A City in the Middle of a Forest: A Photolog...

[Highway Ranger]

A city in the middle of a forest?

Yes! The Honda City goes on a lazy drive through the forests of Bandipur, Mudumalai, Masinagudi and the Satyamangalam ghat route...

It has been some time since our last drive, so we took advantage of my wife's long holiday week and took to the road.

As usual we are taking loads and loads of pictures and this time some HD videos too. The drive is ongoing... so will post details and pictures after completing the drive...


The Cheetah ready to pounce...



[to be cont.]

 

[pravin1987]

Re: A city in the middle of a forest... a photolog...

waiting for more information and pictures, did you spot wild life? how is the road condition in the sigur ghats?

 

[Rajvel]

Re: A city in the middle of a forest... a photolog...

Wow ! Dont makes us wait !
Btw Did you visit upper bhavani and Avalanche forest ?

 

[AppU]

Re: A city in the middle of a forest... a photolog...

@HR:

Happy to hear that City took over the job, which was done by Manza

WOW!!! The City looks sexy

Waiting for the more and more pics of wildlife. Also share about your experience with City on Ghat sections, especially about the GC and Torque.

Hope this trip would make you to understand the behavior of City to some extent.

 

[alfa alfa]

Re: A city in the middle of a forest... a photolog...

Nice title, waiting for more details with pics.

 

[SandeepJohn]

Re: A city in the middle of a forest... a photolog...

@HR need more of your gud photographs

 

[Mathew]

The title is good enough to make us wait. A photologue. So waiting for lots of HD pictures in 16:9 format. No issues if in 4:3. The introduction is interesting.

 

[Highway Ranger]

waiting for more information and pictures, did you spot wild life? how is the road condition in the sigur ghats?

I will update the TL and images. Yes, we spotted a lot of animals. The sigur ghats? No idea. we did not go there.

Wow ! Dont makes us wait !
Btw Did you visit upper bhavani and Avalanche forest ?

Pls give me some time, Raj. Just reached home. I have to sort all the images. and that will take some time.

No. We didn't not visit upper Bahvani and Avalanche forest.

@HR:

Happy to hear that City took over the job, which was done by Manza

WOW!!! The City looks sexy

Waiting for the more and more pics of wildlife. Also share about your experience with City on Ghat sections, especially about the GC and Torque.

Hope this trip would make you to understand the behavior of City to some extent.

City did fine. Yes this trip is our first trip in the city to these kind of terrain. City came out with flying colors. It was a breeze driving city up the 27 hairpin bends from Satyamangalam... Details will follow. I will call you later...

BTW, the road was just AWESOME... a driver's delight...

Nice title, waiting for more details with pics.

Thanks. I usually have a title starting with "A lazy drive..." This thread would have been "A lazy drive around Masinagudi and Satyamangalam". This is the first forest drive in the city, so the change in the title.

@HR need more of your gud photographs

Sure, Sandeep. Let me sort them out...

The title is good enough to make us wait. A photologue. So waiting for lots of HD pictures in 16:9 format. No issues if in 4:3. The introduction is interesting.

Thanks. Pictures are in 4:3 format only... mostly wildlife and birds. Hope you will like them.

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Just reached home.
No. of days : 4D/3N
Distance done : 799kms
Average : 16.7kmpl.
Places covered : Bandipur, Mudumalai, Dimbham.

Detailed TL follows.

 

[Highway Ranger]

We had always wanted to go to Masinagudi, but the tariff quoted by the resorts there put us off. We knew that there was a TTDC hotel there, but couldn’t find any info in the net.

Then the TL from pravin1987, (where he had mentioned that he stayed at TTDC), revived the idea and we planned to do it during the Pongal holidays.

We left for Mudumalai on Wednesday around 5:50 am and took the NICE road from Hosur road to connect to Kanakapura road. We prefer Kanakapura road to Mysore road as it is scenic with less traffic and no speed breakers.

As usual we stopped at the lake before Kanakapura for a warmup photoshoot. Though the lake was dried up we could spot around 15 odd species of birds around there. Some we were seeing for the first time. The lighting was not good and I was taking handheld photos at low light...



Painted Storks and grey heron...




Wire-Tailed Swallow...




Egret...



Common Myna...




Marsh Sandpiper...




Brahminy Kite...




Brahminy Kite mating...












Ashy Prinia...






Oriental Magpie Robin...




Laughing Dove...




Coppersmith Barbet...






Parrot...




[to be cont.]

 

[Mathew]

We had always wanted to go to Masinagudi, but the tariff quoted by the resorts there put us off. We knew that there was a TTDC hotel there, but couldn’t find any info in the net.

Keep Coming. Keep Coming the Photos.
Me too planing Masinagudi. Can you provide details of the stay, maps used, and other resources. Have you visited these places before? Provide details, so that it will help others to follow the same places.

 

[Highway Ranger]

The route we took was Bangalore > Kanakapura > Malavalli > Kollegal > Chamarajanagara > Gundlupet > Bandipur > Mudumalai. We had packed some idlies/chutney for breakfast and lime rice/mutton fry for lunch. We stopped for breakfast and continued our drive. The road was good with less traffic.

Near kollegal, we sighted some birds at different locations.


Brahminy Kite... against the sun...






Pond Heron...




Egrets resting...




The road from Chamarajanagara to Gundlupet was patchy and somewhat bad at some small stretches. we could maintain a speed of around 50 kmph on that stretch.

We entered Bandipur forest at around 11 am and started the slow drive looking out for wildlife.


White-browed Wagtail...???




Hoopoe...




Wild boar...




A Deer posing for the camera...




Grey Langur...






Some fool had thrown some snacks(mixture) on the road... Never feed wild animals...





We reached Theppakadu, Mudumalai at around 1 pm, and found to our horror that TTDC hotel there has been shut down months ago...


[To be cont.]

 

[alfa alfa]

Your thread is becoming like a suspense thriller movie.

 

[pravin1987]

nice pics dude. the TTDC hotel in mudumalai has been shut down? Really? I will contact my friend in Masinagudi to get the details. it's a nice place to stay in the wilderness. by the way, what camera you were using?

 

[nagendrafreddie]

Oh very good snaps :)

You seems to be a good photographer too. What camera are you using???

Those pictures are just amazing.

Please post more pictures and share information about driving information, stay, comfort etc.

Thanks

 

[Highway Ranger]

Your thread is becoming like a suspense thriller movie.

As long as the ending is great...

nice pics dude. the TTDC hotel in mudumalai has been shut down? Really? I will contact my friend in Masinagudi to get the details. it's a nice place to stay in the wilderness. by the way, what camera you were using?

Oh very good snaps :)

You seems to be a good photographer too. What camera are you using???

Those pictures are just amazing.

Please post more pictures and share information about driving information, stay, comfort etc.

Thanks

Thanks pravin1987 & nagendrafreddie!

I use a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ7, a Nikon D90 and a Nikon D7100, and photography is just a hobby for me.

_______________________________________________________________


After we enter Tamil Nadu checkpost and reach Theppakadu, we find the signs for TTDC hotel on the left. We need to take the road on the left to reach it. This first part of this road and the area around it is now used as a paid parking lot. The attender told us that the hotel has shut down. (We had a backup plan of staying in Gudalur, just in case). Not believing the parking attender, we went to the forest reception center just opposite and talked to the forest official. He confirmed that the hotel's lease period was over and the forest department are planning to run the place themself as the place belongs to the forest department.

Then he told us that a room is vacant in the forest lodge - Sylvan Lodge. The room was nothing to write about. 2 beds, a chair a shelf, and a bathroom with 24hrs hot water, but no shower. The property was great, so we paid the 740 rs for the room and checked in.

Later we found out that there was another building called the Log house which was in a better shape. They charge around 1150 for a double room there.

The catch here is that for spot booking we can do it for one day only. If we need to book for more days, we need to do it at Ooty. Every morning these guys get a occupancy list from Ooty. We were lucky to get a vacant room.

We had our lunch and then just explored the area.


A White-browed Wagtail on a chimney...




The road inside the property to Sylvan lodge...










TTDC Hotel...




Rundown buildings of the forest department...








The river that flows through the property...








Sylvan Lodge... where we stayed...




Around 3:30 pm we left for a drive to Moyar power station.


[To be cont.]