Indian Friday: From an Elephant Camp to Madekeri

I rather enjoyed re-visiting India via my blog the other week. So I went and dug out the diary I faithfully kept. The events it describes have never yet seen the light of day. For the first ten days I was with the group of people my ex-brother-in-law had put together, to explore aspects of rural Indian life, focussing on small producers working in traditional and organic ways. We had no internet access during that period.

I’ve decided to share my diary with you. This will take several Fridays. I’m pleased that I kept such a detailed record of a piece of personal history, and of a country I’d never visited. I wonder how dated this account would seem to the current traveller?

From an Elephant Camp to Madekeri

Monday 10th November 2007

Elephant day.  So we were up good and early and set off in two taxis.  On the way, we enjoyed seeing school children going to all their various seats of learning – they all looked so smart in their English style uniforms c. 1958 (that was the year I started grammar school, and I looked smart at first too).  Dubare Elephant Camp however, was a disappointment. We  arrived at about 9.30 to find the washing of the elephants nearly over.  Nevertheless it was good to give that hard leathery hide with hard bristly hair a good scratch. 

We went to watch them have their breakfast.  There’s a sort of cookhouse where they boil up an appetising concoction of jaggery (a traditional caramel coloured unrefined sugar), millet and vegetation, and roll it into gigantic balls which the men feed to them.  And sadly, that was it really.  They went off into the forest to work, and we went off in our taxis, and fetched up at Sujata’s summer house (she owned Rainforest Retreat).  Rest, tea, relaxing in the garden full of pepper plants, hibiscus, coffee, poinsettia.

Then a country walk down to the River Cauvery.  It’s just what you see in all the travel documentaries.  Tall palm trees, intricate knotted tree roots, and little islands set among the fast-flowing currents of the Cauvery.

We walked through the paddy fields – the green of the young plants is so green, vivid and vibrant: and then with some difficulty, we waded through the waters.  We were glad to get down to our cozzies and plunge into the river – muddy, but otherwise clean.  There was quite a current, but staying close to the edges was ok.  The stronger swimmers swam across to the other bank, but I had a go and wasn’t up to it.

The picnic was something special.  Great metal pails were clanked down the hillside by the ‘staff’ at Sujita’s residence.  Rice, sambal; a wonderful bitter curry made out of some dark green tree leaf also used to dose children who have worms; chicken curry; a sour and bitter dark red chutney; curds and a gorgeous buttered cabbage curry.  Further swimming after, further baking in the sun, then back across the fields, and taxis home.

The walk back home

A stop-off at Madekeri.  It’s a largish town, with rows and rows of tiny shops – the usual mixture.  Indian shopping streets are standard in their own way: no MS, Boots and Costa Coffee certainly, but still a uniformity in the small shop fronts with goods stacked and hanging outside, and with pedestrians, bullocks and auto-rickshaws and cars all jockeying for position in the crowded streets.  I got all my photos onto a CD so was well pleased even though I had to buy a CD holder separately( Rs 17! About 15p) and had 10 minutes at an internet centre.

Got home to find them building a BBQ outside – BBQ chicken, and for us two veggies, potatoes in the embers.  Two new guests appeared – a Swiss monk and his mum.

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Author: margaret21

I'm retired and live in North Yorkshire, where I walk , write, volunteer and travel as often as I can.

52 thoughts on “Indian Friday: From an Elephant Camp to Madekeri”

  2. Now that you mention the scrubbing, I remembered that wild elephants will have these long baths while they play in rivers. But when they come out they squirt mud all over themselves. You seldom see an elephant in the wild which is not caked in mud. I wonder whether that scrubbing and cleaning is something humans impose on the tame animals.

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  5. Thanks for sharing your diary with those amazing experiences! Some good photographs that give an impression of what it must’ve been like, great memories

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  8. I’m surprised that you could eat anything else after that lunch! The photos are very atmospheric. I suspect little has changed around there. Are you ever tempted to go back?

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    1. No actually. I had a wonderful experience, and I’m sad I never saw all that the north has to offer. The rural experience was wonderful but difficult to repeat. I found town life exhilarating but in many ways stressful (the noise! The traffic! The difficulty of finding places to relax and take down-time as a single woman (though I alway felt safe). I hesitate to say I feel to old to cope now, but, yes, I feel past it in many ways.

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    1. I know! I was quite mean with taking photos, as I wasn’t sure whether my camera would run out of space. I had a mobile too, though not a smart phone, but I don’t think I used it once. Another age!

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  15. Were you a vegetarian back then? My friends chose to eat veggie as they thought it would be a safer option (kinder to their stomachs). Not sure how that worked out. They arrive back in the Algarve on Monday and I’m looking forward to a catch up. It feels like a different world, Margaret xx

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    1. I was vegetarian, and in any case woud have eaten solely vegetarian in India, as it felt safer. We abandoned it in France as it was just too difficult then, and we had access to animals who’d had a good life and were well cared for. Now I don’t call myself vegetarian, but next to never eat meat

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  18. Thank you so much for sharing your travel journal to India, Margaret! These elephants are amazing. The picnic does look special. I love the greenery field.

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  19. It’s funny Margaret, 2007 doesn’t sound so long ago to me! They say time goes faster as you age and honestly it feels like yesterday to me. Your trip sounds and looks SO adventurous! I always worry about the elephants – they look so tame and healthy but heaven knows how much work it took to make that happen. I thought that in our visit to Thailand. Your images are wonderful and really tell a story! The river area looks quite beautiful. Do you think about revisiting the area after all this time, or do you think of it as a one-and-done?? Enjoyed your stroll down memory lane!

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