Be there to know what this place has to offer :) and what better way to celebrate Children’s day with kids..
We started at about 7am on a Saturday, stopped over for breakfast just after maddur. Was surprised to see the number of restaurants which have popped up on mysore road and mostly good ones.
Waterwoods Kabini a getaway from Bangalore. You have the Serai, Jungle Lodges and Orange county next to it, but this place also has the same comfort and serenity to offer you.We reached there at about 12.30 with a fuel break and a breakfast break. Good drive except for the Mysore road traffic. With the weather God having blessed our weekend, there was no rain, no sun, just clouds. What a lovely weather to be outdoors. Got a lovely family room right next to the swimming pool and facing lake. And that's it..daughter was in it within 20 mins of settling down. Son was a little hesitant...shy...but eventually couldn't resist the temptation of playing in the water. So it was swimming pool n jumping on the trampoline for kids before we headed for a well spread lunch.
The staff here is really courteous and any service that you have requested for is there with you within minutes of asking. The place overall is nicely maintained, calm. Rooms are beautiful with luxurious bed and large TV and a LARGE bathroom. The family room we took had 1 large double bed, and 2 single sofa cum beds. Good enough for our family.
A walk by the lake anytime of the day is all you need after following a hectic schedule in the city. So thats we did post lunch..relaxed on the easy chairs and caught up on some sleep. Evening we visited Balle Elephant camp. Unlike other parts of Karnataka that we have visited this place grows vegetable crop through the year. So all the farms here were mostly vegetables...all kinds. Beauty was seeing all the greens through the way. The camp had 4 elephants. The famous Mysore Dasara elephant Arjuna is here...a 75yr old 1 tooth elephant was slowly eating her food..we were allowed to tough this old lady :) and another few years old baby elephant. We were asked not to touch Arjuna and another tusker. We were back to the room by 7.30PM and just relaxed and watched the AV on Kabini. Then was the bonfire followed by dinner. He and I went for a short walk post dinner and looked through the paintings that have been put up in Waterwoods. They were beautiful...all the paintings were depicting scenes of Kabini & its wildlife.
Next morning breakfast was really nice. Had hot crisp dosas also being served at the table apart from the buffet spread. After a sumptuous breakfast we headed for a boat ride to Bheemankoli. This place is across Kabini river. You will come across two abandoned temples built by the Chola Dynasty over 700 years back. The guide took us to one of them- Shiva temple, which is well maintained. The other temple, we were told, is in the ruins because of fight between two villages trying to claim it as theirs. The landmark of this sacred grove is a Banyan Tree dating back over 600+ years which is just a few meters away from the temple. We requested the resorts folks to allow us to check out a little later so we could finish up with Bheemankoli and they obliged :-) Finished up packing once were back, had our paid lunch and headed for 2hrs Jungle Safari conducted by Forest Department.
Rates for Safari:: Adult Indian- Rs.1600+tax, Child Indian- Rs.1200+tax, Adult foreigner- Rs.2630+tax, Child foreigner- Rs.1752+tax
The Safari starts from Jungle Lodges premises. It is told that Mysore raja in olden days used to come and spend his summer here and invite maharajas of other states to hunt tigers. The sighting began with a small tusker just by the road,,grazing on green grass. He didnt seem to be disturbed by our presence. Gave us a chance to look at home from all sides by turning around :) and then walked away. Then came the spotted deers....lots n lots of them through out the safari. We then saw a Boar with 2 deers running scared..because of us. Then the Sambar shyingly hiding behind the bushes not allowing us to get a full view of it. The guide told us that they are extremely shy animals and rarely show up in public view. And that the deers mostly die of heart attacks as they fear all the time. We got to see a Large Owl who refused to show his face, an eagle who stood still on a large tree, and kingfishers. Then came the unforgettable view of 2 elephants entering the waterhole to drink water...from distance they looked like twins doing every activity at the same time. We moved after they walked away. While we were on watch out for more animals the driver received a call from the other safari driver stating a Leopard had been spotted....and....the driver just took off on reverse gear in full speed...turned around and drove on the bumpy jungle road to the spot in high speed. All of us were asked to hush up and wait so the leopard could step out in the open. But after a long wait of about 20 mins..we first heard a squeal..we were told that the leopard has his catch. Then is when he jumped up on the tree and gave us a good visual. What a graceful animal...with long tail all stretched on tree branch....he sat there just to show how beautiful he is. Luckily the guide had a super powerful binoculars for us to get a good look at the leopard. Wow!! Once all of us had had a good look, we moved to for our last sighting of our 2hrs journey...which turned out to be Gaur (bison) again a shy animal...started running away from us the moment we got close. I think this was the most wonderful part of the trip. Kabini visit is complete only with a safari. It was 6.30PM by the time we returned to our car and headed back to Bangalore. We reached home by 11.30PM or so and headed straight for bed.
A great breakaway from the daily hum-drum. Good treat for kids too.
We started at about 7am on a Saturday, stopped over for breakfast just after maddur. Was surprised to see the number of restaurants which have popped up on mysore road and mostly good ones.
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| Waterwoods |
The staff here is really courteous and any service that you have requested for is there with you within minutes of asking. The place overall is nicely maintained, calm. Rooms are beautiful with luxurious bed and large TV and a LARGE bathroom. The family room we took had 1 large double bed, and 2 single sofa cum beds. Good enough for our family.
 |
| Balle Elephant camp |
Rates for Safari:: Adult Indian- Rs.1600+tax, Child Indian- Rs.1200+tax, Adult foreigner- Rs.2630+tax, Child foreigner- Rs.1752+tax
The Safari starts from Jungle Lodges premises. It is told that Mysore raja in olden days used to come and spend his summer here and invite maharajas of other states to hunt tigers. The sighting began with a small tusker just by the road,,grazing on green grass. He didnt seem to be disturbed by our presence. Gave us a chance to look at home from all sides by turning around :) and then walked away. Then came the spotted deers....lots n lots of them through out the safari. We then saw a Boar with 2 deers running scared..because of us. Then the Sambar shyingly hiding behind the bushes not allowing us to get a full view of it. The guide told us that they are extremely shy animals and rarely show up in public view. And that the deers mostly die of heart attacks as they fear all the time. We got to see a Large Owl who refused to show his face, an eagle who stood still on a large tree, and kingfishers. Then came the unforgettable view of 2 elephants entering the waterhole to drink water...from distance they looked like twins doing every activity at the same time. We moved after they walked away. While we were on watch out for more animals the driver received a call from the other safari driver stating a Leopard had been spotted....and....the driver just took off on reverse gear in full speed...turned around and drove on the bumpy jungle road to the spot in high speed. All of us were asked to hush up and wait so the leopard could step out in the open. But after a long wait of about 20 mins..we first heard a squeal..we were told that the leopard has his catch. Then is when he jumped up on the tree and gave us a good visual. What a graceful animal...with long tail all stretched on tree branch....he sat there just to show how beautiful he is. Luckily the guide had a super powerful binoculars for us to get a good look at the leopard. Wow!! Once all of us had had a good look, we moved to for our last sighting of our 2hrs journey...which turned out to be Gaur (bison) again a shy animal...started running away from us the moment we got close. I think this was the most wonderful part of the trip. Kabini visit is complete only with a safari. It was 6.30PM by the time we returned to our car and headed back to Bangalore. We reached home by 11.30PM or so and headed straight for bed.
A great breakaway from the daily hum-drum. Good treat for kids too.
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| Leopard |
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| The pool & trampoline |
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| Highs n lows |
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| Banyan tree @ Bheemankoli |
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| At Waterwoods |
