Weekend at Bannerghatta Nature Camp

We knew that Jungle Lodges had a nature camp close to Bannerghatta National Park. Having visited Jungle Lodges at Kabini which was wonderful we were wondering what this one would have to offer. Divya made the plan to book this for the weekend and quickly got the booking for seven of us. Since the drive was only around 25km I was thinking it should be quick since I was not expecting much traffic on a Saturday afternoon on Bannerghatta road. The traffic was not there but the drive turned out to be pathetic because of the condition of the road. After 1 hour of driving we reached the nature camp. The nature camp is slightly at an offset w.r.t the national park and the jungle lodges people arrange for pickup. The nature camp was neat though it was dry because of summer. I think during rainy season it might be more pleasant. We had a simple yet sumptuous meal at gol ghar and went for the safari and zoo visit. The safari was eventful. Divya could not contain her excitement when she saw the tigers and bears walking close by to our van. I ended up taking some good shots. One observation was because of the restricted space the tigers and bears have no choice but roam close to the path which the vehicle takes.
It would have been nice if they have atleast minimal thar roads inside since it kicks up lot of dust currently. After winding up the safari we went to the zoo. The zoo was nice. I saw hoardings put up by Intel. I think they taken initiative to clean up the place and it seemed in better shape than what it used to be before. I was looking forward to the zoo visit since it would give me an oppurtunity to photograph animals at close quarters. I think one of challenges of photographing birds in cage is to throw the cage itself out of focus so that the bird potrait comes nicely. Was able to achieve this in most of the shots. The brown duck turned out to be the best example of this. After the zoo we returned back to the camp at evening 6:00 pm. We had a nice tea and lazed around lying in the hammocks. Later I had gone to watch the wilf life movie while others decided to enjoy a game of carrom. We had a nice dinner. We decided we can play some cards. Since in the last trip I had played "judgement" felt it would be nice the play the same. Unfortuanately I had forgotten the rules of the game. So for the lack of choice I had to pain Kp in repeating the rules of the game since he was the one who had got me inducted into this game in our yercaud trip. Once people got hang of the game they really started enjoying it. We ended playing it till 2:00 am and then we decide to hit the bed. In the dark we started hearing mewing sound of a kitten and were wondering where it was coming from. Priya decided to play it safe and double checked the tent's zipper to ensure everything was fine. Later in the following morning we came to know the sound was coming from gokul's cell phone. They had decided to play this prank thinking we would fall for it..think after the game of judgement their judgement had improved.... we fell for it ...:-) .
Next day morning we went for a walk. Very surprising that a place so close to bangalore has so much greenery to offer. The main event of the walk was the dangerous encounter we had with Indian gaur ( check the blog entry below ). We returned back to the camp and decided to check out. Before checking out had a chance to get a glimpse of the log huts. They were more luxurious than the place we stayed. Should stay in them if we are making another visit. Overall it was a fun trip. If the access road to this place improves this is definitely a hang out place for the weekend.