[cks3976]

Rains are best enjoyed when you are inside a forest or near a stream, or a waterfall. Company of friends makes it even better.

It all began on a dry noon at Lunch table when ROH suggested that we should take off for a day and venture into some forest to experience the monsoon. Another friend JIT immediately agreed. And after a small discussion we decided to drive to Coorg and Nagarahole.

Nagarahole is one of the prime Tiger reserves in Karnataka which lies between Hunsur town and South Coorg. This is a dry and deciduous forest and homes lot of mammal species such as four types of Deers (Spotted, Sambar, Mouse and Barking), Indian Gaur (wrongly called Indian Bison :-)), Elephants, Panther and the most majestic of all- the Tiger. Also the forest have numerous Bird species. A slow and patient drive in the Kutta Road, Karmaad Road and HD Kote road in the reserve can yield plenty of surprise sightings of these animals.

Nagarahole is still not very commercialized such as Bandipur, Kabini etc due to various measures of the Forest department such as no staying option inside the reserve except the forest department guest house, limited Game rounds inside the forest etc.,

This must have been my 20th or so drive to Nagarahole. But each visit to Nagarahole had yielded some or the other surprise for me. So I happily agreed to be the team's official driver to Nagarahole. :-)

And at the last moment two more friends SAR and NCR hopped in.

Next few days saw us booking a resort that's on the outskirts of Nagarahole, inquiring about the weather, planning the itinerary etc, and all of us were looking forward for the trip. And I was very keen to check the performance of my new Turanza ER-60 and Bosch Clear vision wipers on this long rain drive.

Our travel date was fixed as 7th July. And we decided to meet at NCR's place, SAR will park his Swift in NCR's place and our further journey would be in my Fiesta (old) 1.6 ZXi.

As planned we all met near NCR's place at Basaveshwara Nagar (just delayed by 1 hour :P), with Fiesta's boot full of Spirits and short eats. We dumped all our luggage in the boot and Fiesta's boot proved out to big enough to accommodate all this stuff. I took a small winding road that connects Basaveshwara Nagar to the outer Ring Road and from there we headed towards Nayandanahalli junction to take NICE Road. The PES college stretch of NICE road is now re-laid into Concrete road. But I must say the earlier road was much better. One can now feel the roughness of the road and its uneven surface. At 130KMPH with fully loaded car I could still feel some amount of dragging especially while driving on the edge of the route while overtaking other vehicles. So just be a little careful while driving on this stretch of NICE road. Other part of the NICE road from Somapura till Kengeri is fantastic and the drive was awesome.

We were welcomed by the Mysore road traffic as soon as we hit Kengeri. Staring late to Mysore was definitely not a good idea, but we still managed to cruise through the traffic. It was very overcast and I was eager to test how Bosch Clear vision wiper would perform.

Rains started to add to our joy as soon as we crossed Bidadi. And the drive was just perfect. Road grip of Turanza is excellent and even at 120 KPH the road noise was very less and the ride was pretty smooth. But the Wiper.... was not as smooth as I expected. It was making some kind of noise and I could see a weird piece of metal protruding out the metal blade part of the wiper. I could not figure out what was that as it was raining heavily and I could not get out of the Car.

It rained for most part of the drive, we took a short Tea break at Mandya and then JIT wanted to test the fiesta.

His driving skills were put to test on the bad stretch between Sri Rangapattana and Ilavala (on KRS road). This route is extremely bad with huge potholes and plenty of slush due to recent rains. One has to be very careful while covering this stretch- especially with Cars with lower ground clearance like Fiesta. However the road is just fantastic after we cross Ilavala till Hunsur.

If you are driving towards Hunsur/Nagarahole just keep an eye on the left deviation that leads towards Hunsur Town. This is a small deviation and can be very well missed by a first time driver. You will end up driving towards Mercara if you miss this left deviation.

Driving Map: Kengeri to Nagarahole (Google Maps Link)


Rains stopped when we reached Hunsur. Weather was fantastic and as per ROH the "Settings" for "SPIRIT"ual discussions were ideal.

We reached our Resort "The Base Camp" by 7:40PM and warmly greeted by my friend Govindaraj, the owner of this place. Base camp is a 2 acre campus with lot of trees and open space, located 0KM from Hunsur town towards Nagarahole. This place is an ideal hangout for groups who look forward to get the feel of rugged village atmosphere equipped with basic amenities and very good food. We had a fun filled time at the Campfire with some good snacks and Spirits. It was around 11:00PM when we retired for the day.

Our day started at 6:00 AM the next day. And as planned we drove to Nagarahole National Park, which is around 6KM to Basecamp. The forest was lush green and Chital were in good numbers. And the check post guard informed us about an Elephant herd that had just passed by on the road. We were eager to get some sightings.

Spotted Deer- Lens burst method (using my 17-40L Lens on Canon 1D MK III)



The drive through the forest was excellent, but did not yield in any good sightings except for large herds of Spotted Deers. We reached the Forest department office at around 7:30AM. And to our shock the Morning Safari was cancelled due to heavy rains on the previous night. We were very much upset because of this. But there was not much we could do about. So we decided to drive back to the resort, finish breakfast and again take a long drive towards Iruppu Falls.

We started back from the resort by 10:00AM after a nice Chapati, Veg and Egg Curry breakfast at Base camp. Govindaraj told us Iruppu is a must watch this year as it has the maximum water in past five years. Drive till Kutta gate of Nagarahole was unevenful, and the forest was very dull than usual. Birds were were totally absent and there were not spotted deers too. Forests are always unpredictable.

Drive from Kutta to Iruppu falls is through coffee estates and some very scenic roads. Drive was very pleasant and it started raining when we just reached the falls. We have to park our vehicles near Iruppu Rameshwara temple and walk for around 1KM to reach the Iruppu water fall point. This 1KM trek takes you through some interesting streams, which offer great photography opportunities.





In my opinion these streams are much more beautiful than the actual falls from the photography point of view. We were prepared to take a few leach bytes near the stream, but to my surprise there were no leaches !!



Getting creative with Monotone :-)



We spent a good time near the falls photographing its beauty. It rained heavily and then we decided to drive back to Nagarahole for the afternoon safari.

A word of caution- there are not many good restaurants (especially Veg) in Kutta. So it is better to pack some lunch, or depend on bakery products available at Kutta Town.

Now I remembered the metallic portion that protruded out of the wiper blade. On a close observation I found that my mechanic had forgot to take out the old wiper blade from the windscreen. And each time when the wiper was on there were three blades trying to wipe the wind screen :-)

We reached Nagarahole office again at around 3PM and happy to see that Safari was open for a short duration. The forest department has Gypsy 4X4- an amazing beast that is rightly made for such terrains.

The forest was full of life and we could spot a group of Wild Dogs and a Leopard in the forest :-) apart from Deers, Sambars and Gaurs.

We came out of the Forest by 6:00PM and started driving back towards the resort. Light was fading out fast and I wanted to reach the resort before it gets dark (we are not allowed to use Headlights in the night within the forest range). A lone tusker was gently grazing on road side near Kallahalla forest guest house and offered us some good poses.

Finally we reached the resort at 6:45PM. All were tiered and hungry as we had skipped our lunch. After a quick session we had an early dinner and lights were off at 10:00PM. We all had a great sleep that night.

The next day started off at 7:00AM with a walk around the resort, followed by breakfast. And then we decided to start back to Bangalore by 10:00AM. Return drive to Bangalore was excellent due to very less traffic on Mysore road. We reached Bangalore 1:30PM.

And that was the end of a fantastic monsoon weekend.

[rahul4321]

Beautiful travelogue. I particularly loved the photographs of the waterfall. The water is so clean, clear and 'crisp', you can see the trail of each finger of the waterfall.

[majumon]

cks your photos are too good have you done some modification to the pictures, looks good for a calendar. Also can you give some more details about the base camp rates and how would you rate the food please. Enjoyed your photos.

[cks3976]

Originally Posted by majumon

cks your photos are too good have you done some modification to the pictures, looks good for a calendar. Also can you give some more details about the base camp rates and how would you rate the food please. Enjoyed your photos.

Hi Manju, thank you for your kind words.. No modifications to the photos it's th result of long exposure shots.

Base camp is owned by a friend of mine near Hunsur. Please visit his website or more details about the camp. It's a very nice weekend outing place. Prices vary between 1200 to 1500 per person based on choice of food and group size. And it is negotiable for larger size groups.

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to Travelogues. Thanks for sharing!

[iVento]

Nice travelogue. Beautiful photographs.
You have created an illusion effect in that dear photograph. Good one!

[Gokrish]

Hi! CKS!

Concise travelogue accompanied with good photographs. These photographs show your editing skills too at creating surrealistic images. Can we have some more of them as we have an insatiable appetite for nature's beauty.

By the way, is it possible (and feasible) to book accommodation at Forest Guest House inside Nagarhole forest? Generally I found it difficult to book accommodation at the Forest Guest Houses in Karnataka, Bandipur being an exception! Last time when I visited K Gudi, it was an Herculian task for me to get my accommodation at Forest Guest House of Karnataka State Forest Dept, but finally managed to get one after much persuation and cajoling.

Please keep revving your vehicle so that we can have more and more of such posts.

[cks3976]

Originally Posted by Gokrish

Hi! CKS!

Concise travelogue accompanied with good photographs.
==================
Please keep revving your vehicle so that we can have more and more of such posts.

Very sorry for replying so late. Yes, it's possible to book the FRH at Nagarahole. It will be a great experience. You can book the FRH from Mysore. The contact number of : 08212480901 / 08212480875/08212480902. Alternately you can stay in Kutta, there are many decent home stays available in Kutta at economical costs.