Is that Orion or Scorpio ?
I have never seen so many stars in the sky...the moon was not out..may be that's why..but trust me there was not a single speck of sky that was not occupied by stars...time was 19:00 hrs and not a single nocturnal creature was spotted... we heard a lot of noises... one bird had a particularly entertaining sound which resembled a villain's or comedian's laugh... the city bred boys that we are, the only bird sounds that we can recognise are that of crows, cuckoos and hens..to make matters worse, our guide didnt seem to know the name either..
Early dinner at 21:00 hrs..Parotta and Beef and we climb upto the balcony and hit the sack...Early start tomorrow morning... the cold and the sudden and bright appearance of the moon at approximately 23:00 hrs plus all the forest sounds ensures that the sleep is a disturbed one... The moon is so bright and its appearance is so sudden that Dil wonders who put the lights on ?
These pug marks are real
Trekking starts at 06:30.. Vish and Sreeps are keen to show us the pug mark that they spotted when they woke up ( those two had risen earlier and thanks to their joblessness..made up a pug mark to fool us ).. we played along and started our trek only to be confronted by real pug marks...leading into the jungles.. His Majesty was certainly there somewhere...
We trekked upto the Trijunction which is the meeting point between Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and we also got to climb up the watch tower we had seen the previous evening..but no elephants to be found
Samba deers, Langurs, Spotted deers and suddenly....
Our forest guide, after an hour, takes us off the beaten track and into the jungles. The group automatically becomes quiet, thanks to hunger and a sense of danger. The guide mistakes a wild boar to be a bear, but quickly corrects his mistake when the boar starts to run.. we are dissapointed to say the least, but the sight of a majestic Samba deer with antlers proves to be some consolation although his majesty still eludes us...
We continue walking through the forest trail with our guide leading us through the way when we suddenly come across a pile of elepant dung..and then a fresher pile and then the freshest pile and then suddenly there he is.. a lone tusker.. Lone tuskers are the most dangerous animals in the forest... Elephants are very group minded.. a lone tusker means that the particular Elephant is an outcast, which means it has a bad behaviour..having heard the stories of numerous deaths at the hands of tuskers from my uncles, i am a bit apprehensive of going any closer. The guide seems to be more apprehensive and takes a u-turn as soon as we finish taking our snaps... We continue walking for another hour and we reach the dormitory by 10:30.
4000 B.C. ! you gotta be kidding me
Briyani for luch from Hotel Jubilee at Bathery costs us 60 Rs per plate.. big mistake ordering a heavy lunch cos our next destination is Edakkal caves, 12 kms from Bathery..bus cost 14 Rs... containing prehistoric paintings...4000 B.C is how old the paintings are...
God bless the shopkeeper who tells us to leave our bags at his shop before climbing... oh what a climb.. the five of us are not weaklings...but we struggle through the climb to reach the top..splendid view and super caves.. history around us and the comforting thought of a downhill climb... we wind up by 17:30 hours and get on a bus to Mananthavady ( 27 Rs from Bathery for a journey of 48 kms)
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