Monday, June 10, 2013

Bandipur, Mysore trip

This time we decided to go to Bandipur and stay in govt. cottage over there. So Naveen told me about his plans and I agreed for it. Even Neeta was here so I thought it will be good we go together. So Naveen planned to drive and he found rental car where we can drive. So he got it on previous day and saturday early morning around 5.30am we started. Neeta prepared vada on that day. Our plan was to avoid city trafic and if we could reach Ramnagar before 8.00am it will be good and later there won't be much traffic. So we stopped for breakfast in Amaravathi hotel in Mandya. We started after our quick breakfast, we took Mysore, Nanjanagood road. Reached Bandipur around 10.00am. naveen already booked the cottage for us but the staff said cottage will be free after 12.00. So we just tried to kill the time. We ordered lunch there. Once we thought of going to Goplalaswamy hills but it will be more than 35kms. Moreover it will be closed at 4.00pm it seems. So we cancelled our plan and waiting for our room keys. They gave it after 12.00. There were big group of monkeys following us for snacks. We dumped our bag inside the room and went to have lunch. After lunch we thought of taking evening safari ride. Since we are staying there they were charging 100 Rs per head, else it will be 300. So we took 5 o'clock ride. We have to stand in queue 30mins before to get the ticket. There were only 4-5 vehicles which go inside the jungle and we may not get ticket if the crowd is big.
We got to see Elephants, Bison, lot of deers. Even we saw peacocks as well. Couldn't find tiger but. So we thought of taking early morning ride. So we came back to room had our dinner and slept.
Next day Naveen got the tickets. It was 7.30 trip. This time our bus took different path and again we got to see Bison, few birds, deers, couldn't find tiger but.
We finished our safari drive and came back to room, decided to vacate the room since we wanted to go to Mysore. So we started at around 10.00 and reached Mysore around 1.00. We went to Chamundi hills first and the temple was heavily crowded. We went and see Nandi and after that we had lunch in Gurushree hotel. Later visited Mysore temple. We left Mysore around 4.00pm and as usual there was heavy traffic on the high way. It was 8.30 when we reached Malleshwaram. We handed over the car and came by Meru.

About Bandipur
Bandipur National , is a national park located in the south Indian state of Karnataka. It was once a private hunting reserve for the Maharaja of the Kingdom of Mysore. Bandipur is known for its wildlifePark, established in 1974 as a tiger reserve under Project Tiger
The park spans an area of 874 square kilometers (337 sq mi), protecting several species of India's endangered wildlife

How to reach.
We took Mandya Mysore highway and the road goes to Ooty(via Nanjanagud and Gundupet)