Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary and the Stone Bridge

I was really exited about the trip that I was taking with 3 friends of mine. Arvind had mentioned about a submerged bridge somewhere near Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary. The bridge could be seen only when the water level reduced at Bhadra Reservoir. The plan also included a visit to the Wildlife Sanctuary and based on the blogs I had read I expected to spot atleast one of the cats.

The journey started early, the first pit-stop at Kamat on Tumkur Road for breakfast. After that

it was a long drive with another break near a lotus lake. The break was supposed to be a 5 mins one but after looking at the birds around the lake it extended to about 20 mins.

Finally at about 12:30 pm we reached the backwaters of Bhadra Reservoir. The view was breath taking; Even now I think that the cameras didn’t do justice to the place.

After couple of shots began our hunt for the bridge, we looked everywhere but could not find it. All we could see was line of tree tops. We decided to walk around a bit and investigate.

After walking 1.5 kms Arvind decided to call his friend and check if we were at the right place. Turned out that we were at the right place but the water levels were high. Later a local told us that the bridge was not seen for the last 2 years.

Disappointed we decided to head to the home-stay we had booked. The website had promised lots of things. As we drove through the coffee estate and arrived at the place we realised we had made a bad choice. The place looked crowded and the place was a resort and not a home-stay. The service was bad and our room even worse. After complaining for a while decided to make good with what was there. The view around the resort was beautiful. One could see the part of the western ghats.
Tried fishing at the pond, played badminton, ate dinner and went to bed hoping the next day would be better.

Having spoken to the resort manager, we decided to drive to the wildlife sanctuary.

By the time we reached there the first safari had already left. Since the authorities refused to let us hire a jeep we had to wait till the first group returned. As the time went by our excitement started to dip. When our turn finally came all we saw in our trip were some barking deer, spotted deer and peacocks.

We headed back to the resort lazed around and left after lunch. On the whole it was one of those trips which didn't live up to my expectations. I am now looking forward to my next trip.