Dubare

Dubare
I had Hunsur or Bylakuppe in my sights for today, depending on what the roads and incline were like, I made it to Bylakuppe but again conflicting with my guide the Monk receptionist at the lodging across from the Golden temple said I needed a permit and as that takes three weeks, so I had to move on.

I was pretty eager to see the Golden temple especially as the sun was begging its journey towards the horizon, but without accommodation I find it difficult to rest or relax at this time of the day, so headed towards the next town Kushalnegar where I was assured I would find accommodation and intended returning to the temple in the morning.

Arriving in the town there was a sign for Dubare which according to my map had been my destination for tomorrow, however the sign said 15km and it was 17:50 I decided to go for it, the Golden temple would have to wait for my next visit.

My favourite time to cycle is early morning or dusk and the journey here along the forest road was fabulous. I eventually arrived at the Dubare Inn as the last light of the day was shining on the water. At the end of a small track, off a secondary road and it was 17km back to the town I was really a captive audience and paid the rich Rs1000. The room is of a good standard, the bathroom a little small and lacks a shower nevertheless its an excellent location with very little traffic and it only gets noisy for an hour or two around 13:00.

The food is surprisingly rather good, especially the pakora and tonight my second night Im going to chance a little chicken kebab. The elephant reserve this morning was excellent, things did go a little pear shaped when they wanted Rs600 for the interaction program, so I elected to pay the Rs50 to watch but as you can see thats not what happened.

When a middle aged and pregnant elephant turned up I and the rest of my small group went to greet her, the mahout told me to beat it in no uncertain terms and this at this hour was enough for Mr. grumpy to pay a visit.

There had also been some discussion about change etc and I went straight to the guy I had paid and demanded both my change and an explanation. As nothing much was happening I decided to sit out of things for a while to let the grumpiness subside, but it was rather clear to the Mahout that we had entered blood feud status.






Then Uday arrived.
He introduced himself sorted things out and started to explain all about the camp, the elephants etc and made the whole experience wonderful. He introduced the Mahout who from nowhere suddenly became apologetic and friendly, the explanation was that he thought I was the start of a foreigners onslaught.

Anyway I chatted to, washed, scrubbed and fed the elephants and had an excellent time hearing about the reserve from the very knowledgeable Uday.