My first Solo hiking

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.

In Periyar tiger reserve, there are so much options to explore like Tiger trail, Green walk, Border hiking, Bamboo rafting, Jungle scout, Jungle camp, Nature walk. Of these options, I had chosen Bamboo rafting , Jungle scout & booked through online.

Authentic Kerala food

I started my trip from Chennai & reached kumily on 23^rd 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.

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.

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.

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.

Red admiral butterfly

Dhole

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.

Two horned spider

Magnificent view of lake

 On the way to bamboo rafting, we had encountered such an amazing flowers, insects & even dog hunting. Then we relaxed in the bamboo rafting, it lasts for more than a hour.

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.

 

The link for booking events at Periyar tiger reserve: https://www.periyarfoundation.online/