Trip from Ooty to Mysore through Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary

On Sunday, March 11 of 1990, we got up early at 5:30 for our trip from Ooty to Mysore in the state of Karnataka. Back than it was still called Mysore and not Mysuru.

We left by 6:30.

The road Ooty-Mysore passes through Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary and we had a wonderful day with our host and staff member from Pond's: D. Sarath Chandra Divvela, together with his lovely wife Sudha. Found him on LinkedIn and he responded yesterday to my message for him and Sudha!
Feeling oh so happy for reconnecting!
Sudha's Mother lived in Hyderabad.

Here we are at a spot where we observed elephants.

From left to right: D. Sarath Chandra Divvela with his wife Sudha, husband Pieter and me...

Such an incredible variety on trees and plants in these beautiful mountains!
You can click here to see our route for that day, from our Savoy hotel in Ooty to Mysore Palace.

This was actually our first stop, still cool and therefore I'm wearing my wool georgette jacket from Italy.
A huge rock from where we could view into the valley, deep below and where we could see elephants and bisons graze. 

Left from center, there are elephants!
The previous day it was Spring Festival there but after the final frost from past winter, all the young green got frozen and damaged. On top of that, there also were wild fires due to the extreme drought. 
Now there is a lack of food and water and that makes the elephants show curmudgeon behavior and even attack people. Yes, poachers that fell sandalwood and rosewood in the middle of the night with trucks, even thought these wood varieties are protected within this wildlife sanctuary!
But this causes some 20 death by elephants annually.

Here we stop on a bridge, for having some Indian breakfast.

Enjoying our 7:30 Indian breakfast in the sunshine.

Overview of the bridge that crosses a river...

The river below this bridge is completely dry now due to this extreme drought.
We could spot elephant droppings!
Our driver could tell by the 'freshness' of those droppings that the elephants had been there about 4 hours earlier, for coming to drink - in vain... That was 3:30.
Two weeks earlier our driver had spotted here 13 elephants together.
If an elephant gets emitted by the flock for whatever reason, than such a mammal is also aggressive and attacks people.
Once fierce, they don't leave a man alone but kill him!
There are also tigers, panthers and pythons.

Our very dedicated and also knowledgeable Tamil driver!

We did spot wild peacock - look how DRY the area looks!

We were able to spot the Muntjac deer or barking deer.
What a struggle for life in this drought!

A little further down the road, our alert driver did spot this little lake with still some water in it, where little elephants got bathed.

All 4 baby elephants got in the water, Pieter standing here in awe, as we all were.

Those baby elephants are so cute and SMART!
 Look how the little trunk comes up from under Sarath's hands to pick up something!

Pieter is laughing here with those fuzzy and mischievous baby elephants that pick up coins with their trunk!

Super cute fuzzy baby elephants!

This roguish fuzzy baby elephant befuddled my hand with its muddy trunk and you could see the twinkle in its eyes!

Closer to the capital city of Mysore in the state of Karnataka, we stop for a refreshing young coconut.

Pieter took photographs of what is around our car...
Animals and very dusty!

You notice all sorts of vehicles...

Just in front of our car.

Stay tuned as we will visit Chamundeshwari Temple next and Mysore's two biggest Palaces and special Garden.

Thanks for your visit and comment!

Previous posts:
Wearing a Saree for ONE Day and Lending my Jeans | previous post by me
Pond's (India) Limited Mushroom Project | previous post by me
My 1st Trip to India - Consulting Together with Husband Pieter | previous post by me
Husband Pieter's ADVENTUROUS 2nd Trip to India | previous post by me

Wearing a Saree for ONE Day and Lending my Jeans

As promised in my previous post, here some more about how I did tackle the saree issue at this mushroom plant.
Harvesting of mushrooms has to be compared to working in a hospital, strict hygiene rules and we have to avoid contamination IF there is somewhere a moldy spot or whatever.
Clothing has to be rather tight and no sweeping baggy sleeves, long open hair, and surely no long sweeping sarees should be seen.
Far better than a saree would be a kind of pajama, a North India type of clothing.
To convince the harvesting crew, I did propose to let one of the supervisors wear my jeans for a day, to check it out and to get the feel of it.
Since I had only one pair of jeans with me at the location (more in the suitcases left in Delhi at the office...) the only solution would be to swap!

So I got outfitted for the day in a saree, that Krishna lend to me as she did wear my jeans...

Getting dressed by the Tamil ladies into a saree...
A cropped short sleeved saree blouse on an under skirt...

Krishna starts draping the many yards around me.

Here I am, the blue eyed Indian in saree.
Krishna seen to the right in this photo and she did wear my jeans for that day.

Blue eyed Indian in saree with blue eyed husband.
A pity that I don't have a photo from the fresh hair flowers they did pin on top of my braid...

This crew wanted to be captured on camera with me.
Krishna the one that dressed me and will wear my jeans, holding my hand...

Oh, it was not easy to move about and to climb up on the steps wearing this restricting saree but I managed for that day.
Management did provide them with the special pajama pants so they did switch to different outfits!
It was a pleasure to work with these ladies, they were quick learners and hard working!

Quite touching when you get presented something like this writing, on the final day on March 16 of 1990...
We always left feeling emotional; such a beautiful country and very warm and caring people.
As for the food, I am in heaven when eating Indian!

Stay tuned for our very special trip on Sunday, March 11.

Thanks for your visit and comment!

Previous post:
Pond's (India) Limited Mushroom Project | previous post by me
My 1st Trip to India - Consulting Together with Husband Pieter | previous post by me
Husband Pieter's ADVENTUROUS 2nd Trip to India | previous post by me

Pond's (India) Limited Mushroom Project

You now know from the previous post where we are staying for the 11 nights that we will be working here in India.

Now let's look at the actual mushroom plant location in south India in the Nilgiri mountains at an altitude of 2,000 meters (or 6562 feet).
The reason that you find most mushroom plants high in the mountains is for the more favorable climate of cooler nights and often cooler days as well. No need for using expensive air-conditioning for maintaining the optimum climate for mushroom growing but instead using the Lord's natural air-conditioning!
You could see how the area looks like, from watching that remarkable video from the Nilgiri Mountain Railway, winding though tea estates and through Eucalyptus woods... from my previous post.
Also here you see how we traveled daily from the Savoy hotel to the location Needle Industries where the mushroom plant was located.

On Monday, March 5 of 1990 when I came first to the mushroom plant to work with the harvest crew, my blond braid went through numerous hands... my arms and hands got caressed and they liked my skin. They only wanted to know what those freckles on my arms were... I replied that it was my 1% of India genes. My blue eyes got approved and that was it.

Yes, complete with Bindi on my forehead.

We did a LOT of walking and climbing, remember this is at an altitude of 2,000 meters or 6562 feet!
Both of us never owned a FitBit...

At the entrance with the security people.

You can see that we are high up in the mountains at 2,000 meters or 6562 feet.
They are still constructing lots of new growing sheds.
ALL excavation is done by hand!
Women are even aiding in the construction, making mortar and carrying it in a basket on their head up on the scaffolding.
Man-height boulders are being chiseled into small pieces and carried in baskets on their head.
Even the soil for filling in the tens of meters difference in height; everything is hand labor!

Same spot as the photo above but a bit more from a distance.

Compost is made of straw + chicken litter, water and mixed with a pickaxe.
Women were distributing the dry chicken litter!
Working in those countries makes you SHUT UP FOREVER about magnified so-called problems we encounter here in the Western World! Good grief...

It is such a lovely area...

In the back you see the compost pasteurization tunnels being constructed.

Here you see a concrete ring where they catch the runoff water on the compost slab.
You can see those men working with the pickaxe.

Here you clearly see  the excavation of different soil layers in progress.

In addition some airco units for adjusting certain growing conditions.

This is the inside of a growing room with mushrooms ready for harvest.
They grow in bags of 12 kg or 26.5 lbs of pasteurized compost on racks of bamboo instead of nice aluminum.

Addressing the saree problem with the manager.
 Those long saree dresses can cause contamination as they sweep over surfaces.

Stay tuned for my next post where I do tackle the saree issue.

Thanks for your visit and comment!

Previous post:
My 1st Trip to India - Consulting Together with Husband Pieter | previous post my me
Husband Pieter's ADVENTUROUS 2nd Trip to India | previous post by me