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Fringe Ford is a getaway, nestled amongst 520 acres of rich dense jungles of Waynad about 11kms from Maananthavaady. It shares its border with Naagarahole Sanctuary in Coorg one side and Wayanad bio-reserve on the other. This property which was a originally a plantation of coffee and cardamom was let to go wild by its present owner and has no perimeter fences bringing the jungle literally to the doorstep. It was too much to take it all in at once and the magnificence of the place took sometime to sink in. We had to put a conscious effort to take our eyes of the scenery whilst checking out the rooms. Shaaji, was our guide and host for our stay there. We visited this place while on our ride during the winter of 2007 and spent most of our time in the wilderness around here. You can read our ride story over here .  Fringe Ford, Waynad, Kerala  Pitch dark. Period.
We woke up to a clear, chill morning the next day. Morning sounds filled our ears, as we went walking about 6 km down the path we had taken last evening to reach there. Rustling leaves, crackling trunks, chirping birds, buzzing insects made it look like the entire jungle was in a conversation of its own. We were introduced to few more residents of the property: three ducks :) One fellow among them had an interesting behavior that is worth mentioning. Even though these guys have a pond for themselves which is pretty big, this particular duck had taken a fancy for a smaller tank close to our room. Twice everyday, at specific times in the morning and evening, he waddled all the way from his pond to the tank taking a path behind the house, splashed some water around, meticulously preening himself in the process. Once done, he waddled back to the pond, with a look that can make one feel so small and with a gait that only royalty can match!! And he dint fly but waddled to the tank! Hmm..Ornithology anyone? :) We continued along the path, to see the first sun rays touch the mountain opposite to the road. The top of the mountain was painted brilliant orange and the rest of the mountain was olive green. We couldn’t see the sun yet but took in the rest of the sights including, the ‘Namboodiri’ mountain, so named after a balding Kerala brahmin since it had empty patch at the top where no trees grew..heh!. We walked through some more greenery and couple of streams before we got back to the house. Relaxed for a while on the hanging chair, under the mango tree which I beat Abhi to. He settled for an easy chair. Looking at the valley, we realized just what we city-breds miss. The flora is so varied that in whatever bit our eyes could take in and our brains could decipher, we could count a dozen of them different from each other; the leaves, branches, canopy and the likes. So, I leave it to your imagination as to the sheer number and variety of them in 500 acres! Snoozed for a while and it felt luxurious just to idle around without moving a muscle. Bliss! We lazed around all day, generally playing scrabble or reading from the mini library which had books on wildlife by Jim Corbett, Kenneth Anderson and also some illustrated books on birds of South India. In the evening we were treated with Palamburi which was thin banana slices dipped in corn flour paste and fried. Abhi dint like it because of a previous bad experience (as can be seen in the photo caption), but I thought it was nice with tea. Once done, we headed out on a trek. The trail started at the doorstep, through the coffee plants. On the way, we heard some twigs break and some scampering. Shaaji mentioned that there were quite a few Sambars and jungle fowls around. Kept going along a small trail beneath which was the valley with gurgling streams. After a small ascent, we could hear the sound of water hitting the rocks..waterfall! It was a small one, and the water was the pure, untouched by human habitation. The water on the rocks glistened like gold in the evening sun, and the droplets from the water spray on the nearby trees was like a prism splitting the rays into colors. Kannadikunn, which was the name of the hill we climbed after the waterfall, was at a lower elevation than the rest surrounding it. From there we could see the path to the house, the house itself and also Namboodiri. The sun had begun its descent and Shaaji was eager to get us to the machan, to view the sunset. We climbed down pretty quick and after a kilometer or so, we got around a bend, and there it was, machan on a huge tree. It is built at two levels. Machan at lower level is at around 15 feet from the ground and is built on first fork of the tree. The the one above it is at around 25 feet and is built on the second fork. We got on to this one, and we were just in time for the sunset. I was dumb stuck at the view and the perspective the machan gave to the place. The sunset was beautiful and we wanted the time to stop, right there! :)  Dinner setup
We headed out next morning again on a trek, this time to another waterfall. Following a path along the foot of Namboodiri, we got to see a huge 500 year old tree on the way. Savoring the scents emanating from the jungle, we continued on the trail, stopping only when Shaaji was pointing towards the bald patch on Namboodiri, totally excited. It was a bison! Shaaji suggested we could climb up to get a better view of the animal and we were game. The 15 minute climb on the steep gradient was pretty exhausting, and at one point almost tumbled and would have rolled down if it wasn’t for Abhi..heh! Finally we reached the top and kept behind the thick shrubs to watch the bison graze. This fellow was huge! I guessed he got our scent or heard the rustling as he was looking straight at us. Started to move away and finally disappeared on to the other side of the mountain. We got out of our hiding and climbed some more to reach bald patch. The view of Wayanad from here is breathtaking. One can get a view of miles and miles of undulating mountains with dense vegetation.  Waynad forest range from on top of the Namboodiri hill Relaxed for a while and started our climb down towards the path. It was now bright and sunny, but once we got into the jungle, there was very little light. I could only imagine the thick darkness during the night. The climb down was equally strenuous: Slipped and slided in a few places and got scratched too, enough for Abhi to worry that I would roll off the hill any minute :-D We had to walk through a steam where the growth of moss made the rocks very slippery. Before I knew, I had slipped with a background music of ‘I told you so’ by my hubby! From then on I had to listen to ‘Hold on to this tree! Don't put your leg on that rock! Its a loose stone! You will slip again!’ lol! We stopped briefly to relieve the tiredness by drinking cool sweet water from ‘Manivellam’ tree. Very close to the tree, we got to see a lot of bird feathers; most likely a recent kill. Got to the path and continued walking down the trail which finally opened up to an awesome waterfall! What a sight! Watching the gushing water fall from the top was a moment of zen. The cool spray made all the climbing and slip-sliding worth it. If shaaji had not reminded us that we were kinda late for breakfast, we wouldn’t have realized the time. Sadly we had to head back to the house. On the way, we saw some bison hoof marks, a bunch of Hornbill feathers and snake skin along with a very arty growth of fungi on a dead tree bark. Once we got to the house, I got off my shoes to find a couple of leeches hooked on to my foot! Yikes! Thanks to leech socks, I was spared of these blood-suckers! By now we had fallen in love with the place and to even think of heading out the next day was painful. We initially had plans of visiting Kakkabe in Coorg for a day before heading out to Bangalore. But then, we chucked the Coorg plans for now and decided to stay back for one more day of heavenly experience. Day four in Fringe ford was entirely dedicated to Bird Watching. Being novices, we tried our hands or rather our eyes at it and I should say we were rewarded pretty well. Sitting silently under a fig tree without moving a muscle is something that I am very bad at and I heard ‘Shh! Quiet!’ from Abhi a lot of times that day :) The colors we saw on some of these birds were truly fantastic. Some of the birds were Malabar Grey Hornbill, Asian Fairy Bluebird, Black eagle, amongst others. Our stay came to end and we had to head back. We had thoughts of stretching it another day, but then, the shock of getting back to city grind would have been too much. I guess the human mind takes very little to time to adopt to such places; we had gotten so used to the peace and the greenery. So, we thought we might need a day’s acclimatization in the city for our minds to get used to being back to the hustle and bustle! :-s Nonetheless we were taking back fantastic memories and unforgetful experiences with us. Go experience it yourself. |
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