In the second half of September 2016, I very nonchalantly drove to a place called Gonikoppal in Karnataka in the Safari that’s seen in these pages. We do a lot of travel stories at evo India and every one is unique but with the Safari, we were pushing further and driving to hard-to-find places. After a long day at the wheel, we stayed the night in Gonikoppal. The next morning we proceeded an hour and a half south of this place to our first adventure in the Safari. We drove through a river and explored jungle trails, got bitten by leeches and got the Safari sideways too for kicks. After so much fun, I was looking forward to the series of stories coming up. We drove to Bangalore the next day, and on our way, there was a road block. The police informed us that we couldn’t proceed because there was a curfew. We assumed it would be in one of the passing towns so we took a detour, drove through a small village and joined the highway a little ahead only to find another roadblock. This time there was no police, only angry protesters were burning logs. After calling a few friends, we found out that the Kaveri river dispute had put this part of the state on high alert. We were unfortunately in the middle of it.
Thankfully I was driving an SUV like the Safari and not some car. Every road that led to Bangalore had roadblocks with burning logs and angry mobs so we stayed off the main roads, found the smallest arterial roads on Google Maps and drove through them. The situation was so tense that we couldn’t stop anywhere. We just had to keep moving and stay away from any groups of people. That day I drove the Safari through fields, through slush, on dirt tracks, on roads that weren’t wide enough to keep the mirrors open, over burning logs and away from riotous mobs. It took me 14 hours for a five-hour drive. We saw a burning building in front of us, charred buses and trucks, and escaped hot-headed goons by driving over dividers and gassing it over speed breakers. The day would easily pass off as an action scene in a thriller movie. But we got to our hotel in Bangalore without a scratch, the anti-climax I was very happy about. If not for this SUV, I wonder how we would have survived that day. We couldn’t dare take out our cameras for fear of being attacked so there is no proof of that day. But starting off from Bangalore to Coorg in this Safari for our last story in this series, I feel so nostalgic writing about this adventure.
The drive to a place called Polibetta is almost the same as to Gonikoppal. So we passed Mandya on the highway, I remember the spot where the police roadblock was, we even stopped at the same café en route for masala dosas for breakfast. We passed the Dubare Elephant camp on the way where two tuskers were in a tussle, drove past the detour to Nagarhole wildlife sanctuary and then we turned in to the road that went through Tata Coffee plantations where we were going to stay for the next few days. A peaceful drive to Coorg was exactly what I wanted after our last drive in this region. Since we were in early and the rest of the day was ahead of us, we drove in to Nagarhole. The sanctuary has a tarmac road passing right through the forest and private vehicles are allowed to enter. Rohit had missed all the jungle drives we did in the past few months so he insisted we spend a lot more time at Nagarhole.
Animals live by patterns. They will stay away from busy roads where vehicles pass regularly. Even inside forest trails, if too many people enter a space, spotting animals will be rare. Forest officials as a result control the number of vehicles entering the forest every day. Private vehicles aren’t allowed to venture into these trails but if you are lucky, a few animals might cross the road. Spotted deer line these roads for the safety they present. Most carnivores will not come to these areas so the deer feel safer here as we found out during our drive through the forest. Hundreds of them can be seen in the 38km stretch. Hope dies fast though and after crawling for almost an hour and spotting only deer, I was about to pick up some speed and get out of our boring jungle drive. Just then, we stopped in our tracks. A massive male elephant with tusks as big as my arm spotted us before we saw it, turned its head towards us and challenged us to a staring match. It was barely a hundred feet away and alone. We were alert of the situation as lone males are known to be aggressive and hormonal. Nothing could be done besides waiting for him to pass. We were in awe but there was also nervous energy in the air for the next couple of minutes till he crossed the road and went in to the bushes on our left. What a sight! Our adventure in Coorg had well and truly begun.
We got to the sprawling Tata Coffee plantation trails bungalow after driving through Nagarhole. A 148-year old bungalow restored and appointed with Victorian furniture sat in the middle of coffee plantations. It’s a lovely place to unwind for a weekend with luxurious rooms and delicious food but we didn’t have much time. The wild elephant spotting in Nagarhole had convinced us to take the full jungle safari in hired vehicles the next morning with the hope of spotting the tiger so we were up at 4am for another tour of the jungle.
It took us six hours into the numerous trails without a single major spotting though. Wild elephants, bison, deer, monkeys, boars but no tiger or leopard. I took a nap for a while but was woken up as we came to a halt. A pair of Dhole (wild dogs) had hunted a deer on the road just minutes before we reached and were feasting on it a few metres away from us. It is a very rare sight. Again like a hook, that sighting encouraged us to drive through the sanctuary one last time in the Safari. We didn’t see anything interesting on the way back and were further out of Coorg as we exited the far gate of Nagarhole. A couple of hours through the winding roads of Coorg gave a nice tour of the stunning landscapes in this region and by sun down, we were back to our bungalow. Two days had passed but we were yet to get the Safari into 4WD.
That opportunity wasn’t presenting itself after driving for hours. The hills of Coorg are full of coffee estates and as big as the Tata Coffee Estate is (over 25,000 acres), driving private vehicles inside their property is not allowed. You drive out of the Tata Coffee estate and another coffee estate follows, then another and another. A few hours later, we found a trail that didn’t look like private property and ventured in. The Safari was built so that you can explore unknown places, and when the roads end, at a twist of the shift-on-the-fly 4WD system, drive further. A narrow trail opened into an open field and there were places where 4-low was required to get out, but nothing too tough considering all that we’ve done in the Safari. We have driven across rivers and over deserts, crossed the Rann, camped in the wild and explored forests, a joy ride in a field was an easy end to our adventures.
Maybe a tough, adrenaline-rush day wasn’t meant to be after all we’ve taken the Safari through during its time with us. We have seen enough, gone to the back of beyond where cell phone networks can’t dream of reaching us and are left with memories of the stunning visuals this country has to offer. We have had extraordinary experiences during our adventures, made good friends and left the urban jungle behind to really truly live. We have reclaimed life in the truest sense with the Safari