Periyar Nature Park

---

It's been so long!

Well, there's a bit of a gap here between this and my last blog, and I'm sorry about that. I've decided it's probably for the best if I just carry on here as if there wasn't a gap. Anyone desperate to know about my adventures prior to this blog can take a look at Jen's blog
here.

My first impressions of Kumily, the hill station/service town or Periyar National Park weren't great. I staggered off the bus after a 5 hour journey from Madurai, the last hour or so of which was spent climbing mountain roads at breakneck pace. I'd been a bit cramped, so my legs were a bit stiff. As in many places in India we've been, the sidewalk doubles up as a public urinal, so my olfactory senses were greeted accordingly. An auto-rickshaw driver took us along cracked, bumpy back roads that were little more than rubble in places to the Coffee Inn Guesthouse, where we were instantly transported into a slightly hippieish English country house. The room was very comfortable, and it was very nice to be in a cooler place for a change. It even got a little chilly in the evenings - a definite novelty to us!

It's nice to see so much nature here too - a great change from the sprawling, stinking, noisy cities that seem to be India's trademark. We were lucky when we went in and saw a giant Indian squirrel after only about 5 minutes on our walk to the visitor's centre (rickshaw-wallah's wait patiently at the entrance to take you the 2km distance, but they charge a rather extortionate Rs30 for it, so we generally walked along the pleasant roads). Saw loads of big trees and a few monkeys on the way. The monkeys here aren't as aggressive as many we've seen. I'[m even tempted to believe that the local population might have actually heeded the signs that advise you not to feed them. They certainly ignore the others, like "No overtaking", "No horn" and "Speed limit 20km/hr" along the road to the centre.

The first day, we just took the evening boat ride around the water - saw plenty of pigs, a few buffalo, and loads of birds. Nothing very exciting, but the scenery was very nice. Took an early morning walk with a guide on the second through the forest and saw *evidence* of tigers (a tree used as a scratching-post and a footprint in cracked dry mud), but no actual tigers. We're thinking of visiting a nature reserve when we go to Rajasthan where we're almost guaranteed to see one if we spend more than a day or so there, so hopefully we'll see some then. There was also evidence of elephants (fresh poo and a heavily crushed track through very dense undergrowth), but again, no actual elephants.

Jen was a bit ill, so she missed the morning trek ut I took her out in the afternoon and though we failed to get a walk or a boat then, we had a nice walk along some of the permitted paths and that made up for it.

Our third day, we visited a small spice plantation (it obviously makes most of it's money from the visiting tourists) and I was pretty fascinated by that - seeing cloves, cardamom, nutmeg, cinnamon, pepper and others growing fresh. It only occurred to me in Thailand that I'd ever seen black pepper growing aq couple of months ago in Thailand, wen I pulled out a string of mysterious green berries on a vine from a curry and realised what they were.

The food at Coffee Inn was another thing worth mentioning here - notably the bresh baked brown bread. With the *almost cheddar* cheese and fresh tomato on top, I defnitely got my fix of western food there. It's a given truth, though, that in places that good half decent western food, the standard of the Indian food drops considerably.

Yesterday we took on 8 hour bus ride to Kovalam, in south Kerala. It's a very touristy beach town. We'll spend a couple of days relaxing here then move on northwards a little.

I bought a nice day-to-page 2007 diary in Madurai and one of m New Year's resolutions is to write one page of creative writing for each day The other is to get back on track with this sorry, neglected blog.

Love to all,

Sam

---

Comments

[Joss]

More!More!
hi Sam! I know you've got more important things to do but please do keep the blog up, it was ages since the last one. tis my homepage and i check it everyday! Jen's blogs have been filling the gaps but it aint the same (no offence jen). I really like the idea you've had for a bit of creative writig everyday. I still reckon you should pursue the idea as more than a hobby when you get back. Do what you love. Not *that* long left now. less than two months. :) :( miss you bro! XXXX

[mum]

periyar
As I said in the email Periyar was my favourite place of all in India, becuase we were in the countryside as it would have been without man I suppose, and the lovely coolness. we didn't see any tigers or the ground squirrel , but we did see elephant and lots of birds and monkeys and pigs and buffelo and deer. Did you see our hotel on the lake? The lake palace? it was heaven, in a colonial sort of way, although actually it was only "colonial style" built by th local Raj as his hunting lodge, as indeed the Park was created because he feared to loose the hunting territory to the spice and tea plantations. WE approached the Park from Thekaddy, but that might be the same as kulimy as things have more than one name. We didn't go to kovalam either as it was too far, but stayed nearer Appelay before returning to Cochin. I think Kovalam is the resort though, really the only one in Kerela. I loved the journey from Munnar to thekaddy one of the most beautiful, but i thik you must have come from the other direc tion if you were going up to Periyar, we were coming down rom the tea platations. hope you like Kerela as much as we did Love Mum

[dad]

no elephants?
we saw elephants when we were there, but no tigers. Did you get to bit of periya lake with the lake palace perched high on a wooded island? been there! spice gardens very nice, i agree. joss goes back to uni the day after tomorrow, we'll be on our own again, which isn't too bad; preparing for your return of course, making the mincemeat and the xmas pudding (NOT). the crackers are ready. nice to hear from you after that little gap, though i'm not surprised you have little yime to write blogs, given where hyou are and what's going on and all. we loved kerala and its people and the climate and the food - had a lamb byriani there yet? later, dad ps much love xxxxx