ATR - Day 85: Another trip to Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary, reached Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, problems with stay

Paid another visit to the Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary. Reached Mudumalai Tiger Reserve in the evening. No good place to stay, no safari booked for tomorrow yet.

December 24, 2023

Sunday, 11:30 PM

Safari Land Villa Resort,

Village Masinagudi,

District Nilgiris,

Karnataka, India

In the morning, I decided to pay another visit to the Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary because I had not been able to spend as much time at the sanctuary as I would have liked yesterday evening because it was getting dark and no good pictures could be clicked in such low visibility. We had to leave for Mudumalai Tiger Reserve today, alright, but the bird sanctuary with all the colourful birds in was a temptation worth indulging for a little longer. After spending the morning in the bird sanctuary, we returned to the hotel, packed our bags and were on our way to Mudumalai Tiger Reserve.

The biggest problem was, again, a place to stay because all hotels and resorts are booked around Mudumalai due to Christmas and holidays. So we spent an awful lot of time looking for a suitable place to stay at Mudumalai and finally got this place where we are with a broken toiled and ill-maintained rooms. Absent the compulsion, I wouldn’t have stayed at this place at all. But we didn’t have an option, and had to settle for this place. 

To make things worse, I wasn’t feeling well at all with severe headache and a bad stomach. The South Indian food in the morning was delicious but it didn’t agree with me and gave me a bad stomach even though generally I like South Indian food and it doesn’t cause any such problems but perhaps what I ate today was not as well prepared, for it did not taste as spicy or anything as to cause such problems, so it could only be the preparation and not the spices. 

That’s it for today. We do not have a safari booked for tomorrow because there are not many safari permits available here. So getting a safari permit is surely going to be a struggle tomorrow. Let’s see how that goes.