The Elephant Hike

The day before we went to Mysore, we (Karen, Abbie, myself and Jairam) walked over to a lake by the edge of the forest, about 4 or 5 kilometers from the school (June 30^th). It was a beautiful day for a walk, and a thin lake was visible to our right most of the way.  Most of the land out there is cultivated, splitting the land into squares that roll over gentle hills. Nearer the lake we walked past a mechanical windmill that looked as if it had been pulled straight out of a Wild West movie.

When we got close to the lake, we had a clear view because all the trees leading down to the water had recently been felled. On the other side the great forest stretched far far away. There were at least a dozen cows grazing, and one of the calves seemed really interested in me. I let it smell my hand and it gently head-butted me, which I took as a thing of playfulness. I smilingly walked on, catching up with the rest of the group. When we got to the water edge, we spotted a family of elephants on the other side of the shore that were drinking from the lake. Although we couldn’t see them clearly, it was such a beautiful sight to see elephants in their natural habitat and we all ooh-ed a little. 

There were a group of men with a Landcruiser by the shore, and one of them also had a Nikon camera. I borrowed his zoom lens and tried it on mine, and thus managed to take some better shots of the elephant herd (which was now walking towards a lonely male that had just come out of the forest). The men were a group of friends all involved with businesses in Mysore and around, and one of them was building a resort just behind the lake. They offered me a drink and their last pieces of chicken they had been enjoying, which I gladly accepted. I didn’t stay long because the others wanted to go back, but it was interesting to sit down and randomly converse with a group of friendly strangers.