Weekend came in with the rush in our hearts to be with nature again. On Saturday, 29th March 2008 me, Anshu and Shankar decided to get lost in jungles one more time. This time we decided to give a visit to Dubare Elephant camp and Bylakuppe(the Tibetan Monestary). Friday all three of us were late coming back home from work. So after having a little nap we hit the roads by 7am. I and Anshu choosed to be in Car and Shankar on his pulsar. We took SH17 (the Mysore high-way). Had some heavy breakfast in Maddur Tyfanys. With Maddur vada feeling our stomachs we hit the road again. From Srirangapatna we took the bypass to Coorg via Ranganatithu. Crossed Hunsur and Kushalnagar to reach Dubare. Finally we were there after a 230km drive. With good humidity in the weather we could sense the conglomeration of dense black clouds up high above our heads (not at all a great sign for camping).
We were hunting for some good spot near the elephant camp but forest officials denied that. No where to go we decided to have lunch near the camp only. There is a restaurant near the Jungle Lodges and Resort (JLR). Since no permissions were coming in our favour, we decided to camp near Cauvery in some coffee estate but without any hope again. And the clouds started pouring water. It was really heavy rain and all the place got muddy in minutes. Finally we found some good place to camp after searching a lot. The locals warned us of wild elephants who generally cross the river into our side. The advice included Good Camp Fire (oh ok with all the wet woods where to get fire), enough lights( ok we had car as well as bike headlights and some good search lights), and huge noises to scare the elephants (in this we were confident of :-P ). We set our camp by Cauvery bank.
It was an awesome feel. With the lush green Dubare forest on the other side getting reflected on the calm water was enough to mesmerize all of us. Rain welcomed numerous frogs to come out of their holes. And the whole place was full of them in just minutes after the rain stopped. We got some wood from the near by places. All were soaked in the rain. Tried to get some fire out of them but with no success. It was dark already and still we had no fire. A near by villager helped us by getting some dry logs from his house. And we were back in action. Now with some fire (which cannot be seen from 5meters away) we started having our dinner. Since we had no sleep, made us all tired. And the elephant intrusion couldn't be ruled out. So we decided that two could stay awake, while other slept, for guarding the place. Shankar went to sleep by 7pm.
7pm was like night 1am in our Bangalore life. Nothing else to do me, and Anshu kept trying to keep the fire alive. We had some cuppa noddles and OH bottles :-). It was horrible to be there that time since all muddy, thousands and thousands of insects crawling over us and tent, frogs with water falling from drenched leaves. By night 11pm I was loaded with three cans. With OH hitting the brain I could not stop myself to go to sleep. Anshu was our only hope left awoke :). I went to deep sleep as soon as I put myself in the sleeping bag.
By next morning when I woke up I found myself alive (woha no elephants, we were really lucky enough not facing those giant wild elephants). Anshu was snoring high by that time and Shankar as usual having his food. We couldn't ask Anshu to wake up so we already lost our chances of bathing and feeding tamed elephants in Dubare Elephant camp (which is scheduled to 8:30am daily). By 10:30am we reached Dubare camp. Crossed the river. We had an elephant ride and bathing in the river. Next we hit back to Kushalnagar. Had lunch there and visited the Tibetan Monestary in Bylkuppe. It was such an odd to find monestary 1000s of miles away from their original locationa. The huge 60feet structure of Buddha made us felt so small before him. Shankar, me Anshu all did some shopping. A nice memorable trip again.
No comments:
Post a Comment