Temples & Tigers

The alarm goes off and we stretch out of bed and get dressed. Heading up to the dinning area for a snack and tea before our morning hike. The girls are still sleepy but as we load into the jeep as the sun rises they both become more alert and eagerly wait for us to start.
Our driver shows us around the area driving two and fro to pointing out macaques leaping and bounding and spotted owls sat quietly on branches.

We weave our way through the landscape and slow climb towards and small flattened out area. From here you can just see the top of the temple peeking over the hillcrest as we stop and unload from the jeep.

We all start to hike uptowards the summit, Lucy under her own steam and Tilley with some help. Stepping and hopping over rocks in no time we reach the top. Looking around we decided to sit and have a snack while we all enjoying the amazing view.

On the other side of the small plateau stands a beautifully colourful temple. Snacks finished we slowly head over, remove our shoes and are greeted by a 'priest' who lets us look inside and around.

The temple is adorned with colourful painted sculpture of Hindu gods and the smell of freshly burning incense fills the area.

We end our visit with a 'Namaste' from Lucy and head back down the rocky stair way on the other side of the temple. Down to our awaiting jeep and lunch!

Full and ready to go we hop into the jeep and head out forgot for a ride around the Bandipur Tiger Reserve to spot some wild life on our and if we are really luck a tiger. Our driver turns off the main roads and follows the dusty dirt track, slowly scanning for wildlife with the girls and I on the lookout too.

First a peacock (India national bird), then a wild boar and a bison. Down the road a kilometre he pulls up and points out elephants, one mum and one baby. Lucy and Tilley are ecstatic and move to get a better view. We drive on and loop around the reserve passing different types of deer and even a small bear.

As we see that gates and the road up ahead it's a sign that there won't be any tiger spotting a today. Lucy tells me the tigers are probably sleeping because it's to hot, and that's a good enough reason for me. With all the views and wildlife we saw it was still an amazing adventure!