Our stay at Inn The Wild had just begun to get exciting. Rejuvenated from a refreshing evening tea, we walked towards the group that had gathered for the Nature Walk. It was just another family of 4 and our Naturalist. I had been dreading the thought that we might be joined by a few more families that had turned up that afternoon with kids. Nothing like a bunch of noisy kids to spoil the essence of a quiet walk into the Jungle. The lesser the ruckus the more our chances of sighting something, if at all!
The Naturalist was accompanied by 2 more persons who supposedly knew the area well, while one of them was an expert in identifying animals by their footprints and calls. We were given a quick briefing about the do's and don'ts. We had already been advised to wear neutral colors that would blend with the Jungle foliage and make our presence less obvious. We walked a few yards before entering the boundaries of the Wild, after which we were not supposed to utter a sound and trample our way as quietly as we could. Only our Naturalist would communicate with us in soft whispers while he lead the way updating us about the whereabouts. As we walked through cones of branches that marked our way we spotted a group of Langurs on a tree to our left. Just as they saw us they jumped down from it, crossed our path and scampered away towards the foliage on our right. They were quite close to us. Some seemed unperturbed by our presence and kept jumping around a bit while a couple of them just sat down and gave us a 'Are you sure you want to head that way?' look. We walked further on, as we lost sight of them till we reached the edge of the fence-less boundary made of stones and the like. I spotted a White-throated Kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis) on our way. It was perched on a tree almost devoid of leaves. I managed to get a clear look through my binoculars to confirm it's identity but couldn't get a click, being handicapped by my trusty, but modest lens.
Nevertheless, sometimes not having the right equipment has it's own advantages I think. You learn to give more importance to observing your subject, learning and appreciating it's meaningful nuances instead of focusing more on framing it.
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| A group of Langurs greeted us as we walked away from our shacks |
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