Field Diaries: Mudigere

So that day I did sleep out in the veranda. It was cool, a different experience! Just that the sound and light from the lorries made life a little uncomfortable. It became cool sometime around midnight and I passed into sleep. It's beautiful to spread out your sleeping bag anywhere under the sky and to just sleep.

We moved to this place last evening. Looks like a place in shambles - abandoned forest quarters - and I swear - no electricity, no running water this time. The water has to be fetched 100 meters away from a nursery hose. Anyway, quite used to 'no electricity' part, and also used to 'fetching water' for bath and toilet use, so this seems not very difficult. And interestingly, my cell phone shows 5 bars here! Full signal! I cannot recall when I had signal last. I took a bath outside - near the nursery behind an abandoned structure - in the dark. Was a bit apprehensive about the whole process so just got going full speed and was done before I knew it. Nobody comes that way I know. But it was in the open and I was uncomfortable. Anyway, it was cool and refreshing after the day's walk. It was a short and easy walk yesterday. Weather's playing friends so the sun was nice and gentle and didn't beat down on us with unrelenting fury. It was after the walk that we arrived at these quarters.

Today: My last but one walk. My last but one night as a part of this camp. I can't believe it, day after tomorrow I'd be heading towards Bangalore. I think Bangalore with it's traffic and people would be a little shocking. I've become used to living in quiet surroundings - often with no electricity or running water - with an odd bunch of people I call my teammates - Bangalore, city life, back to comfort and family, home, would kind of feel strange. At least in the beginning. Well, well, well....

I had grapefruit today, fresh from the farm. It was quite nice. The plantation owners knew the senior forest guard well. So courtesy him, we were treated very well. Fresh grapefruit, majjige, bananas...On our way back - dark clouds started gathering and it suddenly poured down. There was a storm and really heavy downpour accompanied by hail. I could see big branches falling off trees on both sides as we sped through the teak plantations. A huge bamboo cluster had fallen onto the road blocking it completely, so we had to stop and wait for the rain to subside. A forest rain-drenched, looks fresh and rejuvenated - nothing can beat the green of the forest at this time - it looks so beautiful.

What do we do now...wait, turn back, find an alternate way? Searching beneath the seats we found an axe, our field assistant keeps it there for emergency, and I could now understand why. So when the rain subsided a little, P and our guide jumped out and started clearing away the fallen branches. P started axing the bamboo, the guide and I cleared as many fronds, branches off the road as we could. It was still raining - we got drenched but managed to clear half the road so the vehicle could pass by, and it did! Our joy at clearing this obstacle and moving ahead got dampened when just a few hundred meters ahead there was this huge teak tree that had fallen on the road. There was no way we could clear this one...it would take a few hours and it was already evening. So we turned back and took a detour into a mud road(between the first road block and the second). Our guide luckily knew the area well and on his hunch we continued on this muddy track which led us through some plantations and forests and finally after an hour(and a few other roadblocks)brought us onto a main road again. It was while clearing one of these fallen trees which probably had an ant's nest on it, and which unfortunately in a hurry and in the rain I didn't quite see, I got some nasty bites on my hands which were to itch and pain long after the camp was over.