A visit to the animal abode - Mudhumalai and Bandipur

Hi again, and here i return with another post as i recollect my experience with nature and animals .. at Mudhumalai and at Bandipur..
Now i would like to remind the readers that as usual, this blog would include my personal experiences and feelings and so guys please dont mind...
Well how did it start...One fine day , my good friend Ganesh proposed a plan to Dandeli and gave me the responsibility to get the details and co-ordinate with Manja...And after some r n d with Google, i finally gave him all the details, only a little dejected to know that people were'nt really interested with Dandeli. So wishing myslef all thebest for the next time, i got back to work as i had a long week of work ahead.
And then a lot of mails came in with a suggestion to see this place called bandipur. As I was a little vexed, i was not very keen with this place and till the last minute, i did not want to see this place...However Ganesh was a little too adamant on my coming and so i finally agreed to be one of the travellers to this place.
So the D-day was set to be the 29th of August.. With the plan to see Mudhumalai and Bandipur..
The guys had to pick me from my place at 11 30 and as usual they dropped in late...With a little fussing and yelling , we finally commenced our journey to this place, all excited(and yawning!) in a sumo. There were 8 of us and by the time we reached the outskirts of blr..people had started to doze, including me! To keep the excitement alive, the most enthu guy in the team, started singing aloud in his not so pleasant voice..(No prizes for guessing who it was ;) ) ... And then there was this weird discussion on which profession is the toughest...with me and Santosh on one side and Ganesh on the other...with Ganesh losing out badly to me and Santosh..( ha ha ha).. and not yet accepting that he had lost.. And all thru the way people wondering as to how my dear fren Anand managed to sleep, with so much of noise!!
Finally we managed to reach Bandipur at around 5.15 am in the morning, and as the tickets to safari would be available only around six...everyone decided to take a stroll.. Ganesh and Santosh having a small running race...Manja Nagesh and Nanjesh half asleep, and Vinod being the perfect naviagtor to the trip..and Anand terrifying me on the pig bites and the no-cure theory!!
It was a lovely site to see the dawn slowly breakup and we decided to say hello to pur cute little nature friends- the deers and take some snaps of them.. Finally it was 6 and we decided to walk to the bandipur sanctuary reception office.(Note: Bandipur is a Tiger reserve, on the TN - Karnataka border.). But luck was'nt our side as we were told that the safari's had been cancelled due to heavy rains last night!! So deciding to giveit a try the next morning , we all decided to move to our next destination, which was Mudhumalai(Note:Mudhumalai is a tiger reserve in TN. )
Now the drive from Bandipur to Mudhumalai was'nt great, as it had rained and so the potholes were full. However we managed to sight some elephants and deers, and the guys took their cams to shoot the animals. Upon reaching Mudhumalai , we decided we would take the safari at 3 30 which wud give us enuf time to unwind and relax, and also finish our trek to this small lake where the guys wanted to go fishing, and Ganesh could swim (Note: To know what happened of the fishing and of Ganesh's swimming...continue reading!!)
We reached this sweet little cottage in the middle of the nature, called the Jungle homes. Though the cottage was not very appealing at site, it was a cozy little home tucked right in the middle of nature with all the modern amenities provided. Also all sorts of birds and animals were around and so the guys started shooting again. After freshening up and a hearty breakfast, we all decided to walk to this lake where we could have the Activity 2 of the day.(Note: Activity 1 had been postponed for Day2). Now the walk to this place was really nice, for it was a walk thru the forests and the farms , full of coffee and pepper plantations and these sweet flowers and cute little homes, keeping the cams occupied. At one place we had this range of mountains from where we could see the falls in Ooty, atleast that is wht the guide told us. We walked to this sweet little treehouse right in the middle of these farms, chilled out for some 15 mins..finally reaching this small creek where there was a lot of......dirty water. And the faces of the people with us was worth a watch.. esp..well i dun have to say..So we decided to get back as it was time for lunch.
So after a little disheartment and a long walk, we returned to the cottage to have our lunch and have the activity 3 for the day!
Now on our way back to Mudhumalai forest reserve, we had this game of antakshri which the guys started. Initially i wasnt very interested, however my team began to lose and it was time to have some fun...So i joined them..And so the time just slipped off fast and we reached the reserve. we were told that it would take some time and so meanwhile some guys just caught up with some sleep while the others had a refreshing cup of coffee . Then it was time for the safari and we all boarded the bus . We did manage to sight some elephants , monkeys , deers, peacocks, bisons and sparrows. And the ride ended, with us returning to continue playing antakshri and finally our team winning!!! It was lotsa fun...for every time the opponents thought they had defeated us, we surprised them!!! And as all of us were very tired, we decided to drop the idea of the campfire, have our dinner and a game of cards , finally catching up some sleep.
The next day we had to get ready and leave by six..but do u think that would happen.. The guys got up only at 6 15.. and took 2 hrs just to get ready(Poor gals are simply blamed!!)..It was 8 by the time we started and the last safari was at 8 30 at Bandipur..And the mission impossible had to be accomplished...So with all the slips here and there, we finally made it in time for the last safari on the day 2 .. And believe me, it was worth all the effort.
It was supposed to be a 45 mins stint with nature and the animals, with the van to be moving right thru the jungle. We were asked to keep silence, and not to disturb the animals. The weather had been excellent and we managed to sight some animals- elephants, deers, peacocks, woodpeckers, bisons, monkeys. The drive was really refreshing and we were a little disheartened that the safari got over. The only regret that I had that i was not able to sight tigers even thou it was a tiger reserve.. probably the tiger was too lazy to walk out of its home on a sunday ;)!!
After the ride, it was a time one som greeted the father(Doesn't make sense eh??), and the guys started feeding the monkeys around with groundnuts, with boards clearly instructing not to do so! But u see, we have this penchant for breaking rules and the guys wanted to have some fun.
But the monkeys had the last laugh when they snatched the groundnuts packets outta Manja's hands!!
All of us had been really hungry and so we chose this place called Pugmark restaurant near the sanctuary as our breakfast spot, after which we decided to see these so called falls called Balmuri , with the trip havings its share of difficulties(including a tire puncture). So we finally reached the Balmuri falls and after the guys having fun in the water, we decided to get back to home sweet home - bangalore. So singing and playng Dumb-C, with a lunch at 6 at Madhur, the trip finally ended . And we all returned home tired and smiling, with the tragoc feeling of having office the next day :( [Why God why..why did u make a monday!!]
And here I am on Wednesday , sharing with all of u my share of experiences om this trip . Also thanks to all the trip mates for their co-operation and plannin, else I would have never got this oppurtunity and would have never been able to break off the monotonous rountine of mine.
So Ganesh, I have finished my job as promised...And its a job on u guys to provide the little note on how the facts and figures on the little know-hows of the trip.
So till the next trip, its a cya from me Sandy!