Day 10 - early morning jungle walk, afternoon elephant ride, evening beers

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Very early start up at 5.30am this morning - but definitely worth it. Went up to Periyar National Park just 5m away by auto rickshaw and set off around 6.45/7am on our jungle walk after first putting on our leech socks. The 3 hour walk began by crossing the man made lake on a raft that is pulled by rope from one side to the other and then setting off on foot into the jungle with our guide at the front and Chandra at the back.

We stayed up front the majority of the time which turned out to be very beneficial as often shortly after our guide had spotted something it would dash off so only those at the front would have seen. This happened with a mouse deer that was hiding in a hollow tree trunk - we caught a glimpse of it, most noticeably its eyes glowing as the light shone in from outside, before it darted out the opposite side.

At one point Sarah spotted something brown/red in the bushes which we later couldn't find and the guide said there is a chance it may have been a tiger as it was the area for them, but generally they only come out at night. We didn't manage to catch sight of any wild elephants but we did see their footprints and dung along the way and when we passed one of the natives that live in the forest along with our guide, he said there were many but away over the other side of the water. Later in the walk we came across tiger prints and scratch marks on trees , and very large ones too. Saw lots of monkeys (which have now noticed are in the trees around the hotel), a type of squirrel which was very large, woodpeckers, kingfishers, hens, a baby viper snake, many frogs, spiders and wild boar.

It was a beautiful morning in a wonderful setting with mist around the mountains when we set off, and bright sunshine by the end. We got back just after 10am and had breakfast at the hotel. Couldn't believe it was still so early - I'd normally still be in my bed at that time never mind having just had a 3 hour walk through the South Indian Jungle!

There was no scheduled activities for the rst of the day so had a shower and then went for a walk along the main street with Sarah and Natalie and also decided to do the optional activity of an elephant ride and give the Ayurvedic massage a miss which Peter and Susan and even John did.

The elephant ride was fantastic! Had to climb up to a platform to get onto the female elephant we had who was named Carmella. The mahout with her was very nice and used Sarah's camera to take pictures throughout the 30m slow walk through the wooded area. We then got off and bought a fruit basket to feed her and took more pictures doing this and giving her a cuddle - an amazing experience.

After the ride we made our way back to the hotel, shared a beer and had some chill out time before meeting the group for dinner in the hotel restaurant at 7.30pm and then getting an early night.

General thoughts for today

• keeping to the front pays off
  

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Photos

Raft
Our transport across the river

Edge of the jungle
Natalie myself and Sarah

Tiger prints
If you can make them out

Tiger scratch marks
A bit clearer than the prints