Ranganathittu Sanctuary - Parambikulam National Park - Yercaud : April 2011

I was looking forward to visit Parambikulam National Park, Kerala for a long time. Finally that seemed to materialize in April 2011. Being long weekend and final match of Cricket World Cup scheduled for April 2nd (Sat), no way we wanted to miss the match as well. So changed the travel plan a bit. First night halt in Mysore, 2nd in Parambikulam and 3rd (was yet to be planned). With the help of forest officials I managed to get accomodation in IB inside Parambikulam forest.

Bangalore - Ranganathittu - Mysore - Parambikulam - Yercaud - Bangalore

Anirban whose wife was out of town for 2 weeks did not want to miss on his God gifted 2 weeks of bachelor days. So he joined me for the trip.

Day 1 : We planned to leave Bangalore by 0800hrs but as usual, Anirban was late by almost 90 mins. It took us almost 90 mins just to cross Kengeri. We stopped at Kamat Upchar for breakfast and reached Ranganathittu around 1230hrs. Since we reached during hot noon, most of the birds were sleeping. We went for the boat ride and I spent sometime clicking pictures.

 

Marsh Crocodile

This was my 2nd visit to Ranganathittu and this crocodile resting over the rock was a view.



 

River Tern



Clicked this pic while on boat. Honestly while taking the picture I was not sure that this was River Tern. However it was a treat getting to see this bird so close.









Open Bill Stork

 

Cattle Egret



Being on boat it was actually quite difficult to capture pics, with these birds at quite a distance. However it was nice to see Cattle Egret, River Tern and Pond Heron which were not there during my last visit about 3 weeks back.


















Pond Heron

We reached KVC International, Mysore around 1500hrs where we had booked room for night stay.We missed bit of Srilankan innings but were well seated with our drinks in the hotel rest' before Indian innings started. It was good to see even chef spending most of his time in the dining hall watching the super match and India taking the world cup.

Day 2 : Again as usual, we planned to leave by 0630hrs but Anirban was late by almost 30mins. We checked-out around 0715hrs and started driving towards Parambikulam. Though we were quite hungry but then we decided to have b'fast only once we enter Tamil Nadu. Just to have better "Dosa & Sambar" :-))

Route which we took.

Mysore - Nanjangud (take left here from the main junctions and cross the railway tracks) - Chamrajnagar - Sathyamangalam - Annur (take bypass here to avoid going to Coimbatore town) - Chettipalayam - Pollachi - Anamalai (last ATM - Axis bank near Arun Rest') - Topslip - Parambikulam

We stopped at some dhaba in Sathyamangalam for breakfast. 1st, 2nd and 3rd dosa and then few idlis, I bet that shop owner was quite happy that day :-) Our next stop was Anamalai.

I must admit, the drive through Pollachi till Anamalai is awesome with huge trees on both sides of roads. Even the huge windmill farms all through the drive were quite a view. I was amazed to see the efforts of State Govt towards utilizing renewale source of enegry.

We reached Anamalai around 1345hrs. Had quick lunch of Tomato rice (not sure how we swallowed it down) with 2 kids continuously staring at us. We reached forest checkpost in Topslip around 1500hrs from where Srini, who was our guide joined us. We drove another 6 kms before we reached forest checkpost near Thunakadavu reservoir. On the way we saw Wild Boars, Peacocks and Nilgiri Langurs. We parked our car here and started our trek towards Thellikal IB.






Wild Boar

 


Peacock

Knowing that there is no electricity, drinking water and food, we purchased some wheat flour, onions etc for dinner. Srini told that there is small river nearby and we can drink that water, so we left our bottles in the car.

Trek till Thellikal Inspection Bungalow is 3kms. With our rucksacks on and heavy camera in my hand it took us about 1 hour to reach IB. I must say it was awesome to trek through thick forest. As we reached our IB we saw herd of about 35-40 Sambar Deers grazing right in front of IB.

By the time we reached IB we were damn thirsty. Srini got some stored river water in mess tin which I must say was just not clean :-) Being thirsty and used to it I did not mind, however Anirban refused to drink. He still had carried small water bottle with him which he smartly hide somewhere. Since we were little late, I asked Srini that we go out again for trek immediately before it gets dark.

During the trek we actually saw the river that Srini was talking about. The water was completely muddy and at some places, animals had graced it with their shit :-)

Our source of drinking water :-)

We saw herd of elephants and I was trying to change my position to get clear shot of them. Suddenly we saw one elephant running away and then we see this female elephant and calf staring at us. All of a sudden the other elephants too were staring at us with their ears straight (clear sign that elephant is quite angry).

Having had one extremely bad experience with a Tusker before in Bandipur forest, this was enough to scare the shit out of 3 of us. We stood there for almost 2 mins and slowly backed out.

Sunrise view from forest



After another trek of 3+kms we were dead tired by the time we reach IB. One of the tribesmen came to help Srini prepare dinner. We had dinner and did not realize when we dozed off. I got up little early with the thought to capture some pics inside forest. Not much but there was this Nilgiri Langur which made me follow him little away from our IB. He infact looked quite angry with me following him.



Nilgiri Langur



Day 3 : Started our another 3km trek back to the car. Went to Thunakadavu and Parambikulam Dam. Had breakfast in one of the hotels outside the forest limits. This person infact made us eat 6 Dosas :-))

By then we had decided that we will halt the night in Yercaud. So we started around 1200hrs from Parambikulam. Stopped at Pollachi for a quick bite.

Route that we followed. Road was good and we reached Yercaud around 1700hrs.

Pollachi - Tiruppur - Uthukuli - Vijayamangalam - Erode - Salem

Since we did not have any bookings or clue where to stay, we randomly started visiting hotels which would fit our budget. We finally checked in Hotel Grand Palace. We both were quite tired and there was a spa in the hotel which both of us could not resist. The guys were from Kerala and did a great job.

Day 4 : We started back for Bangalore around 0830hrs. Had breakfast in some dhaba on the way and were back home around 1300hrs.

Trekking inside the thick forest of Parambikulam is going to be one of the most memorable experiences of my life.