Just another day in Kerala

Awoke to the cool of dawn, we are up in the mountains, I would guess 1,000 metres. We headed over to the Periyar Tiger Sanctuary at 6:30, before the sun came up.

We met our ranger guide, Raj, who had us put on leach protection gear. It was just a precaution, as ther are typically no leaches except in the rainy season.

We got pulled across the water on a raft, and we were off across a dew covered valley as the sun started to rise. The hike would last about 3 hours.
















We did not expect to see a tiger, as there are only 45 in an area of 1000 acres. But we sis wee bison, a malibar giant squirrel, monkeys, a monitor lizard and lots of birds. we also did have a rare sighting, a couple of wild dogs, something I did not see in Africa.

We had a wonderful hike, and our guide pointed out lots of interesting stuff, including tiger and elephant prints.

Later that morning we went out on a boat on a large lake. We did not expect to see any animals in the heat of the day, but were surprised to see a large herd of elephants come down to drink.

We went back to town for lunch, then I decided to join Kathleen for an ayurvedic massage after that. It was the usual oily Kerala style one, but hey, where else can you get a one-hour massage for the equivelant of $10?

Late that afternoon, Issac took us to a friend's spice garden. Abraham's garden is features in Monty Don's book "Around the World in 80 Gardens". It featured all kinds of tropical palms and flowers. He also gave us a tour and wxplanation of all the spice plants. We saw pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, nutmet, mace, cloves, all-spice, curry leaves, coffee, vanilla, and others I can't remember.

We went to his large kitchen and his wife gave us a Kerala cooking lesson. She did a cabbage dish and a chicken curry. Then we all sat down for what can only be described as a Keralan Feast. We also had rose rice, a local pink variety of rice, plus fish curry, potato curry and about 4 other dishes - mmmmmmm! This was all topped off with dessert of rice covered in yogurt, with banana slices and sugar. Issac, our trusty guide had picked us up some cold beer. It was a superb home cooked meal.

As you may have noticed, my vegitarian rule for India got tossed out temporarily. New rule - vegitarian, except for authentic home cooking.
















What an amazing day......