Adventures Galore!

The jungle home was truly a delightful place to spend a couple of days in. Although the cottage we stayed in is nothing to write home about, we couldn't have asked for a better place, so close to nature! Ducks, hens, pigeons, turkeys, and the like, had a free run of the place, some even stopping to put their inquisitive beaks into our plates of food! There was a continuous cackle resonating around the whole place, with the bad tempered turkey letting out a horrible shriek quite occasionally!

Our first activity was a nice walk through some lovely fields, slipping and skidding on the slippery mud that made the narrow pathway. The intermittently falling rain, sometimes just a pitter patter, sometimes a torrent, made it all the more fun! After a long, winding path, we soon reached a wooden ladder leading to a wooden structure atop a tree, akin to a tree house. We all climbed up and settled down into the sheltered confines of that little resting place. With a steady rain falling, the place was idyllic in its setting. That's also where, I guess, a small, friendly gang of leeches decided to befriend a few lucky ones from our group of eight! As we'd made our way down the rickety ladder and set off on our way back, I noticed this little black fella, clinging on to the skin of my ankle with all the might it could muster, leaving me with no choice but to unceremoniously pluck it right off my poor, bleeding skin!

Next, we turned up all bright and chirpy to embark upon a safari. The drive through the jungle (in a van), was quite exciting, what with us spotting animals at regular intervals! Unfortunately, no big cats for me this time! Soon after the safari, we made our way to an elephant farm, where we saw a number of these big ones being given a nice scrub. To me it looked like their skin was being rubbed raw and ripped right off, but they sure did seem to enjoy it tremendously!

The highlight of the trip was most definitely the night safari. Done over the course of two hours or so, it was an experience in itself! Unfortunately, cameras are a big no no because the flash is an irritant to the animals, and we didn't want any angry animals on our trail now, did we!?! Not that it made any difference to appease one angry elephant, but more on that in the subsequent lines! As we moved through the dark forest with as minimal light and sound as possible, we spotted some beautiful deer, a majestic sambar, huge elephants, and a herd of humungous bison. We had one camera with us and we did manage to click a few snaps, but only of the mild mannered deer. However, it was truly a wonder to see the eyes of the animals shining in the dark! I've never seen anything like it ever before! We were travelling in a jeep and the driver (doubling up as the guide too) of the vehicle was quite careful not to tick off any of the animals we encountered. Nevertheless, we hadn't taken into account that the headlights of the jeep would choose just that opportune time of being inside a dark jungle, to stop working completely! With no choice left, we started to drive in the dark, our only sources of light being the moon when its light managed to get through the trees and the few torches that we'd carried! Before we knew it, we were almost face to face with a tusker! With it standing almost on the narrow road, the guide spotted its silhouette and brought the vehicle to a halt. The elephant was so close to us that he could have just tipped us right over with his giant of a trunk! We had all just finished admiring its beauty and the driver had just stealthily started the vehicle again, when the huge animal lumbered forward with a deafening trumpeting roar! Our hearts in our mouths, our jeep raced forward, with the tusker following us for a few feet. He soon gave up his chase as our jeep made way in the almost pitch darkness! It was truly an experience we'll never forget, the image definitely etched in our memories forever!

That's quite a long rant for a day! More on the trip later!

P.S. The night shots and the shot of the bird pecking the leftover food were taken by 2 of my friends.