The Travel Connection

Bandipur till recently was the national park we traversed and enjoyed its elusive inhabitants along the road while driving towards Nilgiris. This time around on our way back from the blue mountains, we thought of a stop over at the Bandipur safari lodge. Enough has been written in here about my trips to national parks and sightings. So no more fauna but lets talk  about flora in Bandipur! The hunting grounds of Mysore Maharajas is to my surprise a white wonderland of wild flowers in month of December. Karnataka has its own version of meadow of flowers! Tropical dry deciduous, tropical moist deciduous, scrub forest and open grassy woodlands- in case one has forgotten what each means, I would suggest joining the 3 hour long safari organized by the jungle lodges. So the eastern part of the 874sq kms of forest land is covered with stunted trees,shrubs and grass patch lands making it the Moyar jungle of scrub. The central part kaniyanapura is dry deciduous , the...

The best part about traveling to Ooty is that the drive through Bandipur, Mudumalai and Masinagudi is worth every minute spent on the road. Time and again i have heard that the drive through these jungles lead to more sightings than taking a safari through the interiors. And we were not disappointed. Like always the spotted deer gave us company all along Bandipur. Mudumalai proved to be even better with our friends elephants, peafowl, langurs, wild boars among other animals dropping in along the highway and greeting us with an smile. I am so tempted to get preachy on how people don't respect the distance factor but let's leave it for another day. As long as we are conversing about roads, it was enlightening to realize that the flat 2d google map is no match for the roadways on the hills. What looks like a straight road will have its curves and leave you wondering where to take the next turn. Was is it just me or has anyone experienced the same. The queen of hil...