As mentioned before Sat and sunday ( 16th & 17th) we were off....the differnce being that my regular set of companions wre pre-occupied and at the last moment some of my other collegues backed off. So changes had to be done and I had to cancel the Qualis that we had booked and settke for my very on Alto LXI and 2 of my collegues who were joining for the 1st time....

Plans were modified considering that we were going by car....left Cochin at 1800 hrs on saturday..picked my friends from Trichur...reached Calicut at 1045...had dinner and a special paan from my fav bhai there....met a collegue of mine working at calicut and he put me thro the forest guard at Sulthan Bathery who promised us to get us going somewhere in the forest jep at nite...so we were to go to S bathery an extended travel of 25 km from our proposed divrsion point at Kalpetta.....Visit to s Bathery turned out to be a waster casue the quard did not answer our calls to his mobile say at 1 pm...maybe he was sleeping in high spirits.....we drove all the ay thro Muthanga forest up to karnataka border and then turned back and came all the way to kalpetta....did we see anything ??- Nope nothing at all !! slept in the car for almost 90 mins and off were again to Mananthavady, Thirunelli route to the Tholpetty National park...enroute we saw a wild boar and elephant dungs which suggested noctornoual activity....the driver and guide of the trip to Tholpetty also said that night sightings of elephants and Bison were so common by the road side

The 75 mins ride thro the park gave us sighting of spotted deer and the Indian Wild Squirel...no elephats at all !! disapointing.....coming back to the main gate we seemed to have Good luck when se saw a herd of Big Bisons cross the mud track say 10 mts in front of us...the older ones walkked by giving us a stare and the younger ones gallopped...wow !! Felt nice..captured the action in my handycam

Off from Tholpetty to Irpu falls....Staed at Irpu falls till 1130 and had an awesome bath under the falls...the water was chilling....

Brunch at Kuuta....good meals with fish fry

we decided to take a new location...BR Hills as our next station....this was approx 200 kms from Kutta where we had luncg

Crossed the Nagarhole National park at noon...syn beating down...sahred the nostalgia of my 1st and only tiger sighting to my friends,,,,stopped at the same spot...hoping...sadly no Panthera Tigiris...

We were agout to exit out of the Nagarhole park whern a long wild elephant standing by the road side decided to charge us from behind....I knew what to do...stumbled with my handycam....lost the view and instead of steeping on the acelerator...and changing gears...i stepped on the aclerator only with the car in "neutral"....the commotion rom my friends for a few seconds ....and i got it right and had an explosive start from the stationaary position ...that was close...i shudder to imagine what change we stood against an angry elephant...felt sad that we missed the chance to get the charge on cam....

Long drive thro HD Kottal to Gundalpet....reached Gudalpet at 4:15...ahd tea ...got the handycam charged for 20 mins and off the K Gudi and BR Hills...

Gundalpet to Chamaranagar is 40 kms and we reached Cnagar at 520...from there to K Gudi is 22 kms and we reached the check post at 550 pm....the guard refused us entry...on some coaxing agreed we could travel half way..say 8-10 kms and then return on stand to fage the wrath of th DFO...

We agreed and did not want any issues to happen to the guards because of us.....and wow we were rewarded with the sighting of Black bear at vey close quarters..say less than 10 mts...have captured the Bear in my cam for close to 5 mints.....with this sighting i have exhausted my wish list from the S indian Forests...Got to see tiger, Leapord, bear, elephant, wild dogs, sambar, barking deer, spotted deer, Crocodile, Horn bill ,Porcupine, Nilgiri langur and other monkeys and birds...wish id get to see a python and a King Cobra

We decided to drop the plans of coming back via masinagudi, Nilambur...we took the Chamaranagara )Sathaymangalam- coimbatore- Trichur route....enroute before sathay...we did get to see another elephant....a gentle soul to say...reached trichur at 330 am on monday 18th feb morning

Concluding a drive close to 900 kms thro 3 states...woww...id do it all over again just for the thrill of it...

GAINS: The whole trip

REGRET: Not carrying a digital cam

Next one -anytime in March or April

Its that time again...the urge to break free...to leave all ur official worries behind. Me and my close collegues plan to set off on one of our prime "thrills" coming sat ( 16th & 17th)...I meant night safari

We plan to leave Kochin say by 6 pm ..take the Nilambur route...thro Guddalur....Mudumali Forest...Bandipur National park.....

Maybe visit BR Hills...and hit nagarhole forest Late evening....take the safari....and travle back thro Sulthan Batthery and reach back Kochi in the early hours of Monday morning....

We have got 2 flash lights too this time....21st Feb is full moon nite and maybe we shall be luck with some natural moonlight to help us with some good sightings....Cant wait for it to be saturday.....

Any of u out there interested in such kind of adventrous trip...do let me know