South India (Day 5: Mysore -> Mudhumalai National Park, TN)

Ride Summary: Distance: 115 km    Total Time: 5 hrs 15 min

A broken clutch cable in Coorg meant a Royal Enfield Service Center visit was unavoidable. We located a dealership in Kuvempunagar, Mysore and paid a visit. The service center was pleasantly surprised to see 2 bikers from Pune and were very friendly. Considering we were short on time, they attended my bike pretty quickly. I wanted to make sure that my clutch setting was good and had to get the chain lubed and tightened. In addition, got the front wheel spokes adjusted as the wheel had a minor speed wobble. And the clutch cable stock was replenished. Since it was around lunch time and we had a good view of the Mysore Palace the previous night, we decided to move on. There is always next time or maybe a visit with the family, to check out the palace from the inside.

The ride to Masinagudi, Mudhumalai was pretty short -- approx. 110 kms. On the way, we stopped at Bandipur National Park for a safari ride. We wanted a private open jeep, just for us, but they ran out. Hence we took the mini-bus ride for an hour long safari. It's a pretty dry forest but deers, elephants, kingfishers etc. were frequently sighted. This dear was about to cross the road and was just a few feet away from me when I took this picture. 

We crossed the Karnataka-Tamilnadu border, just 5 mins away from Bandipur.

As soon as you enter Mudhumalai, you see a difference in the landscape. It's much more green as against the dry Bandipur. Maybe it was the time of the year, I am not sure. But the first impression of Mudhumalai was very good. We saw peacocks on the side of the road, a few deers in the back drop of the Elephants. It's a beautiful place.

In the Bandipur safari ride, we met a Marathi speaking gentleman. He told us to pay a visit to the Elephant Feeding zone in Mudhumalai. We weren't disappointed at all. I was a bit hesitant considering Dubare wasn't that good. But this experience was absolutely amazing. Today was the last day of the 45 day period in which locals gather elephants from the nearby temples etc. and feed them along with performing a Pooja. Some dignitary had arrived along with the press to feed the elephants. My selfie stick ensured I had a good spot to shoot the video. The press people all looked confused when they saw an overhead camera :)

The elephants are fed using a mixture of rice, grass, jaggery, coconut etc. I sneaked in to get a video of the mixture preparation ;-) It seemed as if some elephants had a distinct taste. One elephant refused to eat one type of mixture but then he gobbled up the other one. They tried several attempts to feed this guy :)

Free food attracts a lot of monkeys in that area. People were feeding the left over 'Prasad' to the monkeys causing a mess with these plates. When will we ever evolve?

We checked in at the 'Nest Inn', a booking that goibibo messed up earlier. Initially, I was booked at the Whispering Winds and had a confirmed booking. But then Goibibo called and told me it was declined. Wonder how that happened. Anyways, the views in Nest Inn were so good, along with the garden in front of the room, that we were glad in some way. We requested the chef to cook some Chicken Chettinad and Rassam-Rice for dinner. I was pleasantly surprised with his hospitality. I started speaking in English, expecting he wouldn't know/speak in Hindi but he started responding in Hindi. This was my 1st language experience in TamilNadu on this trip. Hope it stays that way :)