For our second day in Periyar, we had booked a nature trek and having paid for four people - the minimum charge - we were pleasantly surprised to find that we had a guide for just the two of us and we walked for three hours without seeing anyone else other than the ladies from the local tribe sitting on the lake edge with their bamboo fishing rods.
Since all the early morning slots had been pre-booked, we couldn't start until 10.30 which meant that it was already quite hot but we were only in the open for the first hour.
Our guide - Naieem - who had been doing the job for 19 years did an excellent job - gave us answers to all our questions and identified every bird, mammal and most of the insects and trees that we saw.
No elephants today but we did see Nilgiri Langur, Bison, Sambar deer, a large family of wild boar and of course the Lion-tailed Macaques. We also added more than 20 new bird species to our list including a couple of different eagles and the Malabar Trogon - which is apparently a red list species.
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| Nilgiri Langur |
Linda's favourite was probably the Alexandrine Parakeet which spent some time having a meal in front of her and posed for her photos.
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| Alexandrine Parakeet |
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| Yellow-throated Bulbul |
As usual with such an experienced guide, he was spotting things - such as the deer, which were standing staring at us - which we would have missed completely.
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| Sambar Deer |
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| I'm sure I saw a tiger in there somewhere! |
All in all it was a great experience and one that we would recommend to anyone - perhaps ahead of the rafting. And as if that was not enough, we noticed that the resort hotel in the reserve had a Beer Parlour and had the chance to cool down with that Ice-cold bottle of Tuborg which I have been thinking about since we left Newhaven - 16 days in and the first cold beer - that must be a record.
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| An Ice-Cold Beer |
PS. With the fishing in the lake, the deer roaming in the woods and the curry for every meal it seemed the perfect place for my good friend Chris Jackson - a suggestion for your next trip perhaps?
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