Down the Nilgris Mountains- A journey to South Asia, the Jungle Chapter

[The Jeep we took up the Mountain]

We woke up at 4:15am excited to start the day because we were driving up the mountain again, this time to hike down it. There are not many moments when I have felt more adventurous. We drove up the mountain as the sun peaked over the horizon, and shot it’s colorful rays into the dark clouds. Roger sent us on this trip with two trusted men in a jeep. One of them knew a little English, so he explained to me the best he could that we were first going to pick up two more jungle guides. The sun had completely risen when we stopped to wait about 30 minutes for our 2 extra jungle guides to come. We all rolled out of the back of the jeep, feeling so relieved for the opportunity to regain our composure. Our stomachs certainly were happy for the rest. Almost everyone was nauseous from the curvy bumpy ride.

A young boy walked by with a black lab puppy on a rope leash. It was so cute, and I looked at it with a Oh-I-really-want-to-hold-you-but-I-shouldn’t-because-neither-of-us-have-had-a-rabbis-vaccine face, and our driver read my face and called out to the boy for me to hold the puppy anyways. So after a few minutes cuddling with the puppy, and taking in several deep breaths looking out into the valley to resettle my stomach, our two extra jungle guides emerged from the village. Roger told us that they were so in tune with the forest that they could smell a tiger if it were near.

[A little girl we met as we waited for our other two jungle guides.]

Here is the Jurassic Park Theme song for you to listen to as you read:

We took another short drive to where we would start our hike. We start by walking in between fields of tea. Now by this point, I had to go pee, and I knew I couldn’t be the only one. So I asked our guide who knew the most English, “Do you know where we can use the bathroom? (crap, they don’t use the word “bathroom”) Um, I mean the toilet…even though I know there isn’t a toilet out here, but really we just have to go pee.” Gracefully worded… I know. He was like, “Yes, Yes. I understand”, and then he pointed us girls to the tea field while he took the boys further down the path to do their business. Us four girl just squatted in a circle and peed in the middle of an open tea field. I can’t remember the last time I laughed so hard.

We came to the opening of jungle, and our English speaking guide told us that we must be silent from here on out. All I had brought to India was sandals and flip-flops, which I couldn’t wear on this hike, so Roger had generously let Carlie and I borrow so of his own hiking boots. I walked through the forest like it was a wonderland with the team. All of us knew that at any moment we could spot a tiger, panther, leopard, or an elephant. On one hand, it felt like danger could be around any corner, or behind any bush. On the other hand, we had three Indian jungle guides for the six of us, so there was no sense in feeling any kind of fear except wonder.

I slowly felt it coming on, those leather shoes were too much for my soft feet. Every step began to feel like someone was inside my boots sawing into my heel with a serrated knife. (gruesome I know) I tried my best to keep quiet for a long time. I knew I wasn’t the only one getting a little uncomfortable, so I tried my best not to mention it until we stopped for a water break and I got to take my shoes off. I took off my socks, to find sufficient proof of my pain on both my heels. I told Grace, “Oh, Grace, I wish I could walk down the rest of the mountain on clouds. I don’t think I can bear to put these shoes back on.” I couldn’t even manage to get the shoes back on my feet. Brent donated his socks, and I decided that I should just walk down the rest of the mountain in a double layer of socks, and pray I don’t step on a briar…

(And for those of you who are thinking, “What a big baby” right now. I’ll have you know that it has been almost 2 months now since this day, and I still can’t wear shoes that touch my heels. I self diagnosed it later to be an Achilles tendon injury.)

I started walking down towards our guides in my socks, and our English speaking guide asked me what was wrong. I explained to him that I couldn’t bear to put my shoes back on. Then began a beautiful moment of Indian kindness and hospitality, he took his shoes off and gave them to me. They were cushy sandals, with big soft straps. He gave the leather boots I was wearing to one of the other guides, and that guide wore flip-flops down the rest of the mountain. I began to walk in the cushy sandals, and they literally felt like clouds. I couldn’t believe it. God answered my prayer through the kindness of our jungle guides.

I nearly forgot about the pain completely with those sandals on. I’m so grateful.

That day we quickly packed up our things. I double checked the rooms to make sure we got everything, and we were on our way home.

Mid-way through the trip home, we went to a bird sanctuary. Check out the bird and crocodile pictures. It was so cool.

Half-way home Roger got a call his cell phone, and looked back at us and asked, "Did anyone leave their wallet?" I thought, "for sure not me... I double checked everything." I began to search through my bookbag and purse, and there was no wallet to be found. Roger remained completely calm, and he said, "don't worry, we'll get it to you". I didn't know how in the world he would figure out how to get it to me, but I went ahead and trusted him.

but, really!? I left my wallet in the tree house back in the jungle!? So frustrating!

[Rebecca and Carlie in the middle of the hike]

[Posing with the baby cow after the hike...see that mountain behind us? That's the one.]

[Those black things are fruit bats. aww, "Stella Luna" :) ]

The Mystery of the Stolen Soap and Other Things- A Journey to South Asia, the Jungle Chapter

I woke up in the morning a little startled to hear banging on the roof and screeching. I peeked out the unsealed door hinge to see a female monkey just taking a stroll on our front porch. I quickly got dressed what was going on. I grabbed my bible and journal, and let the other girls sleep in since we had been on such a rigorous schedule the week before.

I found a seat out on the balcony, and I could hear a monkey screaming angrily on the tree branches next to the boys room. It obviously woke Brock up because he began screaming back at it from inside his room. I just sat on the porch and giggled. I mean really- monkeys woke us up?! I love it.

The angry monkey looked a little territorial, and climbed around to the front of the house to get a look at me. It sat on a branch about 10 feet away from me and stopped screaming to stare me down. I just stared right back at in the eyes and eventually it got the hint. It left our tree, and it didn’t come back. Take that monkey.

Eventually Brock and Brent came out to see what it was. (Brock must have woken Brent up with his screaming.) Apparently the bars of soap that they had put in their shower the night before were gone, and there began, The Mystery of the Stolen Soap.

Maybe they misplaced it. Maybe mice ate it. Maybe the soap was just a figment of their imagination, but I think it was the monkeys. I think the monkey snuck into their unlatchable window and stole the rosemary mint scented soap. For what purpose? We will never know.

[Suspect #1]

I walked down to the creek next to our tree house to finish my quiet time. I had to get to it by walking down a convenient staircase down into the 20 foot ravine. For maybe 10 minutes the only thing I was thinking about was my tiger escape plans.

Now if you’d like a quick Animal Planet lesson here it is: The Tiger, Panthera Tigeris, is the largest of all the big cats. They can reach up to 11 feet long and 660 pounds. It is India’s national animal, and India is home to the largest population of wild tigers. Although humans are not regular prey for tigers, they have killed more people than any other cat, and although they are an endangered species, it’s still kinda scary to walk down to a creek in the Indian jungle by yourself—even if just to pray.

[Man eating Tiger from Calcutta. 1903. Killed 200 people.]

This is what I came up with:

Plan A: Get Getto Crunk on that Tiger, and bow up and scream, “GET AWAY FROM ME IN THE NAME OF JESUS!!!”

Plan B: Run up the ravine as fast as possible. Run to the Tree in house. Run up the first flight of stairs, and then the second. Try to get in the girls room, and if the girls had locked the door from the inside… then my life would just be over and the girls would open the door to see my poor mangled body and a gigantic tiger waiting to get them too.

Despite all these gruesome thoughts, I could feel Jesus reassuring me that I would see no Tigers, and that I could stay there as long as I wanted, so I did.

Roger came to pick us up. Breakfast with Samuel was simple, toast and eggs. Roger took us to his farm again, and back behind his house was an natural elephant haven. Brock, Carlie, Grace and I walked down a steep path and into a dry river bed with a small river winding through it. There was elephant poop everywhere, and the bamboo sounded like a chorus of creaking doors. It felt like an elephant wonderland.

[Elephant Haven]

We walked back up the steep path, and as I was coming back into Roger’s yard I about stepped on a tiny lime green snake about 1 foot long. It quickly squiggled away, and we lost it.

We then left Roger’s farm and began the trek up the Nilgris Mountains to a city just over the peak called Ooty. We wove through 32 hairpin turns. Some of us were feeling sick, but I was not. The view was incredible. I just felt so full of joy! .

[Fields of Tea were terrace all through the mountains]

The Scorpio started to overheat 3/4ths of the way up the mountain. Not good. We all got out and walk about 100 yards up the mountain, and found the Scorpio parked. The whole way up the mountain I had Waterdeep’s line, “Go tell it to the mountain tops, that I’m alive! Dark and Night are not your masters.” The car was leaking orange liquid. We waited about a half hour for it to cool off, so we took pictures by St. Josephs Church.

• Go by Waterdeep

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[Our picture by St. Joseph's Church]

[St. Joseph's Church]

While we were waiting I tried (unsuccessfully) to catch a little yellow butterfly. I tried for maybe 10 minutes, and it never flew away from me. It just delicately hovered all around my hands, but quickly dodged them every time I went for it. This little butterfly was significant to me because I had the same one when I was about 8 years old. I think I bought it at a school book fair, and it was dead and pinned inside of a little clear plastic box. It was my treasure as any 8 year old girl holds on to something tiny and beautiful. It was an itty bitty butterfly, not bigger then an inch. Mostly yellow wings, but with one black marking at the top of each wing. Being sentimental as I am, it really touched me, that God would allow me to have that same kind of butterfly when I was a little girl, and then show me their origin when I’m a young woman. Maybe I’m sappy, but to me it was confirmation that God had known about this experience in India long before I had. This butterfly apparently is only in India, and the only place I saw it was in the mountains.

[ThePlain Sulphur (Dercas lycorias)]

We poured the rest of our bottled water into the coolent container under the hood, and took off for about 5 more minute to the peak of the mountain. The car was greatly relieved when we started to go down hill again. We coasted into the little city of Ooty, pasted the Kingfisher man’s Ooty house, and went to Café Coffee Day in the city while Roger went to go get the car fixed. Grace and I had personal veggie pizzas, and we split some delicious chocolate icecream brownie desert. Rebecca had a spicy chicken sandwich. Brock and Carlie ordered personal chicken pizza, and all Brent ate was a special brownie desert that came out on the same plate that fajitas come out on. The server poured hot fudge over it, and it boiled and steamed… the way molten chocolate lava should be.

We went across the street and did a little shopping. I brought a pack of 8 Bhindis for 4 rupees. (the cheapest/funnest thing I bought in India). Bhindis are a decorative little sticker to stick between the eyebrows. They are not religious. When a personal has painted a dot, or put colored powered in-between their eyebrows, it is usually from a Hindu alter from a prayer asking for a third spiritual eye. My cute little Bhindi’s are always decorative with no religious association though… so I thought they were fun.

[Indian Women, I'm not sure who the artist is]

We did have plans to go explore a waterfall, but our car trouble kept us in the little city. I was a little sad about that. I love waterfalls! Oh well, We found some cool knives for the men in our lives, and I bought a couple things for my mom and a yellow silk scarf for me. The scarf was about 100 rupees ($2).

Met back in Café Coffe Day and bought some Snapple for 120 rupees (way too much again, Snapple… Snapple, do you really have to be overpriced everywhere?)

I also bought some Non-Sense brand tea, the same kind of tea Roger’s wife uses. I hope to duplicate her tea when I get home. I bought my Dad some peanuts, but when I showed them to Roger he said that I should probably not give my Dad those because he’s afraid they might make him sick.

We drove back down the mountain, and Roger stopped to let me take a picture of the mountains. I hopped out of the car, and my skirt got all caught in briars. I thought, “Oh, I can just get out of this”, but after several minutes of everyone in the car watching me struggle in the briars, Rebecca hopped out of the car and saved me… I’m not even sure if the picture was that good.

We drove to a restaurant and had mashed potatoes and other American dishes. We had great conversation about sperm donors, drinking your own urine, and yes, if you and I were trekking in frozen Alaska, and you died, and I was starving I would eat you, and no Brent, I didn’t know that the butt would be best to eat, but thank you for that tidbit of information.

Just as we were walking to our car, we heard some commotion from the workers at the restaurant. Apparently there was a wild elephant in the dark just beyond the fence. A man positioned his Jeep headlights into the brush so we could get a better look. There it was, a full grown male wild elephant. We stood at a distance, in awe, watching him eat. Apparently this same elephant had climbed on top of one of their cars and the two story building next door before. It had climbed up the stairs! They said the BBC had come out before to do a story on it.

A man came and told us, with his finger pointed into the darkness, “A women spotted a tiger just over there this morning.” Creepy…

After a long day of wildlife adventures, we went back to sleep like the Swiss family Robinson in our tree house. We didn’t go driving, looking for tigers after dinner because we knew we’d have to get up at 4:15am for our mountain trek in the morning.

I slept so light because the boys were in charge of waking us up in at 4:15am. None of us girls had brought a watch or alarm. It was so windy outside, and I could feel the whole tree house swaying and creaking. I woke up several times thinking the boy were stirring and fixing to wake us up… I thought I heard something going up in their room.

[Keep reading for the continuation of our Jungle Adventures…and comment so I don’t feel like talking to myself.]