Are you interested in spending a quiet weekend away from a crowded city? Where noone will be there to trouble you, and where you can roam as you wish? Do you want some peace, and time to reflect? Then come with me, I will show you a place in the wilderness, where you will not require a forest department permit and where you can camp without fearing bears or elephants.
The Western Ghats is a god given gift to us South Indians. Mother Nature wears
her best attire and shows off her most splendid creatures here. And in the monsoon,
when the heavens open up, and rain pours on the mountains of the Great Western Ghats,
she is at her best. One shouldn't miss to see and experience the wild Western Ghats
during the rains.
From a previous visit to the place, I realised that it is a perfect place to use my new tent, and camp for a weekend. As I've mentioned in a previous chapter in time, the unused railway track between Kooke Subramanya and Sakleshpur in Karnataka is a outdoors man's paradise. I was about to do it alone, when a friend - incidentally the same friend who accompanied me during the previous visit to the place - also decided to come along.
We reached Gundya early on Saturday morning, and after another bus dropped us at 'Maniunda', we walked up to the railway track - an hour's hike - and after beating around to find a suitable place to camp, pitched tent in the middle of a small piece of open ground next to a tunnel, overlooking a vast valley of wilderness. It poured intermittently during the day, and we did get wet now and then. The evening was splendid, as we roamed around, sat idly looking at the mountains, listening to birds, trying to photograph some that offered a shot, watching raquet tailed drongos as they flirted from tree to tree with their long dangling black tails, and munching on whatever food we had brougt along. The day passed, the pleasant evening gave way to a dark night, and we went to bed early at 7pm, for a long, peaceful sleep.
Next morning, I woke up to thundering rain and the sweet melodious whistling song of a
Malabar Whistling Thrush. The rains ceased, but the thrush continued its song, and I'll
remember that melodious, honey sweet song for a long time.
We visited the old couple who live at nearby
Shiribagilu railway station for past few decades. Had a tea, and a long chat with the
couple; later we left, wrapped up camp, walked back to Maniunda, and a jeep took us to
Gundya, from where a bus took us to Bangalore, reaching the city late night.
Some Species Seen, Identified and Remembered:
- Raquet Tailed Drongo
- Black Drongo
- Lesser Coucal
- Egret
- Cormorant
- Flameback Woodpecker
- Malabar Whistling Thrush (Heard)
- A raptor, probably a buzzard