Last week 3 of us from Kochi set out for a weekend stay at the Briar Tea Bungalow at Meghamalai. This was our first time to this area. The drive to the resort was so different from anything we have experienced anywhere else in the high ranges. We realized that Meghamalai is situated in between 2 major Forest reserves. The Periyar Tiger Reserve and the Tamil Nadu Reserve Forest. Due to that fact, there’s only minimal human interactions in and around the Bungalow. You will only see the estate employees. No outsiders. We reached there in the late afternoon. We stayed at the Sand River Cottage. Next morning we were ready for a guided trekking into the reserve forest. We started the trek at 7 am. Such cool fresh air. Sprawling tea garden on both sides. Suddenly Lenin, our photographer friend told us to hold still. He pointed his camera to a ledge. We could see a family of brown Mongoose just staring at us. Never have seen that many Mongoose together as a group. 6 adults and 4 juveniles. As we started walking towards them, they started retreating into the tea garden. We kept walking. After about 15 minutes our guide alerted us on something. He pointed to a couple of large porcupines sitting on the side of the road. He told us to keep a distance, because an agitated porcupine could spray it’s sharp needles. We stood still and watched till they exited into the shrubs. Birds chirping all around us. Meanwhile there were many sightings of wild fowls. It is hard to photograph them, because they vanish fast. But they are so brilliant especially when the slanting early morning sun lights up their plumage. We reached the end of the plantation trail and we entered the reserve forest. We have entered the Periyar Tiger Reserve. We walked about 1 kilometre. Our guide requested us to be real quiet. All of a sudden the silence got broken with a growl. It wasn’t too far. All of us froze. Guide whispered “it’s a Tiger”. To the left of us about 50 meters we saw some movement. All eyes focused in that direction, we managed to get a partial view of the Tiger through the shrubs. Unfortunately there wasn’t enough view to get anything on the camera. We kept walking through the trail, staying alert. We kept hearing the growl intermittently for another 15 minutes. The trail leads us to the tea plantation. We walked for another 45 minutes to get back to our Bungalow.

We were a bit disappointed that we didn’t get a full view of the Tiger. But we were more that happy to get a glimpse and listen to the tiger so close. We were served a fantastic breakfast.

The rest of our stay here was eventful and exciting. Never a dull moment. I have stayed at many hotels/ resorts. But my one of a kind experience at Briar Tea Bungalow at Meghamalai is something I will never forget.