Himachal is an interesting place. Isn’t it? I would like to post my writings on unexplored Himachal to give a off the road view and a different Himachal to let you all see. Shrikhand Mahadev is one such place. Its hidden. Its unexplored. Not many people know it or visit here. Its purely natural. No hick ups. Best place for people who enjoy trekking. Actually i love to go to such places.
Shrikhand peak is sited along side the Great Himalayan National Park of Himachal. It is in Kullu region, but near to Shimla.
Not many people would plan a trip to a place called ‘Lakhimpur’ which is more popularly known as ‘Lakhimpur Khiri’ so when an opportunity came, I started scouting for information on what can be done there besides the main business, the one for which you get paid to visit such a place. Well, it was not hard to discover that Lakhimpur is the town connection to U.P.’s only National Park, called ‘Dudhwa Tiger Reserve’. The rest was routine, getting maps, asking people for a decent hotel, requesting a friend to get us a booking at a forest rest house and so on.
I know by now I am sounding very very drab, as someone who only gets to travel for business and fill this website of the accidental sojourns he is able to do. Whether it was ‘Getting Lost in Sambhar’ or ‘By the Lanes of Aminabad’, infact some of the alert and regular readers would have probably guessed it since I wrote a road review about a week back. While the bets are being won on this, let me take you to the journey which we undertook in the last week of May. (more…)
Bhayya Muddumalai and Bandipur National Park kya ho kar aaye, mere beti ghar mein sabka naam animals per rakh diya hein. Myself “Dinasour”, my daughter Navya “Chhoti Dianasour”, Bete Ujjwal ka “Chhota Deer”, meri niece Aditi ka “Elephent”, Meri wife Dimpi ka “Monnkey”,.mere bade bhai ka tiger, meri bhabhi ka peacock, friend ka Camel. And on top of that, she calls us by these name, watching it on TV a tiger chasing deer, she says, “Tau ji is chasing Bhayya”, I want to take a ride on Sanjeev chacha (Camel).
Well, we 5, me, my wife, my niece, my son and daughter, drove to Masanagudi, Tamilnadu, it is 290 KM from Bangalore, we took Bangalore-Mysore highway, and then towards Ooty/Bandipur. From Gundelpet, there are 2 roads to Ooty, 1 via Bandipur and another one is a Ooty/Coimboter highway. I realised this while coming back, otherwise I was wondering if this is the main route to Ooty. For about 60 KMs, road is not good, there is hardly any road on few patches. We reached Bandipur in the afternoon, had lunch and crossing Bandipur Jungle we moved towards to Masangudi.
Drive is pleasent through the jungle, we saw few deers, langoors, and a traffice jam. Why traffic jam, are bhai, elephent baby and his mother were standing on the the main road, and no body dared to honk to push them aside the road. Watching so many people staring at them, mother elephent secured the child elephent and pushed him on the other side of the road, wow, we are in Muddumalai national park, Tamilnadu. My camera was back in the trunk and I was not able to capture that. We reached Muddumalai city in 30 minutes and inquired about our GlenView Resorts (www.glenviewresorts.com). It was further 15 KM on Ooty road. When we reached near resort, there was no road, I called the resort manager and asked for the directions, he said just follow the road, I said there is no road man, he said, this is the only no-road to reach us. Driving slowly, we found ourselv in a jungle, foothills of Blue-Hills in Nilgiris. There were few other resorts on the way and our resort was the last one. We reached there around 4:00 PM, met resort manager Suresh. Resort was pretty nice, inside the jungle, he allocated us a room on a tree, which was quite big for 3 adults and 2 kids.
Situated near the village-town of Srirangapatna, this place is well known as a film-shooting spot. Many a kannada movies have been shot here. This makes a good 1-day visit. Leave Bangalore in the morning and be back by nightfall.
How to get there
This place is close to Srirangapatna, which is between Bangalore and Mysore. Take the
Mysore road , drive all the way to Srirangapatna. As you approach Srirangapatna, there is a diversion towards the right. Sign boards will help you get to Balmuri. (more…)
