This hilly place is the home for one of the richest natural, zoological reserves. The 25,000 acre zoological park which we intend to visit at 8:30 in the morning (the park opens b/w 9:00 to 17:00) however ended up going there at 11:30 in the morning due to rain and jakkas breakfast at magu’s place... I did not know that Subba’s house has natural AC room where I had a 2 hours chikken sleep :)
Huge parking lot:
Once we reached the park (of course loosing the way – I have never been to any new place without loosing the way at least once and taking U turn) when we entered we were welcomed by the parking lot attended who charged us 30 rupiess and some lowly looking well fed monkeys... we parked our Benki Cab in the huge parking lot where there were already huge number of 4, 3 and 2 wheelers parked. While walking from parking lot to the entrance of the park we could not see the way as we encountered a Royal Enfield which was shining in the bright sun light, we had to stop a while to appreciate the passion of the owner and the way he had kept the bike. It was next to impossible to move from there and not to have a second look at the bike :)
Enter the Dragon:
Near the entrance of the park there were many petty shops selling all kinds of junk stuff that we normally find in proper truest attraction places; however the Govt of India and Ministry of Environment and Forests have done such a good job in having a big board with the information that visitor the park needs... out of all options: (Zoo – 35, lion and tiger safari – 70, elephant ride – 30, butterfly park – 20) we chose the Grand Safari which cost us 125 per head and 20 for still camera (video camera costs 100 so we decided not to take Subba’s video camera and we stick to my Nikkon D50 only)
Grand Safari:
Before going to Zoo and getting ourselves tired we thought it would be good idea to go to the safari first and then visit the Zoo, so when we were standing in the queue we missed the first bus which had only 2 seats left however we were four (Magu, Bucket, water and me) so we had to wait for 5 minutes, during that time we saw many “The Great Indian Conman Crow” and some “Bonnet Macaque” a bread of monkey that is found in south india starting from Indian ocean to Godhavari basin which tried to borrow food from some lady who first was relectent to lose the food to this primate. Then we boarded the mini bus which the park officials run for the safari purpose; in the history people with car could have gone for safari on there own however it has been stopped now due to some incident of negligent parents letting tiger hurt there child which died on the hands of tiger (the car went too close to tiger and as it was very next to the car child could not see the animal properly so they made noises to move the tiger away so that child could have a better look, unfortunately they opened the window and let the child head go out so that it can have a closer look and had to take its last breath on the earth before loosing its head :( ) anyway our tour guide was very experienced in both people and with the tour; he was chatting with water and giving him all insiders information and I was sitting next to driver to ask him to stop or slow down the mini bus whenever we encountered an animal. They were very helpful and had knowledge of where the animals would be in the jungle at that point of time. There was a Cow Boy herding wild macho buffalo, we also saw a domesticated cow, then three wild rather free owls minding there own business, spotted dear herd, Panthera tigris bengalensis (AKA Royal Bengal Tiger), snow-white (Subspecies of Bengal tiger which is white in color), Melursus ursinus (Lip Bear which is found in Indian sub continent), Panthera leo persica (Asiatic Lion) and in the end most importantly Kritikos Lagonikos (pariah dog) at the end of our safari. We were not motivated enough to go to the butterfly zoo so we headed towards zoo after refreshment.
Tiring trip to big Zoo:
When we entered Zoo we were welcomed by a beautiful lady warring black t-shirt, she was gorgeous so not to miss her too much we stayed rather I stayed near the entrance and acted like taking photos of my other 3 friends killing some time so that I can enjoy the beauty... then we visited the zoo which had wide verities of dove, pigeon, swan, owl, love birds, snakes, kiwi (second largest flightless bird), reptiles like camellia and crocodile, panther, jackal, zebra - we also saw hippopotamus which was taking a nap in the water which was mixed with its own crap (youwak) and finally after many animals (I have missed many) our trip ended with 4 elephants playing around.
Hunt for Ragi Mudde:
Once we were out of the Zoo it was almost 17:00 so we were very hungry, we wanted to try Ragi Mudde which is famous in Bannerghatta, however we did not find any so we had to do away with masala puri, behl puri and alu puri near magu’s house and then move to Benki meet. Water was very tired to attend the meet so he left from there
Benki Meet:
After long time I feel attendance in the benki meet was decent, XXX, Gube, bucket, Magu, silent boy and smart boy were present, Barla wanted to come however he could not due to rain near his locality; finally after me showing photos of the trip to Kirru and Gube, Bucket getting private tuition from salient boy we had food and left the place.
Thus ends my Saturday which started at 06:00 in the morning after end of my shift to 12:00 in the night when I reached home to sleep...
That’s all for now; will let you know about my Sunday where Guru found his long lost Dell-Titan edge hand watch and how we cleaned our house to find it finally how we celebrated the finding of watch :)
Kind Regards,
Sudhi
