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-   -   Life in Jungles - A Weekend at Kabini (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travelogues/76622-life-jungles-weekend-kabini.html)

There were number of reason for me to plan this trip:
1. Passion for wildlife photography
2. Long drives in my Linea
3. Some peaceful time away from city
& the most important
4. My wedding anniversary.

Plan was to stay in Kabini for 3 days. Started looking for resorts and ended up booking a new resort - 'The Bison' on the bank of Kabini river.

Well, it was a great holidays. Not writing anything about the drive as nothing unusual happened during my drive to Kabini & back.
Just posting some pics

1. Good Morning India


2. Late afternoon


3. And the Safari special

Good photos Vinay especially the leopard's pics! Do post some more and if possible leave some tips for folks like me who are keen to visit Kabini.

great..you spotted a wild cat in its habitat.clap:

please explain that part of the experience..not many are lucky to spot one in the wild even after spending a lot of time, as these cats are very reclusive and the leopard being the most as it is nocturnal.

@vinay.pillai - I feel immense jealousy seeing your wild cat picture (Awesome shot) . Can you provide me with details such as : road conditions, the resort, how you took the safari and time taken to reach the place etc: as am planning a trip down there in the mid of march.

Hey Vinay,

You are really lucky to spot the wild Leopard and more than that, it seems quite relaxed and expressing behaviours like territorial marking. One of the extremely rare experiences one could get in South India forests.

Nice pictures and beautiful location, write us, which camera and lens you used. Great photos, share more photos if you have landscapes, serene locations.

Cheers!

Nice pics Vinay, Please do share details about your travel experience and accommodation facilities etc.
I am planning a similar trip, your travel tips/experiences will be well appreciated.

You are a lucky person to have seen a leopard. It looks like it was on a dry riverbed, is it?

Also, the picture of the Gaur and the calf is very good.

Hi Vinay,
Kindly provide more details, especially on the route and the place of stay. Even very high level review will help. Also, was it that you had to arrange a safari inside the jungle or you could take your beauty inside? Again, details on the lenses used will be a great help.

Again, thanks for sharing the pics.

Big cat sightings have improved in both Kabini as well as in Bandipur, Bandipur being slightly better on Tiger sighting while Kabini being overall superior from a nature experience perspective.

My last stay at Kabini was at "The Bison" - at that time they just opened up and offered me a good deal to try out their property. It is indeed an excellent wildlife lodge with an unbeatable location. The lodge is separated from the core areas of the park by river Kabini - this natural separation gets blurred during peak summer as the river dries up - this is the time to visit this lodge. No other lodge in Kabini area has this natural advantage as all others are atleast 5km away from the park limits.

JLR property at Kabini (the oldest one) is also excellent - they are the pioneer of wildlife lodge concept in India.

Nice snaps vinayclap:!
I liked the 8th one -the bird flying. The clarity is great & can see the bird's eye clearly.
Hope we Meet on March 27 & 28 @ nagarahole meet.

Very nice photos. I liked all of them. Where is this resort? I only know the JLR and Cicada.

Thanks everyone for appreciating my pics. Well, there are few more shots and will share it soon.

I have Canon 400D DSLR and shots were taken using Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS.



Well, I have taken the following route to reach the Resort 'The Bison'
Whitefield, Bangalore - NICE Road - Mysore highway - Mysore - Mysore Outer Ring Road - took right towards HD Kote (Manathavadi road) - Hand Post Circle - take left before National Park entry gate (this gate is closed for vehicle traffic) - karapur - till Jungle lodges. Instead of taking left turn toward Jungle lodges, continue on the same road for Manathvadi. After 2 km, you will see a board on left side directing towards 'The Bison' Resort.

Road Condition: Road from Bangalore to Mysore is 4 lane (everyone knows this). Road to Manthavadi is excellent till closed entry gate of National Park.
Take left and then road will make you car dance with its bad conditions. It will continue till you reach the resort.

Travel Time: 5 hrs 20 min including 30 min break for Breakfast at Barista on Mysore Highway

Resort: Very different and very good. Best location to have Resort. Really enjoyed our stay there. They have few tents but its excellent. Service is good. Food you will enjoy. For us there was surprise. They prepared a Cake for my anniversary(I have informed them that its my anniversary) and till now, thatz the best we had. It was very simple but very tasty.
Resort concept is different. Something similar to African tents, that what they claim, can;t confirm as never been to Africa :)

Some pictures of Resort:
First pic was taken during coracle ride







Safari: Well, as we reached the resort on Friday morning, there were no other guest at the Resort. So me & my wifey were the King & Queen of the Resort. Safari was arranged by the Resort (750/pp) in their own jeep and only we two were to enjoy. We started at 3:30PM for the Safari with Naturalist on the same day. Not much crowd was there from other resort for the Safari, only few jeeps.
We went around and saw only the normal sighting like deer. wild boar, Tusker etc. and by 5 PM I was like lost hope of seeing any cat. Truly speaking I wanted to see the Tiger and by eyes were searching for the King. So my guide decided to take us to waterhole inside the jungle as Tiger is found there during that time (as per recent sighting).
We reached but disappointed. Moved our jeep after waiting for 15 min and just after 200m, my guide jumped Tiger. Very far we saw this cat walking. From distance we couldn't confirm whether it was a Tiger or not.
Then we saw the running around and langur creating an uproar in jungle silence. Naturalist climbed on top of the bonnet of jeep and started looking using his binocular. He saw some movements inside the bushes and kept looking at the bushes. Suddenly he said Sir, its coming in circle, marking his territory. We were the only jeep there. We waited and after 5 min, cat came out 100m of my jeep(behind the jeep) and it confirmed, hello I am leopard not Tiger as you thought, crossed the road and kept moving, stopped and had a good looks at us. Then it came near to a dried waterhole near our jeep and started digging it. Naturalist told us that he tried to lick the salt from the mud and then we spent full 30 min with this cat.
We were joined by few other jeeps from Jungle Lodges and then there was the race to take the best position to take the pics.

The best part was Leopard was not at all bothered with the presence of human around and was pretty normal. Infact it was slightly disturbed with the all the jeep race and gave me one of my best shot 'marking the tree with its nails'

Very good pics.

Looking at the pics, I am sure you enjoyed this trip very well. With luck to spot the wild cat too.clap:

Great pics Vinay, really liked the last one of the Gaur and its calf.
The tents look very similar to the Orange Country resorts, what were the tariffs you paid?

great luck with the cat :thumbs up