Just to the Left of the Moon: Bandipur Jungle Lodge

An early start but cycling in the cool of the day is a very pleasant thing.

We cycled from our hotel to Nandi Bull, which was really quite up hill, but not as uphill as later in the week!

There was fresh pineapple ( dip it in salt and chilli for an extra kick) for our mid morning snack; I think I must have nearly eaten my own body weight in fresh pineapple this holiday!

We had a lovely cycle through banana fields, past cows ( which stayed put fortunately) and strange looking straw stacks.

Cycling through the villages we were cheered and waved at by the school children. The ones in a school bus sounded as if they had spotted a pop star, not a bunch of Lycra clad middle aged cyclists...

They loved posing for a quick photo shoot whilst the rest of the villages looked on as we ate bananas!

Through the more agricultural land and plantations we

cycled along to visit Nanjangud Temple when we spotted these birds' nests which look to have been woven out of paper and sticks. I wonder which bird it was?

As usual the temple was surrounded by the usual traders and hawkers,

which we did our best to ignore whilst we walked around looking at the temple from the outside.

I suppose it was your average Hindu temple, but I enjoyed looking at the models of the gods. Cats don't feature but I thought this one of a bird made a change!

There was an hour transfer in a bus to Banipur Jungle Lodge. It was a safari bus with open sides so we were all a little wind blown by the time we arrived. It was interesting watch life go by, but as usual I managed to fall asleep too...

The bungalow for Debs and I was 'Spotted dove'. We didn't spot any. Quite spartan but I am sure it will do the job. A buffet lunch and a change of clothes before we headed out on a safari. Apparently there are still tigers wandering free. Yeah, right....