Thekkady, Varkala & Alleppey

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Hi Everyone!
Sorry for the long delay in this one, had some trouble finding a connection to upload photos so none of those at the moment but they will added soon i hope.

The next part of our trip (nearly a month ago now sorry!!) took us from Munnar across to Thekkady and the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary before we headed for the coast and the beautiful resort of Varkala and finally to the famous Keralan Backwaters in Alleppey.

Thekkady

We arrived in Thekkady and booked ourselvers into a gorgeous little place called Coffee Inn which had lovely bamboo huts set in a spice garden. It even had iots opwn watch tower where you could enjoy a cool beer whilst watching the animals in the wildlife sanctuary from high in a tree!

We only spent one full day here but it was a fully packed day to say the least!
We arose at 6 am and headed to the entrance to the wildlife sanctuary while it was still dark!!
The morning was spent on a boat touring round the Lake looking for exotic wildlife. We didnt see any Elephants, Leopards or Tigers on the cruise but we were treated to a family of Otters, Kingfishers, Sambar Deer, Buffalo and Wild Boar and the lake itself was beautiful enough to keep you amused in its own right!
After the cruise we left the park and visited a local spice garden where we saw and learned how such exotic plants as Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Black Pepper, Cocoa, Cloves and Mace were grown and harvested it was very interesting and the smell of the place was fantastic!
Our final outing of the day weas back inside the Wildlife Sanctuary (aka a tiger reserve) to try our hand at jungle trekking. The threat of coming across wild Tigers or Elephants meant you were only allowed to do this with a trained guide with a large gun, a fact that only added to the excitement.
For a while it seemed that we were not going to see anything of note but soon enough our guide started to earn his money first spotting a half eaten porcupine and heading of to find the offending Leopard who had cvommitted the crime. He found the Leopard but we were not quick enough to get there in time ourselves to see it.
Later on however we did get to see groups of wild elephants on three occasions, sometimes a little to close up for comfort!!
It was a fantastic experience and I would love to come back again a do a longer trek and find myself an illusive Tiger!

Varkala

After the excitement we headed to the cost to a beautiful place called Varkala which has a beautiful stretch of beach protectyed by a vertical red cliff all the way around. On top of this cliff all of the guesthouses and restaurants are situated all with great views over the Indian Ocean.
We spent 4 nights here just relaxing eating freshly caught fish (including blue marlin which was about 2 metres long no joke!!) It is a great place with a lovely relaxed vibe and a beautiful location.

Alleppey

From Varkala we headed to our final spot in India of Alleppey.
Alleppey is set in the middle of the famous Keralan Backwaters, a unique environment of rivers canals and lakes covering much of the coatal areas of Kerala. It was a beautiful place and we enjoyed an 8 hour tourist cruise through the waterways followed the next day by our very own gondola style canoe ride around some of the smaller canals and waterways.
The whole area was covered with greenery such as rice fields, palm trees everywhere and hundreds and thousands of water lilies.

We have now left Kerala and are heading to Sri Lanka for the next phase of our trip where we will be meeting my (Steve's) Mum and Dad for a week in slightly more luxury than we have experienced so far, whoopee!

Hope everyone is ok and I will send the next update asap.
Take Care, Steve and Laura! xxx

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Comments

[Anna]

All well and good but Lors, how many scarves have you bought? It's been 2 months, I'm hoping loads! xxx

[John B]

Wow
Following the abuse I have received from all corners of the UK (London and Cottingley) I thought I'd better add a comment. Sounds like a fantastic trip! Do feel, although the blog paints an exciting picture of the experience, a bit of exaggeration may move this from a B+ to an A-! For example if you had said that you saw the tiger, it went for Laura so, in a heroic feat of braveism Steven grabbed the gun from the guide's hands, and shot the offending tiger As you can see..........I've had too much coffee

[Graeme, Lucy, Darren and 7 other random people]

at bullocks birthday - not missing much, hows things. We don;t want to know about the view - we want to know about if you had the runs, i.e sting ring from a doggy curry, how many rows you have had, are you tanning well, have you turned to drugs.......Ellie is still top of the ff league a team called john bullock is bottem.....We are all hating work at the moment apart from bullock who is still living for work......still no special one there!!!!!! Swarve has hooked himself up with a 21 year old women called gemma we havent met her yet but he seems very very very very very very very very very keen so does she.....we are all still getting married hope you havent already done so on beech in thailand.......neway Mr williams do you still do traveling....!!! C u soon mate

[Dave]

Where are you?
Steven, Graeme thinks you've become a Buddhist monk and taken a vow of silence? I believe you've jetted off to Columbia in search of Freddy Leon? Which is it? Hope all's well mate, Dave