nice place and very conveniently located on Mysore highway. Last time I visited this place was just to kill some time while on our way to Coorg. We started early from Bangalore and we would have reached our resort in Coorg well before check-in time. So just to kill some time, we stopped by here in the morning hour and it was a wonderful experience too.

This place is ideal for a quick half-day trip, or for adding as a quick stop en route to Mysore and beyond. Most of my visits here have been like that.

Look forward for many more stories through your spectacular lens and your penchant for penning down such wonderful write ups. Keep them coming, thanks!

Thank you very much! Hopefully we will get a chance to drive our Thars together some day soon!

[megazoid]

AD on the road is akin to Govinda dancing. Made for each other. The photographs are super, the writing is fun and the car, special. Taking a fast comfortable bmw and hitting the open roads on a dreary afternoon is like a booster shot and when pelicans, storks and crocodiles gape in wonder at the camerman shooting their stills, we know it is AD!

Nice collection of avians. btw, the basking croc had the looks of a student seeing an nth order differential equation.

How much has the car done now?

[NPV]

Dr.AD - wonderful pictures and narration, thanks for sharing

Keep driving and keep writing about them and sharing such lovely stories!

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by megazoid

AD on the road is akin to Govinda dancing. Made for each other. The photographs are super, the writing is fun and the car, special. Taking a fast comfortable bmw and hitting the open roads on a dreary afternoon is like a booster shot and when pelicans, storks and crocodiles gape in wonder at the camerman shooting their stills, we know it is AD!

Thank you very much @megazoid for your kind words!

btw, the basking croc had the looks of a student seeing an nth order differential equation.

Hahaha. Good one. Actually an nth order differential equation is often scarier than the croc.

How much has the car done now?

About 93,000km now.

Originally Posted by NPV

Dr.AD - wonderful pictures and narration, thanks for sharing

Keep driving and keep writing about them and sharing such lovely stories!

Thank you very much NPV for your kind words!

[docsr]

Lovely write-up and photographs, as usual, Dr.AD.

Had a query about the Bangalore Mysore expressway...

1. Have any changes been made in light of all the mishaps that occurred soon after they opened?
2. Are there proper exits for food/break spots along the way (I realise that the trip itself has been shortened, so the need for this may have reduced, still !).

[prabhu7944]

Dr. A.D very well written. Your travelogues is certainly engaging and also wakes up the explorer in others. Keep it coming.

[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

[h3] Although I was having a nice lazy time at home, by around 11am, I started feeling restless.

When I feel restless, it immediately gets noticed resulting in work allocation from the Boss Lady, . But seriously, lovely TL and pictures.

Originally Posted by docsr

1. Have any changes been made in light of all the mishaps that occurred soon after they opened?
2. Are there proper exits for food/break spots along the way (I realise that the trip itself has been shortened, so the need for this may have reduced, still !).

I'm also interested in this response. Further, what's the status of the speed gun squads? Are they static or mobile?

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by docsr

Lovely write-up and photographs, as usual, Dr.AD.

Thank you very much!

Had a query about the Bangalore Mysore expressway...

1. Have any changes been made in light of all the mishaps that occurred soon after they opened?
2. Are there proper exits for food/break spots along the way (I realise that the trip itself has been shortened, so the need for this may have reduced, still !).

1. I have been traveling on this road very regularly since it was under construction, and then after it was completed too. I never thought there was any problem with the road. The road is fantastic. There is nothing to improve. The only issue was very poor traffic sense and total lack of discipline from many drivers. Somehow, even that seems to have improved over time. Further, they banned two-wheelers on this road now. While that is a controversial topic in itself, it certainly has made driving on this road much safer. I found absolutely zero issues in all my recent travels there, and in fact, I love driving on this road. It is a pleasure to drive there.

2. It it such a short drive now (hardly takes 1.5 hours to cross the entire road now even when sticking to the speed limit of 100km/h) that I never bothered to stop in-between for food. The exits are a mixed bag. Some exits are well marked, and some are not. Also, people try to find gaps and create their own illegal exits. This was a cause of accidents too in the past, and this was the lack of discipline part I mentioned. Best is to plan this journey without stops. If you must stop, then there is well marked exit near Hotel Anaravathi before Manyda. Follow Google Maps directions for exits. It may lead you to drive on service road for 2-3km before the break, but it still shows the legal and safer exit. People tried to create illegal exists right next to the food places, leading to some accidents in the past.

Originally Posted by prabhu7944

Dr. A.D very well written. Your travelogues is certainly engaging and also wakes up the explorer in others. Keep it coming.

Thank you very much!

Originally Posted by itwasntme

When I feel restless, it immediately gets noticed resulting in work allocation from the Boss Lady, .

hahaha. I can relate to that as well.

But seriously, lovely TL and pictures.

Thank you very much.

I'm also interested in this response. Further, what's the status of the speed gun squads? Are they static or mobile?

I have answered that above. Regarding speed guns, I have seen mobile interceptors at various locations there. I do not think there are any fixed cameras yet (there are plenty of fixed AI cameras for wearing seatbelt and other similar checks, but I assume not for speed checks). But a mobile interceptor is often seen at various locations. The speed limit is 100km/h, and it is best to stick to that, or maybe 5-10km/h above that to adjust for the speedo errors. But certainly no point in going faster. It is such a short drive that one would hardly gain any time going much faster anyways.