Giant Tusker blocking road, Wild Baston ready for a fight, closed highway and no where to go at midnight !!!
We had gone to South India and were travelling from Wayand to Coorg that day.
We were in the jungles around Nagarhole national park and Tiger reserves. After a great evening arti at Thirunelli Temple, we left for Coorg on the highway through the jungles..
It was around 8 pm in evening with fading lights on the way back from temple a giant tusker was blocking the highway. Complete road remained blocked for more than a hour till our giant left for the night.
It was complete dark by then and the driver himself was worried now as he wanted to clear the wild area quickly… while coming down the hill we found another road block. This time it was right in front of our car and I was in front seat, I can never forget those shining eyes. The driver told it was an Indian Bison and can over turn the car in moment. So the car ignition was switched off and we remained quiet waiting for our friend to free the narrow hill road.
Finally the gentleman moved out of the way and we went ahead. Once we reached the Karnataka and Kerala border.. another disaster was waiting for us. It was already around 10 pm and we found that the border is closed now as in evening no traffic is permitted.
While doing the Planning and checking the road trip routes.. we could never guess that the shortest route also has time conditions which google will not show at that moment… It will show a new route only when Google Maps is used at that time. Learning for the future
Anyways this created panic in the car, with people searching for nearest hotel to spend the night, nearest route or how to remain saved from the wild animals around. Unfortunately the mobile connection wasn’t working so yes it was a painful moment.
We finally decided to drive back in opposite direction and find a forest checkpost for guidance. And we did find one nearby, they guided us to a long detour to reach Coorg. To add insult to injury…. It started raining cats and dogs and driving through the gushing rain and poor lit highway was another adventure which kept everyone reciting hanuman chalisha
Finally we reached the borders of Karnataka and reached Coorg at 1 am in night.So a couple hours of drive became a midnight travel with everyone cursing me as I was the planner.
Lessons learnt the hard way.. No risk in jungle areas , in bad monsoon conditions and unknown territory.
#End2020