At the onset I need to explain as
to why I was a walk in guest at Inn the Wild . Once the family functions were over I made it
a point to travel into the lap of nature and accordingly planned the entire
trip , completed my booking at Deep Jungle Home which is about 20 km enroute to
Gudalur from Theppakadu Wildlife reception office. Reached the camp site and
found it to be deserted except for couple of room boys who showed me the
accommodation I had booked and the moment I saw it …thought flashed that I have
been conned by the photographs I saw on their portal… Bamboo hut is a bunk bed style
accommodation with common toilet which is a big no for me…I was categorically
informed that each hut has toilets by the sales person but then it was my
mistake that I did not read the reviews of the place before reaching the place.
Anyway just moved around the camp site viewing the facilities offered by them
and also taking pictures of the two turkey they had inside..came to a decision
that this is not the place for me to stay. Browsed the net on my mobile for
some other place of stay within the forest and the first name that popped up
was “Inn the Wild “ near Masinagudi …called them and I was talking to Mr Shibu
Varghese the manager of the property who informed me that there are rooms
available and I immediately said that I am coming there for the stay.
The drive from Mysore to
Masinagudi itself is an safari as the national highway traverses through two
national park i.e. first the Bandipur Tiger reserve and then the Mudumalai
Tiger reserve . You can see scores of wild animals during the drive through the
forest and for a safe trip please do not get out of your vehicles as informed
by the forest department on the placards along the route…yet few people make it
a point to do so without worrying about their safety. On 19th
September a British national was trampled to death by a tusker as he got down
from the vehicle and ventured to close to the elephant for taking photographs.
Inn the Wild is a 65 acre property
within the 2000 acre coffee plantation in the Mudumalai reserve forest between
the upper reaches and the lower reaches of the forest. Normal cars cannot traverse
to the resort because of the rugged off road conditions after Singara check
post and in the event you are travelling in your car then the suggestion is to
park your car at the Singara check post which is about 10 km from Masinagudi
town and call the resort so that they can send their Gypsy jeeps to pick you up
and take you to the resort. Route map can be seen here
Singara
Check post .
Reaching the resort I was greeted
by the manager Mr Shibu and Mr Sinu Prakash...guest relations executive and was
shown the type of accommodations available with them. They have four types of
accommodations One Tree house, Two Tree tops with common balcony, Tribal home
and Jungle shacks. I liked the tree house the moment I saw it for it has a
balcony face the grass plains, forest and the water body and i immediately booked
for 3 nights without giving a second thought..and I must say that it has been a
amazing 3 days stay in the forest and I
am sure that I would keep coming when ever time permits to the same place over
and over. The management and staff of the resort are courteous and well
mannered and with the resort almost empty I was the pampered guest.
The highlight of my stay was the
Jeep safari into the Mudumalai forest arranged by the resort in their Gypsy
vehicles. I started for the safari accompanied by tribal spotter cum driver
Michael, Subish Sabestain the naturalist at 5.30 pm and entered the forest
through the rear end of the property travelling through extremely rugged
pathway that had twists and turns, steep rise and drops. With continuous rains
the whole day the track was slippery and in spite of driving in 4 wheel drive
the vehicle was skidding on either side. After having travelled for about 25
minutes we came on to a straight stretch of track and suddenly we found
ourselves looking at a mother elephant and its male off spring crossing the
path. The mother elephant just stopped in the center of the path and was look
at us and suddenly its ears went rigid …I immediately informed the driver to be
careful as the elephant was displaying anger…suddenly the elephant charged at
the jeep and Michael reversed the jeep about 50 feet and stopped…the elephant
went on to the side of the track not taking its eyes off us. It again started
its charge on to us thereby forcing us to reverse the jeep further back to
avoid the confrontation with the elephant which would surely have a better
advantage over us with no place to maneuver
in reverse the rugged forest pathway. During this excitement I forgot to
even switch on the camera to take pictures or capture the video as I was standing
behind along with the naturalist clinging on the hold bars in the event we had
to beat a hasty retreat. After few moments the mother elephant lost interest in
us since its offspring had crossed the path and entered the bushes.
Just one
picture of this elephant after the excitement. We continued further into the
jungle spotting only few spotted deer’s (cheetals) here and there till we reach
an open space of grass land within the forest. It is said that most tiger
sightings have taken place here for most of the spotted deer’s, gaur (Indian
bison) come to graze here and a source of meal for the tiger.
We did see a huge
herd of Gaurs numbering 20 towards the other end of the grass land and I was
fortunate to take few pictures. By this time the darkness was creeping in and
it was completely pitch black within the forest. We traveled along the path
with spot light shining either side of the path and also on the tree tops
hoping to see a leopard and other nocturnal animals… nothing was seen however
we did see rabbits along the way to the highway. The highway that runs from
Masinagudi to Singara is running through the forest and in all possibilities
there is a chance of spotting Leopard or elephants. The safari was so good the
first day that I opted for another one the next day and the second trip into
the forest was with Albert the spotter cum driver and Pandian, the accounts
manager of the property. During this trip what we saw a just a single bison
within the forest and a herd of elephant on the highway. During the safari we
were able to here the growl of tiger quite close to us and we spent over an
hour trying to locate the tiger in the bushes but of no avail. Hope that in my
next trip I will be able to spot the big cats. The jungle safari is chargeable
and it is Rs 3500 per jeep and in the event you have more than one guest in the
vehicle then the amount is shared accordingly.
Finally I need to say about the
private machan (balcony of tree house) overlooking the water body and the grass
plains …it is quite a treat to sit quietly there and observe the happenings
around and you might get lucky to see the wild dogs chasing the spotted deers,
or the elephants /bisons coming for a drink at the lake or sloth bear searching
for termites and wild boars. I was relaxing on the bed at about 10 am and
suddenly I heard the continuous distress call of the spotted deers just below
the tree house and I rushed to the balcony to see the reason… and I saw the
deers running for their lives which I captured a video but am unable to upload the same here. I could not see which
animal made them to run but then was told by the resort people it could have
been the wild dogs !!! but you never know it could have been leopard also !!!
In all I had a amazing time at
Inn the Wild ….literally in the wild.
