Karian Shola trek

3 May 2015

The trekking activities in Parambikulam are very limited. The amazing tramway trek is stopped and so is the tiger trail trek. But couple of short treks is conducted for the interested. One of them is the Karian Shola trek passing though evergreen forests.

Forests during sunrise time
The trail to Karian Shola started behind our bear hut cottage.  After a little climb, nice view of the surrounding hills is visible.



The trail continuously passes thought the forests. After we entered into evergreen part of the forest, exciting events occurred. The leopard made its appearance. It was there for a split of a second before running away. We would have thought it was our imagination but our guide showed the foot marks where it made the final jump!!

Trek route
Before we could get out of leopard hangover, a sloth bear made its appearance with a heavy noise but fortunately ran out. Again it was all over within a second. Bears are very unpredictable animals and they attack in their excitement. We were glad that the encounter ended peacefully. Later in the day we saw a forest guard who was attacked by a sloth bear. He was still limping.



Within few minutes we heard another sound. The sound made my heart stop for a while!! Some animal was very annoyed on seeing us. It was a gaur and it fled.


All these events occurred within the span of few minutes. We needed something peaceful. It occurred in the form of a Giant Pied Hornbill on top of a tree with little awareness of our presence. We took many photos till we could satisfy ourselves.


The trek lasted for little more than two hours. But the experience was amazing. Encountering animals on foot is different than seeing animals in the comfort of Jeep safari.




When we returned back to our cottage we were shocked to see leaches on our legs!! We never expected leaches in May. But then it is Parambikulam with evergreen forests!!

Labels: , , ,