New Year 2012 at waynad

I study Law at Christ University in Bangalore and my sister is studying Engineering at Kanchi in Tamil Nadu.  It is such a clash of concepts that she gets vacation for all the Hindu festivals and I get a single day off and we never get to see each other.  Most of the times, my sister leaves for her college the day I get home at Hyderabad.  So, I decided that this New Year we have to celebrate together come what may.  Incidentally as it is her final year of degree even her group of friends had plans to welcome the New Year 2012 together at a nice destination.  I pushed my way through the group and all her friends very sweetly agreed to squeeze me in their plans.

So there we were on our way to Waynad in Kerala to welcome the New Year a wild way.  As I was already located at Bangalore the group of Engineers joined me on 30^th evening at my college on Hosur Road, Bangalore.  I already knew most of them on fb and had met few of them personally as well, so I took charge as I am the localite in Karnataka.  We got in to the Toyota Innova which was prebooked for the tour and were on our  way to Waynad.  It took us 6 hrs to reach the destination and it was almost midnight by the time we checked into a home stay we had booked on line.  The place was a beautiful old house which was run by a couple who are very friendly and hospitable.  We were nine, 5 guys and 4 girls a noisy group at that calm and serene location.  It was fun for once not to worry about the crowds that bother.  Home stay uncle woke us logs up by 5am the next morning, and I was wild as to what was the hurry by the way to arise and awaken so early on the last day of the year, after all it was the last sleep of the year you see!!! Before I could shout up we received the news of the day the wildlife park is open only between 6am to 11 am. 

So we rushed and dressed to get on our way to the park.  Our driver, Joseph is very knowledgeable of this region and took us in the best route where we could sight as much wild life as possible. It was so beautiful and out of the world moving across the green zone with the Sun rays giving the most needed warmth on a chilly morning of 31 December 2011. Waynad Wildlife Sanctuary, Muthanga is a part of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve and is also a Project Elephant site.  I was all exited with the camera in my hand and took the most advantage of being the youngest of the group.  For once, I enjoyed being the youngest which otherwise is a constant crib of my life.

Well, note the pic to the left keenly as I would like to point out the cute baby elephant besides the big one.  I found it so cute that I got out of the vehicle and was on my foot taking a close up shot of the baby.  Suddenly I found it was getting bigger and closer in my camera lens and I could hear every one shouting from the car ‘hey come back’. Then I jerked and realized that it was the mother who was coming towards me, I turned back started running towards my car and the animal instinct made even the big elephant run behind me.

 I just managed to get inside the car before the driver sped it in a bypass road to get us quickly out of the animal’s way.  At once everyone started shouting at me, for a little while we were lost and went about here and there and came across this cozy piece of land where we stopped by to have our breakfast packed by the home stay couple.  It was already 10 and we were supposed to get out before 11 am so we quickly packed and got out.  Though it was a short time spent in the wild life park and very little explored, we all had fun and kept laughing about the elephant episode throughout the day. 

Next we proceeded towards the Meenmutty waterfalls located at a height of 300 meters.  We were all excited about the fun we would have at the water gateway.  But soon we were alerted by the driver that it is going to be an athletic and trekking trip there.  Fortunately all of us were having comfy footwear like floaters and sports shoes.  These are the largest falls of Waynad with fantastic view. 

We had some company there and we followed the instructions and climbed down a tiny valley with the help of ropes set by the local administration.  It took us close to an hour to reach the waterfalls and we were breathless and sweating by the time we reached.  We all had fun, played in the water, got drenched despite the cold weather and it was 3pm and time to leave.  We never realized as to how the time went by.  There we were, on our way back through that ropey way, this time it was climbing up and so tough and God, we were so hungry…… Joseph kept motivating us telling about the restaurant where we could have yummy food.  Once we reached the vehicle and fainted inside, Joseph took us all to the Katar Café where we came to senses immediately with the smell of the food.  It was the best meal of the year we had that day.  We freaked out on veg, non-veg and bakery products available there.  After that we were in no shape to go anywhere and went straight back to the home stay, and slept off.

We were up by 9pm and were all ready to welcome the New Year 2012.  Joseph told us about the tree houses in nearby Resorts and took us up to the tree house for a view.  We all piled on to get a chance to and it was so much fun.  We could see people going up in those lift like baskets up to the tree house.  After spending a couple of hours there again we went back to our place to celebrate with a camp fire accompanied with drinks, food and music.  We helped the home stay couple in organizing all these for the party and invited them also to join us; however they spent few minutes and went off.  So we were left on our own to make a lot of noise and dance and party.  But we were all so tired that we just waited till the break of the New Year 2012 to wish each other, called our parents and hit the beds. 

It was a nice long sleep and I kept dreaming of the beautful and green meadows, the mother elephant chasing me, the ropes of the fall and the tree house. I woke up on my own without anyone asking me to and found every one waiting, ready to leave. They all wished me a New Year again and told that they din't want to disturb my first sleep of the year and hence allowed me to sleep till 11am. OMG, aren’t they sweet….well so that was how I invited this year and wish you all a happy and prosperous New Year 2012.