weekend at Jungle Lodges, K Gudi...

That was the call of a barking deer!!! There was no mistake that it was an alarm call, with a clear message that there was danger around.
Our Maruti Gypsy speeding on the rough jeep tracks in the K Gudi reserve forest, screeched to a halt.
The loud barking of the deer was heard again. Yes, that was the call of the barking deer again.
We were in the forest department's safari vehicle, surrounded by the pouncing green of the K Gudi reserve forest. But for the jeep's roar, which had been killed now, there was silence. A slight chirp of a bird here. A rustle of some leaves there.
And some other jungle sounds, only audible to an interested ear.
The barking deer is a category among the deer, named so because their barks resemble that of the dogs. But a little more on the shrill side.
Again, there was a call from an unseen barking deer.
The deer could be hiding anywhere in the thick undergrowth of the forest. It had just rained the whole of the last week, and due to that, the usually thick undergrowth was thicker and could house any wild being. By the sheer tone of the bark, it was evident that this was a warning call for its mates to flee from the vicinity, as a predator had been spotted.
Half an hour earlier, we had met up with a crowd on another jeep of the safari. The crowd had seen a tiger near a water hole. This water hole was a two minutes walk from our present location. The feeling that a tiger could be anywhere around us, was exciting.
Was it scary?
It was not scary enough, because we were sure that there were no man-eaters in this forest. Also, I trusted the jeep drivers a lot, as they had been doing this for years. (Later I came to know that even the non - man-eaters could attack us, if they are scared of us. Also, the jeep driver was actually a storekeeper, who was doing the driving as a temporary arrangement. He had just spotted tigers six times in his career of ten years).
There was a flock of spotted deer moving away slowly ahead of our vehicle. Hadn't they noticed the call of the barking deer? Why would not they run?
(We told later that they would not run because they would not know the direction from where the carnivore could be expected, and hence they were moving carefully.)
The barking continued at equal intervals.
Soon, the calls were joined by another type of call. We were told that this was the call of the spotted deer.
It was getting more exciting by each passing moment. The frequency of the barking deer had increased.
We had our cameras ready, intensely waiting for any movement. My friend had switched on his mobile phone to record the ambient sounds, along with the call of the barking deer.
Would there be a tiger sighting today? Would we see an innocent deer have its neck broken between the cruel canines of a tiger?
Would the tiger notice the five people in the jeep?
For some more time, the call continued. Then, the frequency of the alarm call began to decrease. And suddenly, ceased.
The bored driver gunned the engine, and hit on the gas pedal.
After sighting a few more elephants and deer, we were driven back to the K Gudi Jungle Lodges.
That was one great experience in the safari.

K Gudi (Kyata Devarayana Gudi) is a small village in the middle of the reserve forest. This is approximately sixteen kilometers away from the more popular B R Hills, in Chamarajanagar district, of Karnataka, India. The Jungle Lodges , run by Government of Karnataka, maintain their resort in the middle of the reserve forest. For getting an accommodation, one has to book in advance from Jungle Lodges office in Bangalore. K Gudi charges Rs 1750/- per night, which involves a lunch, snacks, a wild life safari, campfire, dinner, and stay in tent-like cabins. Also, another safari (either on jeep or on elephant back) on the second day morning, followed by breakfast is assured.
One has to report to the place on the first day, early afternoon.
The travel to and from the place has to be taken care off by oneself.

"Let us go for a short walk till the lake, for some great night photography," said my friend Shre, brandishing his Nikon SLR camera. It was still half past nine in the night, and one more hour before the generators for the resort would be switched off. Then, the lights would go off, and the whole of the jungle resort would be blanketed by darkness.
"Alright, but we will have to come quickly, before lights are out" I said, picking up my camera, and the tripod.
There was a quaint little lake, a short walk from the resort. This night was a full moon night, and we hoped to get beautiful images of the reflection of the moon. As we sneaked away from the resort, with only two torches, out of which one had its batteries breathing their last breaths, I was feeling a little tensed up due to all the darkness around. We had been told that wild boars, elephants, and sometimes leopards would come very close to the resort. They are supposed to be pretty much harmless, unless they sense danger.
I would agree that the wild animals would not find me dangerous, as I was not bad looking, with a clean-shaven face and all. But, it was dark everywhere, and it would be scary to anybody who would look at my silhouette, a six feet three inches hulk with a strange looking gadget in one hand and a tripod resembling a gun in the other.
As we moved towards the lake, my friend with the good torch scanned the way ahead.
I stopped in my tracks!!!
We could see the shimmering eyes of what we guessed to be wild boars. Some of them were lying down, and some of them moving around, their evil teeth showing off from their strange shaped mouths. If not for the timely scan by my friend, we would actually be walking into them.
Suddenly, my priorities in life straightened, and I could see that a good life back home could not be gambled for a trivial photograph of the lake, reflection, and all. We stopped right there, to take some pictures of the moon, with a silhouette of a tree beside us. Two of our friends went in a different direction, to have a look at an elephant, somewhere ahead.
After some pictures of the moon, and the tree, which seemed like a badly made poster of Ram Gopal Verma's next horror flick, we returned to our cabins.

The safari on the first day had not been as exciting as the second day, where we had been caught in the middle of the ball park, as described above. The safari on the evening of the first day had begun on a promising note, with a fairly good-looking lady boarding the jeep in which we were seated. A security guard who held her infant joined her.
As the jeep slowly made its way on the rough, rocky jeep tracks into the forest, I began to feel the body and the frame of the jeep hit against my body, occasionally, due to the violent rocking. By this time the security guard was playing around with the child, and I began to wonder about how liberal the lady was.
After a few deer sightings, there was one hour of boring drive in the forest. By this time, I had lost all hopes of any sightings of wild animals, and had changed the lens of my camera to shoot some cute pictures of the child who was staring back at us from the front seats.
The security guard was now cozying up on the woman.
This was quite incredible, and I began to suspect that the security guard could be the beautiful woman’s husband. Ma’an, he had had a good catch!!!
The kid was as equally puzzled as us about the purpose of the safari. All we were seeing were the greenery, greenery and more greenery. No wild animals anywhere.
But, just in the last half hour of the safari, we sighted barking deer, the mouse deer, the wild elephants, the gaurs, and some strange kind of birds. Just goes to prove, how unpredictable jungle safaris can get.
I was disappointed as most of the animals were sighted after the sunset, and I had not been able to get good pictures.

But, despite lack of lot of exciting moments, that we had expected, the trip was a memorable for its own calm, and some enchanting moments. A sighting of the tiger would have crowned our efforts, but then, I guess it is scheduled for us to experience in the next few visits to the jungle. :-)

Here are the pics of the trip...



Thank you for being a part of our experience in the jungles.

Have a great week ahead.

With warm regards,
Teju
(ps: About the mysterious security guard, we realized that he was an MBA, and was in marketing Jungle Lodges in Bangalore. He was not a security guard, though he appeared like one. He also owned the huge Toyota Innova, and that explains the beautiful spouse :D )