Asking the locals didnt help much as they could not guide us and Naga helped us with some directions and spent the night at the hotel in comfortable AC rooms at nominal rates.
Woke up lazily on Sunday by 10am, our plans of early leaving out of the window; got ready had the mandatory breakfast and left searching for the place. The route (as seen on a blog) that is more or less correct is as below: 
Driving directions from Bangalore: (roughly 3.5 hours)
1. From Bangalore, after Mandya, just 2 kms before Srirangapatna, need to turn right (a direction board is very clear) going towards Bellary / Shravanbelagola / Beluru / Halebeedu / Melukote / Pandavapura.
2. Pandavapura road is good and need to drive straight to reach Pandavapura railway station.
3. In front of the station, take the road going right (road on left leads to Halebeedu/Beluru).
4. Thats the SH 19 and after 4 kms, you will reach Pandavapura bus station, drive past and take a right and followed by a left.
5. Drive straight and after 3-4kms, you can see a white board that says "Venugopalaswamy temple" and few others(Check with the locals, they will definitely show the way).
6. Take the left here and keep driving straight.
7. After 8kms you will arrive at the Kerethodanur village.
8. Drive straight past a few temples and a small lake to your left and you would see a huge hillock also to the left.
9. Continue driving and drive up the hillock (manageable mud roads, i managed comfortably in my alto) and you would be parking next to the reservoir bund.
Even after getting down, you wont notice anything except a petty shop there....walk up the ridge and you will be amazed by what you see....A huge body of water spread as far as you can see amidst the hillocks!
Your first impression would be "WOW" - I promise!
All that we could see was water water water till your eyes could stretch... and the breeze was heavy being the Aashada maasa - heavy gusty winds blowing hard. Its not a sight seeing place or for activities, just a calm, serene place to chill out and relax. You can climb up the rocky hill on the left of the reservoir bund or get down and walk around the boundary of the reservoir with some adventure walk. 
On the right edge of the lake, there is a beach like place with lots of sand where you can relax and have food under the shade. You can reach this place either by walk or driving your vehicle around the hillocks (be careful of the rocky stretch). The water at this end was full of algae and slush and fit to get into. We walked along the rocks and reached the opposite of the reservoir bund that is at a considerably low level just above the water. Overall with packed food and water, you can just laze around the place, do some adventure walking / climbing, visit the temples nearby or just relax!
Being a sunday, we saw quite a few hordes of people (mainly locals) turning up with "bottles" and "bottles", but weekdays would be preferred with absolutely no disturbances. Till now, this place has evaded visitors from Bangalore and confined to locals and people from Mysore only, place remains unexploited by the huge crowds that throng every other weekend place around Bangalore! Wish this remains the same!
Care for the nature and the nature cares for you!
Day 2: After a quick breakfast, we were ready for the trek to the nearer "Saalu Gudda" and the "Haalu Kola" peaks and the waterfall. We carried along raincoats, hats and umbrella as we were sure it would rain! Four of us, Vijay and a group of six others went on the trek that was about 8kms both ways covered. No signs of sun, overcast weather and mist all around, the weather was just wonderful to start off... As we climbed higher and higher, we could see only peaks all coloured green covered with a blanked of white clouds all around till your eyesight can stretch.
After more than a hour of moderate trekking (this route was chosen because of the rains else we intended to do the 18kms Rottikallu peak trek!) we reached the peak and as the rains were holding still, the weather was picture perfect and all of our eyes gorged on the beautiful views of the valley that was very pleasing to our eyes. Soon, just as we thought, the rain gods could not hold further and for the next 10 minutes it rained cats and dogs till we were drenched to the last piece of cloth...
OMG! still we were enjoying every bit of it, the weather, the scenery, cold, chillness, wet bodies... the magic of western ghats is itself such, you need to be there to "feel" it. All of us huddled at one place till the rains stopped, after a lashing downpour, the rains subsided allowing us to descent. The return back was through an alternate route after visiting an waterfall amidst the dense ghats. The water was cold.. damn cold and not all of us dipped in! Ice cold shower in the rains! We were just not willing to, while others took a dip. Rains stayed on almost till the end and finally we reached the homestay after a wonderful memorable trek! 
Hear Spotted Woodpecker, Black Lored Yellow Tit, Green Pigeons, Golden Flamebacked Woodpecker, Racket Tailed Drongo, Blue Winged Parakeet, Minivets, Treepie, White Cheeked Barbet, Striped Squirrel, White Munia, Water Snake, Spotted Dove, Babblers and lots of butterflies.
” near to Bandipura. Well we had no idea what place this is and how good it is and the information on the net didn’t help us too much as there were mixed feedbacks on this. As we are all only male group, we decided to give it a try and reserved a cottage for 1 day over the phone (after seeing the place, we decided to continue for the next day).
We left home by about 6 and reached Bandipura at around 11. Just after the office building @ Bandipura, a road cuts to the left wherein you need to travel for about a km and to the right you will find a board indicating the route towards Tiger Ranch and Ambuja Farms. Well there are no roads here and its virtually a mud path all the way down till Tiger Ranch. This place is an isolated area surrounded by jungle on all sides and you get a real good feel of staying in the jungle by putting up here. As only few guests were there, it was fine. Food was okay and after lousing around for some time we left for the evening safari to Bandipura.
fari. The safari ride was infused with rains for some time and sightings of the Crested Serpent Eagle, Sambar deer and a pack of Wild dogs relaxing in the sun. Got the Jeep Safari booke
d for the next day morning and we lazed around the forest office for some time till dusk and went back to the resort. As it had rained earlier, it was a virtual mud slide everywhere for my Alto unable to grip the surface and few harrowing moments (it’s a city car and these th
ings happen if you tend to use it like an SUV!) What shocked us all the more was the loud music and partying at the resort as the darkness engulfed and there were more guests also who had driven in! The cottages were fine (sufficient for bachelors and families please stay away!) for our requirements and we instantly decided to check out the next day after living through the evening atmosphere.
m Jeep Safari ride yielded sightings of Wild dogs again with some distant tusker sighting and the ever normal Sambar and Deer’s & the Stripe Necked Mongoose. No great luck this time too. Scouting for a place for the day we stumbled upon “Hotel Bandipur Plaza” just on the outskirts of Bandipur Nati
onal Park (i.e., just before entering the park limits when driving from Gundlupet). We booked a cottage for 4 for 1300/- for the stay and then went back to the resort to check out and bid goodbye. The poor sightings of morning dissuaded us from taking the safari rides in the evening and so we decided on paying Mudumalai a visit in the evening. Realized after reaching there that the park was closed for census activity and we came back to Bandipura after a drive till Thorapalli. After lengthy discussions on hiring the jeep again or not, finally decided on booking the Jeep safari the next day again scheduled for the 8am ride. The cottage at Bandipur Plaza was sufficient for us to spend the night.
eps parked and lo behold! A leopardess was making its way down from a tree!! Still in the moving bus I could hardly manage still shots of the beauty, nevertheless what a start for the day! (We got to know that the leopardess along with her cubs was chased by a pack of wild dogs and they had climbed up here, but the cubs were missing!). A few meters’ down the road we found the pack of wild dogs too (Wild dogs are lucky sightings for us as in each and every place we get to see them while many people hardly get the chance!).
road (Kambarlikalar junction) we saw a female elephant with her calf trying to cross the road. After 10 minutes with them and just 5 minutes down the same road we could sense something moving behind the bushes… and instantly realized it was a Tiger as we could slightly see the bright golden orange coat of the beauty. To our delight and surprise we also real
ized there were cubs around. We had to avoid a few jeeps and the buses by moving ahead and came back to the same place and then started the waiting game! Ahead of us was Mr. Krupakar’s jeep (the same person who has shot the “Wild Dog Diaries” and was once kidnapped by Veerappan along with his companion Mr. Senani!). All of us excited, sitting on the edge of our seats, praying no more disturbances occur, sensing one of our best wonderful wildlife moments just near and the environment suddenly vibrant, all eyes literally popping out … the wait was nearing its climax! Realizing the tiger moving, the other jeep raced ahead and we stopped a little behind and the Tigress peeped on us right in between the 2 jeeps to check how safe it 
was to cross the road! Sensing no danger at all the queen slowly walked across giving us a lifetime sighting so close by and then followed the little bundles of joy one after another joining their mom ahead. Full credit to the jeep driver Sunil who spotted the little ones first and ensured we got to see the family together. 20 minutes and all o
ver the surroundings was back to normal telling us these are regular things happening, its only you people find it exciting! Leopard, pack of Wild dogs, Elephant with calf and now a Tigress with her litter of 4… What else could we have asked for?