A weekend gateway trip to Mysore and Bandipur

Tripoto
9th Mar 2019
Photo of A weekend gateway trip to Mysore and Bandipur by Saurabh Patni
Photo of A weekend gateway trip to Mysore and Bandipur 1/1 by Saurabh Patni
Waiting for the sun.

Mysore 5:30 AM, the path to the Chamundi Hills from the base is so beautiful, covered with the arches made out of branches of the giant old trees and dotted with the colorful flowers seemingly crowning the old guards. The ride up top never left us out of sight from the breathtaking views of the city which hosts one of the stunningly extravagant Dussehra festival.

The holy hills treated us with a glorious returning march of the sun, freezing us at a place for an hour. The city is situated in the Northern-Western side of the hills and that too is a view to long for. The whole city looks magnificent covered with the morning fog.

Day 1

The first breath of the life and a spectacular sight

Photo of Chamundi Hill, Mysuru, Karnataka, India by Saurabh Patni
Photo of Chamundi Hill, Mysuru, Karnataka by Saurabh Patni
Photo of Chamundi Hill, Mysuru, Karnataka by Saurabh Patni

By the time the Sun came to its full glory, our stomachs started to play the music of the hunger. We headed to GTR to satiate that growling beast, a 60 year old south Indian breakfast place with a retro feel located on the Narayan Shastri road. The hungry lords were more than satisfied after eating the delicious Upma, Idlis and Masale Dose. A must try. We had some more time left before we had the leave for Bandipur so we strolled around the city enjoying the morning breeze.

At 11:00 AM, we left for Bandipur while imagining all sorts of encounters we may have with wildlife in the national park, especially the big cats like tigers and leopards. We reached Bandipur after two hours of bus ride from Mysore.

A cozy welcome and the medicine for the sleep depriveds

Photo of Pugmark Cottages, NH 67, Mel Kamanahalli, Karnataka, India by Saurabh Patni

We had booked our safari online at http://junglelodges.com, an Eco tourism venture by Govt. Of Karnataka. It costed ~8.5 ok for one person which included forest entry fee, awesome food and charming accommodation.

After feasting on the awesome lunch served by the kitchen staff of the lodge and then started for my first ever jungle safari around ~3:30 PM.

The sage of the jungle forbids you

Photo of Bandipur National Park, Bandipur, Karnataka, India by Saurabh Patni

A chill Saturday afternoon

Photo of Bandipur National Park, Bandipur, Karnataka, India by Saurabh Patni

Welcome to the jungle

Photo of Bandipur National Park, Bandipur, Karnataka, India by Saurabh Patni

Help me with the name

Photo of Bandipur National Park, Bandipur, Karnataka, India by Saurabh Patni

Spotted a dear

Photo of Bandipur National Park, Bandipur, Karnataka, India by Saurabh Patni
Photo of Bandipur National Park, Bandipur, Karnataka, India by Saurabh Patni

Sambar, not for dipping the Idlis

Photo of Bandipur National Park, Bandipur, Karnataka, India by Saurabh Patni

Spotified

Photo of Bandipur National Park, Bandipur, Karnataka, India by Saurabh Patni

I am not looking at you, okay?

Photo of Bandipur National Park, Bandipur, Karnataka, India by Saurabh Patni

Maybe the tigers will be on this road

Photo of Bandipur National Park, Bandipur, Karnataka, India by Saurabh Patni

Who is that?

Photo of Bandipur National Park, Bandipur, Karnataka, India by Saurabh Patni

Kingfisher, not the drowned one

Photo of Bandipur National Park, Bandipur, Karnataka, India by Saurabh Patni

I need some privacy.

Photo of Bandipur National Park, Bandipur, Karnataka, India by Saurabh Patni

Is this the tiger?

Photo of Bandipur National Park, Bandipur, Karnataka, India by Saurabh Patni

Whoa!

Photo of Bandipur National Park, Bandipur, Karnataka, India by Saurabh Patni

have you seen the tigers?

Photo of Bandipur National Park, Bandipur, Karnataka, India by Saurabh Patni

It was very hot

Photo of Bandipur National Park, Bandipur, Karnataka, India by Saurabh Patni

How can you not notice me?

Photo of Bandipur National Park, Bandipur, Karnataka, India by Saurabh Patni

Help again, please.

Photo of Bandipur National Park, Bandipur, Karnataka, India by Saurabh Patni

Showing off, eh?

Photo of Bandipur National Park, Bandipur, Karnataka, India by Saurabh Patni

Majestic. Giant. Majestic Giant.

Photo of Bandipur National Park, Bandipur, Karnataka, India by Saurabh Patni

Day 1 at Bandipur, I was dreaming about getting the glimpses of a lot of tigers and I still have that dream after the end of day 1. The Bandipur forest is dry dedicious forest and during this time of the year i.e. March, most of the forest looks golden brown with the beautiful Taremara and yellow shower trees lurking here and there. The sighting of the wildlife is somewhat rare. The elephants have already migrated to the Kabini river forest and those lazyass tigers are in no mood to show up. Although we managed to see a lot of other members of the jungle community and 10s of unknown to me species of birds.

I still hope to see one of those Bengali beauties on day 2.

More photos from Day 1

Photo of Bandipur National Park, Bandipur, Karnataka, India by Saurabh Patni
Photo of Bandipur National Park, Bandipur, Karnataka, India by Saurabh Patni

Time to Go Home

Photo of Bandipur National Park, Bandipur, Karnataka, India by Saurabh Patni
Day 2

Day 2

Photo of Bandipur National Park, Bandipur, Karnataka, India by Saurabh Patni
Photo of Bandipur National Park, Bandipur, Karnataka, India by Saurabh Patni

Giant Malabar Squirrel. Very quick too.

Photo of Bandipur National Park, Bandipur, Karnataka, India by Saurabh Patni

Dear park, where are the big cats?

Photo of Bandipur National Park, Bandipur, Karnataka, India by Saurabh Patni

Hey dude.

Photo of Bandipur National Park, Bandipur, Karnataka, India by Saurabh Patni

Who are these, mommy?

Photo of Bandipur National Park, Bandipur, Karnataka, India by Saurabh Patni

I am watching you.

Photo of Bandipur National Park, Bandipur, Karnataka, India by Saurabh Patni

Where are the leaves? Oh, I took too many this month.

Photo of Bandipur National Park, Bandipur, Karnataka, India by Saurabh Patni

Sorry to disappoint you. Come again in the mid summers.

Photo of Bandipur National Park, Bandipur, Karnataka, India by Saurabh Patni

Picture Credits: Sukhpreet Singh and Saurabh

Thank you Saurabh II for lending the camera.

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