INN THE WILD - A journey of sorts... Part 1

The rain had just begun  splattering on the windshields when we were enroute to Masinagudi from Ooty. It was 4:00 p.m and we were due to reach INN THE WILD- A jungle resort tucked away in the foothills of the Nilgiris by 5:00 p.m. Having informed the reservation desk at the resort that we might turn up a bit late due to rain, we drove our way down, toward the rain shadow town of Masinagudi.  We did hope the rain would clear up soon but never anticipated what would become of the next 4 hours, that it ultimately took us to reach there..!

Driving into the mist downhill

We stopped by at a Cafe Coffee Day to grab some sandwiches, as the rain pelted down upon us. Not wanting to waste any time, we got it packed and headed out of the Queen of Hills munching our way through heavenly hot sandwiches. The sun would soon be on it's way down and we were determined to reach the Singara check post soon, where we had been informed that a green safari jeep would be waiting to ferry us a few kilometers further inside, to the resort. We were just a stone's throw into our descent when we began to notice that the mist enveloping us began to thicken.We could still see the road ahead but the rain slowed down our pace. It was now close to 6:00 p.m and we were not even halfway close to our destination which in normal circumstances should have taken about an hour to reach!

Mist getting more misty especially at the curves...

As the last rays of light dissolved into the mist, the atmosphere around us was nothing but a blanket of white...literally! The fog was so thick that we could hardly see even a few feet in front of the car let alone headlights of any upcoming vehicle. It was like 'Driving through the crazy!'. We were still winding our way through hairpin bends but at a snails pace of 10km/hr!!! That is how crazy the mist had turned into, with almost zero visibility and all we could see was about a feet in front of the car. Well there was no 

The last bit of the mist I managed to click after which it was just a big
blurrrr of white...

turning back and the only way was through....

After almost 2 hours of an eye blinding and back breaking journey (I was literally hanging on the seat belt trying to lean as further as I possibly could to see what little of the road the mist allowed the headlights to peer into...), we arrived at the Singara Check post, relieved to find the jeep still waiting for us. We parked the vehicle on the road, loaded our luggage into the jeep and sighed at last thinking of a smoother drive into the wild night! But boy were we in for a surprise! To put it mildly, the next half an hour it took us to reach the resort, was synonymous to being mixed with the contents of a tetra juice packet which someone picked up and gave a good shake to, before pouring you out..! From there began our journey to INN THE WILD which stood true to every alphabet in it's name! From the main road at the check post, we branched right into a dark jungle road. It was a narrow muddy lane, strewn with stones and boulders making the road very uneven. To be more specific, it looked like the jeep was paving a way of it's own through the coffee plantations on either side. While all we could see was through the head lights, while the moon played hide and seek, the never ending road wound its way through twists and turns. I guess it would have felt like a normal jungle safari had it been in daylight and less of a scary movie but after the crazy drive downhill still imprinted in our minds, this was the perfect icing on the sugar to end with...

View from our shack

Reception + Dining area

We finally took a left fork in the road that stretched towards INN THE WILD. It was 8:30 p.m and we were escorted to the reception area. Our hosts were anxiously waiting for us and we were told that they usually avoid pick up and drop after 6:00 p.m as it could prove to be quite dangerous, considering that we were driving right into the jungle. Yet thankfully, they did make an exception for us due to the bad weather. After completing the check in formalities followed by a quick briefing of the facilities in the jungle shack we would be staying in, we were driven a little further down towards our shacks.

Trees at the entrance

The rooms were spacious and very welcoming. They had a jungle touch to it with pictures of wildlife adorning the walls. In no time, we headed back to the dining area as the journey had built on our appetites! After a simple yet delicious meal the host filled us in on details of the resort, birding and nature walks offered by their resident naturalist  and the perimeter of the area that was safe to wander in. Famished yet excited about the next couple of days we had planned to spend there, we headed back to our shacks to catch upon some much needed sleep.  My sleep was interspersed with the rain slashing outside and I woke up to a cold drizzly morning. It had pretty much rained through the night. Birding was out of question so I just decided to explore the place after a scrumptious breakfast. Our naturalist gave us an overview of the precincts of Inn The Wild and the kind of wildlife we could expect to come across. Infact, a couple of tigers were known to have moved into the area and there had been a tiger attack just half an hour before we arrived the previous day. Cursing the rain, I hoped for a stroke of unrelenting luck in spotting the big cat . I decided to start by spending some time at the Machan which was located beside a water body at a further corner of the property.

 

The area in front of our shacks....

View of the shacks and tribal homes from the dining
area..