[jacs]

Hi All,
Trip was on 20th Feb 2010 covering Ranganaithittu Bird Sanctuary, Mysore Zoo and Mysore Palace, but this post got late due to the busy schedules. Sorry for that. Let me give you a quick walk through some selected snaps from the trip although some 200+ photos were there. Photo quality would be bit low (with almost 60% compression on frame and file size) to conserve web space and bandwidth. Feedbacks welcome.

This is the thread which helped to plan the trip quickly. Thanks to all those helped.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...sore-trip.html

Let me share you some details before starting the photologue.

Travel time : 2.2 hours onward being early morning and 3 hours on return since traffic was more.

Total Distance traveled : 332KMs

Ranganaithittu Bird Sanctuary (Spotted various species of cranes, pelicans, ducks, kingfishers, sparrows, crocodiles, monkeys etc
Entry Pass : Rs25 per adult, Rs30 per Car/Jeep (no additional pass for Camera)
Boating : Rs500 for an hour trip (independent boat which can easily take 6 adults)
Distance from Bangalore : Less than 140KM
Rating : 10/10
Remarks : Superb, observed no cons

Mysore Zoo (Varieties of Birds, Animals and reptiles including rare Water elephants, Gorillas etc)
Entry Pass: Rs30 per adult, Rs10 for still camera, Rs10 for Car parking
Carriage Trip: Rs60 per adult (its worth the money, can see everything without walking and which helped my inlaws and they do explain things)
Distance from Bangalore : Less than 150KM
Rating : 7/10
Remarks : Well organized, cons are like very crowded on holidays

Mysore Palace (showcases the heritage of Mysore kingdom)
Entry Pass: Rs20 per adult, Rs10 for car parking (No Camera and footwear allowed inside, should keep in locker and baggage can is compulsory)
Distance from Bangalore : Less than 150KM
Rating : 9/10
Remarks : Magnificent, cons are huge crowd due to tight security - not a photographers place and footwear locker is a mess

Since we carried breakfast, only lunch was a concern apart from knik knacks. We had our lunch from Embassy (adjacent old Maharaja Hotel on the way to Railway station/Bangalore return from Palace road). They served good food (we ordered Chinese non veg) and I sipped a gulp of drought (not as good as in BLR). The ambience is good (No AC, but its a kind of open door with open roof and all) and quite affordable too. A heavy lunch for four with soft drinks and the drought costed 6xx odd.

[shishir_bn]

Man, you have brought the nostalgic feeling back to me. Thanks for brining this travelogue. All the details are good but without pic none of the travelogues are complete. So if you have some then please let go. It will make the nostalgic memory still nicer.

[jacs]

20th Feb 2010 : Alarm rang @ 4:30AM, my wife and mom in law woke up early to pack the breakfast and snacks while me and my son were still snoring in deep sleep. Dad in law is an ex-air force man hence very punctual. He got ready by 5:20 since the plan was to start at the earliest and got shocked on seeing me still snoring loud. I had to get ready real fast since all others were ready by 5:40 and not to wake Junior.

We started our journey 6AM after a quick morning prayer. Its still dark when we took toll on NICE Road and truck traffic was more but some how managed to drive without much braking. Forgot to mention my wife was behind the wheel till Ramanagaram from where I took over. Road was almost traffic free except Chennapattna stretch. Thick fog welcomed us after Mandhya, we felt we're driving through Coorg. After Srirangapatna, on left hand side there's a resort called " Young Island ", need to take a right 'U' turn to the Madikeri route and after the rail crossing need to take right to Ranganaithittu (have necessary road signs on the way).

We reached the sanctuary by 8:15AM and it was foggy and could hear the sounds of birds and insects. Need to take the entry pass in the checkpost for car and visitors. Parking was almost empty, had the packed breakfast and got ready for boating by 9AM. By this time the fog has gone and sun started hitting slightly. There we lot of tiny sparrows and butterflies around the parking space and the small garden area.

Lavish parking space (there are more in the next levels)



A lovely couple found in the parking space



Our silent cruiser (No motor boats are allowed, its all rowing type)

[ampere]

Wow what a parking space! If you give that space to a Bangalore builder, he will make a mall out of it with
2 layers of basement parking .

Although I have been to the sanctuary, I dont remember the parking space. May be its time I go there once again !

[jacs]

Originally Posted by shishir_bn

Man, you have brought the nostalgic feeling back to me. Thanks for brining this travelogue. All the details are good but without pic none of the travelogues are complete. So if you have some then please let go. It will make the nostalgic memory still nicer.

Yes Shishir, I've started posting the pics. Hope you would luv them.

Originally Posted by ampere

Wow what a parking space! If you give that space to a Bangalore builder, he will make a mall out of it with
2 layers of basement parking .

Although I have been to the sanctuary, I dont remember the parking space. May be its time I go there once again !

There's agan another layer of parking below this main lot. While returning, there were atleast some 30 vehicles but still 70% empty

[kraft.wagen]

Great log jacs, waiting for more pics.
I guess this parking lot has been made nicer now.

@ ampere , are you sure there would have been 2 layers of parking, they might rent it out and make jus 1 layer of parking right :P

[shishir_bn]

Jacs, thanks a ton for these pics. You have brought back almost 20 years of memories where we friends used to visit these places every weekends.

[jacs]

The boat started moving slowly preseving the silence of nature, water is dark and deep. Sounds of flapping wings and cries of birds and insects all over. My son started screeming with joy and so we were. Crocs sail very near to the boats and often scare us.

Shore from where we started



Host who welcomed us



The first island



A silent sailor



Predator and prey together



Predator in zoom mode


Another villain sunbathing

[ampere]

Very nice snaps of the crane and the crocs! When you see the snaps, you actually shiver out thinking how close you were when you took that snap!

[jacs]

Originally Posted by ampere

Very nice snaps of the crane and the crocs! When you see the snaps, you actually shiver out thinking how close you were when you took that snap!

Thanks for motivating me, it really made me wonder when i reviewed the snaps after reaching home.

[jacs]

Its birds everywhere and airspace is never free, lots of varietes busy in building nests and laying eggs. We have spotted the rare "Pied Kingfisher" but was very far and tiny. Some pictures which are not clear are due to the full zoom (had to use digital zoom upto 40X at times since optical zoom of 12X was not sufficient to reach the far objects).

I admit! these pictures would not do justice to the beauty of this place, you must visit to believe. I've tried to put the names of these birds, please feel free to correct me if i went wrong (no previous experience with birds).

Huge pelicans



Great Egrets



Straighted Heron



Painted storks and Pelicans



White-throated Kingfisher



Pied Kingfisher



The flight (Painted stork)



Painted storks and Asian openbill storks

[kraft.wagen]

There is a place called Kukkre Bellur where you can see huge number of Painted Storks and Pelicans.

[sbraj]

Nice pics. Added to my lists of places to be done.

Any more pics of the birds in flight?

[vinay.pillai]

Hey Jacs,
Nice shots. Best part of your sharing is you have given the name of birds with their pics. Its really helpful. Thanks
Looks like you enjoyed your visit to Birds Sanctuary. Keep sharing

[jacs]

Originally Posted by kraft.wagen

There is a place called Kukkre Bellur where you can see huge number of Painted Storks and Pelicans.

Yeah! I saw a board on the way back. Its even shorter in distance. Any recent visits?

Originally Posted by sbraj

Nice pics. Added to my lists of places to be done.

Any more pics of the birds in flight?

Thanks sbraj. Many snaps are there but only one or two got captured well in terms of birds in flight, shall upload them too.

Originally Posted by vinay.pillai

Hey Jacs,
Nice shots. Best part of your sharing is you have given the name of birds with their pics. Its really helpful. Thanks
Looks like you enjoyed your visit to Birds Sanctuary. Keep sharing

Thanks Vinay. We really enjoyed the visit, especially my inlaws and son. He is just 1 yr and the "ba ba ba" (he calls birds) is one among the few words he utter.