On 3rd March 2021 , 8 PM that's when decided that we should go for Bhadra wild next day morning. Quickly booked River Tern Jungle lodge and Ola drive. As it was weekday rooms were available @ 40% discount. 4th March Myself along with my wife and 5 year old daughter start at 6:30AM from Bengaluru. We knew it would be long drive as its 280KM , 6 hours journey from Bengaluru. Traffic was very less coz of weekend. I Mangalore NH till chandarayapatan with a stop at Pakaskala for breakfast from there Asaikere , tarikere and Finally reached River Tern at 12PM. I had booked Cottage , for which you need travel 5 mins from reception. Cottage are on the Island present on Bhadra River and one should cross hanging bridge to reach the room. Room was pretty big with a River view balcony. Snake infont room welcomed us. One would witness lot of birds from the balcony itself. After a heavy meals and a nap , at 3:15PM got a call for a boat safari. It's 2.5 hours of boat safari on Bhadra River along the Bhadra forest. Jungle lodge got its name from the River Tern bird which are present in huge number on the islands of bhadra River. Safari was awesome with good sightings. We saw Birds like River Tern, Pratincole, Osprey, Grey head fish eagle, bhramiy Kite, cormorants , peacocks. Lots of deers and a leopard. Safari ened at 6:30PM and hot tea with bajji was waiting for us. Day ended with a nice dinner.
5th March got a wakeup call at 5:45AM for a jeep safari which would start at 6:30AM. After having a hot tea our jeep start toward Bhadra forest. It's 2 hours of safari where we were able to see few birds, gaurs , malabar Gaint squirrel and as usual lot of dears. Unable to sight big cat and tuskers. We're back to lodge at 9AM where hot and yummy breakfast was waiting for us. One can go for Kayaking and swim in Bhadra River which is as part of package. It's 11AM and time for checkout. Jungle lodges are little expensive but worth paying coz of location,hospitality, service, safaris and Food.
