Diwali: Dubare Elephant Camp - Safari and wild things

We really felt like we were smack dab in the middle of wildlife at this place. A funny lost-in-translation moment: As soon as we checked in, a few rangers began hanging this enormous net outside our cottages. I asked what it was for. The ranger said that it was an elephant hammock and then smiled. "Elephant hammock?" I asked. He said that it wasn't for elephants but for the monkeys to play in. "The monkeys will come down so close to the cottages?" I was really excited about this. He and his buddies laughed. The next afternoon I ran into the same ranger. He asked why we weren't playing on the elephant hammock. I told him I didn't think the monkeys would come if the kids were playing on it. "Your childrens ARE the monkeys! HAhahahaha!" Boy, did I feel foolish. So we gave the kids the green light and they killed hours on this thing. Everyone had sore muscles and rope burns to show for it.

Our favorite games were watching Cori do flips and having Cori shake the net. I was nearly launched right off the hammock by the latter game. Grant attempted to flip in like his dad and managed to face plant in the rope and fold himself in half backwards. It was a painful ordeal for him. I only mention it because we all laughed about it for hours afterwords.

Part of our stay there included a jeep safari out into the jungle. Just looking at this vehicle made me so happy. The safari was along a well beaten path out through the mahout village. We got up close and personal with the royal Mysore lady one last time.

Once we cleared the village we started looking. First sighting: a peacock. They camouflage surprisingly well for how boldly they are colored.

We also caught sight of a large black Indian squirrel. They make huge nests in the trees. They moved really quickly, but we spotted the tale of one that was hanging out near its nest.

We drove through groves of teak trees thick with turmeric underbrush. The turmeric turns that deep rusty orange color when the leaves dry out.

After that, it was a lot of birds and wild flowers. At one point, our guide got really excited. He saw some tracks along the dirt road we were driving on. He told us they were wild dog tracks. We were relatively non plussed. He, whispering all the while, explained that he loves Indian wild dogs. He said that they were the most lethal hunters in the jungle.

The wildlife video he showed us that night was about the Indian wild dog. We were impressed and I found myself wishing I had taken a picture of the tracks he showed us!

Our other wildlife encounter was living off the porch of the boys' cottage. This huge spider had a web spread above head level and it was a regular part of the family by trip's end. Grant writes all about it in his little entry below.

Our last day there, we were going to go do some more with the elephants. Not the full river experience again as we had a long and squished-up drive ahead of us. But our plans were interrupted by steady rain. We went down to the riverbank waited for the mahout. But the weather was slowing them a bit as well. Alas, it was time for us to head back across the river.

This was the best picture I got of our guide, unfortunately. He was so great with our kiddos, and was enthusiastic about his job. He knocked on our doors when it was time for meals and activities, paddled us around the river, and set up all our other experiences.

Favorite moments from the mouths of our babes:

Grace- I really liked being able to just hang out with wild life all the time. I thought it was hilarious how they told us the elephant hammock was for monkeys and we kept looking for monkeys until they finally told us it was actually for us. It was also really fun playing on the elephant hammock. One time when we were playing, there was a cow and her calf. And the mother cow came wondering very close to us. We could almost touch it. We played on that net for hours at a time. I also thought the safari was fun. It was cool to see all that wildlife in its natural habitat and so close to us. The campfires we went to were made better by the domesticated dogs. The little shows that they played for us taught me more about the national animal of India, the tiger, and the rarely seen wild dog. I think the part I liked most of all was being able to wash the elephants. It was fun being able to not only swim with them but to be able to wash them.

Grant- My favorite part of the trip was that I got to play a lot with the dogs and my family. We did fun stuff together everyday. I really liked the big spider outside our cottage. It was, like, 5 inches long. And Dad took gum out of his mouth and threw it at the spiderweb. Then the spider jumped on it and thought it was a bug because it was warm. It started widing it up and then dropped it once it knew it wasn't a real bug. I liked going in the coracle. It was fun seeing the whole camp from the river and spinning around in the water. We got to see most of the river and I thought it was cool that people could walk across the water because it was shallow, but it didn't look like it was. Another one of my favorite parts was seeing the elephants. We got to touch the elephants' skin and we got sprayed by them. Before the elephants came, me and dad skipped some rocks while the girls played around climbing. I also liked feeding the elephants. On the safari we went on, I saw more than 12 big spiders. Before the safari, we watched a movie. I really liked both movies. One was about tigers, how they are getting hunted and they are really rare. And the second one was about wild dogs. I liked the food. It was nice to try some Indian food and it was really good. I liked playing on the tire swing. Also, one of the dogs had puppies. They were less than a foot long. But we could not pet them or touch them. I also liked the walks we went on.

Eden- I liked the campfire. We got to have food there. I REALLY liked playing on the elephant hammock. Daddy would shake us and we would fly up and down. We got to pet elephants. The elephants were splashing mommy and the family. We also got to see a peacock and it was blue. It had feathers on its head that looked like sticks with fluffy balls. My favorite movie was the one about tigers. I remember that mommy won Left Center Right every time and so she got to eat the most treats.