A trip to the woods and the wild

My first trip deep into the jungle, that happened last week.

It was an official trip to Kabini River lodge, run by Karnataka govt's Jungle lodges and resorts. It's supposed to be in the top 5 wild life resorts in the world (?) and quite an old one. The trip went like this -

We were expecting a group of 20 and only 11 turned up due to various personal reasons.. :) A big 36 seater bus started with all 11 of us trying to find a way to utilize the rest of the seats, from Bangalore on Saturday(01/08/08) morning. Rather uneventful journey, we reached the kabini reservoir area around 12.30. We were informed that the reservoir is full and to take care but we couldn't find any traces of flooding. The catchment area and the surrounding villages are a superb feast for the eyes. This time of the year, its all cultivated land and greenery without any brown patches. We entered the Nagarhole national park and immediately diverted to another village road to reach kabini river lodge.

Contrary to my expectations, this "Jungle lodge" is not inside a jungle. It's surrounded by farm land on one side and the river on the other 3 sides. But there is a jungle inside the resort, literally.. :) This place is pretty big for a resort and the cottages and tents are well maintained as far as you remember that it's run by govt.

4pm was the time to start the jeep safari. After a usual briefing of DOs and DONTs, we jumped on to the jeeps to get a real taste of the jungle. Our Jungle lodge was probably around 2-3 kms away from the real jungle. We entered into the state highway connecting Mysore and Mananthavadi (Wayanad, Kerala). Quite bad road for the entire stretch inside the WLS. The guide was telling that unlike Bandipur/Mudumalai or Virajpet roads, this area has a very high probability of animal sightings on the main road itself. And to avoid speeding vehicles hitting them, the road is purposefully kept bad !!

The main road safari continued for another 10 mins and my friend got impatient.. He started telling "What kind of safari is this?? When I came last time, they took me deep inside the forest... " Finally the fun part of safari started when our jeep (Well, it's a Tata 4x4 truck with seats for 9, open seating, but with a roof) took a right turn from the main road. Guide asked us to keep quite until we hit the main road back.

So we all stopped talking and started looking around for tigers, leopards, elephants and the others.. but.. nothing came.. nothing happened for some 15 mins.. only that the jungle was good and very very silent. The first sighting was some gaurs.. we dismissed them as 'cows' :)
Then there was deers.. nothing exciting.. then there was a wild dog (or some said it was a jackal) but i didn't care.. more than anything else, i was interested in seeing elephants. expected a herd..

It was an hour, but nothing great apart from deers, monkeys, gaurs, wild dog.. The guide said we would take a different route.. That one was not taken in safaris during the rainy season.. there would be mud on the road and becomes difficult to move along. So we took a turn while the other jeeps took the usual routes.

The result has come in just less than 10 mins.. We heard the sound of an elephant and just 100 m ahead we saw a tusker running across the road. A moment of excitement and fear together.. :) It was a lone tusker. If in our own vehicle and alone, probably something we'll be avoiding. But these guys have seen a lot and have been living in the forest for years. So our jeep moved slowly without making much noise. The tusker was on the right side, some 50 m away from the road. He's still making sounds and has seen us. We stopped. He watched us for some time and was waiting to see if we're moving or staying. After a while realizing that we're not going, he made a mock charge.. I felt a chill in my bones.. Oh my god.. But our driver had no plans to move. The tusker didn't come to us.. He just took 2-3 steps and stopped. Then again watched for sometime. Finally he cross the road from behind our jeep and again made a mock charge from the other side. And then went back... It was over, felt that the was worth the time..

Didn't see anything after that, came out in another 15 mins to the Mananthavadi road. Back at the resort by 6.30.

We had another jeep safari scheduled for early morning at 6.30. But nobody woke up and it was cancelled. We thought of going for the boat safari through kabini river into the jungle again. But to our disappointment, we came to know that boat safari is permitted only till 9.30. We had to be satisfied with a "boat ride" only. And then it was time to packup. Left at around 12 and reached Bangalore back at night.

A nice trip and a totally different and new experience. Those who want to goto Kabini JLR, the booking office is in MG road, BLR. Check their website http://www.junglelodges.com
Rates are around 2500-3000 per person per night, including all meals, safari, boat/coracle ride, elephant ride etc. There are rooms, cottages and tented cottages. We stayed in tented cottages. Though its named like that, it's a proper cottage with doors, floor carpets, beds, attached bathrooms, geyser, lights, fans, mosquito mats etc. The food is good and more like home made food. And your cellphone signal is a full 5 bars.

Photos in my orkut profile, check this video of our tusker friend..