After the awesome chilly cool weather of Nilgiris, we came down to the jungle. Halfway down the hill, the heat hit us we wanted to go right back up to Destiny.
We had booked for the night in Safariland in Masinagudi. It was pretty easy to find the place as it was on the main road itself. we went there about 3pm, pretty late for lunch but they had kept lunch for us. We had it. It was not great but ok. The property had a complete bamboo garden. Then immediately after lunch the guys at the place told us about Moyar Road, that is the parallel road to the road from Masinagudi to Ooty. You have to take a left at Masinagudi junction. He asked us to drive in that road a little slowly and not to get down from the vehicle whatsoever. We were also pretty cautious as we had kids in the car with us. We saw a lot of peacocks & peahens, deer, and Sambar. We also saw a red indian fox as soon as we entered the road. If one of the other guides from the vehicle in front of us had not slowed down, we would have completely missed it or ignored it thinking it was just a dog! :-). It was sitting on the compund of an abandoned building.
We went further into the jungle on that road and we saw a sambar waiting to cross the road. It literally did a stuckoo dance to cross the road and gave us a good sighting.
We went till the end of the road and found the most amazing reservoir - Moyar reservoir. It was a beautiful, breathtaking place. sad we did not take any pictures. they would have been nice clicks! coz we thought we are going back tomorrow morning to that place. The wind was teeth-clattering cold there.
Then we went back to the resort. they had organized a camp fire. We sat around it for sometime and then had dinner and were putting the kiddos to sleep when one of the employees of the resort came to us with a plan. He said he will take us on the safari to the interiors of the jungle to some of the watering holes. If we are lucky, we will atleast find some elephants. We got up at 5am in the morning, woke the kids up and went in the jeep he had got. They took us for a 2 hour drive into deep jungle but alas! we were not lucky even to find a single deer let alone elephants :-)!!
But the drive was beautiful and all through the journey the kids slept :-)!!
we came back to the resort at 7.30, had breakfast and lazed around for a bit. We left from there at 11.30 back to the concrete jungle :-(! But we were a little dejected coz we did not even see a single wild elephants. after coming till the road to Gudlur, all of a sudden my hubby came up with a bright idea and took us up to Gudlur as this route also is a part of the dense jungle. We then saw a set of elephants but not wild. We went all the way to Gudlur and then took the route to Sultan Bathery, Kerala to come to Gundlupet through the Mathunga wild reserve - dense forest. It took us 2 hours and 60+ kms more than the original route But the winding roads, mountains and the view was out of this world. We had not done this stretch earlier.
We stopped in Sultan Bathery for lunch. Left for Mysore 3pm. On the way in the Mathunga wild reserve, we finally spotted a herd of elephants ;-) it was actually a family of elephants. They were crossing the road and took quite a while to do it. We had a great oppurtunity. we kept going a little distance and then take a U-turn, go back in the other direction. We did that for a quite someting and Neethi was a little anxious trying to hide near my foot in the car :-D!! saying what if they chase us, stomp our car etc., etc., :-)!! But after this sighting we were all content and thanking ourselves for taking the longer route!!.....
We came back to BLR @8.30pm without any other major incident!!
It was a great trip for the kids and a nice little break for us too...
Already waiting for the next one thats going to be in May :-DD!!
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