Our adventure hiking... continued

As we continued along the bank we were moving upstream and hence the water was gushing at an increased pace. Using the scientific knowledge that crocs don’t dwell in running water, many of the members in the group decided to take a dip. However they kept a watchful eye and ensured to remain close to the bank.

We on the other hand had a hearty snack while others had a splash. I was not too keen to jump in the water and then complete the trek in those drenched clothes! As it is walking after getting wet is too tough – walking while donning the wet clothes was out of question for me! :D

After this short break we continued on our path for the next 1 hr. Again we encountered some men- two or three of them forest officials, having a hearty meal close to the river. Some of them had come in a coracle. Seeing us one of them came and said, the area beyond this point is cordoned off. There have been some poacher sightings and there could be blasts in some time.

We were quite puzzled by these statements. Blasts to catch a poacher? Didn’t make sense! What was even more suspicious was that when we went to the place where they had been having food we found some carcass of a wild animal. Wonder who the poachers were? However seeing the officials and this being the second warning we decided not to test our luck beyond this and decided to have a quick bite before planning the next course of action. Some enthusiast in the group decided to take a detour and trek the hillock close by while we had the ‘Bhel’!

Now we had the ingredients and it was just a matter of mixing the stuff. As we laid out our unusual meal we had some uninvited guests too- the monkeys! Lots of them. Left with just 6 people we had to fend for ourselves. Basically, eat and keep the monkeys at bay at the same time!

The monkeys on their part acted as if this was ‘WAR’. They actually had their group divided into two parts and tried to attack the food from both ends! We wielded our sticks at them, but it didn’t make a difference to them. The smallest of monkeys shrieked at us – as if to say, ‘You guys come on our turf and assume you could have all the food while we stared!’ But we were not to be bogged down by this. The war for food began and we were actually protecting our food like we were a bunch of tribals! :P

Finally, we were victorious and hence we decided to leave some food for the monkeys to feast on! As it is, it was unlikely that they had ‘Bhel’ before! Also while we were lunching we did hear two blasts. Poachers or no poachers the blasts were enough to rattle us up and we decided to take the safe trip back! Fighting with monkeys is one thing, but imagine having to thread some dynamite field- no way, this was not even some reality show that expects participants to do such dumb things!

As we walked back the cherry on the icing happened. It rained cats and dogs while we huddled three in an umbrella! The weather was beautiful and the forest was suddenly in its full bloom. It was a treat to watch… just being there at that moment!