That is exactly what we did, We started from Bangalore early evening by 4 pm and after a quick but a very satisfying stop at Kamath Lokruchi for snacks reached Mysore by 7 pm. Driving into Mysore i was pleasantly surprised at the amount of traffic in the city. As i am from Bangalore, Friday evenings generally mean traffic jams and mad rush to get back home, in contrast, Mysore seemed to be a drive in the park, peaceful and laid back. It remained this way all the way till Hotel Dasaprakash, which we had choosen to stay overnight. This is located at the heart of the city and within walk able distance of the fabulous Mysore palace. The hotel in itself is quite old and reminds you of a bygone era. The rooms are decent enough with fares starting as low as 375 Rs for single rooms and 750 Rs per night for double bed with non ac and no TV. But the highlight of this place will be the meals served in their restaurant. Make sure you have dinner and breakfast at this place.
After checking in to our room, we decided to go for a quick walk to the Palace which is hardly 20 mins away from the hotel. We walked through dusty lanes and market places to reach Mysore Palace, but were disappointed as it was already closed for the day.
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| View of the palace quite late in the evening. Quality is very low as taken from my mobile. |
We had decided to have dinner at the same hotel so headed back after a while of roaming around in the city market. The meals that they serve in this restaurant are quite tasty and the staff are very friendly. One of the senior staff member of the restaurant turned out to be from my native place of Udupi and immediately started to talk to us in our native tongue of Tulu. He seemed to be a jolly good fellow, and made our evening very pleasant with his infectious smile and enthusiasm.
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| Restaurant Akshaya of Hotel Dasaprakash. You simply cant miss the food! |
We started for Kabini the next day from our hotel around 9 am after having a delicious breakfast in the same restaurant. The drive from Mysore to Kabini is via HD Kote and quite comfortable as the roads are in good condition and the route is very scenic. The State highway has ample tree cover throughout the distance and made for very enjoyable drive.
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| A temple we came across on the way to Kabini! |
We reached Kabini by 11 and were quite happy to find that the Jungle Lodge team had the rooms already cleaned and ready for us although the check in as per the booking was mentioned to be only after 12. A Notice board listing all the wild animals spotted per day for the last couple of weeks by the Kabini safari welcomes you at the reception. The list boasted of Leopards, elephants, jackals and even Tiger being spotted by the Safari organized in the last couple of weeks. Quite impressed we checked into our tent to begin our stay at Kabini.
The Kabini River lodge was formerly a hunting lodge of rulers of Mysore, later converted to a resort under Jungle Lodges. The sprawling campus is spread across an area of 54 acres and situated on the banks of Kabini. All the accommodations in this resort sit beautifully facing the backwater.
The itinerary for the stay stated that lunch would be served only by 1:30 pm, giving us a lot of time to roam around the campus taking pictures and enjoying the serenity of this place.
A 360 degree view of the place.
Lunch was served in hall named Gol ghar, on the bank of Kabini giving you a beautiful view of the back waters while you have food. The Food served was no less than a feast with several options for both vegetarians and non vegetarians.
After lunch, we had again an hour for ourselves before the start of safari. There are two safaris that the team organizes, one a boat safari where we are taken along the banks of Kabini on a boat ride and the second one being a jeep safari.
The Boat safari begins at 3:30 pm, and we are taken along the banks of the backwater. The view in itself is very beautiful and as we proceed towards the forest we get to see several birds and animals. Deers and monkeys are very common sight. Apart from these, we managed to catch a glimpse of a pack of wild dogs, peacocks. Overall the boat ride lasts for around 3 hours and we are brought back to Gol Ghar for tea\Coffee and snacks.
The next day began quite early with a wake up call at 5:45 as the jeep safari starts by 6:30. Feeling quite lazy, i decided not to carry my DSLR and that decision i am gonna regret for some time to come. As the jeep safari entered the forest area, the first thing we came across was a Tigress, just sitting there next to the muddy jungle trail. She was spotted only when we got quite close to her. The guide had stopped the jeep and asked us not to make any noise. The Tigress seemed absolutely unfazed by our arrival. She was sitting there nonchalantly looking at us for almost 5 minutes before she got bored and walked back into the bushes where we couldn't see her anymore.
I was able to record her using my mobile camera, of which here is a small clip.
The rest of the safari we came across a family of jackals, several herds of deer, wild boars and Monkeys. What was interesting was that we would always find a Herd of deers along with monkeys and 2-3 wild boars. Our guide explained that these 3 animals usually coexist and help each other out by warning of any predators, even to extent that its not unusual for wild boars to chase leopards away if they attack the herd of deers. Our guide was quite experienced and could distinguish if the animals were making a "mating call" or "warning call". The latter one to warn others of any predator close by. We wrapped up the safari by spotting a lone tusker. Which again we were told is a bit rare in this season as most of the elephants move back deep into forest as there is sufficient water available in there.
We returned back to the resort quite happy after what seemed to be 3 hours of action packed safari. What followed was a very delicious breakfast at Gol Ghar to wrap up the stay at Kabini.
Overall the stay in Kabini was very good one, with extremely good and professional staff, well thought out itinerary to keep the guests occupied and happy, very delicious food and extremely beautiful location.
The plan while driving back from Kabini was to cover Mysore Palace. We reached Mysore only by around 1 pm and hired a guide to "guide" us through the history of the palace. The rates they have are fixed 350 rs for a group consisting of 3-5 ppl, and increases for bigger groups. Please make sure you tell him to explain the history of the palace and Wodeyers in details, which should ideally take around an hour i suppose. There is so much of grandeur and history in each and every corner that its easy to get swept off ones feet here. The guides generally try to gloss over on few details and wrap up the tour as quick as possible so that they can earn more per day.
As it was quite late in the afternoon and we had not had lunch, we didn't stick around this time taking photos. But i have linked a pic of the Palace from my previous visit here.
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