Part of the India itinerary was going to the forest. I wanted the kids to see the jungle and maybe catch sight of wildlife. I remember, as a child, being taken to Bandipur National Park. I only have two memories of the many experiences. One, a family of wild boar trotting to the watering hole drinking alongside the resort's resident elephants.
The other memory was a little more harrowing. I was sitting in the front seat of my uncle's Jeep, eating a plum, when the car came to a screeching halt. In front of us was an elephant. It was the rogue that inhabited the area. I recall my uncle saying that there were only two scenarios. Either the elephant moves or the elephant moves the Jeep. All of us prayed for the former not the latter. We all came close to weeing in our pants when he mock charged the Jeep then decided we weren't a threat. Not until he was in the distance were we able to move on.
That said, I wanted the girls to glimpse an elephant. I had heard of elephant sightings being rare these days. This was due to the amount of traffic on the main road and it being baby season.
A group of us took the train from Bangalore to Mysore. After that, we had to SUV it to the foothills of the Western Ghat range where the jungle is. Contrary to popular belief India is not all heat and humidity. In fact, it is downright cold as you start climbing the hills. Guess who only brought shorts and t-shirts?
As we entered the park, my eldest screamed that she saw elephant hiney. We laughed and the driver backed up to humor her. Lo and behold we saw a big gray bum moving about, eating. It had one eye on us and another on tasty bamboo. My daughter gloated the whole way to the mountain resort we were staying at. Now she wants to be a tracker....To be continued
No comments:
Post a Comment