June 10: Theppakadu- Elephants, peacocks, bison, monkeys and deer

Nicola, Akshaya, Myself and Anna in the back of the jeep

Theppakadu reserve forest is part of the Mudhumalai National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary. It was about 45 minutes away from us and we wanted to visit to see if we could possible go on an elephant ride and drive through the forest to spot some animals. The wildlife sanctuary is also a tiger reserve but it was highly unlikely that we were going to see tigers. Another medical student, Nicola, had arrived from England the night before so she joined us on our trip to Theppakadu. We had a pretty relaxed morning since the four of us were still tired from our adventures the day before so we didn’t head out to the forest until around 1pm. We had arranged for a jeep to take us and drive us around and bring us back afterwards. Jeeps rides are always nice in this area because the scenery is gorgeous. You pretty much drive through forests/jungles no matter what direction you travel in.

This monkey was quite comfortable

Two deer facing off

We got to the reception center around 2pm and went to see if there were any elephant rides today but unfortunately they only had one elephant that was feeling well enough to give rides and there were people from the morning groups that were still waiting. We decided to grab some lunch and go on the van safari through the forest instead and then drive around to try and spot some elephants afterwards. We saw a ton of monkeys while we were walking around. We couldn’t buy tickets for the safari until 3pm so we had some time to kill. We ended up getting some parceled lunches and ate them outside of the reception center waiting for the tickets to go on sale. We got in line when people starting lining up but the concept of standing in line and waiting your turn does not seem to register. It happens everywhere but the sheer number of people that tried to cut in front of everyone with stupid excuses about what they weren’t waiting in line like everyone else was astounding. Fortunately we managed to get tickets and waited for our turn on the safari. All in all, the entire safari took us about 45 minutes. It was a rather boring ride because we only saw deer (which we have plenty of in Pittsburgh) and one lonely elephant at the end that Hayley was pretty sure was tied to the tree just so people could see one elephant during the ride.

                I think our driver saw that we were disappointed at the lack of animals that we had seen because he drove us past the border to the neighboring state of Karnataka to the Bandipur Reserve Forest to see if we could see elephants there. This ended up being awesome because we saw a ton of elephants there and a ton on our way back. We got the reserve just as the elephants (there were about 4 or 5) were being led away but immediately across the street there was a mother and baby elephant that were drinking water from the pump. We were the first ones there so we got out of the jeep and managed to get a nice group picture with the elephant and get really close before a crowd started forming. We were less than three feet away from the elephants which was definitely an awesome experience. We just kind of stood there and watched the two elephants take turns drinking water. I wish it was possible to bring a baby elephant back home or to own one in general. We couldn’t hang around for too long because we were trying to make it back to the Theppakadu Reserve to see the elephant feedings at 5:30pm but I think seeing the elephants definitely put all of us in better spirits and we were excited to head to the feeding. Even better for us, the sun was starting to go down so more and more elephants were starting to come out into the open. As we continued to drive back we stopped to see another pack of about six elephants that had ventured out near the roads and were giving themselves a mud/dirt shower. Eventually we made it back to the Theppakadu reserve to the elephant feeding camp and got to see about another eight elephants as they had their feedings. There were also a ton of hogs and peacocks that were roaming around the feeding camps.

At the feeding camp

Pretty cool trick 

                On the way back we ended up spotting a ridiculously large bison and another elephant that was carrying tree branches across the road. It would be our luck though that the cable for the gas pedal ended up breaking so we had to pull over on the side of the road as the driver attempted to fix it. We were kind of worried because it was already 6:30pm and it tends to get dark by 7pm and we didn’t want to be stuck in the middle of the forest after dark. The road that we were on gets shut down at 9pm everyday and doesn’t open up until 6am the next morning because the elephants and other animals wander the area freely. After awhile though the driver just gave up and pulled the cable through to the front of the car and held onto the cable with his other hand to drive the car. Definite props to him because he was steering with his right hand while operating the clutch and holding on to the cable with his left hand. We had him drop us off in town because we didn’t want to worry about the jeep going up and down the hills on the side roads leading to the hospital. 

Ridiculously large bison

We were meeting the others from the hostel (Sophie, Rahul, Vivek, and Mohantu) for dinner so while we waited for them to join us we decided that we needed to introduce Nicola to the amazing mango milkshakes at Lulu Bakers. Hayley decided to be adventurous and try a pistha shake with chocolate ice cream but the rest of us were not planning on messing with perfection and got the usual mango milkshake with vanilla ice cream. 

Mango Madness

The parotha guy

Sophie and Rahul found us just as we were finishing up so we all decided to head to Gudalur mess for dinner. The Gudalur mess has some of the best parothas that I have ever had. The other food is kind of questionable but the parothas end up being worth it. The five us had egg parothas that were amazing but with the exception of my sister the rest of us were falling us asleep while sitting at the table. It wasn’t that late but all the traveling and riding in the jeep seemed to be tiring us all out and Anna and Hayley were not feeling well to begin with. We somehow managed to stay awake till the other half of the group finished eating before heading back to the hostel. I walked back with Sophie and Rahul while the other four crammed into an auto. The walk back was super nice and refreshing and apparently the auto broke down three-quarters of the way to the hospital so the other half of the group had to end up walking part of the way anyway. It doesn’t seem like our group has much luck with vehicles this time around. It was back to work for the next day so we all decided that going to bed early would probably be the best bet.