Bandipur Trip
There is a probability that I might have to go to Crolles, France for a couple of months. That made me want to visit the wild before my departure. We booked the JLR from 7th Jan 2008 till 10th Jan 2008. Lucikly for me my wife's vacation got approved and we set off on 7th early morning at 6:15. As usual the breakfast was at Kamath Lokaruchi and after that non stop to Bandipur. I was constantly driving at 80 km/hr and 100 km/hr and we reached Bandipur in 4 hours 15 mins.
This is my first trip to the JLR in Bandipur and frankly I was very disappointed. I was of the view the resort will be in the jungle and I would get to drive a good 4-5 kms in the forest. But the resort is Bang on the highway and 5 kms from the forest check post. There was lots of disturbances from the vehicles passing by. This being the Sabarimala season didn't help either. There was Bhajans played loudly on music systems (Subwoofer included) which went on till late in the night and we had to change the room as ours was very near to the place where the music was being played.
Safari wise we had Elephants, more Elephants and again more Elephants! We missed the tiger on two occasions. On one occasion we missed it by a min. The jeep before us spotted the tiger on the drive way running. They told me it was trying to hunt the Sambar which were few feet away. I was cursing our luck like crazy. I wanted to yell at the top of my voice to vent our my frustrations. That in spite of having a Digi cam and a SLR camera, the other group didn't capture the TIGER!!! God Damn it! Can you believe this? I just wanted to go and take them to task for not capturing the tiger when they had a chance. I am sure they didn't even realise the importance of spotting the Majestic Tiger in the wild, that too in the south!
Attaching a few snaps from the trip. Forgive me for the poor quality as I had a Canon power shot and I am still an amateur.
Painting of the Gaur in our room.
Ready to Charge
Protecting the young calf which was around a month old
Second Charge
This one is for
deponti
Landscape from Gopalswamy betta.
Morning mist in the forest. Visibility was very poor.
A stitched photo from Gopalswamy Betta
This is my first trip to the JLR in Bandipur and frankly I was very disappointed. I was of the view the resort will be in the jungle and I would get to drive a good 4-5 kms in the forest. But the resort is Bang on the highway and 5 kms from the forest check post. There was lots of disturbances from the vehicles passing by. This being the Sabarimala season didn't help either. There was Bhajans played loudly on music systems (Subwoofer included) which went on till late in the night and we had to change the room as ours was very near to the place where the music was being played.
Safari wise we had Elephants, more Elephants and again more Elephants! We missed the tiger on two occasions. On one occasion we missed it by a min. The jeep before us spotted the tiger on the drive way running. They told me it was trying to hunt the Sambar which were few feet away. I was cursing our luck like crazy. I wanted to yell at the top of my voice to vent our my frustrations. That in spite of having a Digi cam and a SLR camera, the other group didn't capture the TIGER!!! God Damn it! Can you believe this? I just wanted to go and take them to task for not capturing the tiger when they had a chance. I am sure they didn't even realise the importance of spotting the Majestic Tiger in the wild, that too in the south!
Attaching a few snaps from the trip. Forgive me for the poor quality as I had a Canon power shot and I am still an amateur.
Painting of the Gaur in our room.
Ready to Charge
Protecting the young calf which was around a month old
Second Charge
This one is for
deponti
Landscape from Gopalswamy betta.
Morning mist in the forest. Visibility was very poor.
A stitched photo from Gopalswamy Betta