A weekend getaway to the Nilgiris

I had been dreaming of the Nilgiris for the last few weeks. They kept surfacing in my conversations and thoughts. So I decided to head out there this weekend. I am going to be in Coonoor and hope to roam around if the weather holds. I have no agenda and I hope to just relax and take it easy . See you guys next week and have a great weekend.

 Backpacker has loads of updates and stories coming up for you this week ; so stay tuned. Ciao !

Birding in Masinagudi

I was in Masinagudi a few days ago and went on a birding trip with Atul, the manager of Club Mahindra Zest property - Casa Deep Woods. My first visit to Casa was almost a decade ago, when it was not a Club Mahindra property .Incidentally it was my first ever trip to Masinagudi. It was sheer serendipity as we drove towards Mudhumalai forest after being told that we had no accommodation in Bandipur. The property was very new and Masinagudi was still very much not a tourist destination. I have visited Masinagudi several times, but this trip was sheer nostalgia.

And what a birding haven it turned out to be -the iora, the sunbird, the white eye, the warbler, the flycatchers, the thrushes - we sighted almost 50 species of birds in just one session and the best sightings were that of the pitta and the paradise flycatcher .While the pitta was hanging around for more than half an hour, walking around the dry stream , barely a few feet from me and at eye level, the paradise fly catchers were rather elusive. An entire family was high up in the leaves , right above us and we watched them fly with our binoculars.

The pitta chased the orange headed ground thrush that landed finally up in the branches of the trees.

My favourite of course was the poser tickell's blue flycatcher. For more birds and photographs, do see my album on my travel page on Facebook. For the entire story, please read here

The Misty Nilgiris

We were in Masinagudi a few weekends ago, a town located at the foothills of the Nilgiris. The mountains were giving us company as we drove around and giving the mountains company was a thin veil of mist..

To see more skies around the world, visit Skywatch Friday

Back from the jungles

I was lost somewhere in the dense forests of interior Masinagudi during the weekend ; not amidst the row of touristy resorts, but somewhere in the interior where forests and wilderness merge in a place aptly titled Wilds.I will blog about this sometime when I have a little more mind-space , but for now, a quick update to say I am back in rain swept Bangalore

Travel and travel stories

There has been a bit of a slow down recently in my writing as well..the reason being I dont want to become a factory churning articles by the day.Travel writing is an intense personal experience, sometimes even more exhilarating and draining than the journey itself and just putting it down in an avalanche of words does not make sense to me.I have three articles published last week and my favourite among them is my wild Masinagudi night safari .Please read it (you can click on the words "Masinagudi night safari and it will take you to the article )when you have the time and let me know your feedback . There was a story on a cave temple in Madurai published in Metro Plus, Inside Story and a piece on Kaidala, a small village in Karnataka which is the birthplace of a legendary 11th century sculptor . The links to these two are down and I will post the stories shortly. Meanwhile , the above picture is that of a man smoking in the Kaidala temple.

Masinagudi - A wild encounter

Reeta had asked me to post a favourite picture on my blog..I couldnt select one, there were so many - so I have modified the tag and posted a video - my first on my blog - a glimpse of an elephant in the wild in Masinagudi near Mudhumalai Wild life Sanctuary - nothing dramatic , but I was excited nevertheless .

Its my turn to tag and as a rule, I do not force anyone..so please feel free to post your favorite picture or video or anything that interests you

36 hairpin bends ..

There is a debate whether the Queen of hills is still the Queen. But its often the journey rather than the destination which is special . I leave you with some pictures shot during our ascent across 36 hair pin bends from Masinagudi to Ooty .

Masinagudi - Where elephants roam

Warning : The call of the wild is a cry that should not be ignored . It can cause you sleepless nights . Soon you will be woken up in the night by howling wolves and you will start seeing sillhouttes of elephants next to you in the dark ! A snake will slither down your feet as an invisible insect will screech into your ears .. So, when the cry started echoing in our ears , we decided to pack our bags and drive down to the closest wildlife sanctuary .





The best thing about Bangalore is that there are several options to get away from the city . And as living in the city gets progressively worse, weekend getaways seem to mushroom out of nowhere . We drove towards Mysore, leaving behind the concrete jungles and ... the forests presented themselves .We were spoilt for choice - Nagarhole enroute Coorg , BR Hills , the wilds around Kabini and Cauvery rivers , Bandipur to name a few .. However my eternal favourite is Masinagudi , a small town in the neighbouring state , Tamil Nadu , located adjacent to Mudhumalai Wild life Sanctuary .




We had first discovered Masinagudi a few years ago . While I had visited Mudhumalai as a kid, Masinagudi was discovered through serendipity . Its just one stretch of forests from Bandipur to Midhumalai - as you drive down from Bandipur , you need to cross the border and you are into Mudhumalai . A slight drizzle welcomed us as we entered Tamil Nadu. A carpet of greens veiled our eyes .The sun filtered through the bamboos that were scattered around . A deer darted through the bush . The silence was only punctuated by the sharp cries of the babblers who probably announced our arrival .If there was paradise, I thought this was it !





A cluster of villages like Theppakadu, Bokkapuram have several resorts and home stays which offer a jungli experience . We found some interesting resorts during our three visits . The first one was Casa Deep Woods - we had been there some five years, and it has a stream running adjacent to our wild habitat , not to mention aesthetically designed open bathrooms, with trees as roofs. During our next trip, we decided to live high up in the trees in Wild Canopy Reserve, welcoming the new year . This time, we decided to go to some simple log huts at Jungle Hut. Most of the resorts here are an extension of the jungle , where elephants freely roam ..For them , there is no border, nor state nor permit..the densely thick jungles are their abode and we are mere tresspassers in their territory .




And thats precisely what we learnt as we went on a night safari . It was well past midnight and we were the last motley bunch who ventured out in the night . It was a bright starry night ..the wind was cold and we were in an open jeep, eagerly awaiting the sighting of animals..We drove very slowly and the trees looked eerie and long .



Our driver and guide , Sashi kept the night alive talking about wildlife escapades when the jeep suddenly stopped slowly ..A large shadow obstructed our gaze as the jeep pulled up ..We dimmed the headlights and there was an elephant taking ownership of the road . There was pin drop silence as we gazed at the elephant in reverence ..



Our driver whispered and our gaze followed the lights, we saw not one but a herd ,even a calf, snuggling to its mother..The elephants were on both sides of the road, probably crossing .The first one on our left turned towards us as the driver mumbled it was getting ready to charge . We switched off the lights and waited silently.A few moments passed and it seemed like eternity . A slight movement and the jeep moved .





We went upto Theppakadu with no more nocturnal visitors when suddenly we saw two huge shadows on our right .They were mammoth bisons , grazing , with their back to us , oblivious of us.. Suddenly a truck whizzed past us , shattering the silence and the bison's supper. They did an above turn and were on their forelegs , all ready to charge. The sheer size stunned us and the horns looked absolutely devilish . This was scarier than the previous experience ..We quickly backed off and then took a detour and returned ..We could not take photographs as the light was low, and flash has to be avoided ..But I guess memories are best etched in minds..and probably , in words




We couldnt have asked for a wilder escapade . The weekend just whizzed past us , as we trekked, walked, laughed and chilled..The days were spent basking in the sun , going for safaris, a drive to Ooty veering past 36 hairpin bends and the nights staring at the sky, listening to the insects , counting stars ...

A Wild Chase in the jungles of South India

It began as a wild goose chase ,only the goose happened to be missing.. It was wild, alright – what with elephants, monkeys, malabar squirrels , bears , boars and buffaloes providing company . And to cut to the chase, we have been camping in wildlife sanctuaries and jungle resorts over the last year - six of them in fact , all in the radius of a few hundred kilometers . In the forests of Bandipur, Nagarhole and Mudhumalai , in the camps at Masinagudi, K Gudi and Wynad. Our wild life hunt had begun

At the outset, I must confess that we are not die hard wild life enthusiasts. We would not wish to pretend to be one . A natural curiosity for wild life, a little bit of adrenalin in our veins, a desperate need to get away from the city combined
with practical possibility of getting leave only during weekends led us up the jungle trail.


Our ritual began every morning . 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 .

View video - The Safari Experience
"safari"

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. Then, before you know it, the jeep will suddenly swerve into a narrow path, cutting amidst trees and tearing through the grass. Your adrenalin levels increase. The smooth roads turn into sharp curves as the jeep cuts through the vegetation . You spot an animal hide here and there, a shadow darting through the leaves, a rustle in the woods . You squint through the natural mosaic of greens and browns and imagine like Macbeth, that the woods are moving. By the end of it, however your excitement wanes , the thrill fades

View videos - The deer series-different species
"Deer"
"One more deer"
"Another deer"
"Lots of deer"

In the beginning were the deer, the spotted and the sambhar variety. In great hordes , skipping, frolicking, playing .The birds and the butterflies flitted around as the peacock obliged us before darting behind bushes . Next in line were the wild buffaloes, majestic and proud, ;looking at us askance. Rustling amidst the trees are the wild boars, which even greeted us near our tents in the K Gudi Camp.

Watch videos - The boars and the bisons
"bisons"
"wild boars"
"more boars"

We chased and were chased. Eyes, though invisible to us were tracking us. We saw pugmarks of tigers , dung of elephants and heard stories of leopards. But they eluded us. At one occasion, in Masinagudi we even smelt an elephant very close to us, almost breathing behind a bush , as we got out of our jeep and trekked. It mocked us with a cry, almost like tempting us for a game of hide and seek.

You must have heard this before . The frequent refrain at every safari tour is, “If you are lucky, then … Hope is a funny thing. You very well know that it may not be your day to catch an elusive glimpse of the giant cat or encounter a tusker, but you still persist


The roads are bumpy, you get covered with slush, your legs ache as you trek , but hope does not let you down. It is this hope that made us continue and yes, we were finally rewarded. Not with a tiger or a tusker, but a bear almost 100 metres from us, that paused in its journey and sized us up Its companion was not far away, but it soon merged with the colors of the forest.. It was the twilight hour. A hush fell. We felt a sense of awe and said a silent prayer.

View video - The bear look
"bear"

Very often, its not the destination so much, but the journey which is exciting.. And so it is with jungle life and safari tours. Sighting wild life alone is not fun, it’s the chase that makes it exciting…Like the one we went atop an elephant looking for a crouching tiger up hill through the forest in B R Hills. It was not the regular trail that day, somebody shouted tiger and off our mahout went in search of the beast. It mounted to nothing, but we felt the adventure in the steep climb, the dry and rocky terrain, the thorny bushes and in the unspoken excitement and fear . And the elephant farted away..

Watch video -Atop an elephant
"elephant ride"

Another adventure was atop a tree, 40 feet above the ground where we decided to stay and look at the life of the jungle It was in Masinbagudi, near the Mudhumalai Sanctuary, in a 300 acre of land populated by just another tree house and lots of wild animals. We were awakened in the dark by chimps dancing on our roof, shrieks and cries of wild elephants that threatened to encroach on our area ..We heard them all ;they were all around us, yet we saw nothing in the morning save peacocks, deer , chimps, wild boars and some rare birds


Every forest looked the same. Only the seasons change and with it, the colours. The water fronts get dried a bit, but they are still the haunts of the wild. We continued with same hope in our hearts as we touched Bandipur and this time , we got more than what we had bargained for. We pursued invisible shadows , but didn’t realize that it was our turn to be chased.

It must have been around quarter to seven , and darkness was slowly setting in. Shadows merged with trees and we were returning from another fruitless safari tour. We were on the Bangalore - Bandipur Highway , very close to our resort when suddenly we saw three elephants hardly 10 feet from us, on the edge of the road. We paused in an attempt to take photographs. We got out of the car . My friend was adjusting his camera, my husband standing outside the car beside us. Suddenly one of the elephants took a warning step forward. We backed a bit. A moment paused and we resumed our photography, when suddenly the elephant broke into a run…a very fast one at that . It was a race between man and beast.. a thin line between adventure and death, The car was at least 5 feet from where we were . We made a quick scramble to get in… We yelled, shouted, screamed and panted . We were unprepared for this ;. My friend rummaged for the keys . I flung the camera and looked back. The elephant stopped just a foot away from our bonnet.. A look which said, Get out of my territory.

The entire thing lasted for around 30 secs, may be a minute at the most. We raved, ranted and told the same story many times over, each from his /her perspective. We thought of the many possibilities of an IF added to the situation. I remember the last look, all it had to do was to stretch out its trunk and reach out to us. But it preferred not to do that.

We now speak of this incident in our inner circle as the most adventurous trip we ever had. We showcase our bravado and our story telling skills. We are probably looking for more adventures to score brownie points, to increase our adventure rankings. To us, it was a fantasy , an escape from our daily mundane lives But at that moment, however, it was about survival than exploits. It was fear , rather than hope and excitement . It was about encroaching another’s territory. And we were chased away.

Heights of exuberance - living in a treehouse @ Masinagudi

It was the darkness that first met my gaze. A thick blanket that shrouded everything, including my mind, as I collected my first thoughts of this year .

It took a moment to sink in. 40 feet above ground, suspended between branches of a jamun tree in a dense 300 acre of wild and awakened by a montage of cries that you will probably never hear in the confines of your bedroom. And the only human to share this experience was my husband, sleeping . What a way to welcome the new year !

We are one of those people who like the word different and love to make it a part of our every day’s experience. A human weakness, I would say - to wear our different experience on our sleeve, boast about it, feel good about it and occasionally pat our back saying that we did something ‘different’. A stereotype that redefines stereotypes.

And so, we began our new year with a different experience . Far from the madding crowd. We drove down from Chennai via Bangalore-Mysore to reach Masinagudi, which is 30 kms near Ooty to our base camp . A 10 kms drive through wild tall grass and dusty mud roads with the Nilgiris for company took us to a 300 acre property aptly titled Wild Canopy Reserve. The trees created the canopy and the wild here included a variety of fauna from chimps to elephants to leopards .

It was dusk when we approached and we were greeted by a very excited group who had come to inspect the spot . Tigers and elephants punctuated their conversations and we stopped to hear their story.. Arms gesticulated wildly and animated conversations ensued when they reported seeing a herd of wild elephants at a small pond nearby. Nothing unusual, we thought , until we were told that our tree house is beside the pond.

More information came in, there are things that web sites do not tell . That, there are not many of the human variety staying there . A couple of tree houses dotted the reserve and yes, it is so secluded that you cannot view the one tree house from the other .

We were shown our wild retreat- a tree house built with bamboo tucked away in the branches of a 80 year old jamun tree, An exquisite piece of nature, designed by man. The hues of twilight came and went as we climbed the rope ladder and as night descended, we saw the first glimpse of our tree house . aided by moonlight.



Small and quaint, it came with a petite balcony, an awesome bathroom with hot water and a double cot with a comfortable mattress. And an open view of the jungle and life, as seen from the top ! This, we realized was the heights of exuberance . The view became blurred until it merged with the darkness . We sat in the balcony and took in the moment . A pregnant silence gave way to the murmurs of the forest as we meditated on the sounds .


A twig cracked and with it, came light- not the dawn, but a solar lamp which we were told would last precisely for four hours. We slept the last day of 2004 , atop a tree .




It was not the dawn of the new year that awoke me, but the darkness and with it, the sounds and I’m back to where I started this journal. I lay silent, imagining the fauna around me and doing a mix n match of the various cries. And that’s when it happened. A violent jerk, a strong smell and an exuberant cry. We leapt out of our bed to see if we had visitors . My solar light had died and the moonlight was not sufficient to trace the whereabouts of our early morning visitor. We spent the time till dawn sitting in the balcony, afraid to see if our intruder has occupied the bed. We were told later that there were langurs in the tree , above our house , exercising their limbs in full glee .


It did not end there. We realized that we had more visitors that night, except that they were courteous enough to leave us undisturbed. The ponds were filled with deer and elephants ,peacocks and more colourful birds ( an adjective to clothe my ignorance) who had come to quench their thirst and thus the morning montage of sounds. There were a few wild elephants, I was told who had created quite a rampage in the property and had tried to cut through our electric fence . A watchman had been a witness to this and so this is not my imagination speaking.

We decided that we needed more of those close encounters and hence went on a safari which led into a trek as well. The wild animal eluded us as we came close to a tusker whose destructive trail we had followed. Bamboo shoots, footprints and plenty of dung were our clues for this treasure hunt. We seemed to be doing badly. At one time, it even shouted out to us an encouraging call and the scent was so distinct , but we were just not destined to get a glimpse of it. We limped back our way to the tree, defeated in this game between man and beast , while the animal, I’m sure had the last laugh as it has been seeing us all the way !



Adventures over, we climbed our way up 40 feet to reach our haven , to spend the last few moments living with nature , in silence. We were there, on top of the world , at least for that minute, until reality brought us down to earth . But one thing was sure, we were destined to reach those heights last year