BBQ and Jungle Nights

Well, since we posted last, we’ve had a BBQ for some of the international students, and had a lovely weekend away at the Jungle Retreat in the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve. 

As most of the students were off work from Wednesday last week, we decided it would be a good chance to get a few people round for some drinks before the course starts proper.  So on Thursday evening we had all the Brits, Americans, Australians, the Canadian and the Singaporean for a BBQ and a few beers.  It all seemed to go very well and everyone seemed to have a great time.  It looks like there are a few characters on the course, so we’re expecting a lot of fun and laughter this year.  And there seem to be enough national days, battle commemorations, birthdays etc to have some kind of social every week.  Jubliee party next maybe?

First Social of the Course

The best thing about the BBQ was that we hardly had to lift a finger for it!  We were expecting that Anandh and Fatima would do all the cooking and preparation, but we thought that we would be hosting guests and fetching drinks etc, but Anandh served the drinks all night and made sure no-one ever ran dry.  We had to do a little bit of washing up of the last few glasses, after Anandh and Fatima had left, but that was it!  It’s going to be hard getting used to the UK again when we go back!

On Friday, we packed our bags and headed off to the Jungle Retreat for a couple of nights, with Ian and Elaine Strong, the British Army couple.  It’s about a 2-hr drive away, north-west of Wellington and down on the plains, so quite a bit hotter than here.   The Jungle Retreat is a family run wilderness retreat, where there’s not a lot to do, except to go on safaris, chill by the pool and wait for the next meal.  Unfortunately, the only safaris that were going on at the moment were “Main Road Safaris” which, as the name suggests, entails simply driving along the main road to Mysore, along with hundreds of other horn-blaring Indian cars, looking for wildlife!  Having said that we did see wild elephants, monkeys, peacocks, bison, deer and a sloth bear!  After 6pm it wasn’t safe to walk around the Retreat without a guide, so we had to travel by jeep between the main dining area/bar and our cottage, which was only 400 yards, and during our trip on the first night we almost ran over an 8-foot python which was lying in the road.  The open jeep suddenly felt a bit exposed!  On the second night we didn’t see anything, but the guide heard a tiger and showed us where elephant had been the previous night. 

Langur Monkey

We took Anandh with us and he babysat Daisy and Ava each night which allowed us to go and have dinner and a few drinks with Elaine and Ian.  Daisy loved the swimming pool, but wasn't so happy with the goats who came to drink from the pool every day!  And the journey to and from the retreat was an experience in itself.  We thought the 13 hairpin bends from Coimbatore to Wellington were enough, but that didn’t even compare to the 36 hairpin bends to Mudumalai, with the normal high-speed overtaking and horn-blaring on every corner!

Swimming at the Jungle Retreat

It was good to get home today – we skyped Doris and the Hancock grandparents and had a lovely fish curry that Fatima had made us for dinner.  Tomorrow the course starts proper and all the wives are invited for the first 2 days, so that should be interesting!

As a last note to the whole Pickfords saga, Neil found that they had also broken his golf bag, just as he was about to go out for his first round of golf last week.  He was not best pleased, as you can imagine, but Anandh appeared, took the broken bag away and returned half an hour later with a new bag for about £30 and £5 for the sale of his old bag!  Amazing!  Particularly, as Pickfords refused to offer a penny.

More about the first week of College and Neil’s golfing experiences next time…