Stats from the trek into the forest.
Most of the trek was on flat terrain, except for day 2. The steep incline can be seen from this map. Thanks to my garmin , for the stats :)
Route we followed : Coimbatore - Pollachi - Top Slip - Parambikulam. Except for 10-12 km just before top slip, the rest of the roads were in top condition, especially, the road between top slip and parambikulam.
Route we followed : Coimbatore - Pollachi - Top Slip - Parambikulam. Except for 10-12 km just before top slip, the rest of the roads were in top condition, especially, the road between top slip and parambikulam.
Vishnu and Niranjan on the long straight section on the hills.
At a place we stopped by to have lunch..
Car parked, it is time to head into the forest...
Went past this dam, a km into the trek...
On our way to the forest stay..
Scenic, wooded pathway .. had elephant dung all over the route
It was an easy stroll all the way - the guide kept enthralling us with the stories of the forest
Tiger's pug mark that we came across , on the trek - apparently,28 tigers are found in the Parambikulam sanctuary. The place we were staying at night, was in the home territory of 2 tigers.
The Samba deer that we spotted on our trek in..
A massive tree that was on the way ..
Some more deer on the grasslands..
In front of the place we stayed at night - 6 km into the forest.
The view from the house...
Stay at the house was the scarriest experience in a long time - as the night enveloped all around us, with the guide taking us through the stories of the forest, we got increasingly nervous about staying outside the house.
With every movement around us being keenly observed by us, the wild cat droppings from the top of the tree was enough to get us running inside the house :)
With the doors closed tight, we had our dinner ( cooked by the guide , at a place with basic facilities ) and we resigned for the night.
Crossing a river, early next day, to reach a grassland..
We then returned to the base and drove 15 km to the parambikulam dam, to start the trek on day 2. We set out to climb the peak seen below , enveloped by the clouds ..
Thick wooded route -
There was thick vegetation all over and it was quite steep, going up the mountain ..
That was the steepest section - all of us struggling to go up...!!
A wild elephant had passed though this bush!!
And more climb!! There were leeches all over the place !!
Vishnu "skating" down - it was the best option given the steep inclines! All of us were struggling for foothold and stability. Coming downhill took almost twice the time of going uphill.
A leech on Ram - we burned the leech ( and his leg! )
Jam in the tubes came in very handy!!
More deer that we spotted on our drive back to the base camp.
This was the most thrilling moment during the entire trek - it was worth all the money and more. Vishnu was at the wheels and when we took a turn, we came right in front of a wild elephant crossing the road. After taking a few steps to cross the road, the elephant stopped and came charging at us.
I was sitting next to driver's seat and my heart almost skipped a few beats. Vishnu kept his cool and kept the car still. He switched to reverse but kept the car still / idle. Elephant took a long, hard look at us. That was probably the longest / scariest 5 minutes!!! No lights / flashes or anything to distract the elephant
Elephant slowly decided to move on - took a few steps to cross the road and waited to see our reaction. We stood still and the elephant moved into the forest and we went our way...
An awesome 2 day break - i hope to return to this place again and explore more. Next time, we will spot the tiger :)
