Kabini - Experience luxury amidst wilderness at Bison Resort

[26-Mar-23] – Our relaxed stay at Bison resort, Kabini

As mentioned in my earlier blog ( H D Kote) , after bidding adieu to H D Kote we drove towards Bison resort. At one junction you will see the signboards of all Kabini resorts with distance to the location.

From here you just need to follow directions and you will reach your destination. Just that the last stretch of around 10-15 minutes which leads to the road are really bad. Finally we reached Bison at around 11:30 am. 

Abdul who was at the front desk when we checked in greeted us and explained us about the resort, the activities, our waterfront tent, food etc. He also asked us which safari we would like to take today since all safari’s are regulated by the forest department and designated slots are given to each resort. Since we had done enough land safari’s till date, we opted for boat safari for which we were charged Rs.2300. He asked us check in to our rooms, freshen up, have lunch and be ready at the reception at 2:30 PM.

Since some guests were checking out and our tent was getting ready, he asked another caretaker to take us around the resort. We were first taken to relaxed lounge, kitchen and then observatory deck where we can just sit back and enjoy the view of Kabini Backwaters.

We were served welcome drinks and we sat there at the observatory lounge enjoying the view. This was the WOW moment for me 😊. 

By now our tent was ready and we were escorted to tent with our baggages.

Our Waterfront Tent

Bison’s Waterfront tents are a luxury with all the amenities you could have ever thought of is made available here. These tents are a combination of East African camps and the old hunting lodges. These tents have an outdoor veranda with chairs so that you can spend long hours absorbing the spectacular views of backwaters, forest, cattle grazing and sunset. We were told that we can borrow pair of binoculars from the reception and spot wildlife from the comfort of our rooms.

We then freshened up and sat in the veranda of our tent enjoying the view. 

Boat Safari

I was super thrilled since this is the first time, I was doing boat safari. We all gathered at reception and from here our naturalist Abdul accompanied us in a 16-seater canter till the Kabini Safari point.

From here we hopped onto a boat and our journey of exploring wildlife began along the serene Kabini backwaters. 

During our 3 hours boat ride, we saw varieties of aquatic life like sleeping crocodiles, otters, water birds (I don’t even remember their names) and many more. But to view all these you need binoculars. Else its very difficult to spot these.  Also you will need camera with good lens to capture all these.  We were lucky to have Adbul with us who’s instincts and wildlife spotting skills are truly amazing. We had some close encounters with elephants playing in backwater.

This one is a single tusker

This one was beating the summer heat by playing in water

Herd of deer along the shore

We ended our boat safari with this amazing sunset click. 

Finally, after a soul satisfying boat safari we reached resort. We were served evening tea and snacks.

We then reached our tent and then relaxed in the observatory lounge. There are lot of books here for nature and wildlife enthusiasts.

We reached dining at 8:30 PM for a good lump sum dinner. We took a stroll around the property and then hit the bed early for a much-needed relaxation after a super hectic day outing.

[27-Mar-23] – My Birthday at Kabini 😊

We had a nature walk planned today in the morning at 8 am. While we were waiting for our lead to arrive, we clicked some pictures of the reception. 

You can buy some merchandise here as souvenirs

After a wait of around 20 minutes our lead arrived but by now we were hungry and were getting late for our breakfast. So, we asked him if we could do the nature walk in the evening at 4 to which he obliged. Meanwhile we booked our coracle ride post breakfast at the reception.

Coracle Ride

After breakfast, we walked towards Bison's private boating area. Our boatman was ready with his Oar for the adventurous Coracle ride. 

We hopped on and our ride along Kabini Backwaters began. Good that we took a ride in the morning since sun had not yet started emitting his super strong UV rays. So it was a very pleasant 20 minutes ride for us. Our Boatman also was very knowledgeable. He started telling us about Kabini river. Actually Kabini river gushes through 2 states – it originates from Kerala and flows into Karnataka. Bison resort is located at the confluence of Bandipur and Nagarahole National Park.

After a good adventurous ride, we thanked our boatmen for getting us back safely and we started walking towards our tent to freshen up. While walking back from the shore, we were welcomed to the resort by these special guests😊. 

Today was even more special since it’s my Birthday😊. My travel buddy had arranged a birthday cake for me by secretly coordinating with the resort staff. This was a pleasant surprise for me. Thanks to my friend and the hospitality team of bison for making the day so special.

After this cake cutting ceremony, we both then set off for some photo-shoots since this resort offers lot of spots for good clicks. And it also gave us an opportunity to explore this resort during day time.

This is the common restroom

Perfect vacay....isn't it?😊

Water filter

By now it was lunch time and we headed to dining area. With our belly’s filled with lump sum lunch, we then headed to our tents for some relaxation.

Nature Walk

It was 4 PM now and time for nature walk. This time our lead arrived on time and we started our walk from the resort. He informed us upfront that total distance would be 5 Km and would easily take 2 hours. We were more than happy since we would get to spend more time with nature.

As we started walking, our lead started explaining about the various birds, flora and fauna of this region. We were so amazed with the knowledge he had about birds. Even without binoculars he could spot a bird far off and tell us all the details about the bird. Truly commendable.

I was mesmerized with Kabini landscape too. I was not getting tired at all clicking pictures during our walk.

After a good 2 hour of nature walk, we reached Bison’s private boating area. Our lead asked us to wait here and he left since he had to pick people from Safari to Bison. But unfortunately no boatmen turned up to take us for evening sunset boating. So we just sat there on the backs of river Kabini, enjoyed the sunset and came back to our tents.

View of Bison waterfront tents from Kabini shore

We had dinner and sat on the relaxed chairs of our veranda absorbing the silence of this place. This was a much-required peaceful relaxed holiday for us.

[28-Mar-23] – Bye Bye Kabini

We woke up to the various sounds of nature today when we opened our tents we could see cattle grazing and the entire scene looked like a portrait perfect picture. We just say there listening to the various sounds emerging out of forest, birds chirping, horses running and all this was so soothing to ears. We then took a walk towards the forest side. 

By the time we came back from walk, we had these two guests at our tent to bid good bye to us. 

After sometime we realized we had to checkout at 10:30 Am today. So we started packing so that after breakfast we can just do a final check and leave. By now our driver had also arrived to pick us up.

After breakfast, we checked out from Bison bidding adieu to the humble and helpful staff at this resort who made our stay so comfortable and relaxing. Would recommend Bison to those who would want to experience best of nature and wildlife.  

We hopped onto our car and enjoyed one last time countryside drive. We reached H D Kote in 30 minutes and luckily non-stop Mysore KSRTC bus was waiting at the bus stand.

We took our tickets and bid adieu to Kabini backwaters which gave us a much-required rejuvenated getaway by offering some spectacular landscapes, wildlife, diverse flora and fauna, helped us uncover some hidden gems( H D Kote) thereby making it an alluring tourist destination. 

Other blogs in the series

H D Kote - Exploring Kabini's Hidden Gem 

Sand Sculpture Museum Mysore