Parambikulam Tiger Reserve

Parambikulam Tiger Reserve

 
Staying in a tree house, swimming in a huge lake, owning an island, climbing on to a car and picking fresh tamarinds, kayaking, dancing with a tribe and lying on a bamboo boat at midnight counting stars, sounds pretty much like a bucket list. Doesn’t it?

Well that was Parambikulam in brief. And yes, the core area of the tiger reserve is a restricted zone, so don’t expect to spot tigers anywhere around your cottage.

Day 1-We started early morning from Bangalore in our all so old Wagon R. Numerous lakes and bridges went by, but what caught our attention were a few Tamarind trees with fresh tamarind on them. And what better than climbing on to the car and picking hundreds of those fresh-sour-tickles, while the local people gave us stares.  We drove for some 8 hours, taking tiny chai or food breaks, or getting directions .The rest of the journey was more like a palette of greens

 and blues, something  I wish I could paint (sadly, I suck at painting) 

We were some 60km away from the forest, somewhere around the Ghats happily wailing away time, when this guy reveals that we need to enter the forest before 5pm. And it was already 4:15pm. Did we have an option but to rush? After reaching the Reserve, the guide led us to a lake, where a bamboo boat was waiting for us. We knew nothing as to where we were going, except that we were going to stay in a “Tree house” on an island. Exciting! Right?

We went rowing to the Bamboo island, watching the blur reflections of those mountains amidst that colorful sky, in the silence that was so magnificent. We got down at the tiny island which was all ours for a day (plus a few reserve staff). I felt like a celebrity having a personal island and a yacht (in this case, a bamboo boat :P ). 

As the night proceeded, it got colder and to give us company was hot tea and maggi for dinner. And that maggi would’ve been very difficult to eat, if not for those bamboo chopsticks and spoons the reserve guy made for us in a minute (Not that it was any better). After the dinner was our journey to the universe, like a star trail. Lying down on the boat, which was moving only an inch with the wind but without a sound, and gazing at those millions of stars right above. Wow!!  I didn’t even know there were so many stars in the sky. Being in that moment was like being in a dream, a fantasy.

Day2- Woke up to the music of chirping birds and sat next to the window trying to look across the fog, wondering how I ended up here. The next moment we went out and jumped into the foggy lake, swam for quite sometime (with life jackets on, or I would’ve drowned). While the guide was honing his photography skills with our cam, we were happily splashing water in that enormous lake and then left the island. 



In the evening, we were invited to a Tribal symphony, to which I couldn’t help but dance along. Plus there was a lot of Kerala rice and some carom-board with the locals. Knowing Malayalam is definitely an advantage if you want to spend some time with the simple soft-natured people there, or you would just end up playing dumb charades with them.

Day3-Early morning trek was definitely a good way to start the day. It was more like a nature trail though. We came across an age-old “Kannimara teak tree” and another weird-looking plant with a giant-sized bud, called to be from the Jurassic era. Later, we had tea with a German couple, took some rest and there was another surprise waiting for us.

Yet another island to be explored- the Veettikunnu Island Nest. But this time the island was huge and a lil scary, with a number of small islands around it. Dinner was the best part about staying there. We sat with the staff and prepared some sambhar and rice, which they served us with so much of warmth. To our luck, we spotted some wild elephants swimming across the islands. They were fast, like really fast. Thankfully, there was a fence around the hut, so we were pretty safe.

Day4-. The island was like a lonely planet, like we were lost in the wild, without a thought of going back to our routine life.  We kayaked back to the place we had parked our car, finished all the formalities and left for Bangalore, with a lot of memories and a wish to go there again.

Planning for the trip

Place - Parambikulam is located in Chitoor taluk of Palakkad district, Kerala, around 440km from Bangalore. You need the permission of the forest department to stay here.  A naturalist and some boatmen would be there to accompany you to the islands.

Route : Bangalore - Salem - Coimbatore - Pollachi - Parambikulam

Accomodation -

·         Tree house- around 4k

·         Other – starts 1k

Food- Prepared by the staff.  Groceries to be purchased from the Parambikulam village.

Options nearby -

·         Top slip

·         anamalai

·         athirapally waterfalls

For more details visit : www.parambikulam.org