Deepavali at Rishi Valley

"Lorek", my teenage son reports on the weekend. All picture credits to him as well. Taken on a Nikon FM film-roll camera.

The name Horsely hills will not ring an audible bell for the common man. But for members of the MNS, it is synonymous with paradise and filter coffee. And so to view this paradise and other assorted wonders along the way, 15 of us MNSites set for the Rishi Valley School, which was our base camp. I was jerked awake and zombied my way to the car, which would carry me, my mother, Pritam uncle, Vijay uncle, Tara aunty and Shashank to Madanapalle. Amid discussions of where the Pitta had been spottedin Chennai, I zoned out to the sound of Iron Maiden.

A short food stop at Arusuvai and we were well and truly on our way to the promised land. I made the most of the next leg to catch on some much needed sleep. Another food stop and several birds later, we found ourselves nearing the village of Madanapalle. 'Rishi valley?' for directions led us onto the bypass road and to the school.

At the school, we met up with the man with the plan and the everlasting smile, Mr.Shantaram. He led us to (yet another) midday meal at the school mess. The campus in itself dwarfs any other school that I have seen. It is around 150 acres or so. Just walking to the guest house found the most serious birders rubbing their hands in glee at the number of bird calls and the overall greenery!





After tea, we set out with Mr.Eversmile, Shantaram sir for a small walk. We walked up the nearby hill and got some fantastic views of the surrounding area. The birds were also in abundance and the bird watchers had a field day. We were introduced to the various rock formations around - Cave Rock, Sliding Rock, Windmill and what have you. At sunset, we sat around trying to keep quiet, and were rewarded with the call of the pitta, a nightjar and an owl too! Somewhat hungry we returned to a good dinner and sleep.

Day 2

I was awoken by Axl Rose singing about Hollywood, (my alarm!) and enjoyed some fresh tea, before we set out to scale Horsely hills. The trek started out through the fields and slowly went steeply uphill. Birds were out in hordes and there were sightings every few steps literally. If I remember right, the hunt was on for the yellow-throated bulbul, whose calls were everywhere.

The ascent was steep at first and gradually unsteepened. The climb was punctuated by a breakfast break and innumerable other inexplicable rest stops.

At long last we got off the trekking path and hit the road and Shashank, Jeyanth and I pulled away from the pack. We were later joined by Vijay uncle to be the first men to reach the top. While lunch was being arranged, I journeyed to the edge to get a better view and found the whole valley spread out like a carpet on a slightly bumpy floor. The lunch was Chettinad-spice hot, that had been mysteriously absent all this while. Fanning our burning mouths, we stormed the ice cream parlour, just as the skies opened up.

Those of us with rain gear triumphantly produced said gear and starting downhill. Three steps later the rain stopped and the smug others joined the caravan downhill. Fighting a wet shoe, a severely aching foot sole and the need to urinate. I sped downward, using all available shortcuts with Shashank and arrived at the village at the base of Horsely. The forward guard, waiting for the rear guard to show up indulged in a cup of tea and some butter cookies(yum!!).

After the whole group had regrouped and started tea, a bus with KA license plates came by and claimed it was completely legitimate. Hitching a ride on this illegality, we arrived at the Rishi valley turn off point, to find a squadron of cars summoned from the school by Mr.Shantaram! (Calculations made by the group estimated that we had walked approximately 17kms that day, starting at about 7 in the morning, and finishing by 5 in the evening.) That concluded the day for the Seniors, with Jeyanth, Sekar uncle, Shashank and I heading over to a nearby hamlet for hot coffee and shopping at the mall, which was in reality a small pottikadai.

Day 3

The next dawn, the "coffee boys" headed to the village again for the now guest house renowned coffee. Coffee done, we headed out to another of the abundant nearby hills for some lip smacking bird watching. Tiring, the journey, was, but a large horde of birds placated the ever hungry mob and breakfast saw a beaming many persons. A blue rock thrush sat, well, on a rock.

We were free, much to my delight, for the rest of the morning and a part of the afternoon. Each person headed their separate ways to do what interested them most. I headed to the terrace to capture those moments of beauty on a film negative.

Rested, birded or peeved, everyone headed for lunch with a slightly different opinion of life. I met up with Mr.Shantharam's son and engaged in a 20 minute session of guitar playing. The rest of the afternoon was spent half asleep and reading about how “bleedin' 'orrible them Nazi's were”. Tea saw some familiar fare with chikkis being on the menu.

Having done good justice to them, we headed to 'Madhunayanichiruvu'(try saying that with 3 candies in your mouth) a lake well revered for water birds. A "sniper scope" in tow, viewing of birds was plentiful, and it took the sun to forcefully tell us to move along for us to go back.

After a great dinner of noodles, I packed and read and vowed not to wake up in the morning.

Day 4

Next morning, I refused to go for a pre-breakfast walk and the rain gods obliged with showers.

After a breakfast of dosais, the Innova gang crammed into the car and headed back home and to various relatives. Along the way, we were hit hard by 'Jal', both literally and metaphorically, though Pritam saar was unfazed by all this and kept the humour and car along the right track.

In the end, we saw what we had come to see, the Yellow throated bulbul and a lot more. We enjoyed our stay, the campus, the food and the general craziness that comes with MNS. We saw, heard and smelled 100 odd species of birds and other assorted creatures. I hope the other MNSites are happy.

All thanks to our publishing team at madras wanderer, MNS and Mr.Shantaram!

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Thanks Lorek!

My complete list of birds is here. This is a list of birds I saw, does not include the ones that I heard but did not see.