The Agumbe Rainforest Experience

Ideal Departure Time: 9:30 pm. Ha!
Actual Departure Time : 12:00 am. Bangalore Traffic i tell ya.
In that time, i think we all sort of began the "breaking of the ice" process with all the people waiting for the bus ride to Agumbe at the St Joseph's Indian School. We were all clad in a minimum of three layers of clothing each, assuming that we'd freeze in the cold without them.
We were headed for the Agumbe Rainforest Research Station (ARRS) to attend a Herpetology Workshop lead by Gerry Martin organised by Wishbone Interactive .
Four of us from Green Shield went along with this really interesting group of people , not really knowing what to expect from the weekend that followed. The amount of knowledge that so easily got washed into our heads was simply amazing. A trip like this really does give you a solid platform to exchange ideas and stories with people (who till about a few days earlier you hadn't even heard of).
We learnt about the envrionment & nature.About what role we play within it. We learnt about various reptiles , amphibians, birds and about the diversity in the flora found in the Agumbe rainforest. Well, I appreciate nature in all its splender a lot more now.
All i can say is that it was only AFTER i reached Bangalore (after the three days of non stop Educational fun and Brilliance ) did i begin to feel homesick.

Over to you - Kritika, Aishwarya & Natasha!

DAY1 : In the excitement of reaching Agumbe we forgot our tedious journey from Bangalore and the incessant rain throughout our journey.
The thought of meeting Gerry Martin, made us light headed as we hurriedly put on our trekking gear including leech socks. We were awed by the Western Ghats and our first sighting of a vine snake, which we promptly took and studied. After lunch a second trek followed late in the evening, when we came across a venomous Malabar Pit Viper . In his brilliant way Gerry showed us how to identify this snake, enumerating its many features. We also saw a very defensive Purple back crab that kept clicking the whole time we tried to calm it down. With the help of Sagar (our little child genius) we also found a plump little Bull Frog sitting quietly under a tree.
Our day ended with us all exhausted, falling asleep in the tents we pitched in the forest.

- Kritika
DAY2 : Warm sleeping bags, fresh air, yummy food and day2 without a bath, now that was heaven. Leeches,those dreadful ectoparasites that just never got enough of us. But the beauty of Agumbe overshadowed the ickiness that the leeches provided. Today we at least considered brushing our teeth (but not everyone put this thought into action :) After a delicious breakfast we got dressed and went to Gerry's cottage for a mini photo session with the snakes we were studying. Beautiful 4 day old King Cobras, pit vipers, green vine snakes and coral snakes were what we got to closely examine.I'm pretty sure though, that the snakes weren't too happy with the perpetual flashes of light coming from our cameras . Srikanth. a second year engineering student had to pay the price for getting too close. He got bitten by the cat sake a venomous snake which fortunately has no effect on humans. Soon after we went for lunch and ate our hearts out and got ready for our walk through the forest to release the pit viper to where we found it.
I was going nuts at this point...high on the snakes would be more like it! I ran around jumping into puddles and pushing people in them as well. The biggest mistake i made was pushing Dhillan ( A worldspace RJ from Bangalore) into a puddle that was deep enough to sink him up till his knees! After which i just kept running for my life. Everywhere i went i just watched my back. The last thing i wanted was to get into his evil clutches!, but fortunately he was sweet enough to let me live ;) Phew. After deleeching ourselves we got lost in the madness of Dhillan and Gerry's jokes , trust me we literally gagged with laughter.
We laughed our way through dinner and waited for Gowri Shankar ( the Conservation Officer at the ARRS) to give us a presentation on Agumbe , the research station and the magnificent King Cobras that are found there. Throughout the presentation we bombarded him with questions left,right and centre! Oh and i have never absorbed so much information just by listening to someone while they explained using a PowerPoint (which had such interesting & crisp facts) . Truly enlightening.The day wasn't tiring enough for us so we stayed up till about 11pm talking ( by the end of which i realised leeches can be quite stupid, what with leaving their heads in our body!) Oh, all of us had just about enough of those foolish things.
We hit the sack and there ended for us, one of the most amazing days Agumbe had to offer.

- Aishwarya

DAY3 : The leeches got a lot more friendly and therefore the snakes around us got more of our attention. Stepping into the shoes of Gowri, Pradeep and other volunteers that morning, we went tracking the King Cobra that they had been working with for the past 5 months. The trail was simply exciting! but the end was a little disappointing because Opha2 (the king) decided not to show. He was hiding in a bush less than 10 fet away and was alerted by the vibrations we sent his way with all our stamping. Nevertheless it was a fruitful hike with the awe-inspiring Gowri answering all our questions.
On our way back to camp, Aishwarya's enthusiasm never died down and neither did Dhillan's thirst for revenge. At first she ran & ran & ran and never looked back. But soon Dhillan caught up with her and before she knew it, she was in the air above a ditch beside which we walking. Koo dos to her though! 'cause she fought him off by kicking the trees & air and everything that came her way.
Back at the camp we lazed around & talked to each other, explored the plantation sites & took pictures of everything we were going to leave behind. The little genius Sagar went exploring with Shyam and returned with an injured Green Vine. On close observation , Gerry found that it was blind in one eye having been attacked.
Kaushik & Dhillan also headed out and came back really lucky with a bold green female Malabar Pit Viper coiled at the end of a branch. Something to be proud of.
Soon it was time for packing up our wet wet clothes, rolling in our sleeping bags, packing up the tents and bringing them all back to camp where -at least for me- a mood of depression set in. Our three day in paradise was over.
Now it was time to say our goodbyes to Agumbe - A place filled with less leeches than Bangalore City (*wink wink*)We all got rides in the ARRS jeep to where the bus was waiting for us. With all the luggage uploaded, we got into the bus and soon we were out, out of the rainforest that soaked us for the past 3 days. I was beginning to miss the leeches and with a blink of an eye, it was all over.
On the bus we were city people, talking about getting back to our routine lives, some of the guys putting on fake accents and amusing themselves, Shyam sleeping on Chetana, Pari & Dhillan & ofcourse yours truly closing her eyes and wishing the departure to be a dream.
Alas kiki woke me up, " We've reached" , she said and my worst nightmare came true. We had reached Bangalore and i had classes in a few hours ( which i did not attend) but i came down to Earth, we all did. And as Pari says it 'Agumbe withdrawal Syndrome' set in.

- Natasha

Thank You Wishbone Interactive -Gerry,Kaushik & Shyam , All at the ARRS and well yes..the colourful people we spent those three days with. Woot!