Valentine Day and Mudumalai

For the first time, we have planned to celebrate our valentine day in Jungle. Though the drive was uneventful but it took around 6.5 hours to reach Mudumalai. We had taken few coffee breaks at CCD and Barista on our way to Mudumalai on Bangalore-Mysore Road. I was busy in taking the snaps while Sam was struggling with humps in the road throughout our journey. After reaching to Masinagudi, finally we could find out “secret Ivory” - our resort. Not sure why they have given name as “secret ivory” but it is located inside the jungle. The first impression was really good. The lunch that they have served was just awesome – proper Tamilian food. Afternoon around 4:30 pm, we went for a jungle safari in an open jeep. As usual we were not that lucky to see the wild animals but found out few deer, elephants and wild boar on our ways.

We went to see the ‘Elephant Orphanage” where “Kurumba” – one tribal group are taking care of the orphan elephants. They talk in their own language but elephants are quite able to communicate with them. In the feeding centre we could find out one small elephants 2.5 year old. Kurumba has given the name as “Ashwini”. Recently her mom has died and her family has left her on the road.

After having dinner at “secret Ivory”, manager warned us “Don’t come out side if you hear some sound and don’t switch on the light at night”. According to their description, sometime wild animal comes to drink water from the well near our cottage. So we switched off the light after reaching the cottage and didn’t think of enjoy the beauty of blue mountain at night.

Morning around 6:30 am we went for a jungle trekking. Deep jungle, sound of wild animals, Blue Mountains, flame of jungle – yeah I swear it’s a life time experience. For our 2.5 hrs of trekking we didn’t speak to each other as no sound was allowed inside the jungle. We had to abide by the rule of Jungle when we were inside the Jungle. We were lucky to see the deer, different kind of birds and elephant. Oh – I have forgotten to tell about flame of jungle. This is flower – people called this a flame of jungle; may be because of its color.

I had spent whole day in taking photographs while Sam was busy with his camcorder. Afternoon we went for another safari. This time we went to the river side. There was lot of bamboo trees where we were waiting to see the wild animals those come there to drink water. On our way to find wild animal we had spotted three bears.

We were waiting on the road for around 5 mints to see bear crossing the road but we couldn’t hold our excitement. Because of that, bear didn’t cross the road but in the jungle, we could see two big and one small bear. Inside the jungle, after hearing an elephant sound, our guide stopped the engine and in the dark night, inside the jungle, among the long trees, we were waiting for the wild animals. We couldn’t find out any animal though the experience was really thrilling. We could feel the fear of darkness.

On our way back to Bangalore, journey was eventful as air pressure was low in the tier. We had to drive 30 km to Gudalur to find a mechanic shop. Finally we reached Bangalore and our valentine day becomes memorable.