[trtraj]

Appa, where are you taking us for vacation. This was the question from my kids



and we were planning to drive to Coorg and chill for two days, then suddenly i was looking my old photos of Gavi trip i asked my wife why not a stay inside jungle ?. First question was - is there leeches still ?

called up the old Guide to check the weather and leeches presence and found its safe to take them (wife and kids) and he suggested to stay in Tent instead of cottage

keyed in 04869223270 (Gavi booking office Kumily) and requested for a booking for saturday and opted for tent. money transferred online The forest dept in Kerala is very straight in terms of encouraging the tourists and he took my vehicle number for reference (to let me in tollgate). and by 11:00 PM on Friday we packed stuff and decided to start by 4:00 AM because there is no entry after 5:00 PM inside Periyar tiger reserve (yeah it is)

Saturday

Started by 4:20 AM and drove till trichy, stopped for breakfast (my choice in trichy is always sri sangeetha ) had a good food and started driving once again, by 11:15 we were crossing Dindigul Thalappakatti in V(b)athalakundu and decided to get some biriyani packed, done and started once again, just before reaching Theni we noticed a shady Coconut grove where we had food, and moved in, reached Thekkady by 2:50 PM and continued drive to Gavi, my wife is keen on sighting the wild animals and she asked me to stop the car with a shout "yaanai" (elephant) seen a mom and calf in the jungle and took shots





and we started moving,

again she spotted a Nilgiri languor



and a malabar Giant Squirrel



after shooting all we continued drive and reached gavi eco-tourism office by 4:00 PM

After a single driver's (its me) effort we reached and went to office and Got the guide and tent allocated ,

As soon as we entered the Electric fencing my wife asked a strange question, "Thilak, this fence would restrict all animals and i believe it cannot for leopard" OMG that was a million $ question !!

Still i managed to convince her that the leopard will not come where people around

Again there is another issue, we are the "only occupant" out of 12 tents :(




finally after freshing up we went to have tea and started with boating



and then had a micro trek with wife and kids, it lasted for 40 minutes which was about a short mountain climbing on plain grass land and coming back inside the forest



We had seen evidence of elephants by dunk and continued the trek. Guide was explaining about the bamboos that its a elephant's favorite food and suddenly my younger son asked him "uncle won't you sweep the forest ? lots and lots of trash here" with loud laugh we continued our trek and reached the road, and then we also seen the Cardamom plantation and two Barking deers out there.



As the twilight ends we decided to go back to the tent after dinner - The dinner served from 7:30 PM onwards !! I set the alarm for 5:40 for the 6:00 AM safari and held up snoozing it twice because of driving tried and finally got up by 6:20 and got ready for safari, in the meanwhile i got to know that my wife couldn't have a sound sleep because of Krick..krick...krieek... (cicada sound) and tuk..tootootoo tuk tuk...horn bills and other birds, only by that time i understood why she was scared about the fence


Sunday:

we continued for safari and noticed few Nilgiri langur and Malabar Giant Squirrel alone.



nothing else were there in the very first safari, little disappointed and came back after seeing some Bul buls we were back to the tent, by that time almost all the tents were occupied for sunday stay my wife wanted to take rest to balance the disturbed sleep which she had on night and I checked with her for her comfort ability to stay alone for 2 ~ 3 hours and got a green signal for individual trekking, I and guide picked up leech socks and started the trek in bear shola forest

for the first time i spotted a mosquito which bites elephants


Cinnamon trees


different types of spiders & Insects





The bees take this benzion (sambirani in tamil) gel and put it in its hive which prevents the hive from rain (waterproofing) - Information from Guide.



And noticed a mud collection done by elephant



Found a Lion tailed macaque (a rare sight)



finally we were back sharp 12:30 to tent and decided to take a boating in thekkady started my figo and continued towards thekkady, we were trying to reach the periyar house (KTDC hotel inside thekkady) with no response (i was shocked this time) probably the phone is down !!

and we reached thekkady and picked up a stay just next to thekkady entrance in eco-in (please avoid this place for stay) he said 700 for a day and inverter is there

once paid the money asked him to turn on the inverter and i noticed the fan is not running, buzzed him again and found the inverter is only for light ... OMG....we made up our mind that its only for 8 hrs

Monday

Started precisely by 6:00 AM to collect entrance tickets for adults -25 rs each and for car - 50rs and waited for gate to be opened., once the gate opened we started and our vehicle was 7th in row to enter thekkady,

not much impressive other than lots and lots of greenery we continued till the checkpost they have (stoppage for private vehicles), just before i parked the car people started running towards the ticket counter which is around 300 mts from the checkpost. we understood running doesn't make any difference since the seats for the boats are given sequentially

once entered the ticket counter we got the forms to fill up personal details to get the boat allocated and we did so,

i read the ticket and it said Jalrathna (boat name) seat number 1 & 2, i appreciated myself that i didnt run

thekkady been a good place to sight animals and we spotted all of these below











From thekkady we started exactly by 10:15 AM after breakfast in Sandra palace (150 for buffet and no a la carte in the morning) and reached by 2:00 to trichy and continued driving after lunch and reached by 7:00 PM in chennai

the whole trip was awesome as my kids request was fulfilled with excitement and i was happy for shooting

Total FE : 14 + kmpl (Diesel)
toll : approx 700 rs
stay : @ gavi 2500 per person per night

[ampere]

That was one amazing quick fire drive. Nice snaps to supplement to.
How come the Figo FE is on the lower side? Should it not be around 18-19 ?
Also what is your camera gear ?

[trtraj]

I pull the figo to max (in all gears) so thats my mistake and not Figo's

Canon T2i with 100 ~ 400 telephoto, 100 Macro and 18~55

[voyageur]

Hello Raj,

Nicely written and beautiful pics. Gavi was unknown to most of them. It is recently that Gavi became much popular. Thanks for sharing the pics and log.

Would you mind telling me something about T2i. I was actually planning to buy the same, but I don't have much knowledge about photography. So is there any advise you want to give me. I am really new with DSLR's.

Cheers