Photolog - Tirunelli (Wayanad) overnighter
- Part 3/3
Apparently, my friend woke up at 4:30 AM in the morning and went to the temple. I woke up much later, somewhere around 6AM and decided to take a stroll around the neighbourhood. Turned out to be an absolutely wonderful decision - as the early morning fresh air, the fog, the beautiful rural landscape with the view of the majestic Brahmigiri hills playing hide and seek with the rising sun - all were quite a sight to take in!
This being hilly terrain - most fields employed a step irrigation system to retain the water needed for paddy:
On one side - you have the beautiful, seemingly large paddy fields with a large blanket of fog over them:
And on the other side - the mighty Brahmagiri hills painted a picturesque landscape:
Shooting with a wide-angle just because I don't want to get off the road into the slush:
Once back at the hotel, breakfast was a simple, typical Kerala preperation of puttu + kadala curry, with tea - which, once again, I never remembered to click a picture of! Outside the hotel - there was vendors with temporary stalls selling hot bamboo rice payasam (kheer) - that made for an excellent local treat too!
During the onwards journey - I had some issue with the bags, which kept sliding forward ever so slightly whenever it could. So spent some time trying to figure out a better method - and this setup worked like a charm!
Out of Kerala and in the Nagarhole Tiger Reserve once again:
Had a heart-in-the-mouth event with a run-in (quite literally!) with elephants.
I was coming around a corner, concentrating on the bad conditions of the roads - when a movement caught the periphery of my eyes the same time as my friend starting to shout on intercom "aaana... aaana (elephant)". Within a second of me noticing that there were a few of them in the forests slightly to the right and ahead of me - I realize that there is a large matriach in the bushes close to me. Before I could even process my response to this situation - the matriarch starts trumpeting and does a warning charge towards me, raising dust!
In hindsight - I suppose there may have been a calf in the group.
Brain didn't think much - just accelerated out of the situation in reflex before she could reach the road - but the next second I was staring at the mirrors wondering if she would turn around for the Street Triple. He was wondering whether to turn back in haste, but the matriach withdrew into the forest after having made her intentions clear with me, probably due to the additional sound of an approaching bus. With her at a safe distance and the rest of the family calmly walking back - he clicked this picture before moving on.
I later joked (PJ, i know!) on the intercom that elephants are known to be aggressive towards 'Tigers'
, but this was not a comfortable situation (though not life threatening or anything as I still had distance between us!) and I would certainly be more wary of elephants while crossing forest areas in the future
PS: He so missed capturing this on video - that an Insta360 x4 has been quickly ordered!
Posing with the fake one, after being threatened by the real one:
Beautiful roads out of Nagarhole once again, leading back to H D Kote
Short break at H D Kote before hitting the highways, same place as we stopped during the onward journey.
The return from here was pretty ordinary and nothing much could top the elephant experience - so didn't click any pics afterwards. Was back home by around 6PM after dropping off his luggage at his place. He seems to have had an absolute blast with the 765 RS - so hoping to see more of the bike again in action as compared to the Honda!