It’s a long weekend for Christmas, everyone planning to go
for home. But I thought of exploring some new places, Out of so much options I finally
landed with God’s own state, Kerala. I had asked my friends about a trip &
they refused, so thought of doing solo trip. I planned to do a hiking &
explore the places in & around of Periyar tiger reserve, Thekkady.
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| Authentic Kerala food |
I started my trip from Chennai & reached kumily on 23rd
Dec 2017, from there I reached hotel around 11 am & took rest for some
time. After refreshments, I had my delicious lunch which was an authentic
Kerala food in a bamboo restaurant & I liked it very much.
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| Peace inside the deep forest |
After a little nap, in the evening I started exploring the
local places & then I went inside the Periyar tiger reserve park. There I
rented a bicycle & explored inside the park, which was around 3 km
surrounded by deep forest on the two sides of road.
The evening where I spent in the boating land area was pleasant
& relaxing.
Then returned back
hotel & simply relaxed by watching the sunset from the room balcony with a
cup of coffee & favorite playlists.
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| Sun sets & darkness fills the entire place |
Then next comes the most interesting & adventurous event
Jungle scout; night hiking inside
the deep forest. We along with forest officer with a gun & torch light
started our hiking at 10.00 pm from the check post.
It was really an adventurous hike, we were inside the deep
forest with a torch light surrounded by complete darkness & wild animals.
We had seen a herd of deer so close enough with the help of torch light, also
sighted an Indian bison from a safer distance. The night hiking ended around
1.00 am & we waved a bye to the forest officer & guards. The night hike
inside the deep forest was really amazing & the million stars view inside
the forest was really a mind blowing experience.
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| Complete darkness & a single torch |
It was 7.00 am in the next morning, I got ready for the next
event; Bamboo rafting. I went to Bamboo groove area from
there we need to hike around 5 km inside deep forest to reach bamboo rafting
starting point. An UK family accompanied me for this hike & we introduced
our self & started our hike with forest officer with a gun & guards. It’s
very awesome to walk inside in the forest in the early morning, hearing the
bird’s music & insect’s sounds.
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| Red admiral butterfly |
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| Dhole |
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| Dhole |
To
our surprise, we had encountered a group of Indian wild dogs(Dhole) hunting a
deer. We are fascinated to see a deer being hunted by wild dogs & we
watched it from a safe distance, because it will attack humans also.
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| Two horned spider |
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| Magnificent view of lake |
Once
bamboo rafting completed, we returned back through the same forest.At that
time, we had seen the left out bones of deer.
Finally
with a lot of amazing memories, I waved a bye to Thekkady & returned back
chennai. The trip had thought me a lot about planning, how to survive alone
inside the deep forest & finally the happiness of doing solo travel. I
strongly recommend everyone to do solo trip atleast once in a while.
