Wild Valley

Prelude
Had been a long time since I took a break. The 16th of April was Tulika and Samarth Sinha's 3rd wedding anniversary. Samarth, ever the adventurous soul, decided to surprise Tuli and arranged for a weekend at a relatively obscure jungle resort called Wild Valley. He asked me if I and my other friends are willing to join. I readily agreed once I saw that bank balance approved it. Others (Rat, Summya, etc.) had some pressing work on the weekend, so they were not able to join. The fun part was : Tuli was not supposed to know about this till the date of the journey! Kunal (aka Tikloo), Samarth's nephew and Siddarth Singh, Samarth's classmate during his BIT days, joined. With Siddarth were his wife Mahima and their 11 month old baby - Anirudh.
Kunal and I joined Samarth and Tuli at their place on the 15th night, had some beer and dinner. Tuli demonstrated a few steps she had choreographed for her office cul-fest and was just getting in the mood for a night-out when we Samarth faked a headache and went to sleep. Tuli was probably a little suspicious at my unannounced arrival and my decision to stay back (something I hadn't done for a while). But on the whole she was unaware of what lay ahead.
So before D-Day dawned (at 4 AM on the 16th of April), she was rudely woken up by Samarth and was told that we are to head for that jungle trip! Oh Boy! I wanted to see her face while she digested the surprise! Unfortunately, my lazy ass refused to get off the warm bed...

The Journey
We started early and by 6:30 AM - we had already hit Kanakpura Road on the Sinha Family's Esteem. Samarth took the steering with Kunal as the navigator while I, Tuli and Chaiti (Tuli and Sam's one and an half year old daughter) sprawled over the back seat. Siddharth and Mahima joined us further ahead on Kanakpura Road. We stopped in between and quick introductions were made. Kanakpura - Malvalli - Kollegal passed by quickly but after that the journey was a bit treacherous with a few landmarks and road signs to guide us. However, Samarth had sourced the microinstructions from Andrew, the guy handles the bookings etc from Bangalore - that saved the day. On the way, we crossed the Odeyarpalya village which is a Tibetian settlement (very much like Bylakuppe in Coorg). It seems like an interesting place to see. Finally just at the Tamil Nadu check post, we took a left and asked for "Daniel's Farm" and everyone seemed to know where it is! It took us about 4.5 hours to complete the 190 km journey. The journey was by and large uneventful.

Wild Valley Farm
Wild Valley is situated in Germalam, on Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border, 4000 ft above the mean sea level. It is some 190 kms from Bangalore, out of which the last few kilometers are barely motorable - bikers, be warned. It is an actual 100 acre farm overlooking the Western Ghats, not a landscaped holiday resort with airconditioning and room service. This place is supposed to be one of Veerappan's hang-out while he was around. They grow a lot of vegetables, spices and coffee. Within the farm, a small flat stretch of land has been dedicated to the camp.
There are about a dozen canvas tents put up in semi-circular fashion over concrete slabs. In the middle of this arrangement is a pit for camp-fires with stones laid out (as Siddarth said) in the Stone Henge pattern. The camp-site overlooks the majestic western ghats hills on 3 sides and the farm land on one side. The tents have no electricity and you have to rely on kerosene laterns, which are placed in front of the tent for light.
However, the camp doesn't actually require one to rough it out. Though the accommodation is bare bones, there are modern toilets, a well-equipped kitched, attentive staff around. Their website even mentions that there are "rooms for the less adventurous", however, I never saw one nor did I inquire for the same.
We were welcomed with glasses of chilled lime water - really refreshing. Soon a late, hastily prepared breakfast of idlis, omelettes, fresh fruits and coffee was served and devoured as hastily as it was prepared. Next we went to visit the nearby stream. This was just the beginning for the rainy season and the stream was not very strong or swelling. However, we made the most of the situation and we "boys" jumped in and had a dip. Though the stream was dark green with moss, the water was really clean and fresh. That was our only contact with water in the 2 days that we spent there. :-) There were minor accidents - Siddharth forgot to take out his cigarrettes and matches before jumping into the stream and I almost fell off a tree I had climbed as a dead branch gave out.

Mr. Daniel
The farm is owned by a certain Mr. Daniel. Now, he is one interesting guy. His father was a top space scientist who was awarded a Padma Bhushan for his contribution to the Aryabhatta satellite program - which was India's first satellite. Mr. Daniel went to Allahabad Agricultural Institute and did an advanced course in Genetics, securing one of the couple of seats which were offered at the Institute. This was 20 years back. After his studies, he bought this land, which was almost unapproachable and totally wild back then. He has developed this farm on his own in the last twenty years. He is a very interesting person to talk to. One wouldn't expect a well educated fellow walking around in the wild forest, speaking Queen's English as well the local Tamil dialect with equal ease.

Babies' day out
The 2 babies - Chaiti and Anirudh had a field day at the camp. Though they were a little too young to enjoy the treks and the beauty, I am sure that the sense being out in the open would not have escaped them.

Tuli with the Kids

Baby Chaiti, all of 19 months had a hard time initially. First of all she had to deal with the presence of the 11-month old Anirudh who was demanding all the attention. She spent most of the day sulking away and plain ignoring the brat even as he climbed all over her, stepped on her toes, pulled at her hair. Boy, that was kinda cute - watching these basic human emotions develop so early. Wondered what was my reactions to such situations when I was a toddler.
There was an interesting incident which highlights the unconditional caring and love only babies can possess. Chaiti, for some reason, has always been afraid of flowing water. I guess the racket of the waves or water crashing against the rocks unsettles her. Samarth, I, Siddharth and Kunal were playing in the small waterfall along the stream when Chaiti started howling, crying out "Papa, ja; Papa, ja"; which translated meant that she was sure that her dad is gone - swallowed by the evil waterfall which scared her so much. Samarth was forced to yield to her protests. But Chaiti commanded all of us to get away from the waterfall - she wouldn't stop crying. I was happily drying myself on a tree, when she spotted me too and cried out - "Gullu, ba" (Guru, bahar - get outta there now!). Boy! Do I love to hear her call me! She stopped crying as soon as we stepped out of the stream.
Anirudh is probably one of the chubbiest babies I have ever come across so far. He is just 11 months old and "is a complete flirt, girl of any age will do", as his mom Mahima puts it. He kept smiling and flaunting his single lower incisors which had sprouted recently. He had a way of smiling at strangers when he was in a mood to socialize. This his mom describes his diplomatic smile as a "Chinese smile" and sure enough, he does looks like Fa-hien when he smiles - eyes narrowed to slits, round face, small nose. He is a cutie!


Siddharth and Anirudh

Rest of the day
After the dip and some beer, we decided to crash out and postponed the short trek downstream which was proposed. The people at the farm obliged and provided us with extra cots which they laid out under the shade of the trees at the edge of camping site, as the tents were extremely hot in the afternoon. We slept away to glory till evening. Coffee was served by our bedsides by the time we woke up. Aah - these small sinful pleasures!

Out in the wild - Siddharth (with Anirudh), Me, Tikloo, Tuli (with Chaiti)

By then, a large, noisy group of young professionals had arrived and were making their presence felt. Now these were a normal lot of fun-loving guys, playing and chasing each other and singing at the top of their voices - something we have done all our lives. But somehow all of us felt annoyed at the sight of them. Probably, we were feeling a little too old. :-
As the skies darkened, the campfire was lit and the youngsters started singing and dancing around the fire and we decided to move away to a remote corner of the camping area and had a separate camp-fire lit for us.
All of us discussed our respective college days and recalled the most stupidest things we had done or seen over a course of wine, whiskey and rum. After a round of good laughs, the babies asserted their need to be fed and put to bed and we yielded. A quick dinner followed. We then complained about the noisy group and they obliged and shut up. Pretty mean of us, but the babies were getting disturbed.
Anyway the couples called it a day and Kunal too crashed. The noisy lot dispersed and I was left alone by the side of the smouldering camp-fire. I got my blanket along and sat for a loooong time star-gazing and in introspection. The night was so clear that I could see stars from one end of the horizon to another. The sky looked full of constellations. Unfortunately I am no authority on them. However, it is always great to lie next to a fire in the open and watch the sky. Gives one a sense of peace, a sense of humility - if one thinks about how distant, how old, how massive the tiniest of the stars are. There was no sound expect that of the crackling firewood and the cricket and foxes (or jackals) far, far away in the jungle. Peace, defined...

Elephant Dung Trial
Most of us, with the exception of Tuli, broke our promise of getting up at 6 in the morning. The original plan was to go for a short walk downstream as the sun rises. However, it was 9ish by the time we finished our morning ablutions, had our coffee and prepared the babies for the day that lay ahead. Mr. Daniel sent 2 guides with us and went downstream following the elephant dung deposits. Along the way, the guide showed us the hideouts of the poachers and we spotted quite a few elephant bones. Poor creatures. The kids also enjoyed the trip - probably this was their first visit to the jungle. Unfortunately, we missed a herd of deer by minutes as they ran away because of our chattering (the kids specially were very excited).

Elephant Dung Trial

The jungle was full of the weed-like lantana species. Siddartha mentioned that this weed is an accidental import from Australia. This species has covered most of Indian tropical forests and can prove to deadly for other plants as it consumes all resources available. This weed grows really fast. Daniel further added that there was an Indian botanist who came up with an award-winning discovery of a bug which eats lantana. This, however, proved to be little comfort because in an experimental run, these bugs were set free on a wild crop of lantana. The bugs finished the crop entirely but perished soon afterwards because there was nothing more to eat! As the bug species perished, the lantana magically grew again, thanks to some scattered seeds.

Tuli Me and Chaiti
The return
Breakfast followed the short hike in the woods and we packed our stuff, paid the bills and set off to Bangalore. We thanked Daniel for his help and Samarth asked him if he expected any more guests today. "No," came the reply, "the weekend's over. Through the week we are just farmers"...
It was not one of the most lavish places I have been to. But what's appealling about the place is its honesty. There is no landscaping, no forced eco-friendly stuff, no ultra-trimmed grass, no room service. It is nature just as it is - slightly tamed to make it easier to handle. The food was plain but tasty. The service was excellent. Overall it was an excellent experience, more so because of the great company. All thanks to Samarth for arranging this. And here's wishing Tuli and Samarth a very happy anniversary!
Yet to develop and scan the snaps - will upload them as soon as I do.