A
much anticipated trip to Bhadra Tiger reserve, though I ended up shooting birds…a
lot of them. A bash need not always be ravished and loud, so was this trip of
mine. Quiet, inducing and craving…
This
is the first time Iam stepping into this region when the sun was at its
shortest distance from this latitude of the earth. Malnad, mostly, had
always enriched my dreams with its nostalgic monsoon drenched landscapes and
humble lifestyle, and a trip to there under searing heat was never on the
agenda until this story was enabled by an unexpected prompt from a new trip
partner who was about to depart from the office I was working in for the past
10 years. Many of my colleagues find it interesting to do a jaunt with me to
those distant locations, but only few of them had ever managed to find their
time to be a part of those unforgettable stories and Vijay was one amongst
them. I had always been averse to a
summer jaunt, thanks to the sweltering and humid departures followed by eye
blinding dawns the day next, that all of my drenched memories from the past
would be meticulously scripted around the lonely countryside of the beautiful
monsoon lands. Nevertheless; I decided to do this trip for I was somehow
interested to witness the region that I loved the most when she was in her
poorest form but just couple of months away from her annual transformation into
a bundle of beauty and bounty resulting from unrelenting rains from the west.
It had been a while now since I sold my VW Jetta 2.0 DSG to its second owner
and her absence made me noticeably weak, but relaxed, on the national highway
under the cover of my favorite darkness that had always pushed me to be on the
limit. After picking up my friend from the metro station near my home, we
wrestled our way, cunningly, through the mad weekend traffic to cross the
first 100 KM mark from the city, for
after this; traffic and rough road patches are eternally eliminated and all it
took to cover the Kms were music, fuel and a pair of sleepless eyes. My
father’s Grand i10 was nimble and efficient, not much seen in a Hyundai, that
by now my doubt about travelling in this naughty hatch disintegrated and I
began to drive her fast. We hit our favorite tea stop just before Tumkur,
albeit a bit late, and though we usually stop at the CCD 10 Kms further from
there; the ambience of this basic tea shop somehow, over the years, has gradually
influenced me to view it as a “customary halt”. Post this halt, it was a rapid
drive through the very familiar national
highway, which reaches out to the west coast at Honnavar, that had the
potential to earn a reputation of being one of the best driver’s road should it
get rid of its “surprise” speed-breakers and “unsuspecting” potholes that
emerge when you had just begun to press the accelerator a bit hard, lured by
her intoxicating long curves and powerful short straights that challenge your
ego like a boss. Though I would love to, I never had the opportunity so far
to drive through this manic road under the cover of darkness and it was on my
wish list, as we went past the beautiful countryside waiting for the monsoon
rains. We were nearing the “check-in time” at our resort, the River Tern Lodge,
and so we were in terms of distance as the road to Bhadra appeared on the
windscreen with an inviting aura that was enabled by the abundant “richness” of
Bhadra’s massive water reservoir, which also happened to be our place of stay
for the next 2days. I never, in the past, had stayed inside a dam and what was
about to emerge in the next few minutes gave a new perspective to my
understanding of relaxation and enjoyment…
We were impressed, if not
blown away, as I and Vijay slowly crossed the hanging bridge which connected
the main island with the secondary and over there, was located our reserved
cottage. After a long drive there is
nothing more relaxing than “falling” on a big soft bed, and it was more than
special when from the same bed I could view millions of cubic feet of water
studded with distant islands topped with thrilling forests and hear to a flamboyant
quietness that was unheard of in my recent times. The fact that our noon
safari, preceded by a sumptuous buffet lunch, was about to start in couple of
hours incredibly tested the ability to overcome my inherent laziness, more so,
considering the “luxurious” ambience I was pampered with. The River Tern Lodge
is a part of Jungle lodges and resorts, Karnataka, and they possess the
privilege of having a presence in every major nature reserve within that state,
thanks to the influence and funding from the state administration, thus helping
to establish an enhancing environment for a quality weekend in the wild. With
loads of will power, to discard the laziness, I made it to the pickup point
where the traditional “open-top” Jeep was waiting for the participants of the
evening safari to hop in. When we
departed from the resort I saw the other group of people, as a distant speck
near the banks of the reservoir, who had opted for the boat safari and per my
instinct at that point of time; their option was wrong and this instinct of
mine itself would be proven wrong when we would assemble back at the resort couple
of hours plus 1 more later. I knew south Indian forests were more beautiful
than their northern counterparts, but they also hid well the predators and
other mammals within their amassing beauty thus making a “spotting” more
difficult than anywhere else, nevertheless, I pursued. Without a single
spotting, me and Vijay returned back to the resort for our relaxing evening tea
when we were stunned to learn from the group, which went on the boat, that they
were blessed with a sighting of the top most “reward” of the Indian forests,
the Tiger. Nature is difficult to
predict, but not difficult to be with and dampen our disappointments, losses,
ego and fear as we both had the drink of our life when we settled on the “dark”
banks of Bhadra, post sunset, with bottles of Budweiser and the immaculate gust
from the massive spread of water pushed us to the brink of ecstasy. The next
morning we were the first to hit the water, and so also during the evening as
these 2 water safaris introduced me to the “world of birds” for the first time
ever and I was amazed how cute these creations were. I came to Bhadra for
something else, but eventually I was influenced to capture birds in their
beautiful habitat and that is how surprising are the decisions of nature.
Completely spell bound, we concluded our stay @ “River tern – Bhadra” with one
last Jeep safari on the early morning of our third day, which was also the day
of our departure, from this region of cravings and memories. Around noon, the
resort wore a deserted ambience as most of the guests had departed and we were
amongst the last to wave a bye before the hitting the road to Bangalore. I always had seen this region when she was
drenched, when she was in her elements, but; I never had imagined that I will
meet her when she was dry and dusty and when I did; all I felt was “nothing”…as
my lust for darkness, cold and lashing rains provoked my memories from the past
to hide this recent one…though I struggled to keep those moments on the banks
of Bhadra with Budweiser, blinding darkness and deafening gust alive and afloat…It
was a special one and something that I had never gone through before in my life…I
was already dreaming about my next road trip to this region and when that would
materialize, the 2017 monsoon would have set in…
K.D
