TOUR OVERVIEW
Dates: 25th to 28th July, 2024
Wayanad, the emerald paradise is nestled among the mountains of the Western Ghats. Clean and pristine, enchanting and hypnotising, this land is filled with amazing wildlife, history and culture. This verdant hill station is full of plantations, forests and wildlife, and these hills connect to Mudumalai in Tamil Nadu and Bandipur and Nagarhole in Karnataka, thus forming a fantastic corridor for wildlife to travel between the amazing Nilgiri biosphere. These hills serve as the perfect location for our Rainforest Exploration & Macro Photography Tour. The region hosts a wide array of exciting and adventurous activities for avid naturalists, wildlife enthusiasts & macro photographers.
Situated at a high altitude and in an area which receives a high amount of rainfall, the environment around boasts a wide variety of life, especially with regards to numerous species of amphibians & reptiles, many being endemic to the area and found nowhere else on Earth.
There is an amazing diversity of amphibians found here with several species of colourful and very vocal bushfrogs, night frogs, cricket frogs, 2 species of gliding frogs, tree frogs, dancing (torrent) frogs, the super cool Malabar tree toad and other species of toads, and several species of caecilians (limbless amphibians).
We also have a high chance to come across some amazing reptiles with star attractions such as the Malabar & hump-nosed pit vipers, cat snakes, vine snakes, coral snakes, keelbacks and shieldtails to name a few. There are also many species of geckos.
This area of Wayanad, also has a good population of the endemic Yellow variant of the giant snail (Indrella ampulla).
The area is also amazingly rich in bird life, that boasts over 300 species including the beautiful Malabar trogon, orange minivet, hill myna, Asian fairy bluebird and various species of woodpeckers, flycatchers and raptors. Mammals found in the area include, leopards, barking deer and wild boar and an amazing array of nocturnal life such as mouse deer, various species of lesser cats, flying squirrel and porcupines.
We will be staying at the absolutely beautiful and untouched Fringe Ford, which is a 520 acre wilderness property which is a functional plantation. A British settler discovered the beauty of the country in 1912, and its huge potential as cultivable land, and acquired the property which he turned into estate, cultivating the local pepper, cardamom and coffee on its slopes. He built the house,that still stands there. He named it Fringe Ford. The name stuck, but nothing else. Fringe Ford changed hands, and soon found its way to its present owner, who decided to give something back to nature with minimally destructive plantation methods. Now, Fringe Ford stretches out over a 1000 acres on all sides, some of it still chalked out for cultivation but a large portion of it turned over to the elephants, the leopards, the squirrels and the other species that call it home. The forest has long grown over the cultivated slopes, and unique species of plants, ferns and massive, rain-giving trees now thicken the hills.
Fringe Ford has come full circle, and today, is one of the few pieces of Malabar rain forest that the world has to show along with conscious minimally destructive plantation activities.
What’s better, Phillip Ross will guide you into this wonderful rainforest, equip you with a good understanding of the amazing life found in this region and teach you the fundamentals of wildlife and macro photography that will help you take some stunning photographs.
Come and see Fringe Ford, Wayanad like never before and enrol yourself for this one-of-a-kind Rainforest Exploration & Macro Photography Tour with The Outback Experience!
