Jungle Retreat Mudumalai, The Nilgiris.

Finally after lots of discussions the place and participants were confirmed on June 5, 2008. The team - Maja, Zoe, Sathish and myself. On 6/6 we got our rooms booked at Jungle Retreat through the phone and we were helped by Nandini, the resort Manager.

We had scheduled to leave Bangalore by 1400hrs on 6/20 but got stuck up while procuring the beverages. At last we started at 1600hrs in an Innova, with Malikarjun as our pilot. We planned to take the route Bangalore - Mysore- Gundulpet --Teppakadu - Masinagudi - Jungle Retreat. We stopped first at CCD for a tank clearing break at 1645hrs. Did some small shopping there. Moved on. The roads till Gundulpet were very good. After that , they were in a wrong shape. this reduced our pace. In b/w we had stopped at Lalit Mahal. Took some snaps, cleared our tanks and again continued our journey. We managed to reach the resort by 2200hrs. Had our dinner . The food was Delicious. The music was simply good. Good No's were been played. We got to see a live band there and the singer was none else, Nandini. Cool ! The booze and the drive had made me really lost. We retired soon to our beds. I slept like a baby that night :)

6/21-- 1000Hrs we reached the living area for the BF. We had missed the early morning safari/trek. Got our trek planned for 1100hrs. Zoe and Danny ( the trip coordinator ) planned all the activities for the day and next. After our BF we went to the pool side and spent some time there. Maja was determined to make her new cam handy before the trip ends. She was reading the camera manual sitting by the pool side. Jungle retreat has a very good pool. We dint have much of a time to use it though. Sidda was the guide allocated for us. He was also a bird photographer and had done more than 20 nestings. We all geared up with our cams and started to trek at 1100hrs. The sun was high and all the animals had gone to shelters and hence had very less chances of seeing the animals in the wild. We trekked for nearly for 180 mins. The trek was really good. Spotted the rare Malabar squirrel. After reaching the hill top, it was such a good feeling -- fresh air , greenery all around. No one to disturb us. No mobile calls. There is no other network than BSNL available in the jungle. We reached back to the resort by 1400Hrs for lunch. Before the lunch Zoe and Sathish tried some Mojito. I had my minted lemon juice. The lunch was really good. It had both veg and non veg dishes.

We went back to our barracks after lunch for resting. By the way we were booked into standard rooms. The rooms are spacious and has all the luxury what we can expect in the midst of a forest. Morning we can find herds of deer near to our cottages. If i remember correctly ours was cottage no 6 and no 7. I would suggest these two if anyone is planning to visit the place. Maja retired to bed for a small nap. Zoe was into the process of making Sangria ( Red wine + Jinn + Fresh juices) . Sathish and myself were the wine tasters there. The drink was good. While making the drink Zoe revealed her plans of opening a wine bar. She promised us that we would be in the guest list for sure at the inauguration. I went around the resort in the mean time and did some clicking. We got geared up for our safari in Mudumalai forest. We reported at 1600 Hrs for the safari. Basi and Ravi were our guide and driver respectively. The drive in the jeep was really thrilling. We spotted some deer, peacocks, Gaurs, Mongoose during the safari. We went to a near by river to watch the elephants taking bath. Later visited the elephant feeding center. Here we could take lot of good pics with elephants. We reached back to the resort by 2030hrs. After couple of drinks we had our dinner and retired to bed by 2330hrs as we had to wake up at 0500 for the safari at bandipur. A wake up call was arranged. Viewed the pics taken through out the day and said good night to a good memorable day !

6/22 -- 0500 Hrs we woke up. Got geared up. Had to manage with a bucket of water as there was no water coming in the taps. Drove till bandipur in our car. From there we were taken in the forest dept gypsy. Sunil was our guide cum driver. Here we were really in to the forest. We spotted the Deer, Eagle , Peacocks,etc. This safari was really thrilling than the last evening one at Mudumalai. On the way back to resort we had the luck to see a gigantic wild elephant. He inspires us to be in the wild and get wild ! Reached back resort by 0900hrs and had our breakfast. Got back to our barracks, got freshened up. Packed our backpacks and started our journey back to Blore at 1200hrs. We stopped at CCD, Gundulpet for packing our lunch. We reached blore by 1750 hrs. We had plan's to party at night but cancelled the same as all were tired and Maja and Zoe had their early morning flights back to US.

The trip was really memorable. We dedicate this to Maja and Zoe . We thank Rogan, Nandini, Siddha, Danny, Pradeep, Karupan at the jungle
retreat for making our stay a memorable one. The experience we all had was so good that 'n' no of words or no picture can express !!! Sharing some moments ... please Click here


Even though the team parts now, we will meet again for another blast but with a difference -- Maja, Zoe and myself reducing min 10lbs and Sathish reducing on his cigis. Before keeping my pen down, allow me to quote Robert Frost --- "The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep".