Monday 18 February
“Morning leave by surface for Periyar. On arrival check into
hotel X.
Proceed on a boat-ride on Lake Periyar to view wild-life.
The man-made lake adds to the natural beauty of the wester ghats and is located
in the heart of a 300-sq. miles wild life sanctuary… “
The drive from Kochi to the town of Kumily took about 5
hours and took us over several ranges of the Western Ghats. Along the way we
saw lots of nice family houses built in a distinctly South Indian style, rubber
plantations, banana and coconut groves, fields of cassava and pineapple. There
was some sort of general strike on so stores were closed and few people were
out, except for small small political rallies in some of the towns.
Again, we
got to our hotel later than planned, and had to eat a hurried lunch
(fortunately this place and the previous place had buffets set out for lunch,
so it was possible to be quick). Then we were taken close by to take buses into
the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary, where we got on boats for an hour ride on the
reservoir – saw elephants, gaur, sambar, otters (I didn’t know these existed in
India), white-necked ibis, and other birds.
After our return from the game park we went to a
demonstration of Kalaripayattu, the South Indian martial arts. The 5 young men who participated
were very skilled and it was quite impressive. That was followed by a program
introducing Kathakali dance. By then it was 8 pm .. so we just had granola bars
in our room and then actually slept almost a full night!
