Trip members: Karthik and family
Trip date: 11 Jan - 13 Jan 2025
Trip Plan : Chennai - Kabini - Talakad - Sivanasamudra - Chennai
A 3-day road trip from Chennai, mainly, focusing on Kabini Safaris - a first time for my wife and daughter.
Reaching Vellore overnight
We started 6 PM on 10-Jan from Chennai and reached Vellore by 9 PM - visiting my cousin. Kabini is 530 kms from Chennai and it going to be quite a long drive on single stretch. Hence, we decided to stay in Vellore and use it as a headstart next day - we were destined to reach Kabini stay by 1:30 PM. We had our safari at 3:00 PM. Post reaching Vellore, we had dinner and spent some time chitchatting before sleeping.
Day-1
Getting up around 4 AM, we were ready for the day - had a coffee and by 5:30 AM, we were on the highway towards Bengaluru. The road was mostly empty and the headstart was very helpful to reach Hosur by 8 AM for breakfast. We had breakfast at a local hotel on the highway - Hotel Saravana - one of the plenties by the same name.
There was plenty of road work going on and we managed to hit the Mysuru expressway by 10 AM. We stopped near Maddur for a tea break - had hot Maddur vada, Mangalore buns and tea before cruising on the expressway.
Reaching Kabini
Having visited Kabini earlier, once we get off the Mysuru city, I was aware that there are no good veg restaurants to have lunch. I called up our homestay Rathnaprabha homestay for guidance and they recommended us to have lunch at a small mess like place - Hotel Kabini - after crossing Handpost (this is a prominent junction enroute).
We had meals there - which was just ok, considering it a local hotel. Afterall, lunch was done and now all set to reach our homestay. Rathna Prabha homestay - this is one of the closest homestays you can get to reach the safari ticket counter. The Rathnaprabha farm is around 7 kms from the ticket counter and is hardly a 10-min drive. The place is simply homely and very clean and all basics made available. There are inhouse people (locals) how cook food on request. We missed to let them in advance for lunch. After checkin, we just changed clothes to those suitable for safari and left immediately.
Reaching the Safari counter
At Kabini forest range, there are 3 gates, Veerahosanahalli, Nanachi and Kakanakotte. Kakanakotte is the most famous of the 3 and treated as the very prominent of the gates and also called Antharasanthe side. Nanachi is one on the Kutta side of Nagarhole and Veerahosanahalli is the Nagarhole safari gate arriving from Mysuru - Hunsur route.
We had booked two safaris - one in the evening and one in the morning, but both in the Antharasanthe side.
We reached the counter by 2:30 PM and our prebooked safari tickets on the canter had seats mapped to our names and got 2 window seats for 3 of us. Very happy with the seats, we just waited for the safari to begin. For Kabini safaris, online booking of safari tickets are available - 2 different modes of safari - gypsy and canter would be open 30 days in advance. If you want guaranteed tickets, please book th safari tickets and be by the counter 10-15 mins before the safari.
If you prefer to do in the last minute, not all the time counter tickets would be available.
Safari - 1
2:55 PM, the safari started. As we entered the forest gate, excitement was high with everyone to sight elephants and big cats. The driver took us through several water bodies and sighted lots of spotted deer to begin with.
Soon, we cited an elephant with its calf crossing the road in a flash. As we went through, we were fortunate to cite few more elephants in the subsequent waterbodies.
Then came the moment to see a tusker - a rarity at times!
We heard few calls for tiger and soon started following the trail for next one hour, chasing the area in all possible ways. As we moved on further into the trail, we witnessed a bathing elephant in the evening dusk and it was a serene moment to capture!
In search of the stripped cats, we saw more elephants and bumped into a rare species - the Sloth Bears! Wow - they were so shy that they disappeared so deep so quick! But, we did capture a moment of it :-)
Thus ended our first safari - a gifted to see so many elephants and the sloths! This only made up for more excitement for the morning safari.
We reached the room by 6:30 PM and admiring the Kabini lake view from the terrace.
The dinner at homestay was very elaborate - chapathis, green gram sundal, rice and sambhar, and very tasty. We were quite tired - long drive since early morning and then the safari followed by stomach full meal - ZZZzzzzz!
Safari - 2
Morning around 4:30 AM, we got ready for the safari and reached the counter by 5:15 AM. We were fortunate to get a tea in the nearby shop and readily took the seats!
The dawn silence of the forests are too good and the random bird sounds make it so engaging. We did saw the paw print! But, the elusive cat stayed out of our sights for the whole 3+ hours.
We went on and on and cited lots of birds.
The morning safari wsa very unlike the evening safari, no sign of any animals - not even deers around! It was a disappointing safari as we could not see a single wild animal for 3 hours - infact a added 30 mins by the driver did not help too!
Kabini Lake
Enroute back to the homestay, we drove towards the Kabini lake. There is a narrow road near the hotel "Tasty buds" leading to our homestay, which at the fag ends leads one into the grand Kabini lake. The lake is massive like an ocean and the morning mist made it look heavenly.
We spend around 20 mins at the lake and returned back to the homestay.
Windup Kabini
We quickly refreshed, had our brunch - vegetable rice, white rice, dal, curd, kadala curry and vadai (from Tasty buds) and started our rest of the trip towards Talakad and Sivanasamudra.
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| Rathna Prabha Farm house |
Talakad
We set directions to Talakad - 108 kms, a 2:30 hour journey. Talakad is a desert-like town on banks of Cauvery. A historic site, Talakad once had over 30 temples that today are buried under sand. Now it is a scenic and spiritual pilgrimage centre. Here the eastward flowing Cauvery river changes course and seems magnificently vast as here the sand on its banks spreads over a wide area. Talakad is known for five temples of the "Panchalinga Darshana". The wide area on the river provides a great place for people to take bath and spend time on the river.
Bathing in Cauvery
We also visited Cauvery river point - a broad section of Cauvery river, where there is well organized parking slots (Rs.30/ parking fee), lots of small eateries. Lots of people take bath here and lot of small local boats - charging Rs.30 and Rs.50 per person for small and big trips. We also immersed in water and spent close to 45 minutes.
There was a small eatery for lunch nearby, however, we skipped it thinking we might get better options enroute to Sivanasamudra. We went on newly built highway roads which avoided all towns on the way leading to Sivanasamudra. Madhyaranga Temple was a pitstop for us and we visited the temple - the temple was undergoing Balalayam and we did the dharshan in the small place quickly and came out.
Sivanasamudra
Sivanasamudra is around 35 kms from Talakad. Onwards to Shivanasamudra, small lakes and river crossing hardly had any water and it was a unwelcoming scene.
Bharachukki view point - This is the very famous and the right spot for viewing the waterfalls. There is a fee of Rs.20 as entrance and parking fee. The parking is well laid and has rest rooms built and small shops all around. However, beware of monkeys.
The view point gives grand view the water falls during the monsoon. The water was very low and was seeping through in the narrow cracks. We saw the waterfalls with a sorry face and moved back to the parking area.
Since we did not have lunch, we spent some time at the shops, having lemon juices, bhel puri and cucumbers.
Stay at Sivanasamudra
Kstdc Hotel Mayura Bharachukki is situated right near the waterfalls - around 800 m from the parking area. We had prebooked our rooms here and checked in around 5 PM. The rooms were very spacious and clean. We ordered some tea and pakodas and relaxed at the hotel.
Day-3
This was more of the drive back. Relaxed start for the day and had breakfast at Mayura - included in the room rent. The food was served on the table - only 2 options - idlies, upma and chowchowbath. Started back towards Chennai.
Enroute had lunch at Sai Sangeeth before Ambur and reached Chennai by 4:30 PM.