Sound of raindrops on trees, a distant sound of water forcing its way through rocks, crickets calling out and the beautiful smell of rain, these are the few things which I observed when I reached Agumbe–the Cherrapunji of South India. It was 4 in the morning and pitch dark, so my friends and I walked through a narrow path towards a small opening where we set up our campsite and decided to sleep for a few hours.
Again I was woken up by the beautiful sound of raindrops falling on my tent, birds singing and the sound of water flowing. As I stepped out of my cozy tent and looked around at the beauty of nature – huge trees surrounding our tent and a glimpse of Langurs at a distance. Just when I was losing myself to nature – AHHHH! I made a new blood sucking friend, the Leech. These blood suckers kept us busy all through the trip.
I finally understood why Agumbe is called the Cherrapunji of the south, It just rained and rained and rained and rained throughout the day (here is a small clip – http://youtu.be/OIxQvurzmlo). :)Not like this would stop us from searching for the mysterious and mystical King Cobra. In the jungles of Agumbe you never know what you would stumble upon.We wore our leech socks and started our search for the great King Cobra. It was a beautiful experience walking through the wilderness and after about 15 minutes I spotted the first snake in the wild – a Malabar Pit Viper. The sight of this venomous Pit Viper species reassured me that I might get to spot the much spoken about King Cobra.
We walked for about two hours and spotted over 15 more Pit Vipers. It is amazing to see how these magnificent snakes camouflage themselves. The trek started to become harder as our friend leech started to find their way up our sleeves. Just then we arrived at this amazing river that we had to cross. The water was almost up to our waist, chilled and clear. We had to walk in it for about 200 meters to reach a place where recently a King Cobra was spotted. When we did reach the spot there was no sign of the king cobra.As it was also getting late, we were forced to head back to our camp.
Beautiful and exciting days passed by but still we did not see a single sign of the King Cobra. I was able to spot many more Pit Vipers, some Vine snakes, Wolf snakes and Rat snakes but just not the majestic king. Though the trip according to plan was not a success,it was one of the most amazing places I have visited and I look forward to visiting Agumbe again in search of the King Cobra.
