With almost all places around Bangalore getting marked out from the “ To Visit “ list of mine, I was pondering over as to from where would I be able to unearth a new place that I could visit over the weekend.

Almost at the same time Suhas gave me a ring and mentioned the name “ Kaundinya Wildlife Sanctuary “. That aroused my curiosity, as it was the first time I had heard of that name. Even Suhas did not have much details about the place except that it is somewhere near the Andhra-Karnataka Border.

So I had work on hand, hooked on to the net and started to collect info about Kaundinya.

But as I expected not a lot was available on the net about this place. Hence I decided to check out the map of Andhra and first I located the exact spot of the sanctuary.

It was on the border of not two but three states, i.e., Karnataka – Tamilnadu- Andhra.

This was indeed a unique location. This was part of the Eastern Ghats, majority of which was on the Krishnagiri-Dharmapuri belt.

I got the contact number of the DFO of Palmaneer Division from the AP govt website.

I called him up and he in turn gave me the contact number of Mr.Murleshwar Rao, who is the DFO of Kuppam, under whose jurisdiction Kaundinya Wildlife Sanctuary came.

So I called up the DFO of Kuppam who was very eager not only to give me the permissions but also offered accommodation at the office guesthouse.

So with all the necessary groundwork taken care of, we both embarked on a new adventure.

On one fine Saturday early morning, Suhas honked his bike’s horn at exactly 5.00Am in front of my house. I hopped on and we too the ring road via hebbal and reached old madras road and headed towards Kolar.

The road was in good condition and we reached kolar by 7.00Am with one stop in-between for photos. Had breakfast at Woody’s and we started towards Palmaneer.

The actual plan was to go to Palmaneer and then take a left turn towards Kuppam.

But at kolar, Suhas asked a local tea stall vendor about the directions to Kuppam.

He suggested a shortcut that we could go to KGF from kolar and then head straight to Kuppam.

But we were a little bit hesitant as usually the “shortcuts” will be in bad shape. After an assurance from the “guide” that the roads are “damm good “, we decided to take the shortcut.

We reached KGF in 40 Mins and the road was indeed good. After KGF, the border areas of Karnataka, which we passed thru, did not have good roads. Soon we reached the AP border and the roads were too good to be true.

At times when some National Highways are in a dismal state, who would have expected a district road in a county outback to be in such a good state.

The road and the outback landscape were so good that we both stopped here to click some picks.

By around 10.00am we reached Kuppam and were able to locate the DFO’s office easily.

We met the DFO Mr.Murleshwar Rao, who was very very polite and offered us some tea and biscuits. He gave us in-depth information about Kaundinya Wildlife Sanctuary and their efforts in setting up an Elephant Camp there.

He told us that we had to travel another 60kms to reach the sanctuary and gave us a hand written road map. He asked us to go to the sanctuary and come back by the evening and stay the forest guesthouse for the night. He also suggested us that we should go to Horsely Hills, which is near Madanapalli, and then return back the next day.

We were really amazed to find such a polite and friendly DFO, contrary to the popular belief!!

So with the roadmap in hand we headed on the road that connected Palmaneer and took some diversions in between and reached the sanctuary without much difficulty.

The landscape was of Shrub Forest type and it was almost on the Tamilnadu Border.

The caretaker of that place who had arranged for tea even in that remote place greeted us there.

So after a cuppa, we headed for the Elephant Camp.

There are two Elephants Ganesh and Jayanth at the camp. They had just returned from their morning walk and had finished their first round of breakfast in the forest and were getting ready for the second round at the camp!!!!

The mahout asked us if we were interested in a ride on the Elephant’s Back. I was a bit hesitant as there was nothing to hold and one has to sit on the elephant’s back just like the mahout does, with just a rope to cling on to.

At this point, Suhas made the first move and stepped forward. He climbed on the Elephant’s back with such ease as though it was a horse!!

The mahout ordered the Elephant to walk and it slowly started to walk ahead.

Suhas was having the time of his life and was feeling as if he was a king!!!

The Mahout spoke to the Elephant in a different language. Later I came to know that he uses different languages for different commands. It was English, Hindi, Telugu, Tamil and Kannada words that he used but all were mixed up together which gave us feeling that it was totally new Elephant Language altogether!!

Finally it was my turn and it was a difficult climb for me to the top. Once on top I could sense the magnitude to the situation. Riding on such a huge and strong mammoth animal was not an easy thing. I could feel the power of the animal just by sitting on it.

I had fear in my heart by also had the desire to ride on such a magnificent beast.

This ride cannot be compared to the joyrides that one can get at some wildlife sanctuaries where the mahout is on the elephant and some 4-5 persons sit together in a wooden box.

Here I was the only one on the elephant and with just a rope around its neck to cling on to.

God knows what would have happened if the Pachyderm decided not listen to the mahout in the middle of a ride!!!

So after this hell of an Adventure, we both headed to a watchtower deep inside the forest with a guide. The Landscape was full of bushes and shrubs and we reached the watchtower after a walk of 4-5kms. But luck was not our side, we could not find any wildlife enroute or at the watchtower.

We headed back to Kuppam in the evening and stayed at the forest guesthouse after a hefty meal and a late night show of the latest Chiranjeevi picture to top it all.

The next morning, we started early as usual, and headed to Palmaneer. Then we reached Madanapalli, which is a town near to Horsely Hills.

Horsely Hills is a small getaway at around 3500ft from sea level, just like Nandi Hills near Bangalore. It was discovered by Mr.W.D.Horsely after whom the hill resort is named.

The Road condition was pretty good and after some hairpin bends we were at the top.

Just roamed around a bit and saw a small zoo park and a sunset viewpoint.

Here at Horsely hills is a Eucalyptus tree, which was planted by Mr.W.D.Horsley in 1859. It is supposed to the biggest Eucalyptus tree in INDIA, a fact that is proven by the MahaVruksha Purskar Award given by the Indian Govt, which is displayed there.

The Picture of the tree can be see at http://anilsuhas.fotopic.net

One more fascinating fact at Horsley hills is that there are two separate trees, which are joined together naturally, and I call it “ Conjoined Trees “. The tree can be viewed at http://anilsuhas.fotopic.net

So after having a look at these amazing things we headed back to Bangalore.

We took another new route for the return journey, via Chintamani – Kolar.

The roads up to Chintamani were good after which its pretty bad.

Reached Bangalore by late noon, had lunch at some place on the ring road, and started to wonder how many of such

“ Un-discovered “ places might be there around us.

Of course this ending becomes a new beginning for my next trip / trek.

For pics visit http://anilsuhas.fotopic.net