Wilderness Calling

The idea of having a long biking trip always sounded good to my ears. I feel it's necessary to take this much wanted break at least once every quarter (or at least sporadically). Me, being the biggest wildlife fanatic and enthusiast among my friends, thought we should do something different this time. So, when I suggested to my friends about going to Bandipur National Park, they were all for it. Seven guys willingly agreed to come for the trip. I had ruled out any forms of discrepancies and was happy about the fact that the trip would be enjoyable with eight guys in all.

As days passed by, I realised that this happiness was short-lived. Four of my dear friends, being as fickle minded as they could be, decided not to come for the trip one after the other. They came up with such lame reasons which even a fifth grader wouldn't have believed for a second. These misguided souls were none other than our sardarji friend Navjyot Singh, love-struck friend Jaiprasad, supposedly busy Girish and my very own brother Amith. As a result, this left us with four dejected and confused, but confirmed guys- Sankarsh, Rahul, Rohit and of course, yours truly. My Facebook status update on the day before we left for the trip read so- "The number of guys coming for the biking trip tomorrow has halved from the original 8. No reason to worry as, this doesn't dampen our spirits. We're marching forward no matter what. Bandipur, here we come!"

Rahul and I firmly believed against having any other make-do trip that lasted only one day in order to facilitate the other "not-coming-for-a-long-trip" schmucks. Rohit and Sankarsh soon echoed with our thoughts and shook their heads in agreement. All of us wanted to have an overnight halt in our destination and we definitely didn't have any intentions of changing our plans.

We packed our bags and set out from my house (the common meeting point) at 7 am. Now, any sane person who saw us could make out that the equation was completely wrong from the very beginning. Rohit and Rahul- both emaciated things, so thin that you could count every single bone in their bodies without even having to take an x-ray- were sitting together, while Sankarsh who was a bit on the plump side and I, the absolute embodiment of perfection (OK OK, gags and smugness apart... Of a fairly decent build) were sitting together. We were leading the way as usual because I knew the route to Bandipur like the back of my hand. What with the several trips to Kerala I have through this very route every year using various modes of transportation. I'm anyways known to be very good with directions and routes among my friend circle and family, and this is something that I can be proud of.

After a long and exhausting ride we finally reached Bandipur at 1 pm. We realised that performance bikes (TVS Apaches) were not one bit suitable for long rides such as this, but it was too late. We had already come so far. Conversely speaking, it also helped save time by making up with quicker rides, and this was important for us in order to cover up so many places in such a short time span.

My friend's dad who is an Assistant Conservator of Forests had already booked two rooms for us in the forest guest house. I learned later on that these rooms had to be booked from Bangalore itself, and that there was no way one could do direct bookings from the location. This explains the advantages of having contacts with the higher ups :Þ. Our bungalow was huge and stood out from all the 22 different themed accommodations spread across the place. The best part was, it cost us a very nominal amount- 400 bucks for one room couldn't possibly burn a deep hole in our already burned pockets (We had to stick to our budget of Rs.1000 per person and make it last the entire trip).

We were welcomed by a family of tamed elephants within the premises. After a few snaps with them, it was now time to feed our hungry stomachs. The jungle restaurant served us with some sumptuous homely food. It cost us Rs.75 per head for a vegetarian buffet.

A small nap after lunch was just what we needed to give rest to our tired bodies. We had time to catch a wink until 5 pm before we could get ready for the jungle safari organised by the forest department. At 5 pm, we decided against going for the safari after getting feedbacks from the people of the 4 pm batch who said that apart from a few deers they hadn't spotted anything else. With no intention of going back to our rooms and start gossiping like old ladies, we decided to go to Masinakudi which was just across the Tamil Nadu border (13 km away).

We spotted a lot of wild animals on our way to Masinakudi. These included a troop of grey langoors, a few wild elephants, Jungle fowls, deers, peacocks and a truckload of our common monkeys. Elephants are my favourite animal, but I was disappointed because I couldn't see another favourite animal of mine- the majestic Indian tiger, the largest cat in the world. I would've been happy if I spotted even a leopard or black panther as a condescending substitute.
Once we reached the spot, which was in the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve belt, we were welcomed by the sight of a few mammoth tuskers in the elephant camp. It was here that we came across the milestone on which the following letters were printed in bold: OOTACAMUND- 30 km.

Coming so close to Ooty and not visiting the place didn't seem like a good idea to us. We decided to go to the hill-station early in the morning, the following day. The road which passes through Bandipur forest closes for vehicles after 9 pm and reopens only at 6 am. So, the only choice we had was to head back to our guest house in time or get stranded in the middle of the forest amidst wild animals; we obviously chose the former.

The open areas around our guest house was surrounded by deers. These animals come out mostly when the Sun God decides to take a break. I took a few snaps of them in the darkness and was also able to capture a  few shots of some wild boars. We then went to warm our chilly bones by the campfire that the villagers had lit up. 

During dinner, our room attendant told us that when we were out they heard a lot of tiger alerts. It was supposed to be the tiger mating season and the voice was supposedly of a male tiger searching for a partner.

I was the first one to wake up the following morning after a very peaceful sleep. The noise of the vehicles moving through the main road woke me up. It was 6 am in the morning; this signalled that the gates had been opened for vehicular movement. I immediately finished all my morning duties and woke the others. Rahul, being my room mate, got ready immediately. Rohit and Sankarsh, who usually never woke up before 11 am during their holidays were cosily wrapped under their blankets when I went to wake them up. In my haste to get back to Bandipur before 12 pm (Check out time), I didn't even let them do their morning duties. They quickly got ready and we left after we took a few snaps of the herd of deer grazing outside our room. I knew they wouldn't be around when we return.

The weather started getting cooler as soon as we touched the foothills of the Nilgiris. After riding through 36 hairpin bends in the ghat section and almost developing a frost bite due to the low temperature (3°C), we stopped for a snack around 5 km before Ooty. By then, the other three so desperately wanted to take a dump that they kept pestering me to ask the locals if there were any toilets around. Me, being the only one who could speak in Tamil, had no other choice but to help them out. It was after all due to my haste that they were suffering now. The locals said that our only resort was to get to Ooty.

One wise guy had told us the previous evening that Ooty was just half an hour from Masinakudi; it was nowhere close to it. We left our room by 6:45 am and reached Ooty at 9:30 am. The first thing Rohit did was to search for a toilet. His stomach was paining terribly and according to Sankarsh, he was cursing me badly all along the way. After relieving themselves, we headed towards Doddabetta, the highest peak in the Nilgiris. I had figured out by then that the visit to Ooty was only for name's sake.

The vista from atop Doddabetta was just fantastic. The vast ocean of clouds below us, the beautifully contoured valley, the view of the town and its houses, etc. gave me a chance to take some brilliant photography. We even had our breakfast from the restaurant there. It was during breakfast that Rohit flared up even more. He and I wanted to see the entire place before going back to Bangalore and were even willing to extend our stay whereas Rahul and Sankarsh's thinking did not agree with us one bit. Rahul wanted to get out of the place as soon as possible because he wasn't accustomed to such cold weather and Sankarsh said he had to get back at any cost, without giving any obvious reasons as to why. So, I agreed to going back.

Rohit left the place making such a face that even a grumpy old man would have hung his head down in shame at the sight (is this a bad metaphor?). We left Ooty at 11 am and reached our guest house on time at 12 pm. The ride downhill was much faster that we had expected. Once we reached, Rohit and Rahul, who reached a little earlier told us that they got chased by a wild elephant when they stopped to take a photo. Even Sankarsh and I had seen the same elephant by the road side (see pic). I quickly had a bath and we checked out immediately. We still had one place left in our itinerary before we could head back home- Mysore.

After taking a few snaps of the Mysore Palace and satiating our hunger, we headed towards the Mysore zoo. It was my last chance of seeing the tiger before I got home. Tigers have always fascinated me. The largest of the big cats, its size and beauty is just awe-inspiring. We reached the tiger enclosure during the feeding time. We just kept watching how the big males were chewing through big bones like as though it were some pappadam. The animosity that these caged animals had towards its feeders were displayed blatantly by the powerful snarls and violent actions the tigers showed whenever they passed by. We thanked our stars that we didn't come across such a ferocious animal in its natural habitat.

We came out of the zoo at 6 pm and immediately left for Bangalore. The ride back home took us four hours as I controlled the speed of both the bikes. Highways are dangerous especially at night. For me, safety is of utmost priority when it comes to such things. This is not where wild things should be done.

At the end of it all, our statistics read so- 4 friends, 2 bikes, 4 destinations, 668 km, 39 hours, 14 litres of fuel/bike= Rs.1100 per person
The experience= Priceless and wild!