First stop: the Nilgiri Hills. Six hours of driving from Banaglore, and V., my driver, and I arrived at the Mudumulai Nature Reserve in Tamil Nadu state. Just for one night, but it felt like a whole new world after the congestion of Bangalore. The landscape was fantastic, and you could really feel that we were in the mountains; I required a sweater in the morning and evening hours.
Elephant camp.
Each elephant has a set diet. So cute.
The next morning, we went out to look for some elephants in the wild. I never realized how easy and yet how difficult that would be. How many elephants can there be just lumbering freely around a country of over 1 billion people? Well, I guess over a thousand in this particular reserve. At the same time, it was miraculous how something so big could slip away into the forest so quietly. All in all, I probably saw about 25 elephants, some bison, monkeys, and parakeets.
We had a local, helping us track. I never expected to see stocking caps in southern India, but here you have it. They were all over the place in this part of the country. You can’t tell from this photo, but this dude’s cap is pink, his shirt yellow, and his skirt turquoise. They really aren’t afraid of color here! Jungle fashion week?
The evidence. It was so interesting, the coolie would slide his flip-flop off to determine the warmth and thereby age of the dung. These guys really did know how to find them.
