Weekend Trip to Kabini, Balle, Nagarahole --- Breathtaking Trip
This was a much
awaited holiday for me. The last trip I completed with family was on Dec 31st
2017 when we went to visit Puspagiri and stayed in our tents in amidst the
jungle and that was truly a breathtaking experience. Post that I never got a
chance to take my family out on a vacation.
I was reading
one of the books written by K P Poornachandra Tejaswi a renowned Kannada writer
and the book was a translation work of the jungle stories. Kaadina Kathegalu is
the name of the book. My head started revolving around the jungle and the
beauty of the Nilgiris and the Western Ghats. I just started browsing through
the net and started tracking the resorts in and around Kabini and Nagarhole.
The resorts around Kabini are way too expensive and that would burn your wallet
easily. The price range in Kabini would start from INR 9000 to INR 18000 per
person per day in an all-inclusive pack. I started looking out for places
little ahead of Kabini and started getting places around Mananthavady which is
hardly 30 Kms away from Kabini.
You will find
resorts / Hotels starting from INR 1500 to INR 9000 in and around Mananthavady.
This town also place a pivotal role as a commercial hub in Wayanad District
since this connects Karnataka with a quick distance of 30 kms. After browsing
through the net and doing my part of the research I finalized on Pugmarks
Jungle Lodge, a small resort in Karthikulam. I booked a Deluxe Cottage through
MMT and I got an offer price of INR 2500. I also started working on the
itinerary and started looking for places in and around the hotel. Following are
the places I was able to list to create my itinerary.
·
Beechanahalli Dam AKA Kabini – 40 Kms before the
Hotel
·
Balle Elephant Camp – 25 Kms Before the Hotel
·
Kuruvadweep Islands – 10 Kms from the Hotel
·
Tholpetty Wildlife Sanctuary – 21 Kms from the
Hotel
·
Thirunelly Sri MahaVishnu Temple – 22 Kms from
the hotel
·
Irpu Waterfalls – 50 Kms from the Hotel
·
Nagarahole National Park – 50 Kms from the Hotel
So the final day
arrived. On May 27th Sunday, I started from my hometown at around
9:30AM. I was supposed to drive 120 Kms on that day. My check-in was scheduled
at noon. However, I was in no mood to do a noon check-in. I wanted to reach the
hotel as late as possible. I called the property and gave them a confirmation
stating that I would be coming in late on that day and informed them I may
reach there by dinner time.
With the Monsoon
yet to start and born in the banks of Kabini I knew that the water level at
Beechahalli dam would be sad and it would not worth a visit at this time. So I
decided to head directly to Balle Elephant Camp. Balle Elephant Camp is in the
Kaakanakote Forest Range and is the house of Dasara Elephants like Arjuna,
Kumaraswamy and Sarala. My daughter was all excited to visit this place and see
the Dasara Elephants in the wild. I reached the Beechanahalli area at around
01:00 Noon and wanted to have lunch. You will not find any hotels for lunch in
this area. This area is the border of the Nagarhole Tiger Reserve forest and
you do not get permits to open a restaurant in this area. We headed to The
Serai and wanted to check with the management if they can accommodate lunch. Unfortunately,
they denied our request since the food would be prepared against the number of
guests stayed in the property. But, the manager was able to help me with a
place which would serve lunch for non-staying guests. He guided me to drive to
Waterwoods Lodge which was around 2 kms from The Serai and also helped me with
a contact number.
Waterwoods
acknowledge the lunch request and informed that their kitchen would open by
02:00 noon and he offered me to take a walk in the property till the time lunch
was prepared. They also offered us bicycles to roam around. We took a walk till
the Kabini back waters and clicked few pics there. Once done we headed directly
to the dining and had the lunch which was too good. The pleasant hospitality
made the lunch even better.
Post lunch we
stared driving towards the jungle. The car was moving in a slow pace of 20 kmph
and within 2 kms in the Jungle, we were able to spot a tusker in the woods.
That was a great start indeed. We slowed down further and clicked some pics of
the tusker and started moving further before the tusker hits the road. We
continued our drive at snail pace and reached Balle Elephant Camp at 04:30 in
the evening. Note that we have a forest check post at Balle which will be
closed from 18:00 to 06:00 every day. We saw Arjuna, the Elephant which carries
the world famous howdah during Mysore dasara festival. We clicked some pics and
spent around half an hour speaking to the mahout of Arjuna. He spoke a bit
about Arjuna’s diet which include 15 kilo Paddy, 10 Kilo Jaggery and 10 kilo
ragi everyday along with the whey and green grass.
We continued
from there and we reach the Hotel at around 06:30 PM. Once checked in we sipped
a cup of hot coffee which was brewed in their own estate. We met the hotel
manager and informed him that we would continue to drive in the jungle till
around 8 and we shall be back for dinner around 08:30 PM. We drove till Mananthavady
and it started raining heavily. With only two of us in the car, we decided not
to take further risk and decided to head back to the Hotel. The dinner was
ready by 08:30 which was accompanied with the IPL Finals.
Next day we
started our drive again in another direction enjoying the beauty of the jungle
at 08:00 AM. We sighted a lot of Deers and elephants on the short drive. We
came back to the hotel for breakfast.
Post breakfast, we checked out from the
hotel and headed towards Thiruneli. Thiruneli houses one of the oldest Vishnu
Temple in India and people around have a lot of positive things to speak about
this place. The temple was indeed an ancient one. We offered our prayers and
came out of the temple. One of the guards in the temple offered us some tokens
for lunch. We were told that the temple serves food for all the travelers who
visit the temple during noon time. The food offered was awesome. It was simple
but too tasty. Post lunch we headed towards Nagarhole Tiger Reserve which is
about 50 Kms from Thirunelli. We reached Nagarhole by 02:30 in the afternoon
and needless to say that the 50 kilometer drive was again filled with elephants
and deers. We opted out of Nagarhole safari and decided to drive through the jungle.
Safari charges are 350 per person if you are entering from Kutta and INR 500 if
you are entering from Veeranahosahalli. However, you can drive this stretch free
which will go through 40 Kms inside the jungle. We started driving from Kutta
at 02:30 PM and came out at Veeranahosahalli at 04:30 PM.
Pretty much I was
done with my road trip and from here I just wanted to drive down to Bangalore.
I just started getting some speed and we reached Srirangapatna at 05:30PM. We
visited Gosai Ghat and Nimishamba and headed to Bangalore finally. One pit stop
was at Kamat Lokaruchi for dinner and reached Bangalore at around 09:00 in the
night.
The next bank
holiday is on July 4 which falls on a Wednesday. Will plan another trip and get
back to you. Take care till then.
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