Lost in Paradise – Part III

After contemplating accelerated on the-road-ahead with the gut feeling tat we are on the right track, we reached the CROSS-Road marked on one of the bill-boards “Way to KUVEMPU-University”. Tat bought a sigh-of-relief n smile on our faces for obvious reason, JLR is at 14th KM towards Kuvempu University. As we drove ahead the road was narrow, less curvy n more bumpy. There was no sign of any info abt JLR on the route, not even a single bill-board. Finally we reached Lakkavalli, the much awaited destination in our minds!! still JLR wasnt in the vicinity. We were juss 1KM far frm the 14th KM mark. Voila!! “Way to BHADRA RiverTern” was spotted, we invaded the territorial waters by entering the narrow bridge crossing the flowing BHADRA!!

It was untarred muddy road with a 25-degree-gradient towards the River-Tern; towards the right side was the barrier holding on the water!! on the left it was Bhadra Jungle which will join the forests of KGundi. As I parked my voyager, it started to drizzle. There after entire ambience was transformed within minutes. It was arnd 11.45AM, as there were not many ppl at the JLR we cud get cottages with very good views!!

We were priviliged to get a White-Eye n Bee-Eater, well names of the cottages :D!! as soon as entered the cottage was awestruck with the panoramic view!! it was heaven-on-earth, m short of words to describe!!

The cottages were on the foot-hill of Bhadra Wildlyfe, its juss a perfect landscape looked as if painted-by-GOD. Huge area with water n water everywhere, amdist it were many small islands. We heard from the in-house-keepers there tat they make trips to those islands during summer, wonder how it wud be LOST IN AN ISLAND :D. At a far sight u can visualise the clouds kissing mountain ranges of Shringeri n horanaaDu!! The best part of the mountains there was its imploring-cloud-abilities, which makes the sight a blissful. The gusty wind on the other hand was leaping the water causing small waves, from a far sight one could visualise the small white patches as a result. At the same time the contrasting light due to dark clouds abstracting sun rays reflected on water would change colors consistently from blue, green n ofcourse those white patches of small waves. Was indeed a phantasmagoric picturesque!! the next 2 hrs juss admired the nature n SNAPPED to glory :D, basking the soothing effect of water with all this exotic ambience. la-heaven!! With all this we could figure out lots of birds, esp the kites/cranes/ducks. Brahminy Kites were fishing out, guess they were very hungry!! they gulped fishes one after the other in air. While one of them was busy collecting the stack for their nest.

Arnd 2 PM we were out for GOL-GHAR to savour the hot lunch served. No wonder its a small world, i cud catch up shrikz; who was out with his buddies for same reason as we were :)!!. Next thing in our skejule was Safari on open jeep inside the Bhadra Abhayaranya, which was @ 4.30PM!! We were back to our balconies after a short hibernation :D!!

As tvp was hooked to his lappie n official mail chking process, mez n sv decided to stroll down the foot-hill to meet the waters n those flying brahminy kites. There were waves from both the directions clashing n gushing by sprinkling the water, was fun to SNAP them as well :D!! On the other hand the kites were enjoying their Fish-Hunt, juss wonder how sharp their eyes were!! whisking-off with a free fall n was grabbing up a fish nowhere from the water, although on few occassions it missed by fraction of a second!! i was juss thinking lucky fish was that…!! it was great pleasure watching it!!

It was 4.30 n we were ready for the Open-Jeep safari, we were very eager to meet the wild-lyfe!! The guide/local-tribal was giving information abt the wild-lyfe n his experiences. As we entered the restricted-jungle-area we could spot few peacocks, as we entered the heart of the jungle light was abstrused by the tall evergreen forest trees. We could feel the serene ambience with chirping of birds occasionally!! As it had rained the track was very skidy!! We cud spot shy-spotted-deers/lazy-gaurs/jumping-langurs/quick-jackals on our safari!!

After returning from the safari we had a small documentary on human-intervention-with-nature being played!! moral-of-the-story was its juss tat selfish motive of human being today many creatures have endangered n few are on the verge of!! also this intervention has caused imbalance in the eco-system.

The last day @ JLR was too good fun, we went on boating, trekking(to near by foot-hill) n last but not least water-sports!! It was a total fun, everybody enjoyed till the last minute of our stay!! on our way back took the Tarekere–> Birur–> Kadur–> Arsikere–> Tiptur–> Tumkur–> Bangalore route!! The road was juss good with less traffic, was poised for a great drive!! As soon as we entered the vicinity of Tiptur we reminisced of good-old-college-days, place where we played/studied/watched-movie n all the fun we had!! we were struck with nostalgic moments!! The college has got a new face-lift, so as the Hassan circle n Tiptur!!

By 7 PM we were in Bangalore, tolled Tumkur road was juss too good!! as returned back to the city-lyfe was fully refreshed by the trip, 3 days flew lyke 3 minutes!! realized the need of these nature admiring trips :D!! Luckily made it on time to the Airport as my dear friend was flying to Tokyo, felt deep satisfaction of my drive :D!!

Watch on for the next, BR-Hills travelogue!! :D. Here I leave you with the collage of few JLR snaps!!