27 Jan 2010
The last night was still posing its pressure on my tiny weeny already tired mind. So I didn’t want to get up early. But 0600 AM had started looking reasonable by then. It was going to be an exciting day as per our schedule. We were going to go to Upper Bhavani. After breakfast all of us were –‘On the bus’ in Anu Ma’am’s words J. She is really great! And Rajani Ma’am! Managing a bunch of 38 people from across the globe at a place where we were to reach in a 3 hours drive on meandering roads. Hats off to both of them. We had decided to sit in groups according to our tribes but that dint help much as most of the travelling time was spent avoiding motion sickness. Most of the people (at least me) slept for most part of the journey. I sat with Amy first and later went on the last seat because the open window was making me feel cold at the first seat. We stopped twice on the way. Once for the Upper Bhavani dam and once a few kilometers from Upper Bhavani. There, me and Sohini went off to look around. We took a different path and saw an isolated house. I, being my inquisitive self, went ahead and knocked. It was open. When we didn’t get any response I went in and lo! We saw beer bottles and playing cards there. It didn’t look like a good option to stand there and invite any unwanted trouble. When we came out, we couldn’t hear anyone down the slope. It seemed we had been there for too long and so we started running towards our bus. As expected, we heard people shouting for us. We were the last ones to reach. Somehow we were spared any warnings. We reached Mukurthi National Park at 1130 AM. We were told that it is really tough to get permission to enter that protected forest area. Quite excited, the trekking began! It was an amazing place. We saw frost bite suffered tress, shoal forest patches in the grasslands, folded mountains, beautiful river, deers and heard Anu and Rajani Ma’am telling us about a deer being chased by a wild dog. We clicked lots of pics. Saw Rhododendrons – native to Nilgiris, elephant and tiger’s scat J . Somaiya gave us some wild berries to eat from there. They were really yummie. After the trek we were back at the entry gate of Mukurthi National Park by 1430 and had lunch. The river water was looking very nice, pristine and too tempting to resist. Me and Narmadha ran off thinking we will come back fast unnoticed. To our surprise there were already some 4-5 people down the slope. Godwin, Khaled, Anirudh all of them were there. I kept my feet in water. It was so refreshing and smoothening. All of them were throwing stones in the river to capture ripples in pics. When me and Narmadha were in water, stones grew bigger L . I got a little drenched. Godwin showed us how animals drink water from river. I tried that too! Back in bus, I slept all way through, to avoid motional sickness. Then we went to a Toda hamlet, saw toda home. It was a nice experience. Finally started for SAH, were really tired by the time we reached. But then we had a lecture on land slides. It turned out to be real informative. After dinner the tribe discussions continued and suggestions for declaration. Finally we all went to our respective rooms to pack for the next day – Mudhumalai
The last night was still posing its pressure on my tiny weeny already tired mind. So I didn’t want to get up early. But 0600 AM had started looking reasonable by then. It was going to be an exciting day as per our schedule. We were going to go to Upper Bhavani. After breakfast all of us were –‘On the bus’ in Anu Ma’am’s words J. She is really great! And Rajani Ma’am! Managing a bunch of 38 people from across the globe at a place where we were to reach in a 3 hours drive on meandering roads. Hats off to both of them. We had decided to sit in groups according to our tribes but that dint help much as most of the travelling time was spent avoiding motion sickness. Most of the people (at least me) slept for most part of the journey. I sat with Amy first and later went on the last seat because the open window was making me feel cold at the first seat. We stopped twice on the way. Once for the Upper Bhavani dam and once a few kilometers from Upper Bhavani. There, me and Sohini went off to look around. We took a different path and saw an isolated house. I, being my inquisitive self, went ahead and knocked. It was open. When we didn’t get any response I went in and lo! We saw beer bottles and playing cards there. It didn’t look like a good option to stand there and invite any unwanted trouble. When we came out, we couldn’t hear anyone down the slope. It seemed we had been there for too long and so we started running towards our bus. As expected, we heard people shouting for us. We were the last ones to reach. Somehow we were spared any warnings. We reached Mukurthi National Park at 1130 AM. We were told that it is really tough to get permission to enter that protected forest area. Quite excited, the trekking began! It was an amazing place. We saw frost bite suffered tress, shoal forest patches in the grasslands, folded mountains, beautiful river, deers and heard Anu and Rajani Ma’am telling us about a deer being chased by a wild dog. We clicked lots of pics. Saw Rhododendrons – native to Nilgiris, elephant and tiger’s scat J . Somaiya gave us some wild berries to eat from there. They were really yummie. After the trek we were back at the entry gate of Mukurthi National Park by 1430 and had lunch. The river water was looking very nice, pristine and too tempting to resist. Me and Narmadha ran off thinking we will come back fast unnoticed. To our surprise there were already some 4-5 people down the slope. Godwin, Khaled, Anirudh all of them were there. I kept my feet in water. It was so refreshing and smoothening. All of them were throwing stones in the river to capture ripples in pics. When me and Narmadha were in water, stones grew bigger L . I got a little drenched. Godwin showed us how animals drink water from river. I tried that too! Back in bus, I slept all way through, to avoid motional sickness. Then we went to a Toda hamlet, saw toda home. It was a nice experience. Finally started for SAH, were really tired by the time we reached. But then we had a lecture on land slides. It turned out to be real informative. After dinner the tribe discussions continued and suggestions for declaration. Finally we all went to our respective rooms to pack for the next day – Mudhumalai
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