Bandipur National park

Bandipur National Park is a reserve forest located 75 kms to the south of Mysore in Karnataka, enroute to Ooty.

Early in November, 2013 we planned a trip to Bandipur National Park in Karnataka and after going through the reviews in Tripadviser I booked the Bandipur Safari Lodge; they had really good feedback and fitted our budget. We started from Chennai on Thursday, the 28th, via Kaveri Express and reached Mysore on Friday morning. We finished our breakfast in a near by hotel and booked a taxi for Bandipur.

The surroundings change from Gundlupet which is about 16 Kms from Bandipur. The location starts to get serene as you move on. On the way we stopped for some watermelons. We got accompanied by a couple of monkeys. My daughter was very excited to see them.

After a few minutes of stoppage we continued the journey to Bandipur. We reached the Bandipur Safari Lodge around 10:45 AM. The resort looked and felt good. We clicked a few snaps.

We were greeted well and were guided to our rooms. Ours was a Chital room and we had a painting of the same on the wall behind our bed.

The climate was wonderful. The place within the resort was beautiful as well. After freshening up we had our lunch, looked around the resort & clicked a few snaps.

We spotted a lot of monkeys within the resort compound.

We were told that the forest safari will begin by 3:15 PM so we were geared up. They were very punctual. We were invited for tea at 3:00. There was a small briefing of what are the dos & don'ts inside the forest. We started our safari by 3:15 PM.

It took us about 15 minutes to reach the forest reception area. We waited there for about 10-15 mins to get the permission. Once the formalities were completed we began our trip into the forest.

Soon after we entered we spotted a few Chitals.

Then a wild Dove.

We moved on to find some random bird on the track which flew away on seeing our Jeep approaching.

Further into the forest we spotted few Indian Gaur.

Then a wild Rooster and Hen.

Then again some Chitals.

Then a long beaked sparrow, soon joined by another one. The guide gave us a specific name which I am unable to recollect.

Then we went further into the forest.

Our driver got a call on his cell phone. He was informed by another team that they have spotted a tiger. We were thrilled. He rushed us back out of the forest, entered into the nearest spot on the Bandipur - Ooty highway, we traveled on the highway for about 5 mins before we made entry into the forest again. It took us about 15-20 mins before we could reach the place were the tiger was spotted by the other team. Luckily the tiger had his meal and was taking a nap.

We were very excited. He got up after sometime, looked at us for a while and walked away.

It was a exhilarating experience to spot the tiger in the jungle. We waited for sometime to see if he would return; but he didn't and we had to leave the place. On the way back we again spotted Chitals and peacock.

It was getting quite dark by now.

Again some Chitals and a lonely elephant.

Excuse for the poor quality pics, it was almost too dark by now to get anything clear on camera.

We came back to the resort had some tea, snacks and some rest.

There was a documentary shown at 07:30 PM about the Bandipur Wild dogs and how they survive in the forest, their hunting techniques as a group etc.

Dinner was at 8:30 (?), I don't remember the time, but was good.

There was a camp fire set for the guests.

We were informed the safari the next morning was at 6:30 AM, with tea at 6:10 AM. We were also told that we would get a wake-up call at 05:30 AM.

Night was very cold and we had a nice sleep.They were very punctual again. We got a wake-up call exactly by 05:30, even before my alarm could go off.

Tea was served as told and we started our safari at 06:30 as mentioned. It was very foggy, but it cleared to an extent by the time we got the permission and entered the forest around 07:00 AM.

As we were entering we spotted Chitals.

Then the Bandipur wild dogs. The documentary the previous evening helped us in relating to them in a better way.

They were leaving and we kept trail.

After the dogs left we went further into the forest until we came across a leopard.

Looking at our Gypsy he started to move away. Luckily, for us, the place was open and clear without any bushes. We were able to spot him clearly.

He turned back, stared at us and started moving again.

He was soon joined by a peacock. Notice the peacock in the pic below.

One more joined soon. The leopard seemed undisturbed by the peacocks; or should I say the peacocks seemed undisturbed by the presence of the leopard.

He started moving on the trail laid by the jeeps, the peacocks started following him, and we started trailing them.

The leopard rested for a while, so did the peacocks and so did we.

The march soon began.

The peacocks got tired of the uninteresting leopard (?) and flew to a nearby tree.

The leopard continued. Looked at us once more.

He then started to move inside the bushes and vanished.

The guide told us there are some Indian Gaurs with calf on the other side and there could be some action. There was unrest with the Gaurs. But they settled soon as they realized that the leopard was gone.

We proceeded further into the forest. Spotted another leopard but it vanished quickly into the bushes.

Then few nice spots and a few birds.

Further in a couple of wild squirrels jumping from tree to tree.

On the way out some birds & Chitals again.

We were out of the park around 09:15 AM.

Freshened-up. We left to Mysore around 11:00 AM via Ooty-Mysore Bus. Reached Mysore around 01:00 - 01-30 PM, had lunch, dropped our luggage at the cloakroom in Mysore railway station.

We went to boating at the Karanji lake. We spotted few Eagles and they were posing for us.

We did not have the time to see the Butterfly park inside the Karanji lake park since we had Mysore palace in our agenda and our train back to Chennai at 08:30 PM.

We left to Mysore palace. Clicked a few snaps.

Below is a snap of the temple right at the entrance of the Mysore palace.

Snaps of Mysore palace.

Cameras were not allowed inside the palace.

It was dark by the time we came out.

The palace lights were on. Again a few snaps.

One the lights were turned on there were hundreds of pigeons on the palace as seen in the below pics; not sure of the reason though.

There was a light show from 07:00 to 07:45 PM. We got the tickets for the same. It was accompanied by a recitation in Kanada, which made little sense to us. A presentation in English would have been better. The light show was good, but we did not have the comfort of time to stay for the entire show.