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| ~ The Ibex Peak and Ulaam Pari Hike ~ |
| Kodaikanal is a wonderful little town. It is a local tourist Mecca for Indian vacationers for the same reason that it attracts thousands of international tourists; Kodaikanal is a town on top of a beautiful 2000m mountain range, known as the Palani Hills. If you live within Kodaikanal you have access to amazing views, wonderful clouds and wind, and gorgeous walks, treks, and hikes every day. Katie and I came to have a favorite backpacking trip, the Ibex Peak trip. It became our favorite hike as much because of our company as the scenery. Ian Lockwood, his father Merrick, and Hans de Jong usually accompanied us on this spectacular 3 day back packing trip, and it was Ian who originally introduced it to us. Since then, we've looked for excuses to go back, and hike out to Ulaam Pari again and again, with friends and relatives, whenever the opportunity strikes. The very first time Katie and I went hiking in this area was on a crazy 1 night, 2 very-full-day hike called the "Backpacker's 80 Mile Round." Hans was there, and Mini Nair, Anna Worlien, Anjuli Kaul, Less Everhart and Catherine Pierce. It was wet, heavy, sloppy and difficult cross-country bush wacking. And it rained so hard on our way down from Top station that Hans and I couldn't even go swimming in the pools, and the river became so fierce that it washed out the usual bridge. |
| Morning at Ulaam Pari. Merrick enjoys the sunrise over Bodinayakanur to the south, while Hans scans the mountains with a high-power scope, looking for the elusive, and dissapearing Nilgiri Tahr. |
| Morning at Ibex Peak. Ibex Peak is always very windy, as it is very high, and isolated. Sleeping on the peak, just 25ft from a roughly 2000m cliff, the wind gusts, and rain storms can become vey intense. It's always good to arrive hear early, so that you have plenty of time to set up camp, cook food, and get warm. In the background Hans, Merrick and Kaite are using the scope to spot Nilgiri Tahr again. While Dad and I converse about something in the foreground. We were usuccessful in seeing any Tahr on this hike, despite it has been historically part of their range. Finally note the lone tripod on the left, it sits about 7ft from the 2000m cliff. |
| Illicit Activities. This shot of Merrick taking down a young Acacia mearnsii with a bow-saw is great. The three Acacia species familiar to those from Kodaikanal, A. mearnsii, A. decurrens, and A. melanoxylon, are highly invasive and along with the Eucalupytus species, have caused a drastic change in the vegetation of the high Palani Hills. I was shocked to realize, after moving to California, that these same Eucalyptus are invading here as well! Merrick is removing a sapling wattle (nickname for acacia) here because unless he did so this grassland habitat would be quickly over-run. I mean in 10 years. Two interesting points: 1) the Tamil Nadu Forest Office has strangely backward policies of allowing the planting of eucalyptus, and the invasion of wattle, and the illegal cutting of shola species, creating an aweful ecological managment scheme. And 2) If these invasive tree species are able to create rather dense (if obnoxious) forest in these grasslands, then why can't the shola trees manage the same thing? One answer might be that humans have been using fire as an ecological control technique in this area for thousands of years, and have altered the nature of the 'climax' ecosystem here. |
| created by Tim Waring, 2003 |
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| The next time we hiked in this area it was a very different hike. Ian likes to make hiking a comfortable, pleasureable, and even civilized experience. We had tea before setting off, and spent two nights and 3 days on the hike, which left a full day to meander along the cliffs at our leisure. Once Katie and I had been exposed to this type of hiking we were sold. We did the Ulaam Pari hike in the winter, with the Daloz/Walsh/Waring crew, and again the next summer with Ian and my parents, Marie and Topher Waring, who were visiting. Of course we've got plans to go again as soon as possible. If you don't like hiking or backpacking it's because you've never done it with the Lockwoods of Kodaikanal. I've already mentioned the tea, but combine that with Maggi noodles, tuna, lots of peanut butter and bread, great company and Seven Kilograms of Kodai Cheese, and you've got a true Ulaam Pari hike. Merrick is fond of scat of all sorts, and likes to pick it up and crush it between thumb and forefinger looking for what the animal might have eaten. Hans knows over 90% of the tree species of the sholas at this altitude, and Ian and Merrick are both accomplished birders. So hiking with this crew is a learning experience to be certain. Ian likes taking pictures in the morning, as you can see both here (these are his photos) and in his professional, silver and gelatin, black and white images. |
| The rare and threatened Nilgiri Tahr, photo from www.tahrfoundation.org |