Kerala (Part 1)

After leaving Goa, we headed to Kerala known locally as "God's Own Country". Not sure quite that means if your an atheist but there you go. We had our first experience of the public bus system, which for the first our on the rock solid seats designed for very small people was fine, but after the 5th hour of being thrown around by Lewis Hamilton posing as a bus driver was pretty bogus. Not to mention the young child sat across from us projectile vomiting all over the gangway! Luckily that incident was only 1 hour the end of the journey. Nice.

We arrived in Munnar, which in itself is nothing special. However, the surrounding area is stunning and is literally covered by tea plantations. The hills and the greenery make for some breathtaking scenery and we we awoke the next morning to head for the tour to catch a minibus which promised to explore the area and stop at various points of interest along the way. Having spent the last 6 weeks by Sarah's side, it looks like her time-keeping has rubbed off on me, and we didnt quite make it the the embarkation point for the 10am departure. Instead, we hired a rickshaw driver to give us a tour, which to be honest was a blessing in disguise as we got to see things which we would not have done on an organised tour.

The journey meandering through the hills took in various amazing viewpoints, a pedalo ride, a "honey tree" basically a tree with massive bees nests attached, a place called echo point (named due to the fact you can scream and the echo bounces back of the valleyside which Sarah didn't quite understand until i explained despite all the visitors yelling there heart out - bless her!). As we stopped for one of the many photocalls, a local man called us round the corner from where we were stading snapping away. Amazingly, 100 yards or so down the hillside was a female wild elephant with its two babies. Pretty awesome, and our first wild encounter with these incredible animals....

After a couple of days in Munnar we headed by bus to Kumily (equally horrific, less vomity), which is a small town acting as the entry point for Periyar National Park. Kumily is a cool little town, quite tourist, but much more fun and interesting than Munnar. A 5.30am wake up call, and we were entering the wildlife sanctuary to begin our "green trek", a 3 hour hike through pretty dense forrest with the hope of seeing wild elephants, amongst other beasties. Our luck was in once again as we were literally a matter of few feet away from a herd of them, hiding behind trees and doing our damndest to be quite so not to attraction their attention. They are very prone to charging humans when they are protecting their young and very recently, people have been killed in Kerala in such a manner. So it didn't help matters when our guide's mobile went off as we were cowering in the undergrowth. Amusingly, his ringtone was that Nokia one from Trigger Happy TV, but thankfully he didn't answer by screaming "I'm in the Jungle!!! Hiding from wild elephants!!" We also saw some amazing birdlife (the highlight was a massive hornbill, which are really brightly coloured orange birds) and some monkeys of course.

In the afternoon, after a well deserved nap, we went back into the Park and did a lake cruise. Just before dusk is a great time to do this and we saw loads of wild animals as they came down to the lake to drink and wash. We saw bison (not the Russell Benson variety but an actual bison), deer, antelope and wild boar.

The next day we visited a working tea factory, which was pretty cool although the actual tea tasted pretty average and by no means was as satisfying that a good quality cup of builders. We also organised a cooking course for the evening. We were picked up by a rickshaw driver and taken to a pretty rustic family home just outside Kumily. It wasnt quite what we were expecting, but it was an awesome experience. We learnt to make some tasty dishes, including long bean curry, pineapple curry (hmmmm?), fish curry, aubergine curry and parathas. Durbs furiously made notes so we can host a Keralan taster evening upon our return and I mainly watched and ate. Lots.

Time to hit the coast again!