Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Wanderlust!


The perfect road trip. Today is the time for it!

By Dhruvaraj S from India,CC-BY-2.0, via Wikimedia Commons


So, we packed our bags and set-off for that trip we long wanted to happen. We knew that the best time for a road trip to the Muthanga Wildlife Sanctuary would be the monsoons. We imagined us dancing around our car when the rain was pouring. We started our journey at 7 am in the morning from Kozhikode. We had to travel about 200 kilometres to reach Muthanga, and it would take almost 3 hours to reach the place. Of course, 'we' refers to me and my sister.


Our car is a Maruti A-Star (2011). I occupied the driver's seat and my sister sat on the adjacent seat. We set off at 60 kilometres per hour. The interior of the car was spacious, and we left our luggage on the backseat. The AC was on, which made us very comfortable. We want our car to smell fresh, so we had Ambi Pur to soothe our olfactory senses. The road was wide and not slippery though it was raining a bit. There was not too much traffic at that time. We were, in short, traveling in the perfect car and heading towards a perfect trip!


 We reached Muthanga by 11 am. We parked the car in the Sanctuary and came out of the car with our binoculars, caps and cameras. The binoculars were to look for interesting wild animals, the caps to protect us from drenching heavily in the rain and the cameras to capture them. We walked into the forest through a small mountain-road, and captured the pictures of snakes, lizards and various birds. By around 1 pm, we returned back to the car. We had our lunch from inside the car because it was raining outside. It was fun to have a lunch with my sister, in a fully closed compartment like a car, while it was raining outside. The thrill of being able to watch the rain from the wild excited us. 

After the rains, we came out of the car to meet a group of adventurers who were planning to camp within the forest. We wished them good luck and gave them tips to follow while in the forest. It was almost 3 pm by the time we said good-bye to the group, and we decided that it was time to wind up the trip and return home. 

On the way back, we saw a herd of elephants crossing the road. It was a beautiful moment as there were more than 20 elephants and their cubs walking across the road, peacefully and eloquently. That was a moment to cherish, so my sister suddenly got out of the car and took a picture of the elephants. This is one of  the most beautiful pictures I have ever seen!

We reached back to Kozhikode by around 6 pm. We made an album out of the photographs taken by us. To our surprise, we were appreciated for the effort taken by us in obtaining original pictures of wildlife in Muthanga. This was the perfect road trip we ever had, a journey I will never forget! 


This blog post is written as a part of Ambi Pur India 'The best road trip contest' conducted by Ambi Pur and Indiblogger. Thank you, Ambi Pur and Indiblogger for bringing up this wonderful contest!