A Birthday in Bandipur

Looking forward and celebrating birthdays hasn't been as exciting as it used to be. But still, somewhere in your mind we think "how should I start my new year?", "Can I do something special?" etc. etc. If it is on a Monday, definitely I wouldn't want to gift myself "Monday blues". When I found that my birthday is going to be on Monday, I felt the same thing. I didn't want to wake up thinking that I have to beat two hours of traveling through terrible traffic time to reach office; that I have to plan for fixes/releases for the whole week. I wanted to be away from all this and spend some quality time in the lap of nature(again!). So I decided to head to Bandipura Safari Lodge, and booked Jungle Lodges for the first time. My trips are usually not well planned or well organized. It was probably the first time I planned it and made all the necessary arrangements much before the trip. With few of my best pals , I headed to Bandipura National Park in the wee hours of Sunday morning.

BNP is a tiger reserve and one of the well protected forest reserve in India. It is roughly around 220 KM from Bengaluru, and 80 KM from Mysuru. It is 4 hours of journey from Bengaluru. The Jungle Lodges charges Rs 3000 for one day which includes food, accommodation, 2 jeep safaris (close to 2-1/2 hours each). The arrangements by the jungles lodges are top class and I didn't regret spending 3k for a day ,for the quality and the food they provided. The safaris were satisfying too. I had a great time on my birthday with my friends adding a magical touch to the day.

Following are few pictures from the trip. Don't scroll down to look for Tiger or Leopard as they are not the only wildlife to watch out for. (I've been telling this to myself since I couldn't get a glimpse of them). In the recent past there has been a great sighting of Tigers and Leopards in BNP. I was happy to hear that someone sighted a Tigress with 4 cubs by the main road, a few days back. What an awesome sighting it would have been!



A family of elephants gave us some opportunity to photograph them them up and close



Meanwhile one of the parents of baby elephant ran towards us to scare us



The monkeys were up to business as usual



A Mongoose appeared


We saw a lot of birds - Here is an Indian Blue Peacock sitting on a broken tree branch on a foggy morning followed by a crested Serpent Eagle



And always a treat to watch is a Common Hoopoe



Prashant Kulli is a traveller, photographer and software professional from Bangalore. You can read about his escapades in his blog