I had been trying since mid November to sign up for a camping trip through one of the national tiger reserves. When I first called, the guy said there was no way since they only allowed 5 tourists at a time and 20 tourists per week to camp over night in the park. I decided this was something I wanted to do and persisted calling every week and eventually, last week, there was a cancellation.
I didn't know exactly what I was getting myself into. I can't think of a time since I was 17 that I had camped outside. It didn't occur to me that most people actually go on safaris go to look at the animals in jeeps, not on foot. I'd never seen an unchained elephant before. And that the concept of liability which generally lowers the level of risk in any activity run by an American company doesn't exist in India. But why not?
Periyar is a 770 sq. km. park. with approximately 40 tigers. The reserve is based on a man-made lake formed by a dam built by the British in 1895. (The lake still has trees sticking up from the forest which was flooded over 100 years ago.) Until partition in 1947
, the area was a British game park. The reserve was formed in the 1970s, but a federation to stop the poaching of the tigers, elephants and other endangered species was not formed until 1998. Since then they have had considerable success in eliminating the poaching and beginning to rebuild the populations of wildlife and plant life. The camping program is run by ex-poachers who split their job responsibilities between leading tourists and providing security against poachers. At least two of our six guides were former poachers.
I met up with the group I would be trekking with at the park ranger station. As with most things in India, things were a bit chaotic and got off to a late start -- or on time if you are going by "Indian time". The group consisted of three other Australian women and the six Indian guides. We started walking with Varkey, our park ranger, leading the group carrying a rifle that looked like it was a hold over from British days, and Agee, one of our trackers carrying a machete. We were all excited as we headed off.
The first part of the trek was through a part of the park where they allow many tourists to go on boats through the outer sections of the park. It's loud, and we didn't see many animals. We took a (barely floating) raft across the river and began to hike toward our first campsite. We, the tourists, were carrying our own clothes and a bottle of water. The guides were carrying food for 10 for three days, mineral water for us, tents for us, and pots, pans, plates and cutlery for the gourmet meals they were going to prepare. (Actually the food was outstanding and pretty amazing that it could be made with limited equipment and a campfire.)
By the middle of the first day, I began to think of our Indian guides as our our personal troupe of "Tiger Dundees". They could pretty much do anything, very effortlessly. Before arriving at our campsite, we had to cross the river again, but the boat was tied to an underwater tree about 20 meters from the bank. After a loud discussion (one which I believe could have been avoided if they were familiar with "rock, paper, scissor."), Sunod, one of the cooks, took the cloth he had been using to balance the 20L case of water on his head, put it on as a sarong and swam out to get the boat. (Later the sarong, became a pot holder.) When he arrived back, they realized there were no oars, so another of the guys went into the forest, cut down a branch and carved it into an oar in about 5 minutes. They scare away wild animals in the middle of the night. They light campfires in 30 seconds. One of them helped me tailor some clothes to make them jungle friendly. They remain calm when elephants are chasing them. I really felt like there was no situation they couldn't handle - either in the jungle or out. They were both very macho and very charming at the same time. And they all know how to cook like great chefs.
After a lite lunch we headed out on our first afternoon trek with our park ranger and our two trackers. The other three guides stayed back to prepare the campsite and dinner. We walked along the river edge and then up a hill with the guides pointing out various animals. Then we saw our first elephants. We were watching them, and gradually moving up the hill to get a better view. Then, the next thing I knew, our ranger had his rifle pointed above our heads and was motioning for us to get behind him. I don't think he actually said run. I think it was his expression, but we all took off up the hill, with the guides behind us, but also running. Although we were far away, the elephants had seen us and had begun charging. When we were over the crest of the hill, maybe 150 meters, we stopped to catch our breath and then continued to walk rapidly until we were upwind from the elephants. At first, although my adrenaline was pumping, I thought maybe this was something they pulled on all the trekkers since it all happened very fast and I didn't actually see the charging elephants. When we got back to our campsite for dinner, our guides were telling the story to the other guides in Malayalam so we couldn't understand, but the wild hand gestures made it pretty evident that this was not the norm. That said, despite the wild hand gestures, their expressions were excitement, not fear.
We were served an amazing dinner with soup, a main course of six different southern Indian dishes and freshly made flat bread. The guides set up two big fires along both sides of our tents and told us not to worry because they'd be up all night in shifts. They also said that we would periodically hear them scaring animals away, but not to worry. The only thing they would wake us up for was if there were elephants. I never really thought of elephants as unfriendly, but apparently since the poaching stopped, when they use to run when they saw men, they have become comfortable and even aggressive toward man. The guides have an incredibly healthy respect for the elephant's power. Anyway, the other three girls went to sleep after dinner, but since it was only 8 pm, I stayed up and learned how to play a new card game with the guides. Coincidentally, it was a variation of the game the guides in Nepal taught us when we were trekking, Nepali 29, so they were impressed when I picked up the game in the first round.
The jungle makes a lot of noise at night. It sounds exactly like one of the soundtrack options at one of my favorite spas (but they must filter out the monkeys). We were all sitting around and the jungle was making its noises and then after a noise which was totally indistinguishable to me, all six of them sat up straight. Four of them jumped to their feet with their flashlights and darted toward the water. The guy sitting next to me said "the elephants are swimming in the river." Seven words I never expected to hear, especially since I didn't know elephants could swim. He told me to wake up the other women, so I walked over to the tents and said, "wake up, the elephants are swimming in the river." We all got our shoes on and looked at each other wondering what was coming next. The guides set a few small fires and after a lot of again loud discussion, they said we could go back to sleep.
Sleep on a 30 degree angle bed of rocks is a relative term. We woke, if you can say we slept, in the morning and went in search of the elephants. Hoping to have more time looking at the elephants than running from them, the ranger decided this morning we would stay in our raft. Although we had no direct drama on the second day, we did rescue a group of day hikers from coming around a bend toward a family of nine elephants. Our raft was a little bit more underwater than I was comfortable with, but all worked out in the end. After the excitement we rowed back to our camp and had breakfast, packed up camp (which basically meant the guides packed up camp and we watched), and then headed off to our second campsite.
Our second campsite was within a large, deep, dry moat, called an elephant trench, because they can't cross them. We dropped our stuff, went for a swim in the river or bath depending on how you look at it, and then rested up for our afternoon trek.
The afternoon trek was through different terrain, further from the river. At different points, the guides were more or less guarded. When we were walking through the grassy flatland, they kept us close together and more or less formed a triangle around us. You could tell they were highly alert. At other times, they were were more relaxed
. It was amazing what they could see. We'd be walking along and they'd motion for us to stop and be quiet. Then they'd walk, completely soundlessly until they found a better view of whatever it was they found. They'd motion for us to come forward. We were never as quiet, but usually didn't scare away the animal. We did have a few more instances of the rifle being cocked and walking quickly away from something, until we made sure nothing was following us -- and thankfully, nothing else started charging toward us.
In the end, we saw tiger paw prints and tiger poo, but no tigers. We did see the following: Black monkeys, common brown monkeys, malbar squirrel, flying ants, bats, sambhar deer, common deer, wild boars, sloth bears, bison, barking deer, porcupines, leeches, honey bees, termites, dragonflies, butterflies, fireflies, kingfisher birds, long tailed drongo, cormorant, egret, kite birds, grey horn bill birds, red ants, black spiders, eagles, woodpeckers, goldfish, turtle, frogs, tadpoles, otters and lots of tribal people.
Next week, I'm heading off to Keralan cooking school and looking forward to the soft bed and lack of adventure.
I didn't know exactly what I was getting myself into. I can't think of a time since I was 17 that I had camped outside. It didn't occur to me that most people actually go on safaris go to look at the animals in jeeps, not on foot. I'd never seen an unchained elephant before. And that the concept of liability which generally lowers the level of risk in any activity run by an American company doesn't exist in India. But why not?
Periyar is a 770 sq. km. park. with approximately 40 tigers. The reserve is based on a man-made lake formed by a dam built by the British in 1895. (The lake still has trees sticking up from the forest which was flooded over 100 years ago.) Until partition in 1947
, the area was a British game park. The reserve was formed in the 1970s, but a federation to stop the poaching of the tigers, elephants and other endangered species was not formed until 1998. Since then they have had considerable success in eliminating the poaching and beginning to rebuild the populations of wildlife and plant life. The camping program is run by ex-poachers who split their job responsibilities between leading tourists and providing security against poachers. At least two of our six guides were former poachers. I met up with the group I would be trekking with at the park ranger station. As with most things in India, things were a bit chaotic and got off to a late start -- or on time if you are going by "Indian time". The group consisted of three other Australian women and the six Indian guides. We started walking with Varkey, our park ranger, leading the group carrying a rifle that looked like it was a hold over from British days, and Agee, one of our trackers carrying a machete. We were all excited as we headed off.
The first part of the trek was through a part of the park where they allow many tourists to go on boats through the outer sections of the park. It's loud, and we didn't see many animals. We took a (barely floating) raft across the river and began to hike toward our first campsite. We, the tourists, were carrying our own clothes and a bottle of water. The guides were carrying food for 10 for three days, mineral water for us, tents for us, and pots, pans, plates and cutlery for the gourmet meals they were going to prepare. (Actually the food was outstanding and pretty amazing that it could be made with limited equipment and a campfire.)
By the middle of the first day, I began to think of our Indian guides as our our personal troupe of "Tiger Dundees". They could pretty much do anything, very effortlessly. Before arriving at our campsite, we had to cross the river again, but the boat was tied to an underwater tree about 20 meters from the bank. After a loud discussion (one which I believe could have been avoided if they were familiar with "rock, paper, scissor."), Sunod, one of the cooks, took the cloth he had been using to balance the 20L case of water on his head, put it on as a sarong and swam out to get the boat. (Later the sarong, became a pot holder.) When he arrived back, they realized there were no oars, so another of the guys went into the forest, cut down a branch and carved it into an oar in about 5 minutes. They scare away wild animals in the middle of the night. They light campfires in 30 seconds. One of them helped me tailor some clothes to make them jungle friendly. They remain calm when elephants are chasing them. I really felt like there was no situation they couldn't handle - either in the jungle or out. They were both very macho and very charming at the same time. And they all know how to cook like great chefs.
After a lite lunch we headed out on our first afternoon trek with our park ranger and our two trackers. The other three guides stayed back to prepare the campsite and dinner. We walked along the river edge and then up a hill with the guides pointing out various animals. Then we saw our first elephants. We were watching them, and gradually moving up the hill to get a better view. Then, the next thing I knew, our ranger had his rifle pointed above our heads and was motioning for us to get behind him. I don't think he actually said run. I think it was his expression, but we all took off up the hill, with the guides behind us, but also running. Although we were far away, the elephants had seen us and had begun charging. When we were over the crest of the hill, maybe 150 meters, we stopped to catch our breath and then continued to walk rapidly until we were upwind from the elephants. At first, although my adrenaline was pumping, I thought maybe this was something they pulled on all the trekkers since it all happened very fast and I didn't actually see the charging elephants. When we got back to our campsite for dinner, our guides were telling the story to the other guides in Malayalam so we couldn't understand, but the wild hand gestures made it pretty evident that this was not the norm. That said, despite the wild hand gestures, their expressions were excitement, not fear.
We were served an amazing dinner with soup, a main course of six different southern Indian dishes and freshly made flat bread. The guides set up two big fires along both sides of our tents and told us not to worry because they'd be up all night in shifts. They also said that we would periodically hear them scaring animals away, but not to worry. The only thing they would wake us up for was if there were elephants. I never really thought of elephants as unfriendly, but apparently since the poaching stopped, when they use to run when they saw men, they have become comfortable and even aggressive toward man. The guides have an incredibly healthy respect for the elephant's power. Anyway, the other three girls went to sleep after dinner, but since it was only 8 pm, I stayed up and learned how to play a new card game with the guides. Coincidentally, it was a variation of the game the guides in Nepal taught us when we were trekking, Nepali 29, so they were impressed when I picked up the game in the first round.
The jungle makes a lot of noise at night. It sounds exactly like one of the soundtrack options at one of my favorite spas (but they must filter out the monkeys). We were all sitting around and the jungle was making its noises and then after a noise which was totally indistinguishable to me, all six of them sat up straight. Four of them jumped to their feet with their flashlights and darted toward the water. The guy sitting next to me said "the elephants are swimming in the river." Seven words I never expected to hear, especially since I didn't know elephants could swim. He told me to wake up the other women, so I walked over to the tents and said, "wake up, the elephants are swimming in the river." We all got our shoes on and looked at each other wondering what was coming next. The guides set a few small fires and after a lot of again loud discussion, they said we could go back to sleep.
Sleep on a 30 degree angle bed of rocks is a relative term. We woke, if you can say we slept, in the morning and went in search of the elephants. Hoping to have more time looking at the elephants than running from them, the ranger decided this morning we would stay in our raft. Although we had no direct drama on the second day, we did rescue a group of day hikers from coming around a bend toward a family of nine elephants. Our raft was a little bit more underwater than I was comfortable with, but all worked out in the end. After the excitement we rowed back to our camp and had breakfast, packed up camp (which basically meant the guides packed up camp and we watched), and then headed off to our second campsite.
Our second campsite was within a large, deep, dry moat, called an elephant trench, because they can't cross them. We dropped our stuff, went for a swim in the river or bath depending on how you look at it, and then rested up for our afternoon trek.
The afternoon trek was through different terrain, further from the river. At different points, the guides were more or less guarded. When we were walking through the grassy flatland, they kept us close together and more or less formed a triangle around us. You could tell they were highly alert. At other times, they were were more relaxed
. It was amazing what they could see. We'd be walking along and they'd motion for us to stop and be quiet. Then they'd walk, completely soundlessly until they found a better view of whatever it was they found. They'd motion for us to come forward. We were never as quiet, but usually didn't scare away the animal. We did have a few more instances of the rifle being cocked and walking quickly away from something, until we made sure nothing was following us -- and thankfully, nothing else started charging toward us.In the end, we saw tiger paw prints and tiger poo, but no tigers. We did see the following: Black monkeys, common brown monkeys, malbar squirrel, flying ants, bats, sambhar deer, common deer, wild boars, sloth bears, bison, barking deer, porcupines, leeches, honey bees, termites, dragonflies, butterflies, fireflies, kingfisher birds, long tailed drongo, cormorant, egret, kite birds, grey horn bill birds, red ants, black spiders, eagles, woodpeckers, goldfish, turtle, frogs, tadpoles, otters and lots of tribal people.
Next week, I'm heading off to Keralan cooking school and looking forward to the soft bed and lack of adventure.
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