Let me make a confession and its nothing to be ashamed of . I am not "extremely" adventurous .Note the term "extreme " . I am reasonably adventurous enough to go swimming in the sea everyweek at kovalam , go trekking in the ponmudi hills and even an occasional fast driving .(thats also adventure ) .
But this vacation last week was really adventurous to the true sense of the word . Me and a group of my friends had a vacation to chinnar wildlife sanctuary and top station munnar and after that me and a friend of mine had a trip to kovalam beach . Both trips were great and in the next few blogs i would be writing more about it . Have you ever trekked into the forest for 4-5 kms . And that too with forests which has abundant wildlife in the form of elephants , an occasional leopard and numerous gaur (indian version of wild buffalo ).
Thats called adventure . And that was our daytime trek with guide .
But this particular blog is about the small half a km trek or walk which was carried out during night due to unforeseen reasons . Anyway that made our trip extreme . The initial 100 metres was uneventful . It was dense forest with track through which we walked . Suddenly there were two glowing eyes around 15 metres in front of us . We froze . I was relieved for i was not wanting to meet a lone elephant at night . These glowing eyes had two horns directly above it . It was a gaur or indian wild buffalo . Weighing around 1000 kilograms in a bad mood it is easily capable of killing anyone in its path by goring or trampling . It stared at us for sometime and slowly retreated into the forest . We walked again as going back was not an option considering our peculiar circumstances . I was not expecting to meet another one again that night . But hardly had we moved around 100 metres there was another pair of shiny eyes again around 10-20 metres in front of us . Great ...We were in the middle of a wild buffalo herd . It was thrilling to think it back now but considering the danger wouldnt do it at night again ....Though i will do it in daytime considering my level of adventurousness .
Regarding Kovalam trip as told earlier when we were kids almost every weekend we were at the beach of kovalam but generally we avoided the off season with its large waves and "undercurrents" . Yes kovalam is a fantastic beach , very famous among tourists , but especially during off season there are undercurrents which can pull you away from the beach . Because my friend wanted very much to swim in kovalam even though it was off season i went on condition that we will ask the lifeguards and if it was "relatively safe " we would get in the water else no . Since the day we went was not raining the lifeguards allowed to swim . But told to stay off the ends especially near the rocks as there were undercurrents . We humans only have yes/no phenomenon . Nobody has guaranteed no undercurrents and since we both were reasonably good swimmers and knew how to be careful and since lifeguards said ok we had a great time swimming in the water from 11 am to 5 pm . But we carefully followed the instructions of the lifeguard and stayed away from the undercurrent areas . Still sometimes i could feel the ocean sucking at the feet . Thats the first time i felt the undercurrents . We stayed in relative shallows and away from the really undercurrent areas . I would say it was another extreme adventure .
The last was a minor adventure but purely accidental .Since my friend was from germany i tried to experiment for a few minutes "suntanning " . Being an indian i was not expecting much of suntanning however . In the bathroom mirror i got the shock of my life when i saw a "red indian " on the mirror . Except for the area where i wore shorts the entire skin was reddish in colour and hot . I had a sunburn though mild . And what about my german friend . She also had sunburn mild . We had not protected us with the sunblocking creams .
After these three adventures i have no regrets .. i have only thrills left . But i would trek again in the jungle , swim again in kovalam and even try to get a tan . BUT ... i will not trek again at night , swim in off season or try to tan without suncream . Now judge my adventurousness level :)
P.S : Like everything in life first judge yourself before doing any adventure sports as each person is very different in adventurousness level . I am responsible for my life and others are strongly discouraged from doing any adventurous activity even day trekking in jungle . And anyone who undertakes it should understand fully well the risks of the activity .
click on next blog link on right side
But this vacation last week was really adventurous to the true sense of the word . Me and a group of my friends had a vacation to chinnar wildlife sanctuary and top station munnar and after that me and a friend of mine had a trip to kovalam beach . Both trips were great and in the next few blogs i would be writing more about it . Have you ever trekked into the forest for 4-5 kms . And that too with forests which has abundant wildlife in the form of elephants , an occasional leopard and numerous gaur (indian version of wild buffalo ).
Thats called adventure . And that was our daytime trek with guide .
But this particular blog is about the small half a km trek or walk which was carried out during night due to unforeseen reasons . Anyway that made our trip extreme . The initial 100 metres was uneventful . It was dense forest with track through which we walked . Suddenly there were two glowing eyes around 15 metres in front of us . We froze . I was relieved for i was not wanting to meet a lone elephant at night . These glowing eyes had two horns directly above it . It was a gaur or indian wild buffalo . Weighing around 1000 kilograms in a bad mood it is easily capable of killing anyone in its path by goring or trampling . It stared at us for sometime and slowly retreated into the forest . We walked again as going back was not an option considering our peculiar circumstances . I was not expecting to meet another one again that night . But hardly had we moved around 100 metres there was another pair of shiny eyes again around 10-20 metres in front of us . Great ...We were in the middle of a wild buffalo herd . It was thrilling to think it back now but considering the danger wouldnt do it at night again ....Though i will do it in daytime considering my level of adventurousness .
Regarding Kovalam trip as told earlier when we were kids almost every weekend we were at the beach of kovalam but generally we avoided the off season with its large waves and "undercurrents" . Yes kovalam is a fantastic beach , very famous among tourists , but especially during off season there are undercurrents which can pull you away from the beach . Because my friend wanted very much to swim in kovalam even though it was off season i went on condition that we will ask the lifeguards and if it was "relatively safe " we would get in the water else no . Since the day we went was not raining the lifeguards allowed to swim . But told to stay off the ends especially near the rocks as there were undercurrents . We humans only have yes/no phenomenon . Nobody has guaranteed no undercurrents and since we both were reasonably good swimmers and knew how to be careful and since lifeguards said ok we had a great time swimming in the water from 11 am to 5 pm . But we carefully followed the instructions of the lifeguard and stayed away from the undercurrent areas . Still sometimes i could feel the ocean sucking at the feet . Thats the first time i felt the undercurrents . We stayed in relative shallows and away from the really undercurrent areas . I would say it was another extreme adventure .
The last was a minor adventure but purely accidental .Since my friend was from germany i tried to experiment for a few minutes "suntanning " . Being an indian i was not expecting much of suntanning however . In the bathroom mirror i got the shock of my life when i saw a "red indian " on the mirror . Except for the area where i wore shorts the entire skin was reddish in colour and hot . I had a sunburn though mild . And what about my german friend . She also had sunburn mild . We had not protected us with the sunblocking creams .
After these three adventures i have no regrets .. i have only thrills left . But i would trek again in the jungle , swim again in kovalam and even try to get a tan . BUT ... i will not trek again at night , swim in off season or try to tan without suncream . Now judge my adventurousness level :)
P.S : Like everything in life first judge yourself before doing any adventure sports as each person is very different in adventurousness level . I am responsible for my life and others are strongly discouraged from doing any adventurous activity even day trekking in jungle . And anyone who undertakes it should understand fully well the risks of the activity .
click on next blog link on right side
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