The Last few Days
Trip Start
Dec 12, 2005
1
36
37
Trip End
May 02, 2006
Varkala, Kerala,
India
Saturday, April 29, 2006
Our last few days have been spent doing our last bits of site seeing.....On Tuesday Raffi took us about 60 km to the South where we visited Kovalum. This is Kerala's premier tourist resort although the travel guides are quite scathing about it. I think this may be because it caters mainly for the package tourist rather than the traveler. We quite liked the place, it is very different from Varkala in feel and even in the low season (now) it has a far busier feel than Varkala
Kovalum Beach
. The tradesmen and shopkeepers are certainly pushier.Yesterday we again headed South but this time up into the southern part of the western Ghat mountains. These are not as high and majestic as their northern brothers but we still rose up to around 1,000 metres and were amongst some tea plantations, although they were no where near as grand and beautifully manicured as those around Munar. We first headed for the waterfalls at Meenamutty. These are in a forest park and we had to walk for about 30 mins to reach them. The reward for Raffi and I was a swim in the deep pool and Maire elected to take the video footage. It is strange to think that in a few weeks the area will be inaccessible due to the millions of gallons of water which will be cascading down the mountains once the monsoon rains arrive. One look at the size of the huge boulders in the area gives an idea of the power of the water. After the falls we returned to the ca and went further up to Ponmuti which has just a hotel and cafe and on a clear day some wonderful views across the hills. Unfortunately the day was cloudy and misty and the view severely restricted......So we enjoyed the view from the cafe instead over couple of cool beers before heading back towards Varkala. These trips ended our tours with Raffi and his last job will be to take us to the airport on Tuesday morning.
And that (as they say) is just about it! I shall probably put the finishing touches to the journal when we arrive home (Hopefully sometime on Tuesday afternoon). This afternoon I shall take Maire to our favourite hotel where she can swim in the pool and have lunch. Maire still won't go into the sea above her knees because the waves can be rough. Not a bad idea really because when I went for a morning swim today, I got caught in a couple of big rolling waves which tossed me about like a rag doll.
I shall see you all again very soon. Take care.
