After the calm and peaceful oasis of Kaivalyam, our arrival in Thekkady was a bit of a challenge. This is the gateway to the Periyar Tiger Reserve and National Park and a very popular stop both for tour groups and individual travellers.
The drive from Munnar was an interesting experience not least because our driver seemed to spend most of the time on his phone - thankfully switching to hands free for some of the more challenging switchbacks. Driving through the lower reaches of the Western Ghats, we spent a lot of time climbing and descending on road surfaces which were occasionally badly damaged by monsoon rains in previous years.
Our home for the next 4 nights - at Mr Suresh's Green View Homestay is not quite as comfortable as Kaivalyam but reasonably priced accommodation here appears to be in short supply. It seems that you either pay £70-200 per night for the upper end accommodation or £15 - 20 for the Homestays.
The National Park covers about 120 sq miles and there are currently 42 tigers in the whole reserve, so there's about as much chance of spotting a tiger as there is of finding a cold beer around here. There are only a limited number of spaces for the park activities everyday and there were a lot of disappointed people when we arrived at the park office on Sunday afternoon because they were only here for a day or so and most of the places had been booked up by the tour groups.
However we managed to get booked on a couple of treks in the park, starting tomorrow with a 3 hr trek and then a couple of hours bamboo rafting on the lake - which is probably the best chance to spot a tiger. Then on Wednesday we have a second trek to a different part of the park - with more than 330 bird species, wild elephants, monkeys and tigers there should be enough to keep us occupied.
Thankfully it is a little cooler here - in fact it almost felt cold when we were up watching the dawn chorus this morning. Great visit today to Abraham's spice garden where we got a personal tour and then bought some spices to take home directly from the man who grew and picked them.
The drive from Munnar was an interesting experience not least because our driver seemed to spend most of the time on his phone - thankfully switching to hands free for some of the more challenging switchbacks. Driving through the lower reaches of the Western Ghats, we spent a lot of time climbing and descending on road surfaces which were occasionally badly damaged by monsoon rains in previous years.
Our home for the next 4 nights - at Mr Suresh's Green View Homestay is not quite as comfortable as Kaivalyam but reasonably priced accommodation here appears to be in short supply. It seems that you either pay £70-200 per night for the upper end accommodation or £15 - 20 for the Homestays.
The National Park covers about 120 sq miles and there are currently 42 tigers in the whole reserve, so there's about as much chance of spotting a tiger as there is of finding a cold beer around here. There are only a limited number of spaces for the park activities everyday and there were a lot of disappointed people when we arrived at the park office on Sunday afternoon because they were only here for a day or so and most of the places had been booked up by the tour groups.
However we managed to get booked on a couple of treks in the park, starting tomorrow with a 3 hr trek and then a couple of hours bamboo rafting on the lake - which is probably the best chance to spot a tiger. Then on Wednesday we have a second trek to a different part of the park - with more than 330 bird species, wild elephants, monkeys and tigers there should be enough to keep us occupied.
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| Discussing the price of Cardamon and Pepper |
Thankfully it is a little cooler here - in fact it almost felt cold when we were up watching the dawn chorus this morning. Great visit today to Abraham's spice garden where we got a personal tour and then bought some spices to take home directly from the man who grew and picked them.
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| This week's pepper drying on the roof. |
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