Elephant Safari By Jeep In The Garden Of Eden
Trip Start
Sep 29, 2007
1
178
222
Trip End
Ongoing
Wayanad,
Kerala,
India
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
I made it there on a long, hot, rank and overcrowded local rattler bus drive from Kannur that included some slow, mountainous climbs, numerous stops, the bus trawling through endless unavoidable potholes and a switch of bus at Mananthavadi before reaching Kalpetta and checking in to the PPS Tourist Home late in the afternoon. The bus had seperate seating for ladies and for men, my pack and i scored the bench seats in the window section next to the driver where there were four aboriginal adults and a child squeezed in with me. Luckily these people were teeny tiny folk and they also had very dark skin and petite facial features.
sighting of wild animal is a matter of luck
Everybody on the bus smelled like humanity crush. The elderly tribesman had feet that looked exactly like a gorilla's feet and this is probably because he has been outside his whole life with no shoes. One of the ladies had stretched ear lobes with circular gold disks inserted into the giant holes, another one had a gold chain dangling from her nose piercing. I shared my mixed green and purple grapes with them. At present, some of the Wayanad area is occupied by these tribal populations who still practice age-old customs and rituals in particular with the use of rare herbs and medicinal plants. The people are forest dwellers who live in harmony with nature and practise arts and crafts, organised farming, music and dance although some are nomadic. The isolation of the area has enhanced the development of their unique ways of living. I felt blessed to have had the chance to interact so closely with some of them even if it was just on the bus.I hooked up with a friendly, nature-loving, Swedish couple who i'll call Sven and Helda because i can't pronounce their names at the hotel restaurant and decided to join in their jeep safari leaving early the next morning on which i would share costs. There's two seperate pockets in the wildlife sanctuary and we visited the Tholpetty part in the north on the border with Karnataka where there's extensive stretches of wilderness and where the wild Indian elephants make their home. It was an early start and quite a chill in the air when i woke before dawn ready for the jeep tour.
dancing monkey
The first prayer of the day was blaring from loudspeakers in a mosque close by. Just before reaching the sanctuary, Ramir the driver stopped the jeep and showed us a herd of four elephants moving through the forest, nice spotting. I got a look in through the Swedes binoculars and was well happy for the rest of the day. Wild elephants. Yippieee!!!A sign at the start of the sanctuary read 'Sighting Of Wild Animals Is A Matter Of Luck' and we were unlucky this day. We drove along trails in the sanctuary and saw spotted deer, a couple of bright blue Kingfisher birds (the bird seen on the logo for the popular Indian beer) that i later got a feather from, a wild peacock ( my favourite), insects, some butterflies, wild hens and big wild cocks, yes cocks thats right, some big langour monkeys, an impressive wilderbeast-boar type pig like the one from the movie the Lion King, some fresh elephant dung, a few rocks that we thought were animals from a distance and the furry creature that was hanging from the jeep's rear vision mirror. So, in other words, we saw jack shit nothing else but the wild Indian elephant prize was in the bag and i was beaming with joy.
The driver Ramir took us for an ultra tasty breakfast where i discovered idly which is a savory cake popular throughout South India. The cakes are usually two to three inches in diameter and are made by steaming a batter consisting of fermented black lentils (de-husked) and rice.
bamboo leaves
Ours was served with some kind of masala chutney sauce. Apparently it's a popular choice for breakfast in India and is considered to be one of the top ten healthiest foods in the world. We also had tea and the grand total cost for three breakfasts including tea was a low 44 rupees, it's a deal, it's a steal. it's the sale of the bloody century, i left a tip.The crops that grow in this region are cardamom, coffee, pepper, tea, cocoa, bananas, vanilla, ginger, rubber and tumeric. We saw and tasted some Arabica coffee beans and watched a guy picking peppercorns. The pepper guy had very pure eyes and was a pleasure to watch. People were hard at work on farms all throughout the area as we drove around and all the crops looked abundant with health and fertility. Bananas are the top bloke around here. The jeep driver played some beautiful, classical Indian music that was the perfect soundtrack for the drive through the greenery and i chatted with the Swedish couple about life and about Amma, the 'hugging mother' guru, who's ashram in the Keralan backwaters they had just been to visit. I was keen to hear the story of their hug.
We went to what is believed to be the oldest temple in India, Thirunelly Temple but there were renovations happening and as non-Hindus we weren't allowed to enter the temple itself. The surrounding mountains were beautiful and there were some orange-robed monks chanting at the entrance.
We went to Kurura Island which is an island composed of a mixture of deciduous forest, swamps, tall grass and mostly, of tall bamboo stands that sway and make strange creaking noises in the wind, natural wind chimes.
furry creature on rear vision mirror
Very Zen darling. The bamboo sticking out of the ground was like a giant game of pick up sticks. Wayanad Tourism's brochure encourages an activity for tourists to do which is to 'get lost in the woods and use your survival skills to trace your way back to camp'. Yeah right, only a fool would purposefully get lost in tiger territory and there aint no rescue team coming after you out here. We took a small row boat across the river then walked for a couple of kilometres on a trail around the island next to the water before heading back. The Swedish couple liked to walk slowly which allowed for a good immersion into the forest and for us to see the subtle bits and pieces the forest had as gifts for us. On my own i would have just charged through it like a bull at a gate and missed the lot. Helda was looking for a crocodile and i am sure they truly were a little scared that a tiger would attack. It felt like a true adventurescape island with them despite all the groups of school children around. We went to some ruins of a temple that had a gargoyle carving and a good Hanuman too. At first i thought this lush green landscape was prime for pixies but later noticed that around the place alot of the locals around their homes and in the farms look strangely like garden gnomes and by that i mean they are of staunch build and shortish with beards often holding tools of some kind, it's gnome type territory and i was happy to find evidence that the gnome community is alive and flourishing in Kerala.
Back at the hotel i was the only customer in the restaurant where the five bored waiters had a great time watching me accidentally swallow a red chilli that i had mistaken for a capsicum floating on top of my Aloo Gobi dish. I immediately asked for a bottle of water then a whole cartoon sequence played where i poured water over my tongue and it dripped onto the carpet below. Then i filled the glass in front of me and stuck my tongue in it until the burning sensations subsided. Classic.
With not much chance of more wildlife viewing i left the next day to meet Nadine in Kochi on the coast.
