It began early morning in Bandipur. The mist played with mountains, the dew had just settled in. It was cold and damp. And the jungle presented itself to us, a collage of greens, yellows and browns. Shivering underneath our jackets and enjoying the nippy air, we drove through the forest in an open jeep, hoping for an unusual sighting.

Image Credit: Subharnab

A typical safari would read like this. It starts off as a smooth ride with a song in your heart. Add a dash of excitement and plenty of hope to the experience.

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We have a series of articles this month that takes you up the mountains –right from the Himalayas to the Western Ghats, into dense jungles and valleys.

The first in the series is a wild chase in Bandipur, a national park located near the Karnataka border where the Western Ghats stretches out to touch the plains and plateaus. The state ends but the forests continue into Tamil Nadu as the Mudhumalai forest, giving the entire stretch a dense green cover. Home to several birds and mammals including the elephant and the tiger, this is accessible from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala.

The bloggers trip arranged by Club Mahindra is an annual event where we take a select list of travel bloggers to a location where we have our resort, and explore locations around it. Last year the trip was to Coorg, this year we made the trip to Binsar(Uttarakhand), a beautiful, quiet and wild Himalayan destination with rich natural surroundings.

The travelers to the Binsar trip included Kiruba Shankar (popular blogger and columnist), Arun Bhat (prolific travel blogger and photographer), Prashanth (another popular travel blogger), Ruchika Vyas (travel writer), Shrinidhi Hande (blogger and travel enthusiast) and yours truly.

After convening to the Delhi airport from Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai we had to rush to the Sarai Rohilla railway station and had an interesting twist (read Kiruba‘s and my account) along the way. We departed at around 10 PM to Kathgodam via the Ranikhet express, and arrived early in the morning at around 5 AM.

From Kathgodam we made a short detour to our newly opened resort in Naukuchiatal (lake of nine corners, is perenially sourced by an underground spring), which is set amidst lush green surroundings, and is tranquil. Unlike Nainital, this place is devoid of too many tourists and makes for an ideal location to vacation.

A view of Naukuchiatal from the resort

Room view of the Club Mahindra “Dancing Waters” resort, Naukuchiatal

After freshening up and breakfast, we continued to Binsar. The scenery along the way was equally breathtaking, and we stopped at a few places just to absorb the sights, sounds and smells of these wonderful locations.

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Clay is an acronym for Club Mahindra And You!. As with the literal meaning, it is shaped and moulded only by the collective imagination of the contributors.

Who can contribute?
Anybody can, after all the Y in Clay is You! If you have a flair for writing or photography, and your content is in the domain of travel, holidaying, vacation (or even food, culture and heritage), you are ready to write for Clay.

What more?
There are benefits of being a regular contributor, or having a fantastic contribution. In the next 6 months, we plan to compile a list of some of the best contributions and publish it as a book!. As a regular contributor, you will also stand a chance to be invited for training camps, special events or travel trips.

So what now?
To contribute or for feedback/queries on how to contribute, write to Clay@clubmahindra.com