Trip to BR Hills and Bandipur – Dec 17th to Dec 19th 2010 – PART -2

Day 2 continued.

After the safari we headed straight back to the lodge packed all the stuff and headed for a late breakfast. We checked out at the lodge well before 12 noon and the next destination was the Himavad Gopalaswamy Betta. Soon we were atop of the hill. With my good friend (a forest guard) we dumped the luggage inside a room which belongs to temple. After the darshan we headed off for a small trek with the intention of spotting a few sambars and gentle giants.

We trekked down the hill till the fort and we were greeted by a herd of elephants. It is their world and we had to back off to a safer distance and watch these beasts go on with their routine stuff.

By now we had decided to head back to Mysore to stay at my colleague’s house. So we trekked back up the hill and relaxed for about 20 mins and it was time to ride back to Mysore. We planned to reach Mysore at least an hour before 7:30 pm to catch the Mysore Palace basking in the lights. The road up to Nanjanagud is pretty good. We stopped over for snacks and a cup of strong coffee to keep ourselves going for the rest of the day but not before we caught a glimpse of the sunset and the moon rise.

The nightmare started right from Nanjanagud to Mysore. You don’t need to hire a rocket and head to moon to see the moon’s surface. The road is a replica of the moon’s surface on the entire distance of 25 kms between Nanjanagud and Mysore as the potholes ranging from small to extra large is very evident. Finally we reached the Palace only to know that the lights would be turned off in a couple of mins. Managed to click one pic of the entrance.

Finally, reached my colleague’s house. After lapping up a tasty dinner it was time to hit the sacks.

Day 3: December 19^th, 2010

With not much being planned for the Sunday, we woke up to be familiar and inline for a Sunday morning. The plan was to visit the Zoo, finish lunch and head back home. As usual the visit to the zoo being pretty normal, I will let the pictures narrate more about it.

The hornbill

The warning signs for the visitors

White princess

The Royal Bengal Tiger

A glimpse of what’s inside the pretty face

Ancestors

The wolf

Naughty little boy

The leopard

King of the forest

The king is not just about brute power, but affection as well

The Rhino

After the zoo visit we headed back to my colleague’s house. A late lunch and it was time to get back on roads to be back at Bangalore.

I mentioned about an important learning in the previous post. My better half who was all enthu for the ride, finally found it tougher by the end of day 3. Though we had done a good 600 kms previously in a day, but not this time around. This might be the root cause for future statements like "No more rides with wifey". Probably a better plan with more leisure time will yield better results? A question that only time and my efforts in better planning & execution will answer.

Reached home by 9 pm due a very slow and leisurely ride with many stops. At least to me a part of the life was reclaimed.