Kabini – a weekend by the lake.
I know we all have established that fact that holidays are hard to come by if you’re working in the IT sector. Also, when you plan one, you want it to be for a considerable amount of time- say a week- not less. But, therein lies the dilemma- longer the holiday the more painstaking the approvals. But, what if there are places that you can visit over the weekend- no need to plan, just pack and run. Well, this is going to be the first of many travelogues wherein I will be sharing my travel experiences to such locales.
Let’s talk about Kabini- it is a forest reserve that is almost sandwiched between the more popular Nagarhole and Bandipur national parks. It is located on the banks of the Kabini river. This river is one of the major tributaries of the Cauvery river and its backwaters are very rich in wildlife. In fact, the reserve is located on the southern fringes of the Nagarhole National park. I’ve learned that the Kabini Forest reserve is home to Elephants and Leopards and rumored that Tigers and Black Panthers can also be spotted.
Where to stay and what to do in Kabini?
Most of the resorts or home-stays here are centered around the river or it’s backwaters. Some of the prominent names that showed up on travel company websites- Red Earth, The Serai, Orange county (also known as Evolve Back), Kabini River lodge, The Bison and Kabini Lake View resort. Among them- The Serai, Kabini River Lodge and The Bison are the more lavish resorts and are priced accordingly (anything between INR 10,000/day – INR 50,000/day). After a lot of Google-ING, I homed in on the Kabini lake view resort.
I found their accommodation to be cushdy and quite close to SH-33. The resort has a beautiful view of the Kabini backwaters and they also have a provision for boarding coracles next to their entry gate. The rooms are cosy, neat and tidy and their food is good. In addition, their service is also impeccable. I had walked into their kitchen and found it to be clean and organized. The resort personnel also provide bicycles if you’re lazy about walking along the banks of the river. The only adventurous thing that we set out to do was to take Noah for a coracle ride; in fact it was the first time for the three of us.
In terms of what to see in Kabini; besides the wild life safari- the only place I can think off is the Kabini dam. The dam is about 11 km from the resort itself; advice you to carefully navigate via Google maps. We chose to skip the wild life safari, since not a few weeks back we had been to the Kaziranga National park. But, if you do decide to go ahead, the booking counters for the safari is about 3 km from the resort. You can check with the resort personnel as to what are the work timings for the booking counters. Also, I was told that the best time to go for the safari is in the morning.
Kabini is about 200 km from Bangalore and the drive is about 4 hrs tops. This beautiful and picturesque weekend getaway should definitely be on your list if you’re in Bangalore or plan to visit ‘Namma city’ for a longer holiday.
