Two Days at Sylvan Lodge


Thread Starter #1
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Made a refreshing to the wilderness after an accident. enjoyed the trip.

place of stay: Slyvan loge mudumalai. can be booked by the govt website
cost: 3848 rupees for 2 days for 3 persons
location: Thepakadu mudumalai
car: Tata safari

the room is overlooking the moyar river and since it's near the river. it's a corridor for animal movement to and from the river.

started from chennai at 4am and reached destination at 3.00 pm.

one needs to the visit the reception center( from where one can board the safari vechiles) first and make an entry and then go to the place of stay. this process can be a simplified a bit.

caretaker was informed and the rooms were ready.

room is quite neat and clean. beds, pillows, blankets are properly cleaned.
 

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Thread Starter #2
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Re: two days at slyvan lodge

started to drizzle and the moyar river was at full flow. checked with the safari options .gypsy and bolero campher was a new addition. gypsy was full. so booked the campher for safari.

van safari costs 150 per head for a 45 minute ride. gypsy/ safari costs 4150. 10 people for campher and 6 for gypsy. gypsy safari ride duration is 1.30 hours.

spent the rest of the time before the safari looking at the langurs,peacocck and deers that were a common sight.
 

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Thread Starter #3
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safari is scheduled at 4.40 and we are at the reception by 4.15. we were the 3 persons and one family from bangalore arrived and we agreed to the share the cost. we were 8 people.

gypsy and campher arrived at 5. had a chat with the people on the gypsy and they had sighted 2 leopards and saw the pics. we were ready to roll.

the campher starts on van route for 15 mins. we spotted a 100's of deer. then slipped into a muddy track. had a chat with the driver about sighting of animals and he said sure sighting sir. yes we spotted a herds of deer again. then a couple of elephants and the male elephant started to chase the vechile. but the driver was cool and calm.
 

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Thread Starter #4
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had a chat with the guy looking at elephants and deers. he was transferred from mundanthurai tiger reserve six months ago and collected details on stay at KMTR.

as per census, there are 112 individual tigers in the wayanadu, mudumalai and bandipur belt and 200 leopards.

45 minutes into the safari and the driver took a another route and he said to watch out for bisons and he was right and we were in the midst of herds of bison. recently a toe diesase started attacking bisons and the forest department had created ponds and poured medicine with salts and bisons come to drink it. we were surrounded by more than 20 bions. a mom was showing hatred and trying to protect the calf.
 

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Thread Starter #5
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for the next 20 minutes we were into the core forest and so much wildlife. deers, bisons and elephants. we were on the look out for the big cats and we spotted pug marks of leopard.

20 minutes after we reached a watch tower. It has two beds and researcher and only forest guards are allowed to stay there. the watch tower is covered by fences and trenches.

shortly after a few distance once again we spotted elephants and a sloth bear which ran straight across our vechile.

we were at the end of the safari and we got a call from the gypsy which left before us about a tiger made a kill and we rushed to the spot. we waited for 15 minutes waiting for the beast. we heard the roar of the tiger from a nearby bush but we could not see it and a short distance there was a dead deer. but with the fading light and time was past 6 and the driver said vechicle should return within 6.15 and we have a few more distance to go. we left the spot satisfied hearing the growl of the beast.
 

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Thread Starter #6
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when we were about to end our safari, we spotted more elephants enroute and the driver did a good job of getting the vechile through some ruts and muddy track. we were at the reception center at 6.25. thanked the driver.

had some tea and chapati and chicken fry for three people at a cost of 230 ruppees. this was cooked by Todda tribals who were employed as forest watchers, cook, drivers.

Grabbed the torch and sat by the room looking at the moyar river with heavy rain. as usual deers came in huge number and pack of dhole drinking water. hit the bed by 11pm.
 

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Thread Starter #7
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day 2:

day 2 begin with the sighting of a peacock. it had rained all night long. plan was to head to bandipur safari and gopalsamy betta.

Due to last night rain, the safari in bandipur is closed since the track is not paved. but they promised the afternoon and evening safari. went to gopalsamy hills and came back could not spot any animals.

had a breakfast and lunch spent till 2 pm in the guest house and we spotted elephants right next to our room. maintained a safe distance as the tusker was not happy about our presence.
 

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Thread Starter #8
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past 2pm, our caretaker informed us about sigur falls and he was not sure about the road condition due to last night rain.

Access to the sigur falls road( not road any standards) is 2nd right when coming down from the 36 bends and 1st left right after the mavinalla coffee day.

travel 1 km on the road and then take a immediate right and this passes through mark davidar cheetal walk house(no longer exists) and sigur falls is 9 more kms. After the deviation from the main road, it was just ruts and thorn trees and there lies a checkpost and we made the entry and guy at the check post the sigur falls cannot be accessed by car and needs a 3 km walk.

after the checkpost it was all thorn forest and sure to scratch the vechile. a 2wd suv can braely manage the road but the width of the path is so narrow.

As usual we spotted a lot of wildlife and a lot of animals. After a few distance once again it was greenary all around. sigur falls is 6 kms away and the route become narrow and we decided to return as the safari started scratching right and left. while coming back we spotted a few elephants after masingudi. Started raiining early and we hit the bed. started at 6.30 am next day, enroute visited pykara and common attractions in ooty and reached chennai by 2 am. rain accompanied us all the way from salem till chennai.
 

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