Road Trip : Bangalore - Kabini (Rajiv Gandhi National Park) - Bangalore

Just completed another beautiful and interesting bike ride to Rajiv Gandhi National Park and back. The plan started with an email from Murali which I received while I was in Bhopal attending Avinash's marriage.
This was probably the simplest email with clear communication and a pleasure to receive.
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Let's go bike ride on 5th and 6th to Kabini (250km from BLR).

I checked with jungle lodge today. Tented accommodation  is available for 5th. 

Sachin / Clinton - pl call Jungle lodge, MG Road office and book before 10:30am tomorrow (I am in HYD for next 2 days).

Plan:

Sunday -

- Start home at 5:45am, meet at corporation circle at 6:00am

- Reach Mysore by 9:00 (BF break in between)

- Reach Kabini by 11:00am

 Sun 11:00am to Mon 11:00 am at Kabini (follow resorts schedule)

 Monday:

 - 11:00am start from Kabini

- 1:00pm Mysore, till 3:00pm at Ranganatittu bird sanctuary.

- start from Ranganatittu 3:00pm and reach BLR by 6:00pm.

  

Let's lock the plan?

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And as expected, Clinton and Sachin confirmed with "Sure" and "Doubly Done" and my reply was "Let's Ride". I reached Bangalore on Wednesday at 2 PM and my Avenger was at the service bay the next day.


Sunday, 4:45 AM, Bangalore

Clinton Called up to make sure everyone was ready and no one was late. We met at 5:30 AM near Diamond District and from there Clinton, Sachin, Divya and Sukesh rode on 'The Bull", Sachin's Pulsar and 1972 Royal Enfield 350cc of Sukesh to meet Murali at 5:45 AM at town hall. The morning was unusually cold or not I can;t say because it was first time in many months that I was up this early and there was no flight to catch.

I was literally shivering as I had a bad cold and fever and was on medication as well.

We rode with virtually no traffic into Mysore road and stopped for breakfast and for the first time in all these months didn't stop at McDonalds for breakfast. I did stop because I was feeling drowsy thanks to Cetrizine which somehow makes me sleepy. I was scared because I was falling asleep on the bike and almost dozed off three times ! I washed my face atl east three times and finally asked Sachin to ride behind me and to honk to make sure I don't doze off.

Lesson I : No medication of any sort before the bike ride even if it is on the previous afternoon or evening.

We crossed Mysore and headed to HD Kote and moved from SH17 to SH33. The road turned from four/six lanes of Bangalore Mysore Road (SH33) to a normal road with no dividers.


Sunday 10 AM, 17 Kms Past Mysore
Road trips always have surprised and Sukesh and Divya had an accident which involved a village biker who road into the state highway without too fast without really checking the traffic on the main road. As if this was not enough a truck was also passing and Sukesh didn't have another option but to ram the bullet into the truck and save the other rider.

Thank God no one was badly hurt but the front fork of the bullet was bent and though the engine fired up on first kick but no way any one could ride the bike. We again had to hire an APE Auto for INR 400 and sent the bike to Mysore to one of his relatives and after a break of about an hour continued our journey towards Kabini River Lodge,

We rode into HD Kote looking for a doctor and then continued on the road until we reached the resort. Interestingly this was the same route we took on our way back from Wayanad when we crossed the Kabini river on a manual row boat with our bikes on the boats ;)

Suday 1:30 PM, Kabini River Lodge
Checked into the lodge parked our bikes and we were ready. The rooms were beautifully done in english style and reminded me of FRI, Dehradun houses where I stayed almost all my school years before moving out of Dehradun. High deodar ceiling, fans hanging via long rods just above the bed, long verandas fireplace..in all timeless, beautiful and graceful without the pomp and show of today's architecture.

Straightaway headed for lunch and then I dozed off for half an hour. I was still feeling drowsy !

Sunday 4 PM, Jeep Safari
As the sun was setting we were escorted by our driver and safari co-coordinator towards the National Park. Ironically this was the time Murali started his journey back to Bangalore because of some emergency at home. Sad but that's how life is - things keep happening.

We were welcomed into the jungle by a beautiful tusker quitely enjoying his evening stroll. We moved into the forest and were greeted by a group of spotted deers every 5 minutes or so. Few things in this world as as beautiful as the way a deer walks. Malabar giant squirrels, serpent eagle, langurs kept meeting us every few yards until we were greeted by monkey sounds and our guide was quick to indicate that it is predator.

Between a group of wild boars they kept on scanning the jungle with binoculars until we saw a beautiful python. This was the first time I saw a Indian Rock Python.We saw a crocodile, few more deer herds, a brown fish owl before it was too dark. The last sigting of the day was sambhar and a mama elephant with a baby close to her.

Good fun and we returned to the resort which is actually just outside the reserve. We saw a herd of beautiful elephants just next to the road but some idiot driver honked and flashed the lights of a truck to push them back into the forest and we missed the chance of watching few more elephants.

Sunday 7 PM, John Wake Field Bar
One good thing about the resort was the British influence. The bar was one of the things. We sat in the Verandah poured us a glass and had a discussion recalling the incidences of the day. We continued the discussion around the dinner and bonfire.

The food was another interesting and we returned to the rooms.

Monday 6 AM, Boat Safari
We had opted for boat safari for the morning and I really loved the first look outside the door. There was a dense fog all around as and we boarded our safari boat. The reservoir looked even more beautiful rather like a painting.

We spotted a few mongoose, lots of kingfishers, Whitebellied Woodpecker, Osprey, two tuskers, corocodile, serpent eagle, falcon, wild boars, painted storks, I guess over 50 Indian cormorants some of them on the nests attending the young ones.


We returned back to the lodge around 9:30 and headed for buffet breakfast. The overall food was really nice.


We resumed our journey to Bangalore at around 11:00 AM and thankfully there were no incidences on our way back. Like all goods things in life the trip ended !


Summary




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Distance: 450 KMS
Roads: Above Average- Beware of Cows and Villagers on SH33. Try to avoid Sunday evening traffic returning to Bangalore.


Overall Recommendation: This is one place to visit again and again and may be once again !
Charges: INR 9000 per day for a double room including everything on the resort and meals.