Latest News

Enigmatic India

This blog captures the life experiences of the Enigmatic India team in the beautiful and enigmatic country of India.We capture our experiences through our writings, photos and products that depict the very essence and fabric of India.Through this platform, we invite you to join us in our journey as we explore.

Monday, June 06, 2011

Trip to Bidar, Karnataka

The historical town of Bidar is just 140 kms from Hyderabad, yet we never thought of visiting this place. Sometime back our family friends Pankaj and Shaloo mentioned that they have been to this town which had a fort and a famous Gurudwara. Months passed and nothing changed...suddenly one day another friend passed on a news item "Jungle Lodges opens the Blackbuck Resort in Bidar". Being Nature freaks we immediately did some googling and found out about the place and booked a 3 night package with the same resort.

Our drive from Hyderabad to Bidar was quite smooth and we had our breakfast in an Udipi hotel in Sangareddy district. The roads were good and after crossing Zaheerabad we turned right towards Bidar. Had some difficulty in finding the resort which is set on the banks of a village tank in the Vilaspur Mandal area. The rooms are very nice with each overlooking the lake/tank.

The same day evening we spent trekking around the place with a guide and were hoping to see some birds...however ended up finding couple of langoors. The terrain is scruby with a few tall trees around. The forest department seems to have done a lot of plantation in the adjoining hillocks. We spent the quite evening enjoying food, strolling in the resort and retiring to bed.
Next day morning was the Blackbuck safari day and all charged up we assembled in the reception area around 5:30. There were 15 more guests and we did not start till about 6:30 thanks to a queer couple who decided to trudge in quite late. The four Boleros took us in a long trip and finally we ended up in a stone quarry area. The guide with a lot of disappointment said...its too late now to spot the black bucks as the stone quarries have started operating. Suddenly we saw a flurry of activities and everybody got down from their vehicles and rushed in one direction. Far in the horizon, we saw the antlers of the blackbuck, having seen them in Rollapadu Sanctuary we were quite acquainted with this. We decided to move back to the resort, leaving the rest behind. Having reached the restaurant I walked up the hillock to do birding. This is a good place to spot dryland birds and we were lucky to find a lot of new ones we had not seen earlier.

The food in the resort was too good and the staff very nice. In the evening we decided to venture into the Bidar town to visit the historical places - the Bidar Fort. Many parts of the fort have been barricaded; however a small museum housed a lot of things like the weapons etc. Post this we decided to visit the Choubara(a clock tower) it the old city that also housed the traditional Bidri Craftsmen. We spent some time in one of the shops and learnt how Bidri craft is done. It was an amazing experience to see these craftsmen converting metal to world class wares.

The next day morning after another round of bird watching we checked out of the resort and headed back to Bidar town. In Bidar we went straight to Guru Nanak Jhira, which is considered a sacred place by the Sikhs. Spent an hour or so listening to Gurbani which made you feel so nice and peaceful. Came out and had aloo parathas in the dhaba near the Gurudwara(missed out on the langar), and moved towards Jharani Narasimha temple. Hundreds of devotees were thronging the place and we realized that we had to walk in knee deep water for more than 400 ft before seeing the deity. Decided to make this religious trip some other time and headed back to Hyderabad. Overall this was a very good experience.

(You can visit the Bidar Tourism website to get comprehensive details)

3 comments:

  1. hi Nice blog
    Im planing to visit bandipur resorts and kgudi resorts for relaxation and
    trying to spend tis weekend away from trafic and pollution

    ReplyDelete
  2. hope u njoyed a lot there,I was searching for resort in Bangalore ,I got few one of them was hill view resort

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am going to bidar this weekend, lets see how lucky i am, with respect to bird watching.

    ReplyDelete

Blog Archive

Followers