Apart from the birds and the mammals, there was a lot to look at and learn in the Daroji area! The learning process started with the very first RHINOCEROS BEETLE I have seen:

This beautiful creature quickly burrowed into the grass on the lawn, and would not budge from the, literally, grassroots! From Bellary, we drove to Daroji, where we stayed at the Forest Guest House; here's the signboard: This is one the best Forest Guest Houses I have ever stayed in. Clean sheets, towels and napkins; plenty of hot water, and clean rooms...excellent! We did see many wild flowers and fruit, and I have put them up, mostly un-ided... The WILD JASMINE spread its heady scent wherever we went (and that's poetry!) The FIGS of the PEEPUL TREE made a colourful picture... The LION'S PAW PLANT looked quite wicked and ready to hurt! I got this unknown purple flower just because it looked so beautiful! This flower looked as if someone had just touched it with a scarlet paintbrush! The DANDELIONS looked lacy against the evening light: Eve the common flowers of the GOURD family looked great: On the University (named after Ku Vem Pu) lake, the drying lily leaves took on this wonderful colour: I also saw this snake-skin that had been shed by some non-poisonous snake (apparently only non-poisonous ones have this triangular shape)... The fruit pods of some kind of ACACIA PLANT were also copper-coloured and lovely to see: This was some unknown seedpod, just look at its beauty! I could not id either of these FRUIT:

This perfectly-shaped SNAIL SHELL seemed to round off our trip…

So, at sunset, we bid goodbye to Daroji and Hampi and set off for Bellary and our overnight train: