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- Copyright (C) 2004-07 Kousik Nandy & Sumana Paul.
Dash to K-Gudi
We have taken Iravan to all of our favourite places except K-Gudi. One of the reason was in our last visit we found that still they have no electricity, so were always afraid how he’ll cope up with dark. And then we decided to take a chance. It was a casual visit to M.G.Road and we walked into JLR office. “Do you have K-Gudi free next weekend?” was answered positive and we made the reservation right there.
All was left was to pack and leave home next Saturday. As usual we started late, made a brief stop at the last Coffee Day on the Mysore road, then at Nanjangud temple, and finally near a lake outside Chamrajanagar to see a large congregation of water birds. The wolly-necked storks, egrets, all types of herons were busy feeding in shallow water. We reached the camp past lunch time, and Iravan was really excited to be introduced to a tent, an accommodation he’d sleep in first time in his life.
The best to take out off a few hours visit to be in the forest as long as possible, and that’s what we did. We went out for the afternoon safari even before we could catch a breather. BRT Wildlife sanctuary proved to be a paradise for birding, because the forest found to be very rich of birdlife. All the trees were buzzing with small bird activities. Minivets, Bulbuls, Flamebacks, Paradise Flycatchers, Hawk cuckoos were everywhere! We could also see Asian Fairy Bluebird, Greenbilled Malkoha. Sambar deers, Spotted deers and Gaurs were very active in the summer; and so were Elephants. Just before evening, we encountered a Sloth Bear; but he wasn’t much sloth at all. The light was very low to get a decent photo of the beauty. On the way back, in darkness we could spot a Brown Fish Owl too, but jeep’s headlight wouldn’t reach that high up for even a good look at him.
We wanted to walk next morning, as we wanted to show Iravan how a jungle feels on foot. But that plan wasn’t approved because he was too young, and we were advised to apply for a trek 8 years later. Though before the safari starts, we had a walk with him around the camp to give an idea of a forest floor. The highlight of the morning safari was a pair of Wild Dogs, who jumped on the road immediately after our jeep crossed them, and they disappeared again chasing a Grey Junglefowl. Another good sighting was a Barking Deer.
Though there was a long journey ahead to come home, we actually started driving backwards towards the Billigirirangan Swamy Temple. The drive wasn’t that productive, except we got our first photograph of a Blue-bearded Bee-eater, a western ghat beauty.
