Have you even been separated by a thin sheet of fabric between ground and pounding rains?  When the rain reduced, it felt like I was listening to police walkie talkie, without proper signal.  If it was in the city, I would have freaked and would have checked weather pages a thousand times to see what is in store for us. But that day, I was excited. I wanted to go out and stand in the rain. If I had taken a change dress with me, I would have done just that. The rains which had become the mood dampners after the terrible floods, had become a pal all of a sudden.

There was zero visibility. I was looking out through the small opening in the tent. When the mist passed, I could see the dim lights in the villages below us. It was just 6.45 PM. The night hadn’t even started yet.

Exoticamp was founded in early 2016 and they have done more than 100 camps till date. The idea is to give affordable and safe camping experience to people who would like to have a break from their lives and encourage outdoor activities in general. Few of my friends had already been to some of the camps. And importantly all of them were repeat customers, exploring different camps. It piqued my curiosity and I was more than happy to take up the invitation. And to be true, I can’t wait to go back again to another camp with the awesome team.

Right from the moment, I entered the bus station, the host put me in a very comfortable place and she did to everybody who arrived shortly. We started on time and there were no hiccups whatsoever in picking up people. It was a good start and the trip only got better as we moved forward. We had dinner enroute. With the repeat customers decided to chat away the night, I slept in the upper berth of the bus. The bus reached Kumily early morning and we had awesome Kerala breakfast of Aapam, Kadala Curry and Egg Curry.

With our tummy full, we took on rather brave attempt of getting into a Jeep. The Jeep had a wonderful music system which put the pubs in the city to shame. But we concentrated more on the journey and the various shades of green which passed by me. When we stopped for a small dip in a stream, I noted that the camp had equal number of female attendees if not more. I decide to pick the brains of the host as she was travelling with me in the jeep. She said that ladies usually make up 50% of the registrants in most of their camps. I felt happy about this. In 2010, when I was into trekking, lot of women who wanted to come to mountains dropped because of lack of company. I came to know about the women in the evening and I felt really happy.

When we reached the base camp to change and refresh before we reached campsite, I felt like coming to a cousin’s wedding. The cottage had two rooms and two restrooms and everybody was acquainted by then. We dropped in our luggage and quickly went about taking turns in restrooms and change rooms. We couldn’t wait to dive into the waterfalls inside the property. Yes. For two days, nobody really used shampoo or soap. The water was ice cold which doubled the enjoyment. Few explorers like me, went above the falls to have a private water fall experience. Apart from few insect bites, it was safe and the pool had awesome fish spa too. When we came out of the pool we were greeted with traditional Kerala Fish Curry meals. After the meals, we immediately went back to the waterfalls. The hosts had to use all their tactics to take us away from the waterfalls to the camp site.

It was a twenty minutes walk (climb) to the campsite. When we went there the tents were neatly laid out, which I didn’t expect it to be. The whole camp ran on schedule which I really liked. After a causal stroll, we were served with milk cookies and tea. Before we realized, we were surrounded by mist and the visibility dropped several notches. Out of nowhere, it started to rain. We scurried to our tents. And I had this epiphany which I shared at the start of this post.

When the rains took a break, we had dinner and campfire. This was followed by a night of horror stories. People who wanted to go sleep, retired to their tents while others spent the night discussing ghost stories. I resisted the urge to pee the entire night because I heard a growl outside. I didn’t want to startle a dog or wolf, so it would come to my throat. Only in the early morning I knew that it was a person snoring in the next tent. Oh well!

The camp was about doing nothing. It took sometime for me to get used to it. I was so restless of not doing nothing but then it was almost the second day of the trip, to get settled. The person who seeking solace in poetry and kickboxing, the girl who was able to sit and meditate whenever and wherever she wanted to. The people who walked up and down the local peak accompanying the camp mates; these people got most out of the camp.

Apart from organizing amazing camps, Exoticamp also helps the local people. They had a tie up with Jeep drivers, bajji stalls and few others to ensure safety as well as the arrangements. I also heard about their partners in different locations. Like organic mango farmers in Tada, Fishermen in Sayalkudi and Alamparai. Quite smal I should say. The best day of the fishermen at sea in those areas may fetch them 600 Rs. Such tour operators can definitely contribute more. And they should be or there is no way they could organize two or three camps per weekend without any hiccups.  They informed that they do the same with almost all their campsites. Overall, it was a great two days spent with amazing people and awesome hosts. For serious adventure enthusiasts or seasoned trekkers, this would look like a five star property. For people who are starting out camping, it is a good place to start. For so long we didn’t have such things in Chennai, Bangalore had Bangalore Mountaineering Club etc., It is a very welcome choice for people who want to do something else than roaming the malls and watching mediocre movies.

I am already looking at their events page unable to decide where to go next, Kodaikanal? Meghamalai? Or Tada? I know I would enjoy irrespective of my choice. That is why it is more difficult to choose.