We checked in to the best hotel in Coimbatore to plan our next move, and decided upon the Mudumalai Wildlife Park and Tiger Reserve. This was a desperate attempt on my part to see an elephant in the wild. I was terribly disappointed that we could not go to Chitwan, so I agitated for Mudumalai in the hope we could see some animals. , past the spectacularly beautiful tea plantations, up to the highest hill station, Ooty, at 7500 feet, and back down again to Mudumalai at 3000 feet, on a hope and a prayer that we would see an elephant.
The Nilgiri Hills
Tea plantation
I learned how to identify both tiger and leopard prints. It had rained the night before so the ground was soft, and the prints were very very fresh. We came across a tiger kill (some kind of deer). We knew it was tiger because there were four large, deep, perfect pad prints. Elsewhere we found leopard tracks. These are smaller than tiger prints and resemble a parachute formation. We also found a hyena’s den clawed into a hillock with a large stone plinth blocking the entrance so a leopard cannot enter. There were two babies in there although we could not see them.
On our elephant walk
Hyena den
We took our second safari in the evening. This time it was a jeep trip. It was magnificent. We saw a troop of black-faced langur monkeys leaping from tree to tree. The females all had their babies, most of which were only a few days old, clinging to their bellies as they flew in the treetops. We saw countless peacocks in the wild, mostly males. 
While none put on their fabulous tail displays it was nevertheless magic to see them where they belong – hanging out in trees and calling to their lady friends. They sound just like cats mewling. We saw several wild boars rooting in the undergrowth, and a female elephant ambling along with her adolescent tusker and a baby. The baby had been badly bitten by a tiger in its right hind knee. The knee was terribly swollen and infected and he was limping badly.
Mom with juvenile tusker and injured baby
Watering hole
Mother and son
