Some pictures from Masinagudi/Bandipur

God's secret garden, Masinagudi!

If God had a secret garden, its name would surely be Masinagudi? Lush and green doesn’t even begin to cover when one describes this beautiful piece of land which has so far managed to keep the greedy hands of human civilization under its control. Nestled between the famous tourist town of Ooty and the more well-known sanctuary of Bandipur, Masingagudi is the commonly referred name of both the little town, the cluster of small villages, and the forest areas nearby, starting past the Tamilnadu-Karnataka border on this side of the Blue Mountains. The dense forests and the lush green expanses of plains of the Mudumalai, the ancient mountain ranges of the west, also called Nilgiris (Blue Mountains), reveal a little of themselves in this pitstop before their wilderness becomes more difficult for man to access.

I first visited Masinagudi two years back on a quick weekend getaway and immediately became hooked. The place seemed to be right out of the scenes of the Jungle Book, and other stories of wild animals and forests that have always captured my imagination since childhood. And to think that this is right at my backyard, heavens! I decided, later, that I must do my pilgrimage on this road to Ooty, every year whenever possible. Whenever possible happened two years later and there we were at Masinagudi last Saturday herding a group of youngsters on what I would like to call the ‘wilderness appreciation workshop’ that we like to frequent often as we can, city bred as all of us are.

Most Websites say the best season to visit this place is October till June but believe me, August is just blissful. There is not as much tourist population as there may be at other times of the year, and the rain gods are just about taking a break after a heavy performance washing duty of the mountains. Our animal friends are more relaxed and less wary of the sight of the two legged beasts, and the self-educated naturalists in the form of forest guides are far more down to earth in their charges too. All in all, we couldn’t have visited at a better time.

We were supposed to stay at this place called Green Resorts (more like a Lodge as we found out later) but a chance overstay by one of the guests ensured we were out of place. Our friendly naturalist, Karthick, who had helped us with the booking, became quiet remorse and decided to compensate by taking us to a less-famous, and thereby better, accommodation a little father inside the forest from the town of Masinagudi, called Wild Breeze. The moment we saw Wild Breeze, we were all captivated.

More than a resort, Wild Breeze looked like a set of mini homes with its own private gardens, mountains, and animal friends. “You can see hundreds of spotted deers right at our backyard at night,” went Mr. Hari Nair, the easy going manager of the place, adding “Why only last week we saw wild dogs hunt a deer down!” Woaw! Wow! We are not going anywhere else even if you were to chase us down on elephants, I thought and we settled down for the next 24 hours, each of its minute filled with hopes of seeing those wild dogs return! But as it happened, elephants did do their chase, wild elephants in case you think otherwise, and chase they did the manager. More on that in a little while.

So after checking in at one in the afternoon, we began planning our POA for the next one day by discussing with our Naturalist. Karthick reeled off the activity options like well memorized items off a food menu complete with cost details:

• Jeep Safari in the night = Rs.800 per jeep, each jeep six people
• Camp fire with fun and frolic = Rs.300 for fire, fun and food extra depending on how many bottles
• Early morning illegal trek inside the forest=Rs.200 per person (reducible up to Rs.150) per hour for however many hours you wish to trek
• Visit to bath at the Moyyar (Singara) river of the parts=Rs.400 for to and fro jeep charges to the bathing site
• Another safari if you wish=same as before
• And of course the hugely crowded government organized Van Safaris at both Mudumalai forest reserve and Bandipur; Mudumailai at Rs.35 and Bandipur at Rs.90 (not sure of this cost)

One can also do a night stay inside the forest but it is not advised in addition to being illegal!

We decided to take our chances with the government safari at Mudumalai first, much to the disgust of Karthick, who couldn’t help but boast about his sightings of Leopard and Tiger just the previous week when he had taken another tourist group. Cynical as I was (remember I had visited this place two years back? Our guide then (they hadn’t yet started calling themselves naturalist then) made a big fool of us by pointing to some trees saying he spotted a panther just that morning sitting on those trees!), I knew at least the government safari is sure to show you some animals, if not Tigers and Leopards (nocturnal animals they are so no chance there!), but elephants and bisons surely. And spotted them we did in the safari along with deers, peacocks, Nilgiri Langurs, and other monkeys. But the worst part of the government offered safari is the wait at the ticket office – considering that this was supposed to be off season, we had to wait over two hours for our turn! But well, you can’t miss it.

We opted out of the private night jeep safari that Karthick offered, again because of our lessons from two years before. Back then, our guides fooled us by showing tamed elephants (of the Mudumalai forest office), and passed them off as wild tuskers grazing inside the village! Our guides then also took us to this old temple inside the forest and stalled the jeep for ten minutes in front of it saying Tigers visit the temple often! Though it was totally romantic (don’t ask me why! My husband dozed off half way in the safari then but I found it all oh so totally romantic to be wide awake and seeing nature at her best at night – voyeur I know!) and adventurous, we did not spot a single animal except for those wild tuskers! So we decided to stay back at Wild Breeze instead and catch up on horror stories this time round.

What do they say about Murphy’s law? What do they say? I would have beaten myself with ten broomsticks in the minutes that followed when Karthick returned from the night safari of another gang that stayed in the next cottage and proudly announced, “Ma’m you missed it! We saw a Leopard and another gang with my friend guide saw a Tiger! Ask the guests if you don’t believe me!” The guests with him nodded and off they went chatting excitedly about their luck. I turned to stare at my husband hoping to burn a hole right through his cynical mind (I conveniently forgot about my own acquiesce to his opinion!) because he was the one who first suggested opting out of the night safari. When I think of that stupid decision, I still feel like kicking myself. So animal spotting or not, this night safari is a must if you are in Masinagudi. Like I said, it is really romantic, adventurous and one of a kind experience.

The night bought in some much needed excitement later when we heard the manger come running from the gates. Apparently, he was going to the town to bring back something when in the dark his bike suddenly illuminated three elephants standing right in his way. He dropped his bike and ran back from the path like crazy which is when we saw him. After waiting out sometime, one of us took our car to the site and the manager got back his bike. There are wild elephants roaming abouts, don’t go wandering outside the gates was his advice before we retired for the night.

Oh, I almost forgot about those hundreds of deers in the backyard. Yes, there was truth to Hari Nair’s words. In fact, there were more than hundreds of deers behind the resort that night though we could see only their eyes (when we turned on our torch beams). I guess they all come near the resort at night to sleep – it might offer them a safer place than the rest of the forest, near as it is to light and human habitation, and thus far from the predators of the night which generally avoid the human trails.

We slept reluctantly that night, sorry to step inside the four walls of the room, away from the blanket of stars and wilderness.

Wait for more pictures - and the next day's events! I will put them up later!

Updated to add: By popular demand (hehehe!), here's the number of Wild Breeze - 097517-64310 - the manager's name is Sri Hari.

Pictures from the Bhadra River Camp

The view of the camp site from various angles.

Water was calm, cool and refreshing. We did not miss the chance to take a dip even though some of us didn't know swimming. The camp provided us life jackets.

My baby had the fun of her life playing in the sand around the tents. Her fav pass time the entire first night was to throw the sand on any unsuspecting person who happened to pass her.

We were lucky to spot the Green Vine Snake - a very thin green snake which had great strength in its neck which it used to raise itself vertically without support! I got to hold it as well :D

Our camp fire.... and the sumptuous dinner

Finally, what I looked forward to the most at the camp - some birding.

Camping by the river Bhadra – Day 1

When our car turned into the dusty lane off the highway near Balehonnur into Honne Koppa, it was already 5:30 in the evening. The sky was slowly darkening and all of us were in a hurry to catch our first glimpse of the camp site before daylight faded further. Our initial plan had been to reach the place by three so that we could utilize the afternoon well – maybe do some swimming or even a little trekking. And for me, definitely some birding just before twilight - I had become fascinated right from the beginning, when I first read the description of a hornbill sipping rain with its head almost upside down to catch the water drops in its down-curved beak, when I visited the camp’s Website. Add to that lines that went “Tucked deep inside western ghats, the camp lies at the very epicenter of one of world's richest bio-diversity hot-spot…” Heaven couldn’t have been more welcoming for me – at least from the description!

The direction to the site is simple enough – just follow the single mud road on the right (after Aldur towards Sringeri) when you come across the first signboard of the camp because there is not another! As my husband struggled to keep the car running through the muddy up and down village road, I noticed the surrounding scenery – uh-uh, Coffee plantations. Is this going to be just another resort-types surrounded by cultivated albeit lush green lands? Please God, No! We need a break from civilization, I chanted to myself silently. Just then, we spotted an old man walking the other way and we just had to stop for directions being the city folks that we are. Just go straight and turn left near the huts and keep following the road was his advice. Thanks thatha, we could have figured it on our own given enough time, I muttered when I caught sight of the glowering glance my husband was trying to throw at me. Away from civilization does not mean becoming uncivilized he seemed to be saying. Hmm, if only!

Finally, after what seemed like ten minutes, our vehicles stuttered to a halt outside a rustic hut, made of Bamboos colored green, yellow and blue, with a board reading Bhadra Fishing Camp. This is it. Woo hooo! But wait, there seemed to be no one around! I frantically searched for my mobile to call my contact at the camping site… only to discover that there is no network. Hold on, I clearly remembered the Website mentioning that there is full coverage across the entire camp site. Then up popped another memory – but only BSNL and Airtel. Duh, mine had to be Vodafone! Now what? Fortunately one of the guys in our seven member gang had the Madhavan endorsed connection and I quickly dialed Mr.Vinod Desai, one of the partners of the Bhadra River Camp, a joint initiative between villagers, government and the private sector to bring revenue to the area.

“Come on right in, I will meet you guys half way” said Desai adding “Leave what you don’t want in the car, it’s a long walk”. But dude, I’m travelling with a two year old kid. I can’t leave a single thing in the car lest I may need it in the middle of the night. Imagine! I am the kind who organized fully charged emergency lamps because we had been asked to bring flash lights! So there I was, tearing my hair out trying to leave at least a handkerchief back in the car, when I saw two guys approaching our car. The one in the smart t-shirt and cargo shorts must be Vinod my mind deduced quickly and we exchanged the usual awkward hellos and welcomes of the first meeting. After another ten minutes of nerve-wrecking decisions on what to take and what not, our troupe finally proceeded towards the camp site.

We had to walk for five minutes or about on a two way walking lane (now don’t go hi-fi on me! think village walking paths please!) from the entrance to reach the river side. The first thing I noticed of course was the very civil cottage that was built on a natural rocky hill overlooking the forests around. It looked very welcoming with its portico looking towards the river below. Nice. Very nice. Look, there is our camp site pointed out one of the guys and my eyes widened in delight. Two tents had been hoisted right inside the river on a naturally formed small island that had been barred because of the low waters of summer. Wow. Are we going to stay there we asked. Vinod replied, “Oh yes, that’s your camp but if you want (meaning having a kid in tow), you can sleep here in the cottage as well.” No way, dude. I’m not passing the chance to sleep in a tent for the first time in my life under the open skies surrounded by clean sands and clear waters. Gosh, I’m turning poetic just recollecting the visuals :)

The next twenty hours or so was pure bliss. The Bhadra river which is usually known for its ferocity had turned calm on us, lounging like a content queen in her divan ready to welcome the visitors. The forests around the site (by now there was no sight of those ubiquitous coffee of the region) seemed mysterious, ripe with the promise of wildlife we all wanted to spot. Peter, our assigned guide for the trip, along with Vinod, enticed us with mentions of Malabar Squirrels, Hornbills, Langurs, Bisons, Snakes, Deers, and Otters. Supposedly a group of Otters, also called water dogs locally, had made their home a few kilometers down the river from our campsite. If we were lucky and had time, we could coracle down to spot them, Peter and Vinod promised.

While the rest of my gang wanted to plunge right into the river for a refreshing swim in the night, all these mentions of wildlife had made me anxious for a quick trek around the region. But the whining of five grown men acting like kids with their candies can be quiet off putting. So off we went for our first activity at the camp site – swimming at night.

Accompanied by Peter and another guard we set off to the swimming spot some distance away hiking across the forest. It involved going a little uphill and coming back down again into a small clearing at the banks of the river upstream. Surprisingly, this part of the river was completely free of any protruding rocks and was flowing very gently – in other words, perfect for a swim even without light. The men quickly stripped to their undies (yuck! the sight of grown men in their undies strutting around showing off hairy chests, pot bellies, and what not can be a gruesome sight!) and ran into the river. Splash, splash, splash, splash, splash….Bhadra must have displaced so much of her water elsewhere! Who knows, some poor Otter might even have got shocked at the sudden influx of water from upstream!

For the next half an hour, the rest of three ladies (including my baby) watched enviously the frolicking acts of the men in water. Ha, if only we could swim we thought. Unfortunately, none of us knew how to! Peter must have guessed how we felt for he quickly organized a coracle to take us across to a small clearing in the middle of the gentle river where we could sit with our feet dangling in the cool waters. This is true chilling out you Bangalore folks, Bhadra seemed to whisper. Aye, aye, I agreed.

Before we knew it, it has become ten in the night and we had to haul ourselves reluctantly back to the camp site. After freshening up a little in the newly constructed rest room in the main cottage, we lumbered down the rocks towards our tents. A camp fire had already prepared thoughtfully and we all collected around it to discuss how we would spend the night. I was sure of one thing – no antaksharis and absolutely no games where we would have to sit. For heaven’s sake, this is the only chance we get to run around in open spaces without bumping into a parked car or potted plants I told my gang.

All of us quickly agreed to play Lock and Key (a game where participants who are not able to escape the catcher admit defeat and sit locked to be released (by key!) by other participants who are still free). It was so much fun – to play again, to be so carefree, to act like a kid again – so liberating. We enjoyed ourselves immensely and stopped only after the fatsos decided to call it quits. After a sumptuous dinner, prepared by the village folks and served by Peter and others, we retired for the night quietly, rounding up around the camp fire again.

The night was totally dark. Clouds had formed a curtain around the almost full moon, probably jealous of our hedonistic pass time. The fire kept burning fuelled by the woods gathered from the forest. Occasional strange sounds of the night were heard coming from far from the other side of the river bank – perhaps a bird roused from slumber or an animal caught by a Tiger (the other side of the river touches the periphery of the Bhadra Tiger Reserve). And there was absolute silence. And yet, we felt completely safe - far from the madness of the city, far from the psycho killers, far from the desires of the ego…. Bliss indeed.

Slowly, the blowing winds of the Western Ghats chased away the begrudging cumulus and revealed the moon in all her splendor – to bath the entire camp sight in soft white light. We put off the camp fire and enjoyed the natural light for sometime talking aimlessly. Before long, the aura of the night made some of us get up and wander away from the others – seeking solitude, privacy, and for two, a place where they could relieve their bladders and hoist flags!

That night, we slept in the two big tents provided by the camp organizers – complete with new beddings, pillows and blankets. Comfort in the middle of the wild night. Ha! What more could one ask for? I couldn’t wait to see what the next day would bring.

Off to Agumbe

The long weekend is finally here and we are off to Agumbe this evening as planned. As per our itinerary, we will first stop at Sringeri then stay overnight at Agumbe to take in the famous sunset point, waterfalls, ARRS, etc., and then move to Hornadu for the Annapurneshwari Temple, and finally end our trip in Bhadra Game Reserve. The reserve apparently is still in development stage and is a late and unexpected addition to our plan. Let's see if it lives up to the description on its site. I'm looking forward to sleeping in tents under the big blue sky near the Bhadra river... wow, can't wait!

A trip to Tiruvannamalai

Like all things in my life, it started as a whim and slowly progressed to almost a fanatic desire. I wanted to go to Tiruvannamalai and right now at that. When I put forth my idea to hubby dear, he was enthusiasm personified. Obviously! Considering how he likes driving his new toy every opportunity he gets. I was more than happy to indulge him (indulge, you ask? Ya ;) ). So we started planning. I “researched” for hours and hours together on the Web – read blogs on others’ trip to Tiruvannamalai, zoomed in and out of Live Maps and Google maps a million times, assembled a big map of the Bangalore – Tiruvannamalai route in Photoshop, and lived and breathed Tiruvannamalai half of my non-sleep hours! After our initial plan to go on last Saturday failed, I was crestfallen. But I quickly gathered my spirits and we decided to drive down on Christmas day.

It turned out to be a fantastic trip that all of us immensely enjoyed. We started at 5:30 in the morning and took the NH7 - NH66 route. Reached Tiruvannamalai at around 11 AM with a half an hour break in between for breakfast. It was a smooth ride until Krishnagiri where NH7 branches off into 2. And there came the first hurdle of the day. Which road to take? After asking the highway patrol police, who seemed to be placed there by divine grace just to give us directions, and ignoring their advice (blame me!), we continued on NH7 a few kilometers. Doubts starting assailing me – I was not sure if the research and the subsequent route I had chartered out had been correct enough! The road seemed to be leading to Dharmapuri!! Finally, I found the courage to tell my by-now-glowering hubby that we got to turn back and go the way the cop pointed out! Oh, the atmosphere inside the car would have melted glaciers, believe me! I decided to keep my mouth shut after that! At least about the route! So after coming back on the NH7 Krishnagiri outpost, we turned on to the Chennai/Pondicherry route. This is the road that turns left from NH7 near the Krishnagiri flyover – you have to take the left road that goes below it. Continue on for a km or so and there are clear signs that indicate the route to Tiruvannamalai/Pondicherry – a right diversion from the Chennai route.

From this point on, the roads are both heaven and hell. Heaven because they are so scenic surrounded as they are by ripe green trees and plants. Hell because the roads are so bad that they don’t let you take your eyes off them to enjoy the scenery! It’s sure bad for the driver at least, as hubby put it. The rest of us were happy enough clicking away to glory save for the jumpy ride now and then. Oh, ya, I almost forgot to mention - though there isn’t much traffic, you have to watch out for the country-buses which believe the entire road to be their property. We saw an Alto that was almost pushed to the extreme side of the road by a speeding bus! And watch out for those I-can-give-the amusement-parks-a ride-for-their-money-potholes! The road doesn’t improve much until Chengam though there were freshly laid stretches of tar in-between. We stopped at a nice deserted spot for breakfast and then continued on to Tiruvannamalai. Found a decent parking place adjacent to the temple wall and we were happy! I, for one, had thought it will be difficult to get a parking space near temple and was feeling blessed. Least did I know what was in store for us at the end of the day. More about that later.

As soon as we entered the temple, we were awestruck by the grandeur of the gopurams. Man, there were so many of them.

After standing in the queue for what seemed like over 2 hours (being a holiday), we finally had our darshan and came out both tired and elated. Kid was happy having seen Monkeys and their babies. We were happy to find a Sweet Lime Soda pushcart waiting to serve the exhausted devotees right inside the temple!! After having our fill, off we went to the next item on our agenda. The Girivalam - Circumambulation of the Arunachala hill. Usually it’s done by feet but considering that we planned it to be a one day trip and having a kiddo in tow, we decided to do it on four wheels!

We reached our car and were dreading getting inside it what with the sun having been directly blazing over it, when we got an even more rude shock. Our front tire had gone flat! Hubby almost fainted. His new toy and god how can this happen to us? When we pulled in to park, everything was perfect. So what would have gone wrong? We had no time to waste and luckily found a tire shop very close by. We were thanking our stars that there was one so close by when the owner of another parked car in the same line came over and said that even his tire had gone flat. Ha! hold on now, do we smell a rat here? even his tires were in good condition when he pulled in and by the time he came back it had gone flat. Now, it can happen to one car, but to both? And both of them being the only KA (Karnataka) vehicles in that line…. ha, something fishy indeed! This was almost proved when the mechanic pronounced that nothing has happened to the tire – somebody has just let the air out. Hmm, somebody was playing some bad pranks. Very bad. Maybe even the mechanic shop people. Who knows? It would definitely be a good business model. Coincidentally, on our way back after Girivalam to the temple, we saw another KA Mercedes noisily sledging the road with a flat back tire!

We did not want to dwell on it too much. But I did think about alerting somebody – but who? As tourists usually do, we continued on way to Girivalam. We found all the 7 lingams easily except for the Indira Lingam – which seemed to be off the main roads. We even took a nice lunch break at a wayside bull temple.

It had become almost 6:30 by the time we reached back to the temple from where we planned to retrace our steps to NH66 to Chengam. Since Thirukovilur, the next item on our agenda is a good 35 km away and it wouldn’t have been possible to return back the same day if we had gone ahead, we dropped that part of the plan and headed back home to Bangalore.

The trip back to Bangalore seemed to be the longest one we had. All of us were tired and sleepy. More so, hubby dear who did not have a back-up driver in any of us. Imagine! We had got up at 3:30 in the morning to cook/pack our breakfast and lunch! Just the stretch between Krishanagiri –Hosur- Bangalore took us over 3 hours! Seems hubby almost fell asleep lulled by the hypnotic highway lane lights. So he decided to play safe and keep the average speed to 50 at the cost reaching home faster with a possibly nasty experience on the way. We reached home dot 12 in the night. Ha, it did not turn out to be a one day trip after all :)

We were a happy lot. And I cannot be more contented that my whim has been satisfied. Ha, the pleasure of seeing your desires come true. :)

The route we took:
Bangalore – Hosur – Krishnagiri – Uttangarai – Chengam - Tiruvannamalai

What we planned to do:
We had planned to visit Tiruvannamalai, do the Girivalam, then drive down further South 35 km to Thirukovilur to see two more ancient temples and wrap up the trip with a short visit to Manalurpet (another temple) on the way back to Bangalore via Tiruvannamalai,. That was the plan. But unfortunately, we couldn’t go to Thirukovilur or Manalurpet. Perhaps next time!

Other sources that will help if you are planning to trip to this place:
Ravi’s account of his trip to Tiruvannamalai
Team-BHP forum discussion on possible routes
Wiki on Tiruvannamalai
“Official Website” of the temple
Another nice Website for information on this place that also provides the temple events calendar, info on nearby places, etc
Girivalam route map

The pictures from the trip are in the sidebar including the map I made from Microsoft Virtual Earth. Enjoy!

Trip to Bandipur and Masinagudi

Account and more pics coming up....sometime!

Pondicherry!

Bright blue skies
Fluffy clouds
Highway breeze
Squashed arms and legs
Free backseat ride
Small red car
A day to Pondy made

The trek to Valley of Flowers