Sunday, 14 July
Sunday was another 5:15 am wake up call, but again- ELEPHANTS! So it was all good,
Plus, we had a house guest that made sure the three of us in our cottage were fully awake:
About an hour in a Jeep to get from the cottages to the wildlife park, we got to the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary right as they opened at 7:00 am. Switched from taxi Jeeps to official Safari Jeeps, we took off into the park.
Within a minute we saw... ELEPHANTS!! <3
A few spotted deer.. (cant find the photos but deer pretty much look the same the world over :) these just had really long horns.
The roads were insanely bumpy and in really terrible condition from Monsoon season. There were a lot of places we couldn't get to, or would have been stuck in, so our guide went on ahead a few times to see if he could spot any wildlife, and to ensure we could make it down the road :)
And the piece de resistance... a family of White Elephants!!
Where to begin!?!? We were driving and all of a sudden our driver slowed down and pointed- I could not believe my eyes.. seriously!? they were just standing right next to the road! the road WE were going to drive down!!
We waited until the jeep ahead and gone on and then we slowly drove up the road and got close to them.. Absolutely friggen amazing. There were four of us in my safari jeep and we were all giggling we were so excited!!!
According to our guide this family was visiting from the neighboring state of Tamil Nadu and we were extremely lucky to see them! While the four of us continued to giggle, take pictures and make audible sighs of contentment, I noticed our driver and guide were a little twitchy... and then I found out why.
You know how National Geographic likes to remind everyone that elephants are really big and powerful animals? And very territorial? And how they charge? Yeah- they do. All of a sudden the BIGGEST elephant of the group turned and started running at us. And then we took off.
my attempt at capturing a charging elephant while the driver took off balls out down a very bumpy road
We only had to go a little farther down the road before he stopped, turned around and went back to his family. We got one last look at them as our guide was explaining that elephants can run at about 45 KM an hour, and with the state of the roads during monsoon season the jeeps can only go about 20 KM an hour. Heh, yeah.
#achievement unlocked: survived a charging male elephant in a remote Indian jungle :)
After the white elephant family we were able to see a few more beautiful animals (peacock, more spotted deer and a few monkeys) we headed back to the park entrance, then back to the cottages.
The return trip home was very similar to the trip there, so not much new to report: more hairpin turns, crazy taxi and bus drivers and beautiful scenery. It was remarkably cooler and so much more comfortable in the higher altitude... as we descended down the mountain it started to get warmer and more and more humid signaling an end to the weekend adventure and a return to the regular week.
All in all it was a very packed weekend. Exhausting, but so absolutely worth it.
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