When it comes to bird watching in Karnataka , OMH is the first thought comes to mind. I planned for a week trip 3 days in Dandeli and 2 days Karwar. Old Magazine House is run by Jungle Lodges is nestled in the heart of deciduous forest in Ganeshgudi near Dandeli. As its 480KM from Bangalore and will take 10 hours by drive , I decided to opt for bus. We were three(2+1) and quickly booked VRL sleeper for 26th night Sunday , 9PM. I was little concerned as it was Covid time , but bus was neat and clean. Even we sensitized out seats. Bus started exactly at 9PM.
27th Monday morning 7:15AM bus reached Dandeli , we had started on 26th night 9PM in VRL , my cab driver was already waiting for us in bus stand. Govinda - 9480561337 was our driver and I got this reference from Jungle Lodges. He is friendly guy. From Bus stand we directly went to timber yard in search of Hornbills. Its just 5 mins drive from bus stand. Early morning is good bird watching in timber yard as it will be peaceful. We spent 1.5 hours there and spotted around 30 Malabar pied hornbills. Then had a breakfast at Kamat and headed to OMH which is located 25Km from dandeli. Resort is surrounded by forest. They first reaction after seeing the location was WOW. Checkin time is 1PM , but as we reached there at 10AM they provide us Dom where we kept our bag and refreshed. Had a cup of tea listening to the birds chirping ,sound of breeze and falling leaves. 12Pm we got the room , it was clean and neat as expected. Post lunch , sat on a chair looking towards forest with a camera in hand. Spotted Babblers and sunbirds. At 4P M they took us to Supa dam and spent an hour there. 5:30PM we are back , light was good and all of sudden birds activity started with Pied buschat and then common babbler ,crimson backed sunbrids ,puff throated babbler ,blue tickles , white bellied blue flycather , dark fronted babbler , brown-cheeked fulvetta and Monarch followed them. I was just keep on clicking the camera button. Light was getting dark and so activities started reducing. Went back to room , rested for some time had dinner at 9PM and went to sleep. whole night is was raining its cyclone effect.
28th Tuesday , 6:30 AM got a wakup call , had a cup of tea and went for bird watching with a nature walk. We were able to watch some good birds like White rumped shama , flame throated bulbul , orange minivet and some butterflies. Back to resort had breakfast , after that same routine walking around the resort in search of birds. Evening it was raining for no activities. Spend good time with nature.
29th Wednesday , same routine as previous day nature walk , breakfast , lunch . After lunch I was able to listen to birds chirping so went out with camera searching for them spotted lesser flameback and lesser yellow napped woodpeckers. And all of sudden I saw a tree where Malabar Trogon was sitting and that was amazing bird , it made my day. Had a dinner and went to room and started pack the bags as next we were suppose to leave.
30th Thursday , morning went for nature walk and saw yellow bulbul , orange minivet , flower pickers and sunbirds. After breakfast we started towards Karwar in cab. If you're are nature and bird lover OMH is must visit place. On the was to karwar to went to Supa dam backwater where we saw peacock dancing with open feathers. I booked Sadashivgad sea resort , jungle lodge for two days. Reached the resort around 1PM and view from the room is awesome. We can see Kalli river joining the arabinan sea from the balcony. For lunch we went to Devbagh island in boat , its as per there plan. It will take 15 mins to reach island had a good food spend time on the beach. Its private beach only people staying in Jungle lodges will have access, so its neat and clean. After tea we boarded the boat and came back to resort. Spent evening by looking towards the sea and camp fire. Dat ended after dinner.
1st Oct Friday ,Morning usual had a tea , after breakfast they will take us to Dolphin sighting in the sea. I skipped this as my daughter was not ready. I came to know they spotted a Dolphin. Again today we went to Devbagh island for lunch spent time in beach with some photoshoot back resort. I was suppose to check out on 2nd Oct , as mu daughter was little bored , we started back to Bangalore on Friday night by Sugama sleeper bus. Next day morning 7 AM we were in home. Because of Covid we were unable to travel anywhere , but this was perfect and amazing trip.
