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A few of my friends got together and this trip happened. But then, that is how it is with friends. I read it somewhere “One should go on unplanned trips”. Well, this was partially planned as we had to book the place at our destination, Jenkal near Sakleshpur.

Sakleshpur is about 230 kms from Bangalore and is full of coffee estates and scenic mountain slopes and brooks. The altitude is around 3000 feet and weather is more or less pleasant through out the year.

The six of us started from Bangalore late on a Saturday, around 12 noon from Bangalore. The route goes through Neelamangla ( take a left here, straight is Pune Highway), Chanrayapatna and then a big industrial town, Hassan. After Hassan you take a diversion towards Sakleshpur. The highway is a single lane and it does slow you down. But, the road is good enough. We reached Sakleshpur around 5 pm and stopped at Munzerabad club. One of the owners of the bungalow at Jenkal, Karthik, is a secretary of the club. This club is of the British times and retains that charm. We were treated to some nice coffee. Karthik also gave us a baked dish to carry to the bungalow at Jenkal.

The Gang at Munzerabad club
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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.

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Balmuri (Bal=towards right and muri=curve)

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.
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Me and my kids always gets excited whenever we make plans for Bannerghatta National Park and we have already visited 5 times in last 1 year. Actually this was one of the negotiating attractions for my kids when we are planning to move from Seattle to Bangalore. While in Seattle, my son always kept asking, “Does Bangalore has Seattle Center”, No, hmm, “does it have snow in winters”. No”, “Rains”, oh Yes, comparable to Seattle, “ a Zoo”, oh Yesss, It has Bannerghatta National Park, which hosts Lions, Tigers, Bears, elephants, dears, bisons and a butterfly park too.

The very first time I visited Bannerghatta National Park (BNP) in 2001 with Nandan and Our latest visit was in 1st week of March 2008, while my cousin visiting Bangalore. We planned to start early so that we reach there by 10:30-11:00 covering around 35 KMS from Whitefield to BNP. Morning is a good time to see most of the animals as after breakfast they love to spend time outside with their family and an “after breakfast nap” (Kya thaat hein, apna to breakfast ke baad BLR ki roads per hi time jata hein). If you reach say by 2:00-2:30 then chances are high that all tickets would have been sold out due to holiday rush.
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