Weekend trip Masinagudi from Bangalore

It's Diwali and we want to skip firecrackers at any cost.... But our son will never listen to that and we want to divert him...So the best way was to get out of the city to clean air where Diwali's sound and air pollution can't reach.
Did a quick search just 2 days back and luckily got the bookings...

Before We go, here are quick Details...

• Gang: Wife Vandana and my son Srujan (8 years old).
• Travel: Total 500KM up and down from Bangalore 
• Journey Time: ~5hours.
• Stay:Inn The Wild (Booked Tree house)
•  http://www.innthewild.com/
• Date:  29th CheckIn and 30th CheckOut 
• Route: Bangalore, Mysore, Nangangudu, Gundlupete, Bandipur forest, MasinaGudi, Singara Checkpost, Inn The Wild Resort.

Quick Local Tips;

• Book only tree house, if not its not that worth to visit this place.
•  Strictly no for people who are have back problems, elders, pregnant as bumpy roads can cause you big trouble...
• Nothing to do inside the resort...Its just a wild place to stay...so better come in gangs to have fun...
• Very rare mobile signals...

And story goes here,

Journey Time
       Started the journey at sharp 5 am. Yes, its too early but we want to skip heavy Mysore road traffic . Driving on Mysore road will be more like driving in city...Too much crowded, too much of overtaking and speeding and hence we started early.

    Reached Mysore 7:30am. Had breakfast in Kamath which comes on the way. Had nice breakfast and started again by 8am. After Gundlupete, within few mins Bandipur forest started. Entry timings of the forest is 6AM to 6PM only. So we need plan our journey accordingly.

As soon as we enter Bandipur forest, whole view changes...Cool breeze, greenery everywhere. The journey in this forest itself is an amazing experience. We saw Wild Elephants, Langurs, Peacocks, and so many deers. Every vehicle moves at a slow pace of 20-30KM speed here as everyone want to spot animals... So everyone's eyes will be searching for animals....And as soon as they spot, they stop their car, take pics. By the way, Getting down from vehicle is sever offense and you may get caught with forest officials.
  One the way in forest you can see Bandipur Safari place. Stopped there and got to the safari timings and soon started towards Resort.

Bandipur Safari Timings:

• Morning 6:30am to 9:30am
• Evening 3:30pm to 6:30pm
• We have to stand in queue before 1 hour to get the tickets for that respective slot.
• Check below in blog for more details on what we selected and what we did...

Finally We are out of Bandipur forest and entered Madhumali forest. Basically Bandipur and Madhumalai are same forest, but the area comes under Karnataka is called as Bandipur and area of Tamilnadu is called as Madhumalai.

Finally reached Masinagudi by 10am and informed about arrival to Resort folks. And from there we reached Singara Checkpost. Now this is an Dead end stop. We need to park our vehicles here and wait for Jeep from Resort. Jeep was ready by the time we reached there...

Jeep picked us and started our journey to inside the jungle and few coffee estates. After traveling for about 20min, we finally reached resort...

Now Most important point to note here, this 20min journey is pathetic where there is nothing called road there...Jeep goes though a mud path ups and downs so badly that you can't even sit with holding anything. Imagine, I couldn't even take the pic of this road as Jeep was bumping so badly.. If some one has back pain and for elders, this place is not suggested for sure...

Settling Time

But to enjoy the wildness, its a good ride...As soon as you see the resort, we convinced that the name of the resort apt very well. We are literally inside a forest. Its a wildest encounter you would have ever met...

As soon we reached the resort, they gave big list of do and don;t as this is a forest. Mainly not to walk in dark. And we booked tree house which 100ft away from main place and very lonely. I cannot express in words how beautiful it was. A small house with bed, bathroom, balcony on top of tree situated lonely in forest.... Every glance of every side is just forest....

Went to room, unpacked the luggage and settled for some time. Came back to reception and had a nice lunch...

We really had a nice, yummy lunch and back to room feeling sleepy. As it was sunny outside, we though of sleeping for some time...

Woke up at 4pm and there is a big surprise for us ready waiting down of our tree. You know what?....Hundreds of Deers eating grass calmly everywhere...It was an amazing view from our tree top to see soo many Deers at one shot...I have never seen so many even in zoos.

For small sound we make, we can see all Deers lifts their heads to search that sound... So we slowly woke up from bed and came to balcony and sat calmly watching them...By the time, I got my cam, many ran away and below pic just shows 20-30% of them...

Nature Walk
   At 4:30pm, they took us to a nature walk. Its around 30min walk around the resort little inside the deep forest. Recently there was ban to enter deep forest and hence we walked just to some permitted places and paths...
 Didn't spot any big animals as such other than some giant squirrels, wild bores, and peacocks. Did catch any animals but it was a nice trek kind of walk.

 Reached back by 5:30pm, We are very tired of walk. Ate snacks and had coffee. My son and myself played cricket for some time and back to room. While going back rooms, So many Deer eating grass and we have almost walk between them to reach the cottage.

Night Safari

     Jeep  picked us directly from tree house as its not safe to walk in dark. Started the safari at 7pm. It was pitch dark and we have stand in jeep and a person with big focus light will be with us...Jeep started to move in little deep jungle and our guide started looking for animals with focus light.
   Its very easy to catch animals at night as their eyes reflects with shiny golden color as soon as focus light falls on them. So with that reflection we can catch animals fast...Again no luck in spotting any animals...But a nice experience to roam in jungle in pitch dark. By the way, our previous guests told us that they spotted a tiger from far away..Lucky people and also it is little scary if we really see a tiger in dark.

Dinner Time
  Back to reception by 8pm... had a nice dinner and sat in front of fire camp for some time listening to some songs from our mobile...
   Now the scary part....Suddenly 2 big and 2 small elephants came near to cottages and started eating the hay in top of roof...All guests were scared and finally management people took all jeeps and started honking and with focus light on them....After almost 20min of struggle, they finally left...We heard that wild elephants and that to with little one, they will be very aggressive...Now Imagine for guest who want to sleep in that same cottage to night.. :)

 Again Jeep dropped us to cottage and we slept with nice memories...

Day2-Checkout
  Woke up early at 6am and sat in Balcony enjoying the nice weather and forest view. Prepared some coffee using kettle provided and its a great feel to sip and relax.

  There is one morning walk at 6am. Basically its same as evening walk. We skipped it as we were not in mood to walk...

  Came to reception area, Ate nice breakfast. And spent some time roaming the place till 11am. Our Check out time was 12. Packed our bags and checked out...Again Jeep dropped to Singara Checkpost where our vehical was parked...

  It was an awesome place and we surely miss that......

Bandipur Safari
  Slowly drive to Bandipur and reached safari point by 1pm. Our next safari starts at 3:30pm and they told tickets will be given by 3pm...Had lunch in canteen there...

Quick Local Tips:

• Food here in Canteen is worst...zero hygiene and no taste and huge prices...So make sure you eat some where else before you reach here.
• be there atleast 1 hour before and stand in queue right away to get tickets
• There are only 4 jeeps and more buses...To get jeep you have to be in queue very first
• Each jeep can hold 6 people. Jeep costs Rs.3000 + Rs200 per person
• Bug (Around 30 seater) costs Rs.300 per person...
• Ride time is 45 min for jeep and 30 min for bug.

We were in queue by 2:30pm and we were the first one to start the queue. In 5-10min queue size grow to more than 30 people. Waited there patiently got the ticket at 3:10pm.

Started our 45 min ride...Entered in to deep jungle slowly... All praying to spot the best animal of this forest --- TIGER.... A jeep which went in front us spotted a tiger drinking water in pool...Bad luck, we missed it...45 min completed so fast in searching for animals...all drivers used to discuss on where they can search and drive accordingly...Each vehicle goes in different directions and they meet each other in between...

Finally 45min driver over with spotting same old animal like elephants, deer....

Hey wait, at least we spotted the pug mark of a tiger...

Pug mark of a tiger... Just missed it...

All done and we started back to Bangalore at 5pm and reached by 10pm...

Back to bangalore with nice memories and already brain started thinking on office work as soon City noise touches your senses....

Ok folks...buy for now and please share it to all...