NagarHole

Just thought i'd write a travelogue about our NagarHole trip. Lot of people write perfect travelogues in their blogs. Not sure how mine would turn up. Anyways.

This is an ideal place for a long weekend. Nagarhole is actually a national wild life park and the King Sanctuary resort where we stayed is located right at the entrance of the park. It's a pretty small resort. So, you better make a reservation in advance.

It is exactly 220 Km from my house in Outer Ring Road, Bangalore.Like any long drive, better start in the early hours, latest by 7 AM. Otherwise, you'd be spending 30% of drive time in reaching the Mysore road itself, which i did :(. We started off at 9 and being a long weekend, every one was hitting the highway. My sincere advice to people who want to travel to Mysore is, Please DO NOT take the Mysore Road passing through JP Nagar. You will be attacked with traffic lights every 100 meters and the road is pretty narrow. There are NICE roads opened up from various junctions like Electronics city road, Bannerghatta Road and near KanakPura Road as well. Take them and i assure you, you will not repent it. You may have to shell out some 30 bucks or so, but believe me, the 20 odd KM stretch is absolute pleasure to drive through and you'd save at least 30 minutes.

For Bharath, every place we visit has to be in a stone throw distance from our apartment. By the time we crossed Marathalli bridge, he started asking "Are we there yet?", just like the Donkey in the Shrek part-2. :p

Breakfast/Lunch:
Usually the Kadamba restaurant will be the first one you will come across. Though the food is good, this lacks variety. All you get is some variety rice like Pongal , Puliyogere and curd rice.
You can also try Kamat Lokha Ruchi, which will be some 20 KM further from Kadambam. But, My Strong recommendation is Vasudev Adiga's in Maddur. You will get a good variety and great taste. It must be around 90 km from Bangalore, if you have set ur trip meter to 0 when you started. My favourite is Shavige bathDo a google if you do not know what that is.

By-pass at SrirangaPatna:
Outer ring road work is happening in full swing around Mysore and due to which you will end up spending 30-45 minutes in that stretch alone. My guess is , it will take at least one more year to complete it fully.
So, to avoid it, take a right at the Ranganathittu Junction itself which is few KM before Mysore. This junction looks like a roundtana and quite obvious. Keep driving for 30-45 minutes in that stretch. In the first 2-3 km itself, you will find the entrance for Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary on the right. It's your choice to stop or continue driving. This road will take you totally out of Mysore city and connects you directly at Yelawal, which is at the outskirts of Mysore and at least 10-15 Km from the city. This road may not be of the same quality as the Mysore expressway, with few bumps on the way. But considering the time you save, it is worth a try. I saved about an hour taking this route. If you are really sure of it, go upto Mysore and take the outer ring road/Hunsur road to reach Yelawal.

From Yelawal, Nagar hole is around 60 Km. The state high way is pretty neat and you can hit 90-100 easily without worrying. When you reach the famous Hunsur Coffee day junction, you will start seeing the sign boards of King Sanctuary. Be watchful because you need to take a left within 15-20 minutes of crossing coffee day. One good thing is, there are enough sign boards set up by the King Sanctuary.

May be due to the tiredness, the last 20 km stretch felt really long and appeared to be taking eternity's time. But only when returning that i realized that it is actually 20 Km only.

The location of the resort is nice. Quiet and laid back. Perfect for a quiet weekend. We took a cottage and it was pretty spacious and opened out to plush green outside the french window. They have a local folk lore program in the evening. That night, there was some folk dance program where guys were dressed as Lion, Monkey etc. When the 'Lion' came roaring near Bharath, he was so terrified and screaming :D. He didn't want me to dance with the 'lion' as well and kept calling me "Appa, don't go":)

One catch is on the tariff. I feel that the resorts in that belt,including Coorg, Kabini, are overpriced and do not give 100% value for the money we spend. Though the place is all nice and all the 3 meals are covered for that INR 10K that you pay for a night, i still feel it is worth INR 7-8K . You can also go for a Safari that these guys arrange. It will cost you INR 15oo/adult. My advice will be, take your own car and get into the national park. Better to start before 7 AM so that you get to spot the herd of elephants and other animals. Spotting a tiger is a rarity, but one may come across the trails.

We were lazing around and started only at 10 AM for the safari. We were lucky to spot some deers and sloth bear etc.

The customer service is good and the buffet spread all the 3 meals a day is decent. Make sure you have some physical activities to get that heavy meal digested. :p