Mulki Betta | BR Hills - Trek Notes
Clicked in Dec 1998 / B.R. Hills Trek
The only photograph I took of this small but majestic Mulki hill. Our hike was magical and filled with many animal sightings. Thankfully we had no dangerous encounters with elephants like the one we had yesterday, for today we were on foot carrying our backpacks.
Our guide’s advice to any possible elephant attack during the hike ‘ Shiva andhu oodi saar ‘. In English it means ‘ Say Lord Shiva’s name and Run Sir ‘. It put our mind at such ease… after all, such valuable advice at the very beginning of that day’s trek can be very consoling and encouraging. Of course, an attack is imminent only if we bump into one and surprised it… As long as we kept our distance, remained quiet and did not do anything to provoke aggression we were safe. But if we bumped into a lone tusker , it can be a totally different story.
On the day 3 of the hike - So far, the adventure had gone very economically and hence we decided to stay along for another day and do the Mulki Hill. Because it had rained heavily the climate was kinda gloomy. It was a short trek of 2 hrs. Well !! It was definitely worth it. We hired a local guide to help us. Our guide tried his best to scare the jitters out of us about the elephants in the region. We were on the constant lookout for wildlife trying our best at being silent and hoped that we don’t startle any elephants by bumping into them at a close range.
We were warned about an Elephant herd grazing along our path by some people who were collecting wood. We walked into a pack of Deer at a pond who galloped away startled. We also spotted a herd of Bison at a distance of around 200mt, the funny thing was that they spotted us before we had spotted them.
Once we reached the top we got to see a lot of wildlife down in the valley and it dawned on to me that I had just trekked through them without even realizing. Vivek spotted some Neelghai. We got to see some (much dreaded) elephants, a mother and daughter pair . It was a good thing that Vivek had got the binoculars.
After spending some really good time at the top, we headed back. We passed through the village on the way down. Overall our trek was free of any accidents. Once down, we had our lunch and caught the 1430 hrs bus to Bangalore. The entire trek over the span of 3 days was covered in less than Rs 500 per head. I must say it was good economy by all of us, wasn’t it?
