When we got a little relief from the Covid situation after being under lockdowns and restrictions for months, we saw a ray of hope when everything opened to the public and we could slowly get back to normal with masks and social distancing. Sur and myself had a crazy month due to our exams and we decided for a quick break post our exams to Kabini, since I heard that we get to spot more wildlife there.
Day 1: Since we cannot let our guards down as Covid situation still didn’t go out completely, we decided to travel on a weekday which would minimise the crowd and also decided not to stop in between for a breakfast break unless except for a bio break or fuel refill. I enjoy the South Indian breakfast on the way when we travel by road and I have to give up for our own safety due to Covid and I was ok for that little sacrifice.
We started the journey in the early morning and after a quick bio break at the petrol bunk, we reached straight to the Evolve Back, Kabini. This property was hut themed, so all the rooms were designed like a hut and it did look different from the usual. Once we reached the property, we had to wait for some time to get the rooms allocated as we reached a little early. As we were waiting, we found that, the guests who came after us were allocated the rooms and we had been waiting for almost an hour and there was no sign of our room allocation. When I asked about why we were waiting when other guests who came after us, were being allocated immediately, I was informed that the room allocated for us was still being cleaned. Then I got to know that the rooms were being allocated much earlier, so it was not the usual allocation of first come first serve basis, which was a surprise to me. Since I was already hungry as we didn’t stop anywhere on the way, and then we had to wait longer than usual, we decided to go for lunch at Honeycomb Restaurant. By then the rooms also were ready. Then we checked in to our rooms, the hut outside didn’t look very impressive but inside it was designed great. Another disappointment awaited when Sur was planning to chill in the swimming pool. There was a tree close to the swimming pool and hundreds of flowers were falling from the tree to the pool and it didn’t look clean to get into the water as the flowers occupied the entire pool, they were tiny so it really looked like the pool was dirty. So we had to skip the pool for the entire stay. I wish the swimming pool was built on the right side where there were no trees. After a short siesta, we had our dinner and crashed early since we were tired. We had a very high expectations after visiting Evolve Back, Coorg few months back as we had an amazing time there, that was another reason we had booked the same property, but our first impression was very disappointing and I don’t think we want to book ever again this place.
Day 2: We had our breakfast and then strolled around for a small walk around the property. It was great and we had birds in abundance and there were too many tiny birds which made us forget everything about the first day disappointment and started enjoying the place. It was so great just sitting outside the room listening to the birds and we had enough birds to spot while we were walking around the property. I just loved that experience of seeing so many tiny birds which I had not seen ever. Then we headed for a lunch, we had to rush since we had booked for a boat safari in the afternoon post lunch. This was worth the visit as we had the best wildlife that we could spot. We spotted, Osprey, Kingfisher, Black Cormorants, White Stork, Black necked Stork, Painted Stork, Eagle, Darter (Snake) Bird, Lapwings, Ducks, Wooly Necked Stork, Drongos, Woodpecker, Peacock, Egrets, Grey Heron, Monkeys, Crocodiles, herd of elephants, Bisons, Spotted Deers and Sambar Deers. It was so much fun watching the wild animals grazing near Kabini river and playing in the water. After a great boat safari, we returned back and it was time for dinner. We had our dinner and then crashed early since we had booked a land safari in the next day early morning.
Day 3: We woke up early and we went to the lobby to wait, we were half an hour early so we had to wake some of the staffs and then after a quick coffee and cookies, we got into the boat which dropped us to the Jungle Lodges and Resorts where we had to get into their vehicle. Unfortunately, we got allocated to B zone, which is the same zone which we went for the boat safari the previous day, so for us it was the repeat of same area except that we were coming through the land. We spotted Deers, Bisons and Elephants and one tusker even came charging towards us and we were all scared but guide assured us that it was a fake charge, so we were relieved and then elephant also stopped midway. Since we had few alarm calls from monkeys which is a sign of tiger or any predator around, we were waiting in case we get lucky to spot it. While waiting we spotted bevy of Otters. We didn’t get lucky and we left. We got dropped back to the Jungle Lodges and then had to take the boat back to Evolve Back. We reached the property, had our late breakfast and then rested a while. We skipped lunch since we were not hungry and evening we were booked in Kuruba Grill which is a specialty restaurant. It was crowded, the service was slow and of course we didn’t feel very comfortable to sit long there, since social distancing had gone for a toss. After multiple reminders for our food, we got our food, had a quick bite and then crashed for the night. The only solace was the bar tender who was extremely friendly and went out of his way to make different cocktails for us, so most of the time we enjoyed different cocktails everyday which compensated for all the disappointments we had at the property.
Day 4: Woke up early, had a quick breakfast and checked out, since we wanted to reach as early as possible in Bangalore. Except the fuel refill we didn’t stop anywhere so that saved our time and we were glad to be back home with much needed break
Even though property was a disappointment, thanks to their staffs who were extremely friendly and helpful.
We thought we are slowly getting out of Covid situation but after a week or two we were just shaken by the Covid 2nd wave which took lot of lives and people closer to us. Just looking all around the suffering and death, just praying to God to have mercy on us and help us to tide over this Covid which has brought greatest suffering, poverty and pain to lots of people. This too shall pass. Until then Please stay at home, follow the covid protocols and please get yourself vaccinated.
Please stay safe and God bless…………