Parambikulam, Valparai & Vazhachal November 2012

Wild Dogs once again.  WOW!!  Parambikulam is the place.  November end and December first week we travelled.  Good season, nice cool weather.  

This time we stayed only in the tent.  Accommodation inside the forest is restricted these days, only one place of accommodation open this year.  Traffic inside the forest was less since no vehicles were allowed into the forest until the previous day we landed there.

The package for tent stay is like this, afternoon check in at 12.00 then go for a heavy lunch (buffet system) once the lunch is done then at 3.30 you will be taken in a minibus for a safari called evening drive.    Come back by about 8.00pm or so then time for Dinner.  The next morning you will be taken on a small trek for bird watch.  The safari starts from Aanapaadi Office.  This is where the tent is located.  

First you will be taken to the Cannemara Theku, one of the oldest and tallest Teak tree and as we moved on looking for animals on both the side of the vehicles this is when we spotted a pack of Wild Dogs eating the kill, first picture above if you watch closely you will see them busy eating.  It was a Sambar Deer they killed.  The other Sambar Deer was watching the Wild Dogs eating one of his mates and looked very agitated.  

After Connemara Theku, next you will be taken to the Island for rafting and animal watching on the banks of the island in Parambikulam Dam.  The above picture is one side of the island where you board for rafting.  Rafting is for about an hour.  You are not taken too far.  Both the days we spotted a herd of elephant with babies.

While on the dam the second day we saw the elephants crossing the island with their babies.  This was the first time we spotted elephant swimming and crossing the river.

Once you come out of rafting the next thing you will see some traditional folk dance in tiger hall.  This will take atleast 1/2 hour and you are also given a break for tea/snacks.  Since the whole place was closed for vehicles not much of activity in any shops/hotels, they all opened the previous day and was still not fully functional.  We were disappointed since Lakshmi Mess did not have anything ready to eat. By the way, Lakshmi Mess food would be great, be it full course meal in the afternoon or tiffin like ghee roast. We had to come back with just a cup of Katta Chai (Black tea).  

On the way back to the tent from Parambikulam it was dark, so we had a feeling that we were on a night drive in the forest.  We spotted lot of Bison, Elephant, Spotted Deer and Sambar Deer.

The last we spotted was a Leopard.  The road leading to Thellikal IB, is where my nephew spotted the Leopard in the torch light that was thrown by the guide, Babu.  It was crossing that road and getting into the bush.  The second day as well we spotted another Leopard somewhere near our entry gate to the forest.  It was walking along the main road, as we reached near, it was sitting behind a small bush watching our bus and moved further down later.  This was pretty close and we were all thrilled.  All were talking about the same until the next day morning.  We could only catch the back of the Leopard as above. The light was not enough for the camera is what my husband claims.

Bison spotted during the evening safari

We also went for couple of trekking near by but did not spot any animals.  Third day after breakfast we checked out with good memories.  Our guide Babu as usual took care of us through out our stay.  Hopefully next time if they allow us to stay elsewhere inside the forest then we might spot a tiger as well.

Me, my nephew and Badri in the reservoir with the guide

The journey did not end here, we further travelled to Valparai, the famous place for Leopard and Lion Tailed Macaques (Called LTM in short).  We reached only by evening, on the way we spotted LTM above the tree amidst the plantations.  Our guide Job took us around in our Pajero inside in all the plantation areas where not much movement of people were there.  Nothing we spotted except LTM.  Then we came to the reservoir during sunset and what a view... so cool and great it was.

Sridhar & Me watching the sunset

Beautiful sunset

The next day we left for Vazhachal, which is foothills of Valparai, on the Chalakudi side. The place is famous for wildlife and also for Athirapilly falls (also known as Punnagai Mannan movie falls).

Beautiful sceneries on the way from Valparai to Vazhachal.  Lots of water falls small and big, and rivers flowing etc.,  the forest was dense on both the sides of the road and nothing we spotted on our way.  

Nothing you get to eat on the way not even a cup of chai.  Lucky our vehicle was loaded with snacks, otherwise we would have been hungry.

Me and Sridhar on the way to Vazhchal

We reached Vazhachal by noon, checked in the forest inspection bunglow there.  Went through the Athirapilly falls starting point, at the back of the Inspection Bunglow.  That evening we went for a safari in the main road where we spotted a herd of elephant trying to cross.  First we saw few of them standing on the left side of our vehicle, then we further moved up in the road my nephew spotted one elephant with the small baby on the road, that's it, he started reversing the vehicle fast, tried to turn around after few metres and rushed back to our place.  Since the elephant was with the baby its not safe to go close or to stand there since it was a big heard and some had already crossed the road.

Athirapilly Falls ( Famously called Punnagai Mannan Falls)

Me and my Nephew Aswin, at the background the start of falls

Once we finished visiting Athirapilly falls we left the next day morning drove via Chalakudi, Palghat, Coimbatore, Bangalore. It was a long drive way back.  But enjoyed chatting about spotting of Leopard, Wild Dog Kill, Elephant on the path way etc.,

Bhandipur June 2012

Baby enjoying mothers milk

Bhandipur - Excellent trip, better than Kabini.  Stayed in Junlge Lodges again.  JLR is actually outside the forest entry gate.  Good accommodation and food with service as usual.  

Only Jeep Safari in Bhandipur.  Usual evening and morning rides.  We stayed for 2 days here as well.  So we got 4 trips into the forest.  One in the morning and the other one in the evening for 2 days.

Elephant heard

Evening safari is quiet cool and good.  The weather was not hot at 3.30pm.  Inside the forest it was totally dry. 

Of course as  tradition the first thing you get to see is the Spotted Deers.  The above picture was one of the rare sighting.  The next we spotted a heard of Elephants with 2 small babies.  They came for the water hole which was completely dry and they kept moving.

TIGER, ha!ha!hah! we spotted a tiger in the next day morning safari.  Near a small water hole coming to drink.  As it was coming we did spot and without much noise our safari jeep moved a bit in the front and close to the water hole.  The thirsty tiger started drinking water, once the thirst was quenched, tiger went inside the water hole to get a nice cool dip for the whole body.  Sat in the water for atleast 1/2 hour, trying to make no noise the whole jeep was quiet and thrilled watching tiger so close.

What a pose

Relaxing and Cooling

Once cooled got up and started a low growling.  Our Safari driver said its calling the babies to come to the water, but they never came.  We in fact waited to see if they will also come out to drink with their mother.  But no luck, time was running out so we left and came back to lodge.

Growling tiger 

Tiger reaching the water hole

The next day morning at 7.00, we saw the same tiger again.  It was just reaching the water hole as you see in this picture.

The morning jeep carried a different group, all holding big zoom lenses trying to  capture the great moment in their cameras.  We both were thrilled again to see the tiger and this time we stayed there for a longer time.

Drinking water, see the reflection in the water

What a muscular body!  Fully grown female.  This was commented by driver who was also clicking pictures in his cell phone.

Same procedure the tiger followed, drinking water first and getting down in the water to get cool.  This time she was not sitting in the water for a long time, since there was something moving on the other side of the bush, which we did not realise.

Trying to see what is moving the other side of the bush

Came out sat for a little while on the banks of the water hole trying to see what is on the other side of the bush.  Few seconds it got up and moved again growling, this was little panicky.  Driver said may be because the babies are alone and something is moving.   Once the tiger moved out of our sight we saw the elephants, tamed ones walking slowly with their bell on the neck, so this was the cause for the tiger to be restless.

The trip came to an end, we felt a bit sad to leave the place since may be the tiger will come again to the same spot in the next drive.  Anyways time for us to leave.  Shared the pictures with the other guests in the JLR and left for Bangalore.  

Kabini Forest May2012

Our Kabini trip was another beautiful experiene. We travelled in May.  Good season to spot animals starts from April.  We stayed in Jungle Lodges & Resorts.  www.kabiniriverlodge.com, please use this link for your accommodation booking and also for the route map in case if you are travelling by road.  Its not too far from Bangalore and will approximately take 5 hours. You can either go Jeep safari or Boat ride.  Normally boat rides are suggested for evenings and Jeep safari for mornings.  Staying for 2 nights is really worth for spotting animals.  The guides in the lodge are really good.

We reached by noon, so that we dont miss any of the activities that are included in the package.  As we reached we were taken to a nice cosy room.  Relaxed for few minutes, by then the lunch was served in the dining hall (all buffet system).  We were ready with our binoculars, cameras and also suntan lotion at 3.00pm.

Got into the boat, since its summer the water in the river was not too high.  Once u start cruising in the boat first thing you will spot is lot of birds in the dried tree stumps amidst the river.

Different Birds on the tree in the river.

Tusker by the river side 

Jeep safari morning at 6.00 and evening 3.30.  We had 4 trips in Jeep, we enjoyed all the trips. 

We happened to spot lot of elephants including baby elephant in all our jeep safaries and also our boat rides.  Monkeys, Serpant eagle, Bison, etc.,  were some of the other animals and birds spotted.  

Infact one of the baby elephant we spotted was limping, the back leg was injured and we felt so bad for that baby.  The mother elephant was trying to cover the baby and closely moving together as seen below.

Wild Dogs the famous killer, they come in a pack of 10 to 12 at a time.  We spotted a pack by the river banks, where they just finished their kill and running towards the river.  Normally spotting wild dogs is very rare, we were lucky.

Leopard, we spotted one in the tree branch by the side of the road.  The leopard was literally hanging in the branch as you see in the below pictures.  This we spotted in our first safari trip itself.  The next day also we saw the same leopard but in a different tree branch.

Infact the second day after coming back from our morning safari, we had our breakfast and took off with our Pajero to the same road to see the leopard once again, which was still there.  With binoculars the sighting we had was great.

The same tusker that we saw from the boat ride was also spotted the next day morning in the Jeep safari.

Tusker by the river banks.

Birds, especially Changeover Hawk Eagle(?) was sighted very close to our jeep.

The other baby elephants, bisons, monkeys as we spotted. The limping baby elephant which was very close to our jeep.

The Bison trying to grasp a tree branch for some food.

Another baby elephant but not looking healthy.

Sitting like three musketeers in the tree looking seriously at something.

On the whole this trip we enjoyed since we saw all except the tiger.  The food, the service and the rides organised by the Jungle Lodge was really good and nothing to complain.  Its worth a trip to Junglelodges, Kabini.

The next trip as we travel will be updated in the blog.