It was a cool December Morning with loads
of mist, we got out of our apartment in T Nagar at 6.10 AM, there were 4 of us
on 2 bikes, a Pulsar 150 and a Bullet Machismo.
We went to the petrol bunk and filled up
our tanks, checked air and headed off on mount road towards GST road. The drive
was smooth and we first picked up a comrade beyond the Chrompet Bridge, a solo
man driving a Honda Unicorn. At Tambaram two more friends joined us in a Santro
car and off we headed towards Vedanthangal, we had a brief break at a
restaurant for breakfast and by 9.30 we were at Vedanthangal.
There were a lot of people who discouraged
us from going to Vedanthangal, but something told me that the journey would be
worth the time and it proved to be so. The drive was excellent, the roads were
spotless and we gunned our engines to do nothing short of 80-90 KMPH.
The actual driving time was around 2 hours
considering all the breaks we took. We shuddered a bit finding our way into
Vedanthangal, as one of my friend often suggests, we used GAP technique
(Generally ask people) instead of GPS(Global positioning system) and this time
it did not work really well, however we reached Vedanthangal and were ready to
get inside.
Now here is some useful information for
people travelling there, there are Binoculars available for rent at a price of
Rs 20 per hour and a deposit of Rs 100 a piece, but these don’t work that well,
they are cheap Chinese makes and are no better than the naked eye. It is best
to take a good pair of binoculars of your own. The entrance tickets cost very
less and one other important thing to keep in mind is that you need a very good
zoom on your camera to get good pictures, as you may notice going through my
photo album, there is only so much you can do with a normal 18-55MM lens.
The entire sanctuary consists of about 1 KM
walk, a well maintained path with good toilet facilities and a bunch of
Machan’s to take good photos. There are also a lot of colourful butterflies
around and one can get some good photos of them.
We spotted some really beautiful birds,
they were of different colours, one of the black birds dived into the water and
did not return until 3-4 minutes, the site of a 1000 birds(or more) was
awesome for our eyes, at the end of the path was a mini waterfall as well where
one could sit and chill. The lake on one side of the walking path and vast
fields on the other side was an eyeful. Truly amazed by the this natural
phenomenon of birds migrating and travelling across the word and finding home
here.
We met a doggie who was hungry, I
christened him as tiger as he liked the tiger biscuits, he was very smart and
understood directions very well, the below photo clearly demonstrates his
smartness.
Overall, the experience of Vedanthangal was
wonderful, it is worth seeing, its better to do a little home work on birds
before going, else you will think that all white birds are cranes as my friend
said.