My First Wildlife Sanctuary Travel to Bandipur National Reserve.

This post is more about my travel experience in pictures rather than information. Bandipur is easily reachable by road and any bus to Ooty from Bangalore/Mysore stops at Bandipur. The information about visiting Bandipur can be obtained from http://www.bandipurtigerreserve.in/ and Navin's Natwin

When I got down at Bandipur, I met Pradeep, who was travelling by the same bus too. He introduced me to Naveen. Naveen runs Natwin and organises trips and photography workshops in jungles. He arranged for my night dorm stay at Bandipur (Rs.200 per night in the dorm), and thus, I ditched my forward journey to Ooty. He provided very cheap safaris (Rs.100 for each safari).

The three hours forest safari inside Bandipur freshened me up for the upcoming month in Bangalore, full of traffic and noise. Bandipur was calm and peaceful.

I spotted over a hundred animals, from a dozen species on my first day.

Wild Dogs     PC : Ash Photography

PC : Ash Photography

PC : Ash Photography

PC : Ash Photography

PC : Ash Photography

PC : Ash Photography

PC : Ash Photography

Bison  PC : Ash Photography

PC : Kumar Siddappa

PC : Mukesh Kumar

Asian Paradise Bird @Bandipur National Reserve.
You will be awestruck when it flies.
PC : Mukesh Kumar

Wild Kingfisher
PC : Mukesh Kumar

PC : Mukesh Kumar

Mongoose. PC : Mukesh Kumar

Tusker spotted @Bandipur. It walked with our vehicle for over 30 minutes. PC : Mukesh Kumar

PC : Mukesh Kumar

Bisons PC : Mukesh Kumar

PC : Mukesh Kumar

On the second day, I got up late and  took the second safari, after missing the first one and I was lucky. Navin, being a prominent person in Bandipur, got a phone call about the sighting of the tiger and  directed the van to the spot. We saw a tiger who was bathing/resting on pond side. Photographers went crazy clicking the pics.

PC : Mukesh Kumar

Soon after, the tiger moved from the pond side and started walking towards the other side. The drivers drove to the other side and waited for the tiger to come there. The cool dude, the Prince of Bandipur, as they call it (he is recognised by the red mark on his nose) started walking alongside the vehicles for over 30 minutes. It disappeared into the forest later, but everyone was really happy with such a marvellous sighting of the tiger.

PC : Mukesh Kumar

PC : Mukesh Kumar

PC : Mukesh Kumar

Dominate Male Tiger Marking Territory PC : Navin's Natwin

After returning to the dorm, we clicked pics together, exchanged numbers, thanked the driver and Navin and bid farewell to each other. It was truly a wonderful experience and I was lucky, because it was my first wildlife sanctuary experience.

The next day, Navin travelled back to Bandipur because he was informed of a kill by the tiger. This was what he captured. Beautiful, isn't it ! It was certainly the best day of his passionate life as a wildlife photographer after capturing this moment.

The deer kill by the tiger in Bandipur. PC : Navin's Natwin

Allepey to Kollam to Varkala

After visiting the upper half of Kerala (from Kozhikode to Alleppey) last week, I wanted to travel further south.

DAY 1 : September 25.

We woke up after boarding the train from KJM to QLN just before Alappuzha. We got down at Alappuzha, freshened up and walked till the beach. The beach was good, but it was sunny and we had rucksacks on our backs.

Alapuzzha Beach

We roamed for a while and took a bus to the bus stand. We enquired for public waterways timings there . Public transport waterways ferry had left for Kollam already at 10:30. 

I called Manoj (9048569581) from my last visit here and we went to the backwaters. His price was hiked up now that we were two.  He did let us drive his boat this time. We did not drive all the way because it wasn't that fun either.

Driving the Ferry in the Backwaters :-)

I wasn' t feeling well due to the heat, so I slept about 2/3rd of the journey. Later, Mishraji and I swam in the backwaters. The swim in the Kerala Backwaters! Can you imagine that!

We Swam in the Open Kerala Backwaters near Kainakary :-)

The Alleppey Backwaters were amazing. I saw them a week ago, but couldn't stop admiring its beauty like I was visiting it for the first time.

Beautiful Kerala Backwaters

Later, we went to Kollam in a KSRTC bus. We gave ourselves a sumptuous treat, went to the ocean side later and enjoyed the ocean in full moon night.

DAY 2 : September 26

We woke up at Kollam and checked out at the Kollam Beach Retreat Hotel by 12pm, roamed around the beach a little.

That ship was stuck in the traffic throughout the night. :-/ The pic was clicked in the morning. @Kollam Beach

Blue Water and White Sand. It was beautiful but sunny and we stood in the shade.

Time for Varkala!
In that heat, we found an AC bus from Kollam to Varkala. :-) All kinds of songs were played in the bus. It was evening when we reached Varkala and night by the time we got on the cliff. The cliff had great ambiance and trippy music, food, drinks, rain and ocean. What more does one want with life? Aaahh, I felt blessed and lucky to be there at that time.

There are hundreds of cafes there, we enjoyed ourselves at Rock and Roll Music Cafe till late night. 

DAY 3 :September 27

We had our breakfast at Trattorias, smoked there and I sat there shirtless, feeling the amazing weather while it was sitting in the shade. Weather turned rainy and I prayed for the drizzle and it rained!

Varkala Beach as captured from the cliff.

After having breakfast. Mishraji returned to the room to have a nap while i walked further towards Aaliyirakkm Beach.

The pleasant walk, a little further from Varkala Beach towards Aaliyirakkm Beach.

While returning, I went to the Coffee Temple and had some food there. We freshened up again because of the humid weather and went to Varkala railway station, boarded a train to Kollam railway station from where the return train to Bangalore was booked. That was the end of our little trip.