Let's Breeze Along!
With short term break for kids underway and exams around the corner for son, it was time for a quick weekend trip! With limited time on hand, the choice was very clear. We decided to head out to BR Hills for the weekend.
Stay and Getting to BR Hills
BR Hills is quite regulated in terms of commercial places w.r.t stay and food. From that angle, the place has preserved some level of sanity, although quite a lot of day travellers visit the place. So, we did not have to think much for selecting our stay – Gorukana was on my list for sometime after having stayed at Giridarshini(with friend) and Rajathadhri Hill Villas(solo trip) in the past.
We booked a cottage at Gorukana for the 4 of us – 2 adults, 1 sub adult and a kid! The place is run by the local community associated with Dr Sudharshan who has worked with the local tribal community(Soligas) for decades. The resort is amazing with the dense BRT forest surrounding it. With a nice pond at the entrance of the property, the cottages are located along a valley above it. Govindwamy had called us the previous day to confirm and also to check on our food preferences.
With the expressway between Bangalore and Mysore fully open, getting to BR Hills is more convenient than the earlier route via Kanakapura. So, we drove upto Maddur and took deviation towards Malavalli. From Maddur onwards, it was mix of roads with road divider and without. But the road surface was largely good and motorable without much difficulty. We drove via Malavalli, Belakavadi, Kollegala, Yellandur before reaching forest gate where entry fees has to be paid(forest department). The road after the checkpost was very beautiful to drive although it was super dry due to start of summer and the previous year’s rain dificit.
At the resort
Once we got to the resort, Govindswamy helped us with parking and unloading our baggage. As we walked towards the cottage from the parking, Govindswamy showed us different local and endemic species of plants and trees. Being end of the academic year, the resort was sparsely occupied.
We settled down in the cottage with kids trying to figure out the best place to occupy in the cottage with attique. Mesmerised by the cottage and the surroundings, all of us scattered around the cottage chosing spots per interests! The balcony had cool view of the valley, although the rising summer heat could be felt.
We took a stroll around the campus and down to the pond where we could hear lot of birds chirping. It was time for a sumptous lunch at the central dining hall. The food was super delicious and the people serving the food were very generous and excellent hosts!
Trail to Biligiri Ranganatha Swamy temple
After a heavy meal and a bit of lazing around, we started walking towards Sri Biligiri Ranganatha Swamy temple on a trail that our guide took us through. The resort employs people from the Soliga community – both part-time and full-time staff to carry out various activities. They are trained with some natural history and wildlife besides their own rich knowledge that they have inherited and experienced overtime living in the hills.
We kept conversing with the guide, hearing different stories of the forest where he grew up, Dodda Sampige region, different rituals of the soligas such as Shivarathri festival, marriage practices etc. Soon we reached the start of the stairs to climb up to the temple. One could reach the temple either by road or by steps that have been redone in the recent years. We decided to take the steps, although it was little tiring in the hot sun.
The temple had lot of people but it wasn’t not really crowded as such. We had darshan of the diety and headed to the “view point” where one could see the twisty ghat road from Yellandur that got us up earlier in the day. I was eagerly looking to catch a glimpse of elephants in the distance, which we had seen once on a previous trip! But we weren’t that lucky!
After a few clicks, we started getting down the temple stairs, but this time decided to take the road. At the curve of the twisty road, there is a sunset view point and idea was to spend sometime looking at the splendid sunset and twinkling towns and villages far away. But since our guide was to take us back to the resort by 6PM, we had to rush back. We took a different path to get to resort. Tribal dance was going on in front of KSTDC hotel. We had to skip it as we had to rushed back. We soon reached the resort.
After freshening up and helping ourselves with some tea and pakodas, we decided to drive up to the hill to view the sunset, that we missed earlier. We drove towards the temple and reached the view point in no time. While we were waiting at the sunset point, we were greeted by family of wild boars with some really massive individuals! One of them appeared to charge my son who had strayed a bit for some nice clicks on his DSLR! Luckily, he stayed still and the boar did not seem to have had any intent of either charging nor did it perceive any threat! It just was hurrying to feast on food left over by tourists.
After sunset, we drove back to the resort on empty roads barring a few tourists scattered here and there. We rested for a while and were summoned for tasty dinner that had different varieties(mostly south indian). While at dinner, we planned up for next day’s morning walk(birding).
Birding and more birding!
We were ready at the dining area by around 6:30AM. Daughter decided to stay back in the cottage to catch up with some more sleep and a bit of reading! We started the walk with our guide Jedeya, who was trained by some naturalists to take the resort guests around for birding/nature walk. He could spot and identify several bird species.
As soon as we reached the main road, we saw a serpent eagle perched a little distance away. We spotted several birds, both the common ones and not so common ones after taking a trail on the other side of the main road. We did see flame back woodpecker, Oriental Magpie Robin, Emerald Dove, spotted doves, laughing doves, Gray hornbills, scaly breasted munia, ashy prinia, drongos, blackbird, orange minivets, plum-headed parakeet, white throated kingfisher, green bee eaters, Indian Robin, babblers and more. We could not get good pictures due to morning cover as well as dense folliage.
On way back, the temple was visible at a distance, which seemed to have “developed” over time with several houses and shops sprinkled. Finally, we started heading back to the resort passing by some hamlets. People seemed to be busy with the daily chores while few were engrossed in their mobiles!
We soon reached the resort, where we were greeted by Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher that was in the nursery area for more birding! We had seen some on the previous day as well near the cottage. Also, got to see a velvet-fronted nuthatch climbing up a silver oak tree trunk and a Oriental Magpie Robin!
We straight away headed to dining area for breakfast and daughter joined us there. We were accompanied by a few cats in the dining area. We spent some time lazing around in the resort, taking pictures before finally packing our luggage and checking out.
Kids wanted to get on to the nets tied to the trees in the parking area before driving out of the place. Son tried a bit more adventurous stuff of climbing a huge tree at the entrance of the resort! After all the “monkeying” stuff at the nets and the tree, we finally drove out of the resort.
Drive to K Gudi and back
We went on a drive to K Gudi and further up till Navodaya school hoping to spot some wildlife, although it was a little over noon. We did hear lots of hill myna calls, francolin calls and a few boars. The drive after K Gudi dramatically turned into a dry wooded area and we wondered how the forest was so different, just some distance away. As we approached the navodaya school side, we saw a few emerald dove, spooted deers, flamebacked woodpecker.
On our way back, we were lucky to spot a few Indian Gaurs and herd of elephants in a nearby valley. That was a chance sighting, I must admit! We got back to BR Hills village around 3:00PM and decided to have lunch at BR Hills instead of somewhere on way back. We found KSTDC/Mayura to be best bet and settled for a good south indian meals and cornetto icecreams!
We started our drive back to bangalore around 4PM. While I and son were enthusiastic to do a bit of birding on our drive down the hills, wife and daughter were too exhausted! After a brief stop near a tree that had different species of birds like vernal hanging parrot, blue throated kingfisher, crimson minivets, we continued our drive downhill.
The return drive was uneventful crossing Yellandur, Belakvadi, Malavalli, KM Doddi and connecting to Mysore-Bangalore NH at Maddur, where we lost our way in mad traffic that was heading towards Bangalore! We finally got home around 8PM after short but awesome trip to BR Hills!
