Last week had 2 holidays - Independence day and Ramzan sandwiched with a weekend and 2 working days in between. So 2 days of leave meant a 6 day vacation. Anirban planned an exciting road trip which exactly fitted the time frame we had. Tinku and Pallavi landed in Hyd on Aug 14. We headed straight to the 'Jewels of Nizam' restaurant. Gorged on some delicious haleem and biryani and headed back home to pack for the trip.
On Aug 15th we were off. Our i10 was jam packed with things and we managed to squeeze in too. Started the first stretch of journey from Hyderabad to Bangalore. This is one of the best highways I have been on till date. Smooth straight roads, no bumps, hardly any people around and all villages completely circumvented. The only downside is that there are no good eating joints en route and the hefty toll you need to pay every 100 kms. Pallavi was the official DJ for the journey with her amazing set of songs on her Ipod. She kept playing the right numbers which reflected our mood.We reached Bangalore by 3:00pm, after a heavy lunch at my sisters place, rested well for the next days journey.
Aug 16 - woke up by 5:30 am and by the time we could hit the road it was 7:45 am. The first stretch to Mysore road was amazing. Thanks to NICE. However, by the time we could realize the NICE road had ended and we were on the crowded Mysore Road. It almost impossible to have a smooth ride on this road, with the number of cars and trucks plying between these 2 cities. We were in Mysore by 12:00pm and were trying to figure out the way to head to Bandipur. With 3 smart phones, none of the map apps worked with strange messages like 'GPS data isn't available now' or 'Unable to load map now'. So we kept going around in circles with all roads in Mysore leading to the Palace. We finally managed to hit the road that led to Bandipur and the milestone read 80kms.
Our reservation was at Jungle lodges and resorts and were quite disappointed with the location of the resort. Its located just outside a village but quite far way from the Bandipur forests as such. Food was mediocre. However they did have these beautiful life size paintings in each room. Ours had a the spotted deer painted on it. To add to our disappointed was the fact that safaris in tiger reserves was banned by the Supreme court. That meant nothing to do at Bandipur. We were stumped. We decided to drive through the Bandipur and Ooty highways which passes through the Bandipur and Madumalai forests. We were lucky to spot lots of deer, nice big heard of bisons with calves, a young wild elephant, many birds and the the best of all a magnificent, glorious male bison. It looked so glamouros, with its nice shiny coat, clearly visible muscles and looked hefty. He was clearly the Salman Khan among the bisons.
The next days Aug 17, we left early to try our luck. The drive through the forest was beautiful with tall trees and sunlight peeping through. We then started on our journey to Waynad. The drive again was through the other part of Bandipur tiger reserve, we kept looking out and we did spot a heard of elephants at quite a distance. The board 'Welcome to Kerala' gave me a sense of happiness. Soon we were in Sultan Bathery trying to find our way around. We had our booking done at Wynberg resorts which nestled away between paddy fields and coffee plantations. As the resort was located off the way, we decided to first visit Edakkal caves which has stone carvings of per-historic times. The walk to the cave was memorable with heavy rains pouring over us and steep climbs. We had to sweat it out to reach the cave. I did not find the cravings exciting however the slit through the rock was beautiful .
We found our way to the resort with the meticulous directions given by Mr Vancheeswaran. When we reached the resort we were quite skeptical. It looked quite dark due to the tall trees and thick coffee bushes and the chorus of crickets singing their lungs out. Surprisingly we had a good nights sleep, probably the cricket chorus doubled up as a lullaby.
The next day Aug 18 we headed out to Soojipara falls. En-route to the falls we passed through tea plantation which was picturesque. The water fall was a quick walk downhill. Half way through we could hear the falls roar. At the falls it looked powerful, spraying a fine mist all over us. From the falls we headed to Pookote lake, again with the directions and maps given by Mr Vanchy. The lake was a typical 'hill station lake' with lots of people boating around. Once done, we headed to Kalpetta. We shopped here for all spices and all possible things we could carry back in the car.
Aug 19 - Time to head back home. We decided to take the Nagarhole route back to Mysore. This was a long drive through the jungle.So sightings whatsoever, except for a pair a cute Malabar giant squirrel. Soon we were back in Mysore. We did a quick stop over to see the Palace. In spite of the crowd we managed to cover the whole palace in less than an hour. Now back on the Mysore - Bangalore highway, racing between cars and zip, zap, zoom, we made through the risky drive back to Bangalore.
The next day Aug 20, we headed back to Hyd. The peaceful drive back, cruising along at 120kmph and above. Back in Hyd by 7:00 pm.
On Aug 15th we were off. Our i10 was jam packed with things and we managed to squeeze in too. Started the first stretch of journey from Hyderabad to Bangalore. This is one of the best highways I have been on till date. Smooth straight roads, no bumps, hardly any people around and all villages completely circumvented. The only downside is that there are no good eating joints en route and the hefty toll you need to pay every 100 kms. Pallavi was the official DJ for the journey with her amazing set of songs on her Ipod. She kept playing the right numbers which reflected our mood.We reached Bangalore by 3:00pm, after a heavy lunch at my sisters place, rested well for the next days journey.
Aug 16 - woke up by 5:30 am and by the time we could hit the road it was 7:45 am. The first stretch to Mysore road was amazing. Thanks to NICE. However, by the time we could realize the NICE road had ended and we were on the crowded Mysore Road. It almost impossible to have a smooth ride on this road, with the number of cars and trucks plying between these 2 cities. We were in Mysore by 12:00pm and were trying to figure out the way to head to Bandipur. With 3 smart phones, none of the map apps worked with strange messages like 'GPS data isn't available now' or 'Unable to load map now'. So we kept going around in circles with all roads in Mysore leading to the Palace. We finally managed to hit the road that led to Bandipur and the milestone read 80kms.
Our reservation was at Jungle lodges and resorts and were quite disappointed with the location of the resort. Its located just outside a village but quite far way from the Bandipur forests as such. Food was mediocre. However they did have these beautiful life size paintings in each room. Ours had a the spotted deer painted on it. To add to our disappointed was the fact that safaris in tiger reserves was banned by the Supreme court. That meant nothing to do at Bandipur. We were stumped. We decided to drive through the Bandipur and Ooty highways which passes through the Bandipur and Madumalai forests. We were lucky to spot lots of deer, nice big heard of bisons with calves, a young wild elephant, many birds and the the best of all a magnificent, glorious male bison. It looked so glamouros, with its nice shiny coat, clearly visible muscles and looked hefty. He was clearly the Salman Khan among the bisons.
The next days Aug 17, we left early to try our luck. The drive through the forest was beautiful with tall trees and sunlight peeping through. We then started on our journey to Waynad. The drive again was through the other part of Bandipur tiger reserve, we kept looking out and we did spot a heard of elephants at quite a distance. The board 'Welcome to Kerala' gave me a sense of happiness. Soon we were in Sultan Bathery trying to find our way around. We had our booking done at Wynberg resorts which nestled away between paddy fields and coffee plantations. As the resort was located off the way, we decided to first visit Edakkal caves which has stone carvings of per-historic times. The walk to the cave was memorable with heavy rains pouring over us and steep climbs. We had to sweat it out to reach the cave. I did not find the cravings exciting however the slit through the rock was beautiful .
We found our way to the resort with the meticulous directions given by Mr Vancheeswaran. When we reached the resort we were quite skeptical. It looked quite dark due to the tall trees and thick coffee bushes and the chorus of crickets singing their lungs out. Surprisingly we had a good nights sleep, probably the cricket chorus doubled up as a lullaby.
The next day Aug 18 we headed out to Soojipara falls. En-route to the falls we passed through tea plantation which was picturesque. The water fall was a quick walk downhill. Half way through we could hear the falls roar. At the falls it looked powerful, spraying a fine mist all over us. From the falls we headed to Pookote lake, again with the directions and maps given by Mr Vanchy. The lake was a typical 'hill station lake' with lots of people boating around. Once done, we headed to Kalpetta. We shopped here for all spices and all possible things we could carry back in the car.
Aug 19 - Time to head back home. We decided to take the Nagarhole route back to Mysore. This was a long drive through the jungle.So sightings whatsoever, except for a pair a cute Malabar giant squirrel. Soon we were back in Mysore. We did a quick stop over to see the Palace. In spite of the crowd we managed to cover the whole palace in less than an hour. Now back on the Mysore - Bangalore highway, racing between cars and zip, zap, zoom, we made through the risky drive back to Bangalore.
The next day Aug 20, we headed back to Hyd. The peaceful drive back, cruising along at 120kmph and above. Back in Hyd by 7:00 pm.
No comments:
Post a Comment