Kabini

The main reason we went to Kabini was the safaris. We were hoping to see lots of wildlife, and we did. The Orange County resort is located on the Kabini River, upstream of the dam which was built in the 70's to keep drinking water, and provide Hydro power to Bangalore. It is located about 4-5 hours from Bangalore, passing through Mysore on the way. The drive was pretty good up to the last hour which was about 20 Kilometers over bumpy gravel roads interspersed with nice paved roads. As I said before, we arrived on Friday evening and enjoyed a leisurely evening. The safaris are run both in the mornings (6:30) or afternoons (3:30). We opted for the afternoon boat safari on Saturday. This is a 2 hour trip up the river (lake) into the national parks. The lake is bordered by the Nagarhole park on one side and the Bandipur park on the other.

The best time to see elephants, and many of the other animals is during the hot summer months April-May when the lake is drying out, and much of the food source is gone in the jungle. Then the animals come to the lake edge to feed on the grass which grows where the lake has receeded, and to drink the water, which may not be available elsewhere. Unfortunately we are busy with other travel plans in April and May, so we opted to go at the beginning of the summer. We were still able to see many of the animals we wanted to see.

We experienced a sort of freak storm (well at least unexpected for the time of year), which woke us up at 3am on Saturday morning. None of us slept much for the next couple of hours. It was pouring rain (and due to the construction of the house) coming into the open atrium. It also leaked a bit in our bedroom, but the resort took care of that the next morning. So once we were able to get back to sleep, we all wanted to sleep in. Luckily we had chosen the afternoon Boat Safari.

The boat seated about 20 people, plus driver and guide. We started up the river/lake and first we saw birds on the dead trees which are rising from the water with the water level receeding. It was at least 15-20 feet below full. A variety of birds was visible- cormorants, painted storks, egrets, herons, and more. Then we approached a section of the bank where there were a herd of elephants. Overall we must have seen close to 50 elephants on the trip. It is possible to see hundreds during the really dry season, but this was significant and beautiful. We saw babies no more than a few weeks old, and some which must have been 40-50 years old, and everything in between. They were feeding on the new grass coming up on the lakebed. Since the grass is so short, they cannot grip it with their trunks, so they kick it loose, and then pick it up, shake out the dirt, and eat it. We also saw them eating the bamboo the next day.

Probably the best part though was watching 7 elephants swim across the lake and come out the other side. There were 2 boats other than ours which got fairly close-approximately 50 yards. There were two small elephants which were surrounded by the larger ones during the swim. There are crocodiles in the lake, and some of us had seen a glimpse of one earlier in the trip, but I don't suppose they could really get at one of these little elephants the way they were protected by the larger ones, and I don't think they could take on a full grown elephant.

Next we saw two different kinds of deer --spotted, and Sambar. We also some Gaur. There were literally hundreds of deer, but unfortunately on this trip, no predators. Oh well, you cannot see them all. Something to look forward to if we go back. There are many tigers which live in the park, but they apparently only come to the lake during the really dry season. There are also leopards who compete for some of the same prey. With the number of deer, I would guess they don't go hungry. We returned to the resort, enjoyed a dubious bottle of wine left by the manager due to the roof leak.

The next morning I got up early, but not as early as the morning safari--I got out about 7am, and went for a couple hour walk. It was really nice to get out and to be able to just walk along the lake. I ran across a site where someone had been making bricks. They build the dried mud bricks into an oven with multiple places for fire, and then light it up. It fires the bricks, except for a few at the top outside, and let it cool down, then they collect the bricks later. There were many water birds along the bank. Most beautiful were the egrets and herons. Also there were people doing their wash--unfortunately with the soap going right into the lake. Others were bathing or fishing. And some were just off to work.

We lounged around and relaxed during the mid day, and then took off on our jeep safari. We were lucky as most of the guests were leaving sunday. So there was only one other group, and the naturalists had booked them on the lake safari, which gave us a jeep all to ourselves. We had to cross the lake first, then take a jeep into the Nagarhole park. We saw lots of different birds like an Indian Roller, Flameback Woodpecker, Racket Tail Durango.

We met some elephants on the road. This one didn't want to leave, and got kind of mad. The guide told the driver to hurry once we got past. We didn't want it charging. We went looking for tigers but didn't find any. We did manage to find a group of cars which had located a leopard. We spent about 20 mins watching him. He was beautiful. Heard later that Manju had gone out Saturday as well and seen a leopard about 1/2 as far away as we did. So we are glad he had fun too.

Monday I went for another morning walk, I didn't get quite as muddy. It was foggier and I didn't see as many birds, but I did get a nice hike in.

Ugadi

Wow, what a weekend. It all started off with Ugadi. I had booked us a long weekend stay at Orange County Kabini. I had planned we would leave early in the morning (well early for teenagers), and get there mid day. Then Cindy spoke with Lahlita, who looked crestfallen when told we would be gone for the weekend, including Ugadi. She had planned to invite us over to her apartment. Cindy quickly recovered the situation by telling Lahlita we could come before leaving for Kabini. So we arranged for Manju to come around 11am and to wait for Lahlita to call us that we should come over.

We got there around noon. She has a small apartment 3 rooms (kitchen the size of a closet, living room and bedroom) on the 3rd or 4th floor. I didn't count. What is really nice is it is the top floor of the building so they get some light and air flow through. There is also a roof patio they share with the other tenants, but being at that level, they have direct access and Bindu can play there with friends in the building. This was the first time I got to meet Bindu, and one of the reasons Lahlita wanted us to come over is that her husband had the day off.

Bindu was very shy till just about the time were were to leave, when she decided to let me hold her. I was honored. She sat mostly with her mother or father for the time we were there. Cindy and I got to sit in chairs, but Ari and Maya had to sit on the floor. There was about 4 feet between us. We were fed typical food for this holiday I believe-- Badji (sp?) which were deepfried vegetables, sort of like Tempura, sweet paratha (stuffed breads), rice with a cold tomato & peanut sauce, followed by a dessert of noodles in sweet cooked milk.

We had a delightful time and really enjoyed seeing their house as well as being blessed by the opportunity to visit them. I am sure they felt blessed that we would visit as well. Here is a picture of Bindu, who is just starting to learn English and her numbers to 10. She is only just over 2 years old, and very big for her age, especially considering how petite her mother is. Her dad isn't too large either. He's from Nepal. I hope to remember his name so I can add it here later...

We left for our Safari adventures in Kabini at around 1 or 1:30. It took us 4.5-5 hours to get there, just in time for dinner and a relaxing evening around our private pool(yes we were in the lap of luxury, not something I do all the time, but nice once in a while).

We also ordered our safari for the next day (Saturday). We decided to take the boat safari on Saturday afternoon, and the jeep safari the next day. It turned out to be a good decision. I'll blog more about that later though. I'll leave you with a sunset from the boat on Saturday.

Post Delhi and Holi

Two weekends ago we had to go to Delhi to get our Visas extended. It wasn't the most exciting trip, but educational. 3 of us went, we had to arrive the day before for a long day of waiting in lines and overused waiting rooms. We did get out in the middle of the day for a few hours. During this time we wandered around Kahn's Market. It's great for shopping, but since we had come with hand luggage only, we didn't pick up much. We did eat at a nice place called the Side Wok Restaurant. Good Asian food. We managed to get the 8:15pm flight back to Bangalore same day. We had our letter to the FRO in hand. Unfortunately it was only a 3 month extension. So now we need to finish out the process here in Bangalore...

Last weekend was a long one for me-sort of. We had Tuesday off (Id), and were supposed to have Monday off in trade for a coming Saturday. I had meetings most of the day, so I worked from home instead. But it was still restful. I did get to relax, and read a book. Maya was gone, so it was just the 3 of us and pretty quiet around the house. Did a bit of shopping for Cindy's photography course on Tuesday.

Wednesday was Holi. I expected to see a lot of 'ruckus' and colors. I didn't. Cindy reported seeing some as she was out with Ari shopping and they saw some, but it was really quiet in our neighborhood. It seems Holi is more of a North Indian festival. I did see one boy the next day coming out to catch the school bus. He had obviously been playing Holi. His legs and arms were still all bright red from the dye. I wished I had a camera with me at that time, but no luck. Anyways he seemed to be hiding behind his mom a bit, I wonder if he wasn't a bit shy about it.

Today Maya got back from Singapore. She's tired but happy. We didn't hear much more (or maybe Cindy did on the way back from the airport). She's resting now.
More later...