Continuation of solo forest trip to Singara, Masinagudi

This trip to Singara at Masinagudi was in continuation of my trip to Vythiri (refer my previous blog- Solo Trip to Vythiri). Having enjoyed the beauty of woods at Vythiri, I moved to Singara in Masinagudi in Madhumalai forest reserve. It’s contiguous with forests of Vythiri but falls in Tamilnadu. Would like to highlight that the checkpost at Madhumalai closes at 6 pm and it takes good 3.5 hours from Vythiri to that check post, so keep sufficient time margin.

The journey was excellent, not just because of the greenery around, but also because I was driving a Harley Davidson for the first time. What an awesome experience it was. Since it was start of summer, both sides of the road were covered with brown grass and leaves. Riding on a bike has its own advantages as it allows much closer and fresher view of the things around. And the freshness goes skin deep and make your free. I truly felt free in that journey and was ecstatic with joy! The happiness was so much that I didn’t even mind the road side wild elephants not giving me enough attention. I just returned the favour.

My stay was at Laila Estate of Whistling woods Via Singara town. There are various other stay facilities, including resorts and home stays, in that area (singara and madhumalai), with varying level of luxuries. Whistling woods is not a resort and has very basic infrastructure and facilities. However, Laila estate offers unmatched feel of the jungle. It’s situated deep inside the jungle, and within tiger territories. To the best of my knowledge there is another estate which is deeper inside the forest and wildlife enthusiasts can opt for that too. Also, there are two tree houses, deeper in the jungle, which can accommodate maximum one person each. One of the tree houses is on bamboos, which I believe is unlike most others. There is another property from whistling woods nearby which has a round cottage with 2 rooms and two/three rooms at the reception and dining area. This round cottage can be good for family people as it is near reception too. This place has got an awesome cook. He will cook whatever you wish. During my stay I had mouth-watering appam, sambar, chutney, idli, lemon rice, pakodas, tea, south Indian veggies, roti, rice and many more dishes. He cooks non-veg too much I can’t comment because I didn’t try it. Although unlikely, but if you get bored there and are left with some energy after expeditions, you can enjoy in TV room or play badminton and carrom.

 

The very first night at Madhumalai, I got the opportunity to go for night safari. We started at around 11 pm. Driver and naturalist were well aware of the route and had good understanding of increasing probability of spotting wild life. After driving on the designated route for approx. 40 mins, we parked our vehicle and switched off the headlights, waiting for animals. And it paid us well, as we spotted a sloth bear! That night when I came back to my room, I had a great sleep and had the great dream of spotting more wild animals. I was being greedy, but then why not?

Next day woke up with the sound of natural alarm from our own friendly neighbourhood wood pecker. At 5.30 am Mr. woodpecker started making his tapping sound. He was banging so heavily against wood that it was echoing too! Also tried general nature walks on my own without any local guide, but it’s risky as wild elephants roam around in that area. I was told in a strict manner not to roam around alone and to respect forest and its privacy. Believe me, after my trip I would advise the same to all. We also had walks using tribal guides, and they were awesome.

Walking inside the jungle gave me opportunity to also see shades of the jungle. Since March was at cusp, got to notice shade turning from green to brown and back to fresh green with just some rain.  We were simply walking without much talking. And that is how actually how I wished to be inside the forest. As and when needed Naturalist explained about fauna, wildlife habitat and related topics. Apart from various birds, we spotted malabar giant squirrel and wild dog. Wild dogs are usually found in groups but we spotted a single wild dog. Came to know that wild dogs have 90% success rate in their deadly attacks! Thankfully, we were spared.

 

 

 

 

While returning to the estate, at about 50 mtrs, we heard langur call and right in front of us was Black Panther. Thankfully black panthers cannot read minds, so the panther thought of something and ran inside the forest. It’s basic human nature to get more aggressive when you see someone being defensive, even when you know that you just can’t stand in front of the other person. So, ran after the panther and we chased it for good 20 minutes before we lost the track, thankfully. Oh! what an adventure it was. Added fun was to share this story with many other guests and being centre of attraction.

There is one key attractive aspect of Laila Estate. Near the estate, there is an artificial water reserve, which attracts animals and birds. Since it was summer, the water reserve was not completely filled, but still spotted many birds there. March is the mating season for birds, and figs starts growing which attract birds, thus one can spot lot of birds around. Even if you sit in the veranda, you can spot many birds. Just sitting there, I spotted around 40 species of birds.

 

At night, whistling woods arranges for campfire where you can chit chat over barbeque, share stories and play games. Advantage of a place like this is that you get to have many walks in different parts of the jungle. You can even walk for 5-6 hours in each walk and spot variety of wild life, if luck favours.

 

The other day, morning alarm duty was taken up by none other than sherkhan. Early morning a tiger started giving call for territory marking. It sounded as if tiger was just behind my room, as Laila estate falls within the tiger territory. Tiger call was high enough to wake me up and give me goose bumps. I was sleepy so decided not to give a chase to the tiger this time, as we did to that poor black panther. During the same day, while walking from Laila estate to main resort for breakfast, I heard something in the bushes. Thought I might spot a tiger and saw, not a tiger, but another sloth bear, just 15-20 footsteps ahead of me walking inside the jungle. Got that feeling of excitement mixed with fear. Did I give a chase to the sloth bear? Well, he was too lazy to run so I would have won easily J

There is dam nearby called madhumalai dam, quite famous and beautiful. Though I didn’t visit the dam, but tribals say it’s quite beautiful. I am mentioning about dam here because other day before walk dam must have released some water due to which within the jungle streams were flowing despite been summer. This in fact proved to be quite good as we got great ambience for a long forest walk. That walk had a larger group, including some students. During this walk we got to walk besides the streams and over the rocks. The group of students was bubbling with excitement and kept asking questions, while I was more interested in having a quite walk and thus kept some distance. I came across upon termite hill which was almost double my height! New creepers were growing (green in color) on dried grass (golden color). I believe that day too we walked round 5 hours. In evening we used to share stories and experiences over camp fire and all this time I had more than few of my own worth sharing.

I departed from Singara for Coimbatore, towards hustle bustle life of city. It takes about 4 hours from there, filled with various hairpin turns in the road. In March it was quite foggy and these 4 hours were also spent in midst of great beauty of Mother Nature.

 

On an overall basis, both Vythiri and Masinagudi offer great experience of forest. While Vythiri provides convenience of designated tracks and lots of resorts, masinagudi provides experience of raw jungle, with more wild life around.