Camping 2014

This summer we enjoyed a few of camping trips. First one was in the Bannerghatta National Forest in Bangalore. This was my closest encounter with tigers; the animals were within arms reach as we toured through the preserve in a secure jeep. The most thrilling event was when a pack of monkeys entered our room. We were sleeping on the bed and the kids were engrossed in the iPad. DS looked up casually he was horrified to find some five monkeys sitting near our bed . He screamed and woke us up. We all ran to towards the door to find it was stuck locked. The monkeys growled and came towards us. DH and DS together chased them away by swinging a large wooden chair. They jumped out of the window one by one. It was so amazing how they could sense the fear inside you. You have to be forceful and fearless. They sense it by just looking into your eyes and decide whether to attack or escape.

We had another incident with the monkeys. DS and DH entered into our room after lunch one day and found a bunch of monkeys sitting there and eating nuts. They had come in to our room while we were gone through an opening on one side of the tent, picked the bag of nuts from under the clothes in our suitcase, opened the ziploc carefully without ripping the bag and started eating the nuts. I wonder how the idiom 'korangu kayil maalai' came; they seem to have such nimble fingers.

Next trip was along the Brandywine river, PA. The river was beautiful in the morning as we cruised in our canoes. Certain sections of the river were shallow enough to get into the waters. The best part of this camping trip was our lunch. We cooked chicken dum biryani the traditional way with the coals. We pitched our canopy and enjoyed biryani as it poured all around us. The hot and dum (smoky) fragrant biryani was just the right thing do on a rainy day like that.  

The next camping trip was to Panther lake, NJ. The lake is stocked with trout and so we were excited about fishing there. We sat there on the rocks casting our rods and watching our reflection on the still waters. The fish there were really smart!! We saw the string being pulled many times but no fish got hooked on and the bait was gone. We even took a boat to explore the deeper sections of the lake but no luck. DS and me sat on the dock and watched numerous little fish as they gathered around the bait. They come closer, worked as a team to nibble and pull teeny bits from the ends and eventually got the whole worm off the hook. Oh! so smart they are. No wonder we didn't catch any. DS was running on the shores trying to catch fish in a bowl to pet. It was a perfect day to spend by the lake.

Another memorable event during this camping trip was when we sat around the campfire. It was pitch dark and quiet all around. Our group gathered around fire on that cold night. Suddenly we heard footsteps of something running towards us. Maybe an elephant or a dinosaur or something that sort - heavy and bulky footsteps were quickly approaching us. We pointed our flashlights all around but couldn't see more than just a few steps ahead. All the flashlights couldn’t break the blackness around us on that dark, dark night. Then the footsteps started to fade and we felt relieved. Whatever that thing was, it was moving farther from us. Maybe it was just a deer I said. DH said it is unusual for a deer to run like that in the dark. Maybe it was being attacked. By a panther? I remembered reading somewhere that panthers hunt at night. Also this lake is named Panther lake, maybe for a reason. In the next few minutes we packed up into our shelters.