INN THE WILD - A journey of sorts... Part 3

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!

A group of Langurs greeted us as we walked away from
our shacks

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.

Langur walk shall I call it?

The 2 other persons who accompanied the  Naturalist

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.

INN THE WILD - A journey of sorts... Part 2

The naturalist accompanied us to the Machan as we decided to go for a casual early  morning walk to familiarise ourselves with the place. The Machan was just a 5 minutes walk from our shacks and stood tall just beyond a couple of tree houses. A tall structure with a tree trunk running right through it, it was the perfect place to stand in and take in all the surroundings. I've always felt something 

Pathway from our shacks towards the Machan

very endearing while spending time at such places. An impending sense of calm simply overtakes you and all you want to do is just stand there quietly, listening to the sounds of the jungle for hours and yet feel like only a few minutes had passed by! So there I was taking it all in, while scanning the area around. To my far left across the horizon lay the hills of Wayanad partially covered in mist, to the foothills of which the grasslands in front  of me stretched to. In front of the Machan was the water body with a couple of leafless trees immersed in it. To my right was a dense jungle, bordered with a raised stone platform that ran through the right perimeter of the water body. Ahead of me, beyond the water body stretched a vast expanse of grassland with clumps of trees scattered around the area. I could hear the faint cry of a peafowl in the distance and managed a quick glimpse of it with my binoculars and  a couple of peacocks further away. Now that we were safe up in the Machan, our Naturalist headed back leaving us there for as long as we wished to remain. All I had to do was inform him once we were done and a jeep would be sent to take us back.

Machan with a view of the tree house in the background

Full view of the Machan 

 We stayed there for an hour.We heard a few distant Chital alarm calls coming through the jungle foliage on our right but could not zero in on the exact location. It was too dense even for the binoculars to peer into. It was serene as we just sat there listening to the sounds of the jungle. The rain had calmed the weather and a cool breeze wafted around us. There was no wildlife to be seen except for the peafowl that was now jogging away at a distance. Our chances of spotting wildlife seemed to be slim due to the presence of a tiger in the area. In fact, our naturalist and a few guests he had taken into the jungle for the nature walk a couple of days ago had been almost attacked by a tiger just a furlong from the Machan. They had only just managed to get away luckily without any injuries. It must have been hiding in the tall grass that grew a little further on one side of the Machan watching in silence before it decided to charge. It reminds me of what Kenneth Anderson repeatedly mentioned in his books especially when he talks of the Jungle - That when you're in the Jungle all eyes are on you, watching your every move yet you can neither see nor hear anything till they decide to make it apparent or are simply unawares of your presence.That's why its so important to constantly be on the alert letting your eyes peer in as further as you can let it, into the foliage.I had only got my binoculars this time so I made a mental note to come back to the Machan with my camera  as we waited for the jeep to come fetch us. As I headed back to my shack, I decided to do some birding till we headed for lunch. I spotted a few Lapwings a few yards from our shack just settled on the ground while a couple of them flew here and there. There was also a small black bird about the size of a sparrow, maybe smaller that would fly from the edge of one tip of a shrub to another and then sit still. It looked like a Pied Bush Cat through my binoculars. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a clear picture of it or the Lapwings as I only had a 18-55mm lens that comes with the Canon 70D(W), I had got a few days ago. I had finally managed to lay my hands on a long hoped for DSLR after using my trusty bridge camera, a Sony DSC-H5 for so long. I was still learning my way into using my new camera and at the most I managed to take a few landscape shots.

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!