Jeep Safari in Periyar Wildlife Reserve
Trip Start
Dec 10, 2006
1
16
20
Trip End
Jan 07, 2007
Kumily,
India
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Kumily is a town nestled in the middle of spice, tea and rubber plantations, which dot the surrounding mountainous landscape. Our first day we toured a spice plantation and learned what cardamom, pepper, rubber, cinnamon, turmeric etc. look like as actual plants. For example, cinnamon is actually bark off a tree and pepper is a vine, or creeper, that grows on other trees.
We stayed at a homestay named Pepper Garden homestay. The older couple we stayed with had an extremely clean house and wonderful cooking. We particularly enjoyed the copious hot water for showering that was available. We also booked our safari and spice garden walk through Touromark (phone: 04869224332 / 9447980941). Vinod was an excellent resource and knowlegable guide. We had an extremely detailed, personal and informative spice tour. Both the homestay and tour are highly recommended.
Our second day in Kumily we took a Jeep Safari ride into the Periyar Wildlife Reserve. We set off at 5:30 in the morning, when there was a thick fog through the streets. As usual, safety was not the top concern of our driver, and he only stopped once to manually de-fog our window and repeatedly stood out the door while driving. We have grown accustomed to break-neck speeds on winding roads, barely visible conditions, and close encounters with produce carts or pedestrians. Accompanying us on our safari ride were a Hungarian couple who run a gluten-free bakery (Barron, we thought of you) and a Welsh girl named Lisa who had been volunteering in the slums of southern Tamil Nadu at an orphanage who had very disturbing stories.
Once inside the park we trekked, or hiked, for three hours around a lake. We heard one water buffalo run by and he gave us quite a scare (Erin took off running) but we did not see any actual elephants or buffalo. We also paddle-boated around the lake and ate a leisurely lunch outside in a garden.
The real Jurassic Park excitement occurred on our way out of the Reserve when we least expected it. On the road, a passing driver told our driver that up ahead there were elephants. As we moved forward, our driver coasted our jeep downhill, where we saw fresh elephant poop and could hear an elephant herd crashing about in the forest. Even though we could not see more than little glimpses of the wild elephants through the brush, they were less than 50 feet away and it was exhilarating (much different than in a zoo and behind bars). Our guide actually got out of the jeep and allowed us to do the same. Some foolish tourists actually walked into the forest to see the elephants up close. Erin talked with a woman who had been on 5 safaris which all forbade her to leave the jeep. She refused to get out and was on the verge of hysteria because her driver had left the jeep. In India, we've found much less concern of liability. She had a point, however, as we were in the middle of the herd and there was a baby elephant and its mother. Elephants get extremely aggressive in order to protect their young. As we walked along the road away from the jeep we could hear the loud crunching and trashing of the elephants through the thick bush. Adam repeatedly scanned the forest to make sure the herd was not closing in on us and Erin kept envisioning a "Jurassic Park" moment where the elephant charged our driver or a panther came out of nowhere to maul a tourist. An unforgettable moment. .
In our Jeep on Safari
