Our Mudumalai adventure - we arrive

So we decided some time in March that we will go for the vacation to Mudumalai wild life sanctuary. By mid March, I searched out the Tamil Nadu Forest Department web site and l picked up what is available for visitors like us at Mudumalai.

 

They had three guest houses. I also spotted their phone number of the Wildlife Warden in Ooty for Mudumalai and gave him a call. His office staff picked up and said that I should call by 1 Apr or later since there is no way he can book for periods beyond one month and May, he said, the sanctuary could be closed. But he was not sure.

 

So I waited till April 1 and then, I think it was April 2 or 3 when I gave them a call again. Yes! they said the sanctuary is open. When do you want to come? I said, May 5 &6 at Mudumalai. No Problem! We will book. But how many people. I said six adults and 4 kids. He said it is done. Pl come on your day of arrival to Ooty office and collect the allotment card.

 

That is it. Stay is confirmed and the rest of it is easy.

 

So from Coimbatore, we decided to drive down. Fortunately or unfortunately, as usual there were some drop outs and the final strength was 5 adults and 2 kids. 

 

When we reached Ooty it was the 5th May Morning about 11 am. We reached the office of the Wild life warden. Got our reservation slips, paid for the rooms. They had booked three rooms for us. And the cost was just 300/- per room per day. How about food etc.,? There will be a cook in every guest house, they said. There is no need to worry about anything, the office staff said.

 

We drove down from Ooty to Mudhumalai through a place called Keel Kundah. What a steep route that was! It went down all the way. I was driving the car and of course had no difficulty in keeping the car on track. Lots of hair pin bends, I lost count of. And then finally we hit Mudumalai which was relatively a plain area.

 

We were driving down a straight patch of road and then I suddenly spotted it standing about 200 meters off the road. A large Bison, really frightening to behold. The thick patch of forest was behind it. It was standing in front of that and there was only grass all along from the road till the thick patch of forest. I stopped the car and turned to tell the others about it. To my surprise, everybody was watching it silently. 

 

The Bison stared at us and we in return. One of the occupants said, he could not see it properly, can we go back a bit. And so I switched to the reverse gear. My! I forgot the kind of noise my car makes when I switch to the reverse gear. The sound echoed through the silent forest and that is it! The Bison turned and vanished into the thick forest. Wow! what a mistake I thought. I should have switched off my reversing warning.

But any way, that was a great way to welcome us into Mudumalai!

 

We decided to have lunch at a way side hotel since we did not want to surprise the guest house staff by landing there exactly at the lunch hour. We had to ask for guidance from a number of people to the guest house.

Finally, when we reached it, it was 3pm. Are we happy to be here? You bet it!

 

More in the next post

The Mudumalai trip continued - Walk with the elephants

After a relaxing drink from the guest house and the evening gaze into the opposite bank, we found the time was 5pm. We decided we will check out the official tourist help in the center of the very small village that is Theppakadu.

 

We wanted to take the bus that would go into the forest early tomorrow morning. We went down to their counters and confirmed that the buses start at about 7am tomorrow morning. We need to get the tickets only at that time and so we decided to take a fling into the forest roads on our car. 

 

We packed our car with people. All two kids and the five adults in one car and decided to go down the road towards Mysore / Bandipur wild life sanctuary. We started driving down the road, it was already getting dark and I know in another half an hour it should be dark. The forest was thick, green, lush and pleasant.

 

We kept watching and driving at a steady pace between 30 and 40 km an hour. Not specifically in a hurry. Nothing! We just went on and on till we reached the interstate checkpost. The road is a national highway and therefore very well maintained and was pleasant drive.

 

We were stopped by the guard there and we just enquired how far is Bandipur. He said, you need to cross the other check post that was visible and you are into it. But then you need to pay another INR 50 for crossing in and may be you can drive for another 10 minutes down that road. Because, after dark it is not advisable to drive down these roads in a car. It is ok if you are on a bus or a lorry.

 

So we decided to turn back and drive down the road back to Theppakkadu. We were about 10 kms away from Theppakkadu and we made a u turn and started driving back. 

 

The road was abetted by a short 20 m clearing on either side. Immediately after the clearing, we could see thick forest with bamboo trees among mostly acacia and others. We could also see shrubs in between, lanthanam shrubs with their small colourful flowers dotted. Surprisingly, not many birds chirped, though we could spot some here and there. Mostly common babblers and an occasional woodpecker if we could really strain our eyes. 

 

We were at this exercise as we were driving down at about 20 kms an hour. A scorpio jeep was coming right in front of us. They should be at a distance of 500m from us. The road was straight and the evening glow was still in the forest, though the parking lights of the vehicle was on. A distant car's red danger lights were vanishing from us since they were driving much faster than us.

 

Then, initially, there was the sound of cracking wood to our right. It was very mild, then all of a sudden we could hear the trumpeting of the elephant and it broke through the thick bamboo trees, lifted one of them with its trunks and shouting really heavily threw the bamboo out.

 

It broke through the thick maze of trees which naturally had a huge breaking noise. When we turned to the right I could see a large male elephant with the trunks lifted up along with its tusks. The tusk was really large at least one meter in length with a nice curvy upward turn. Large, the animal was very large! 

 

I have seen and worked with a number of elephants in the camp earlier during my college days. I have walked through the same forest taking animal census about 15 years back. We were one of the first set to take animal census in Mudumalai. But today is different. During our trips even to see a bison we had to walk silently into the thick forest for hours. But now we could see animals at every turn. And here was an elephant, larger than any of them I had met earlier and bolder. It was coming on to the road without any hesitation.

 

I could hear a loud gasp from my people in the car. My eleven year old daughter was absolutedly stunned and frightened to her wits end. 'Daddy! Drive fast! Drive fast!!' 

 

I had already stopped the car. The Scorpio just passed us and they too stopped. Their red lights were visible on my rear view mirror. 

 

I told my daughter to maintain silence and watch the elephant. Then we saw another female right behind the large male. We are safe, I thought! Only a lonely elephant is dangerous. But this looks like a part of the herd and the herd cannot be far away.

 

I have seen large herds in Mudumalai and have even followed them during my earlier visits with some of the researchers until the female turned hostile since there were some young ones in that herd. May be I will let you into that story in a later post.

 

Now, there were only these two elephants that we saw. They walked straight to the road from the thick forest. From the right hand side they moved close to us and then took a turn on the road and along the road away from us. The elephants should have been just about 10 meters from us! They were closer to the guys in the scorpio. They were also sitting tight.

 

The kids were going wild. My wife was also getting jittery. The animals then started walking away from our car on the road, crossed the scorpio, then took a right turn further and crossed over to the other side of the forest.

 

That was close! Pretty close! I started driving at a steady 30 to 40 km an hour until we hit a major junction. A Qualis was coming our way. The men in it were climbing down and video graphing everything in the forest including us. I shouted to them, 'hey there are elephants about 5kms away. We just saw them'. Immediately, they clambered into their car and started driving down the road.

 

We reached the guest house at about 7pm. Are we frightened? Obviously, the encounter was pretty close and the sleepless night that followed, was not only because of the elephants but also because of the latenight visit of the panther to the Moyar river.

 

But that story in the next post, please! Keep reading and give me your comments. I really do not know whether you people like it or not.

The Mudumalai trip - continued

We had already ordered for a nice dinner of chappathi's and kurma and some paratas before we went on our evening trip.

 

So once we landed back at Guest house, the caretaker said food is ready and whenever we are hungry we could come for the dinner. So we swiftly washed ourselves and went down to the dinning room. We were pretty hungry and we settled quickly to enjoy the dinner.

 

 

 

Though the dining room could serve 20 people we were just seven people and we had a good food served hot and fresh. During dinner we started talking to the caretaker to whom said about our short meeting with the elephant. I wanted to take the kids to the elephant camp tomorrow morning. The caretaker said all the elephants in the camp have been moved to a place inside the forest for want of water. Only some young elephants were there.

 

We thought if time permits we will visit those young ones after our bus safari inside the sanctuary.

The caretaker started telling us about the possible animal encounters. In the night by about 11 to 12pm,a panther visited every day close to the guest house. So we decided to stay up that night to watch the panther.

So we waited after our short chat from about 10pm we shut down all the lights and closed the doors but kept the windows open. Waiting for the panther to turn up....(to be contd)

 

Mudumalai trip continued - Visit of the panther

The moon had climbed almost to 40 degrees. It was a full moon day. That was lucky and the forest was lit with moon light and its faint glow.

 

When we started waiting, we were very talkative. I kept telling my kids that they need to maintain silence because in the night sound travels very far. And these animals have their ears to the ground. Even the smallest sound they pick up and they may not come.

 

By around 1100pm we fell silent. This was because the kids have started dozing off. The forest was silent. I soon found that I was the only one awake and the rest are asleep or pretending to be asleep.

 

I felt something was moving close to the guest house. Dark objects! Panther should not appear dark. I had the experience of watching a panther in the night once in TopSlip. So I looked it up carefully. It was those two wild boars that we met in the evening. They were walking up to the guest house. Grunted and then climbed the steps of the guest house and started walking in the corridor.

it should have been 11 15 to 11 20.

 

I heard a distant monkey chirp. Then there was one more monkey chirping a little closer. And a distinctly very close one chirping too. I maintained silence in anticipation. Monkeys don't chirp in the dead of the night for nothing.

 

The wild boars silently looked up and walked away into the thick of the forest. They just vanished. I knew something is happening and I could hear my heart pounding. All the rooms in the guest house were locked. all the lights were off except for a dim light in the reception and one in the front of the house.

 

The moon had climbed further up. The forest was glowing in the dim light of the moon. I could hear the murmur of the water in the Moyar. There was no wind; not even a breeze. But the chillness of the mountains was palpable.

 

When it came, it was sudden and surprising. In the moonlight it was really majestic. A big cat is an wonder to watch.

 

The bridge where the panther came up from the other end.

 

From no where it appeared on the opposite side of the bridge. Should have come from the thickets. But for the bridge, I would not be seeing it now. I wanted to wake these people up. But the cat was moving. I goaded my wife. But all that she could do is murmur and move back into the slumber she was in.

Cats don't give their darshan for too long!

 

View of the guest house from the bridge. (I was not standing there when the panther came up!!)

 

It strolled majestically. No sound anywhere as it walked to the centre of the bridge. Stopped and looked up. 

 

Nowhere in my direction but right along the waters way. Then looked towards the forest again. Walked carefully with no big hurry and moved away from the guest house. 

 

Which animal is going to be its dinner, I wouldn't know. I only wished that those two wild boars would escape its dinner table.

 

When I hit the bed it was about 11 35pm. I was tired and wanted a sleep badly. Tomorrow morning, we are going on a safari and late in the afternoon should start our journey back.

 

I plan to stop my travelogue on Mudumalai here, though the safari was interesting and some of the photos from the safari I have loaded on my Mudumalai album. Pl do take a look. Your comments motivate me! Do let me know whether you liked this series.