The Deafening Silence of Diwali

Masinagudi Landscape

Peacock

Indian Bison

 Diwali weekend was beckoning and we were all set to travel to Agumbe for a weekend getaway. Anticipation was writ large on the faces of my wife and daughter before the bad news came crashing down like a ton of bricks. The program scheduled at Agumbe was being postponed for "technical" reasons. So here we were two days prior to the holidays and nowhere to go.

Chital Doe

Mudumalai Sunset

Masinagudi Landscape

Ask anyone who is faced with such a situation - of having to face a furious spouse and a disappointed kid who have to stay home for 4 days just because someone somewhere did not plan well. I had nowhere to hide and was desperately searching online for options. Being a long weekend and festival holidays options were at best minimal and wherever I tried, I drew blank. Some of the places did not even bother acknowledging my mails. But guess I was a good boy and god looked down kindly upon me as I got a reprieve just when I was resigning myself to nonstop bickering and vented frustration from the family. One of the places who had initially refused stating they were full; called back to check if we were still interested.....and boy did we grab the opportunity!!

Hanuman Langur

Herd of Chital in the early morning light - Masinagudi

Rufus Tree Pie - Mudumalai

So it was all set....we would drive down to Masinagudi on Friday morning and spend the holidays on the foothills of Ooty. So we packed our bags and went to bed early in order to be able make an early morning start. No small wonder that even our little one was up early and she was restlessly waiting for us to leave. The idea was to do a leisurely drive and the entire trip would be done per our convenience instead of running to a schedule.

Chital Fawn Hiding in the bushes

We stopped at Bidadi for a wonderful steaming hot breakfast of "Thatte Idly" and coffee. We were off then through Mysore, Bandipur and Mudumalai. The drive through the forest was slower than usual and on more than one occasion, we had an impatient motorist honking behind us. Nothing though could deter us from enjoying the journey and we had some wonderful sightings of animals.

The checkpost at Mudumalai was a mere formality and then we were off. Soon thereafter on the Ooty road was our destination - The Wild Haven.

Oriental Honey Buzzard

Wild Haven is a quaint little place close to Chadapatti village. The resort itself is well away from the road such that you are bound to miss the place unless one picks the innocuous little signboard that points the way to the resort. Thank god for our GPS, we did not have any trouble picking out the location and reach our destination at around 11:30am.

What a warm welcome it was..... We had read about the two friendly pooches but this was way over any written descriptions. Soda the Cocker Spaniel and Hot Dog the Boxer seemed to be overjoyed to see us and were all over us as though greeting a long lost friend. We checked in and got settled in. For any city dweller, the first thing that hits you is the absolute silence...so much so that we actually started whispering to each other. The overshadowing Ooty hills meant that the temperature in this area is higher than the surroundings, making for a more pleasant experience especially during the winters. Summers may be another matter altogether. That afternoon we decided to go on a safari to Mudumalai. The safari was a rewarding experience from the perspective that we sighted Langurs, Chitals, Elephants, Bisons and a Crested Serpent Eagle, Brahminy Myna, Long tailed Shrike and Bee Eaters.

 
The first day held a promise of better things to come. There was dinner by the campfire and shortly thereafter we hit the sack. Not sure what the time was, but I woke to the rasping calls of a Leopard that turned the marrow in my bones. Wasn't sure if I should step out of the room or stay put although it was sorely tempting to step out. But then the Leopard is the master of the dark and hence prudence took over and I stayed put.

Scaly Breasted Munia

The next morning, we left early in the morning to get to a safari at Bandipur. The road was full of Chital who usually come in during the night for safer foraging and head back into the Jungle during the day time. It reminded me of the times we dodge cattle on the roads in our villages. With my wife and daughter screaming in delight, we headed out to Bandipur and got in line for the Safari. The first safari was uneventful contrary to all expectations and we came out empty handed. This however did not stop us from doing a second round. Unfortunately the second trip was uneventful too. The sightings were limited to some Deer and Peacock. We decided to give it one more shot in the afternoon and stayed put at Bandipur. Being a weekend the crowd was steadily building up and we were not too sure about getting another chance when we met up with a neighbor who was way ahead in the queue. Tickets thereafter were a matter of time and we got on to the vehicle. As soon as we hit the forest trail we were halted in our tracks by a tiny little creature.... The Hoopoe.

The Show Stopper - Hoopoe

For some strange reason, the bird decided that it was not getting out of the path of the safari van. Every time the vehicle got close, the bird would fly a few feet ahead and land in the middle of the path. The one time that the driver managed to get ahead of the bird, he flew right ahead of us and landed again..... bang in the middle of the path. This went on for a while before the bird tired of the game flew into the woods. On this safari, we saw Elephants, Bison, Crested Serpent Eagle and ofcourse the Langurs, Macaques, Peacocks.

Back to Wildhaven we met up with Roshan. Roshan happens to be part of the family that owns and runs the business at Wildhaven. A very affable gentleman, Roshan is also knowledgeable on the local spots of interest especially if you love trekking. Unfortunately though Trekking has been banned due to the death of a tourist in an encounter with an elephant. Talking about Elephants, the ones at Masingudi and thereabouts are hypersensitive to humans and are prone to attacks much more than usual. This is the result of a near constant battle of wits between humans and elephants, where elephants mostly come off second. So when in this area, you are best off in a vehicle. On foot, even on the roads connecting the various villages in the area, a chance encounter could turn deadly as we almost found out later...

Mongoose on the Prowl

Hill Partridge

  

Long Tailed Shrike

That evening we spent time at the Watch Tower, which is located on the Eastern fringes of the property. We were fortunate to get some sightings of Quail, Mongoose and Chital who had come to the watering hole that the resort has built. The resort itself is a haven for birds. One can just stay put at one spot and have the birds come to you. Its a matter of finding the right spot and staying put. As our stay at Masinagudi was coming to an end... We settled our bills (amazingly reasonable) and commenced our drive back to Bangalore. A couple of kilometers ahead of the Mudumalai Forest Office, we came across this lone Tusker grazing peacefully just off the road. The roads being narrow, this meant that the Elephant was hardly 15 feet away from where we would pass him. We decided that we will stop and let the Elephant move on before we drove further. Taking our cue, vehicles coming in the opposite direction also stopped at a discrete distance and we just watched the elephant in silence. Suddenly, the silence was shattered by the persistent honks of a jeep. The elephant reacted immediately and charged towards the Jeep who accelerated, barely escaping the stretched trunk of the tusker. I was completely paralyzed in fear as we were just behind where the Jeep passed the elephant. Luckily for us, the elephant decided that we were not a threat and stopped about 8-10 feet away and turned back to what it was doing. We waited a further 10 minutes there with vehicles stopped on both sides before the Elephant decided to move on and we heaved a sigh of relief. When I remarked to my wife about the danger that we were just in, she remarked nonchalantly, that the elephant was so cute....talk about the innocence of the ignorant. She could not read the signs and thought there was no danger......just thinking about the incident continues to give me the shivers....

But then that was the end of the thrills and we headed back to Bangalore in silence. Coming close to Bangalore and hearing the fireworks go off, we realized what we had missed and what we had gained.... 

Imagine  leaving behind a city full of smoke, crowd and noise for a weekend of peace, fresh air and wide open spaces. All things said, this was one of the best Diwalis we ever had.

Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as we enjoyed the trip.