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Kumily
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Friday 24th February 2006 Kottayam and Kumily
Back to the train station and heading inland (for a change) and north to a place called Kottayam. The train journey took 4 and a half hours. We passed the time talking to some young male law students. One of them was hoping to follow his brother to Newcastle, England to study. We could only think of the culture shock his brother would have had when he arrived in England for the first time, then getting used to the weather and then there is the Gordie language to contend with!
Nothing much happened is Kottayam in our only night there only to say that we had checked into a hotel on arrival in the afternoon where we dumped the bags and went out to explore town. After doing Internet and MSN with the mummies we went and had a lovely meal in a rather swanky hotel restaurant. On leaving and noticing how hot it was still at 10.30pm, we enquired how much it was to stay one night. A/C double was a snip at 13 pounds.
We duly returned to our original hotel room to find that it had turned into a sauna. It was boiling! We immediately donned our backpacks and left for the swanky A/C hotel. We didn't bother with a refund for we only paid about 4 fine English pounds and it was worth it for the laugh we had as we walked out through reception with the security guard not knowing what to say!
What a fabulous nights' sleep we had. We actually had to use blankets! The next morning we took our lives in our hands and headed for our first Indian BUS journey. Unfortunately our next destination of Kumily was up in the beautiful tea growing hills where the trains did not go.
With a cooler, more British climate to offer, we were more than ready to experience that after our last few weeks on the coast of the Arabian sea.
Our bus driver, as it turned out did not appear to be on some sort of death wish or in fact a distant relative of Schmacker. He drove rather considerately compared to other bus drivers we have witnessed as pedestrians from the road side! The road was long and winding with wicked hair-pin bends but the scenery was breath-taking. Lush green tea plantations stretched up, over and down the huge mountains as far as the eye could see. We noticed the air becoming cooler, fresher and less polluted, was we climbed to a height of about 1200 mtrs.
On arrival, some 4 hours later we found a really nice place called White House Homestay. The Indian woman owner, Lilly was very sweet in making us feel welcome. We had a room in the beautifully flowered garden on the border with the Periyar Tiger Reserve. Within half a hour of our arrival who should walk through the garden but Patrick, Hannah and Maiya our old neighbours from Varkala. It was really good to see them again and they were staying a couple of cottages down from us but in the same garden. What a small world?
So back to the Periyar Tiger Reserve. It being one of our reasons for braving our first bus journey and coming here. This wildlife sanctuary covers some 777 sq km and is home to bison, sambar, wild boar, langur, 900-1000 elephants and best of all, 35-40 real wild, tigers.
We were later to find out that the park was actually closed to trekkers, of the walking kind not Startrek fans, for the annual tiger census. It would be open for business again on Tues 1st March. We were under no time restriction and could easily loose 3 days jollying about especially having met up with H&P and Maiya again.
Our first afternoon was spent checking out the local posh hotel. According to our Lonely Planet the 5* Spice Village Hotel offered a free Keralan cookery demonstration and wild life question and answer session with slide show every evening. We went along for a look and duly booked ourselves into the buffet restaurant that evening too. The cookery demonstration was given by a Indian type Jamie Olivier/Ainsley Harriot. He was really funny and in 30 mins he had rustled up a wicked fish curry from scratch. We were able to have a taster which was our main reason for choosing to eat in the hotel restaurant after.
The amount of food on offer was incredible. Martins' eyes were popping out at the variety. See photo.
During our dinner we also witnessed a traditional Indian Kathakali performance. See photo. 2 beautiful Indian women with perfect make-up and costume dance while 2 drummers and 2 singers accompany them. The script is sung by the singers (in Hindi) but it is the performance of the dancers that actually tells the story. Some might say you need to speak Hindi to really understand it but as it was, you could understand parts of the story if you really concentrated!!!
For 500 Rupees each which equates to about 7 pounds we had a great value evening. We both waddled back to our cottage at White House stuffed full of fantastic tasting Keralan food and our minds enriched with Indian culture.
Blankets on the bed meant we were in for a chilly night. Great!
2nd March 2006
So yes what about those tigers? Well we purposely came to this area for the trekking and on the hope that we would see some tigers too.
In anticipation we booked to go on a 10 mile full day trek. As the morning arrived we woke early asking ourselves "what have we let ourselves in for?"
Anyway it was too late to back out now so we donned our hiking boots and together with Patrick we headed off to the meeting point.
Our group of tiger spotters was 7 in all. A multi national group of English, German, French, Spanish, American, there has to be a joke in there somewhere?
First part of the trek our guide Jian warned us was the hardest. Boy was he right as there in front of us we were faced with a huge mountain type hill. We climbed it slowly finding much evidence that elephants had passed through and passed something recently! Martin had great joy in kicking elephant dung at me at I followed behind him on the walking path.
Frequently the guides would stop, look and listen, checking the elephant grass that had been recently discarded.
We did see some Malibar Giant Squirrell and numerous forest birds who sang so loudly.
We eventually stopped for breakfast which the guides (all 4 of them) made for us. This consisted of freshly brewed tea/coffee, fresh fruit, biscuits, bread and jam. The jam here in India one can only describe it as "glows in the dark!" Full of E numbers and sugar and most probably not one piece of actual real fruit. Such a shame as the fruit here is so varied and naturally sweet as it is left to ripen on the plant it grows on. Unlike the stuff you get at home.
  
So we finished our brekkie and "sugar-rushed" off up the rest of the mountain! We passed through various types of terrain, dense forest, rocks and tall elephant grass area (which could be hiding tigers)! Until, finally we reached the top. The views below of Kumily and surrounding area, were just stunning and so worth the effort. But still there no sighting of a tiger or elephant, yet.
Then we headed back down via other paths through more forest, over more streams at which we took the opportunity of bathing our hot feet.
Once we reached the lower flat land area it was time for lunch. We found a shady spot by the huge lake and our guides served up a tasty rice and vegetable curry number. Near by, were some local tribe people were fishing from there dug-out canoes. The area was so peaceful and just right for chilling out for an hour.
Our trek continued on further around the edge of the lake. Then we headed back along a path into the forest area.
There we were all trundling along chatting quietly, when we heard a short high pitch elephant trumpet sound. No, elephants don't have trumpets but the sound they make is like one. We all stopped in our tracks and our guides all ran! What's going on? Should we run too? But no we stood like lemons looking at each other ashen faced.
Eventually a couple of guides re-appeared and gestured us to follow them. Back down to the lake we went trying to be as fast as possible but quiet too. We failed, to the point that a male elephant gave a low resounding growl, just to remind us that he (Jumbo) could in actual fact hear us. Wow, were we glad we were wearing brown trousers???
We made it to the lake side and there we counted a couple of elephants a little way ahead of us. Then as we crept (loudly) towards them yet more appeared. We finally counted 12 elephants including 2 very young ones.
They all gathered together, ready for a charge we thought but no, they walked down into the lake and there right in front of us, all 12 of them swam nose to tail across the lake. What a sight?
We clicked away with the camera (see photos) and then once they reached the other side the mothers let their baby's suckle while the other elephants drew up dust in their trunks only to blow it all over themselves. The guides said it was elephant sun cream. Especially as they have rather pink trunks and are prone to burning. Covering themselves in dust and mud protects their skin.
We watched them for approx 45 minutes, it was a fantastic experience. Eventually they headed off into the forest and we continued on the rest of our trek on a real high.
  
The end of our trek was nearing. Still no sighting of a tiger but we did come across some fresh paw prints and as we walked further there on a tree trunk in front of us was some huge tiger claw scratches. See the photo.
We all knew that we were highly unlikely to see a tiger. Even during the tiger census which had taken place in the last week they used paw casts and computers to record the different tigers they found and also they set up automatic cameras in the areas frequented by the same. They counted 58 in all. Most guides hadn't seen one in the last 5 years although one had seen one last year sometime.
So 10 miles later and we were finished. We did see a Rat snake and a group of Macque Monkeys. Described as a HARD trek we were glad we had proved to ourselves that we still had it in us. And with the variety of wildlife including the 12 elephants we saw it was worth every minute.
  
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