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Kabini! that's the name of a forest about 300 kms or 188 miles from Bangalore. It all began with getting up at 5 am. I think all the people who read this regularly know that i hate, repeat HATE, getting up that early but then again it was for a trip i've been want'g to do for so long now. 5:30 am & i'm wide awake, listening to 'what a wonderful world' by Louis Armstrong. 6 am and my sister arived along with her adorable boys, Mukul and Neenu! & we were on our way to the forests of kabini. 2 hrs in and everyone was getting really hungry and our breakfast point had not yet arrived so we ripped open the oat meal bars and gobbeled them like that was the only garented meal that we were going to get! But, wallah! Maysore was just a couple of minutes now and we stoped for breakfast. After quitening down our growling stomachs we were on our way, non-stop to the forest house of our host. After reaching there and resting a bit and finishing our lunch we got a couple of open jeeps and decided to go into the forests hoping to see a tiger amongst other things. The military green jeep that my brother and I were in was being driven by this really nice guy and he promised to take good care of us. >:) he hadn't yet really met the two of us. I sitting on the rails of the jeep and my brother standing on the seat of the car with hands holding the metal rod as if we were on a horse determined to throw us down, we carved our way into the jungle on small mud tracks. And there... right out of no where these deers decide to jump across the road. The trip was quite amazing with us seeing so many animals in there ranging from boar's to deers to bison's but no tiger yet! A little later at home after refilling ourselves with all that we could find to eat we decided to climb on top the watch tower, yes the house had a watch tower in the middle. we took the infra-red binocs and watched carefully into the jungle. we say elephants eating trees as you'd find yourself chewing on a carrot. At about 1 or was it 2 out of pure exhaustion we finally went to bed only to find being woken up a few minutes later. wait its 5 am... "Do you want to go for another ride into the jungle?" Our host was asking. with eyes wide open, "YES!!! do u have to ask" is the reply that came out of my mouth even before i had time to think about it. and there we were, 15th August, The INDEPENDENCE DAY of india we made our way into the jungle once again! this time there were so many deers we were quite bored of them. we say some elephants and then we heard it... radio: "no 2, do u copy" lokesh (driver/guide): "no 1 go ahead" radio: "there are wild dogs chasing some deers" lokesh: "roger, where?" radio: "no 'mandir marg' (temple road)" lokest: "thanks" and the jeep no suddenly seemed to go faster than i ever remember and i didn't realize that i was still sitting on the top rail of it till the branch of a tree rammed right into me, but i didn't care. we wanted to see the chase and we reached there just in time to see them disappearing into the thick of the jungle. it was so amazing. we made our way to the place where local was willing to take us on an elephant into the jungle for a closer look and we just could not refuse. Once on the elephant we suddenly had access to so much more of the jungle! and we heard it again, the warning calls of the deer this time. and we made our way into the jungle in that direction trying hard not to miss anything... the rest as they say is history! wish i can explain it. It was just amazing...
well if u guys ever come to Bangalore, don't forget to make your way to Kabani! that's all I can say!
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