Mysore Experience: The Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary is a bird watchers paradise, set in a series of islets on the backwaters of the Krishnarajasagar dam off the Cauvery river. It is barely 25 min drive from Mysore and even closer from Srirangapatnam. The sanctuary is very well maintained by the Karnataka Forest Dept.

Food, sight-seeing and shopping: Visitors are taken around the waters in row boats, previously it used to be on coracles. You can rent a private row boat for Rs 250 per half hour. The boat men are knowledgeable about the birds, their life cycles and the local ecology. It is well worth paying the nominal amount for a private boat, especially if you want to take photographs.

Activities & things to do: Bird watching - and crocodile watching. The sanctuary is host to hundreds of water birds - painted storks, open billed storks, ibises, cormorants, pelicans, egrets, herons and many more besides bats and the 100 plus resident crocodiles. All of whom obligingly pose for superb photo opportunities.

Travel tips, How to reach, travel warnings etc: By bus, taxi or private car from Mysore or Srirangapatnam, just off the Mysore Bangalore highway. Avoid rainy season when the boats do not ply in high water. At all other times, you will be amply rewarded.