One fine day, we decided to trek through Chimmony
Wildlife Sanctaury. We had to make few calls to make sure the program is still
available and finally decided to go for it on a Sunday. When we spoke through
the phone, they had asked us to reach the gate at 8.00 AM in the morning. Its
almost 2 hours’ drive from Cochin. The final 15-20 Kms drive will give you a
heavenly feeling. There will not be much traffic.
We reached the gate around 7.40 AM. We were waiting for the guards to open the counter so that we could get our passes. In a while, a forest guard who was on a two-wheeler coming from the forest side said, there is a tusker who has blocked the road. I was quite excited on earing that & I was like why they were not allowing us so that at least we could see this tusker if we do not get to see any other animal during our trekking.
There was one more group (6 members) who had come to visit the Chimmony dam. Dillu went to the counter and spoke to the guard and he informed us that our guide would soon arrive with whom we can leave. Then other group also came to know about trekking, but they were not allowed because the group had only 2 ladies who were eligible for trekking. The rest members were either aged or kids below 12. Hence, they dropped the plan & decided just to visit the dam.
In a while the guide who was assigned for us arrived and he asked us to follow him. He led us through the forest and it was hardly 3 min ride from the main gate, the tusker was standing on the middle of the road which we had to pass through. There were couple of forest guard around it. They were trying to distract him and lead him to the forest. We stopped for 2 minutes and saw it was busy munching on a palm leaf. It was a Y junction and we had to take the longer route so that we can park our car & start the trekking program.
After parking the car & taking a backpack along,
we started our program for the day. There was a medicinal garden on the way which
we had to pass. It was hardly 2 min of our walk; we could hear some sound of
the branches as though someone was pulling it. But me & the trek guide were
too busy talking that we did not pay attention to that sound. Dillu had already
seen HIM and he was asking us to keep quiet. Without knowing what is ahead, we
continued to talk & walk. Suddenly I felt something moving on my right, in
midst of dried bushes. I got scared and ran to my left. The tusker also got
scared & he ran to the right, towards the direction of the dam. Had it run
towards me, I would not have been alive today to write this blog today. PHEW!!!
Meanwhile even our guide ran towards opposite direction & he was asking us
not to run. These all happened in a fraction of seconds. It took us a while to return
to normal.
The half of the sanctuary is moist deciduous category while rest of the sanctuary is covered by tropical evergreen & tropical semi evergreen forest. The forest seemed to be very dry initially, but we had shades of the tall trees because of which we were not hit by the sun directly. It is not a hard trek and since the forest was dry, no leech attacks as well. But one has to be prepared for wild encounters or attacks. It would be a different experience during rains, but its better to avoid monsoon because of landslide & soil erosion. At a point, we could hear the breaking of branches again. So, we stopped moving & tried to see in the direction from where sound was heard. But we were not lucky to see the animal. The place where we had stopped was surrounded by big trees and so we decided to take rest for a while. We had energy bar & drank water that we carried along with us and sat that for a while enjoying the gentle breeze, rustling sound of trees, chirping sound of birds & other different species and smell of the forest. Altogether it felt magical.
After 10 minutes, we started to walk and after covering quite some distance, we stopped at a place where it seemed like a huge wall. There were water holes as well. Our guide shared that it is a waterfall, which had dried up right now. During rainy season, we would cover this waterfall from the top. Again, it was a time for a short break. We heard cracking sound of breaking wood thrice, but were not lucky to spot any. All the way we could see was dry & wet elephant dungs. We saw few parrots & other species of birds, a small snake and other reptiles like Chameleon, Skink.
It took 3.5 hours to complete our trek and to reach the dam site where we rested for a while. The dam area has been maintained very well with few concrete benches and there is a small café. To sum up, it was a refreshing workout on a Sunday in the lap of nature.