Thekkady and the Periyar Wildlife Preserve

Dixie and I were reluctant to leave Munnar, but time was tight and we still wanted to see the Periyar Wildlife Reserve at Thekkady and the backwaters at Kumarakom. Biju, still softspoken after 2 days with us, took us down the slopes to Thekkady. We passed a number of spice plantations and stopped at a small roadside store to use what was probably the cleanest bathroom south of Mumbai. There we were interogated by a 10 year old boy named Sachin (last name not Tendulkar, I confirmed), who thought it was ridiculous that we had come all the way to Kerala only to spend a day or two at each place. We pretty much agreed with him.

Our day in Thekkady was packed. Our first stop was to a small trail on the edge of the sacruary's forests. There, Dixie and I hopped onto the back of a very mellow male elephant for a short ride. Our guide asked for my camera so that he could document the ride. It turned out that our guide was both an adept photog and a master at getting our elephant to stop and pose with his trunk up. However, like most South Indian men, he wore a loincloth wrapped around his waist instead of pants, so I was a but disconcerted when I noticed that the camera wasn't in his hand anymore ("does that thing have pockets?").


After a somewhat underwhelming visit to a private spice garden, we headed to the sanctuary to ride a boat across the Periyar lake. The boat is supposed to be the best way to see wildlife in the park, but expectedly, catching glimpses of wildlife is hit or miss. Unfortunately, the boat followed the same path as it has countless other times, so most animals have probably started to avoid those areas. It also rarely went close enough to the shore for us to really get a great look. I had asked Biju to join us, but he refused -- not out of overpoliteness, but because "it's boring". Still, we managed to see herds of bison, deer and a couple wild boars. The other passengers, who had been oversold into thinking they'd see tigers were understandably disappointed.

After the boat trip, we raced to our hotel to check in and get some Ayurvedic massage treatment. Though the treatment was fairly relaxing, it left my head and back coated with some sort of herbal oatmeal. I hardly had a chance to rinse it off before we hurried to our last stop of the day: a night-time Jungle patrol.

Our party included two other couples, a forest guide and a rifle-carrying ranger. Having the gun-toting guard, combined with the waivers we signed (will not sue if mauled by tigers), made us wonder what we were getting into. What we were getting into was in fact a routine patrol that the rangers do every night to look out for poachers (of wildlife and the valuable snadlewood trees that the forest is home to). We were handed flashlights and set off at 7pm, just after the sun had completely set and we were scheduled to end at 10pm. Even though we were only walking several kilometers on the sanctuary's perimeter, our pace was slowed by the lack of visability (we had to keep the flashlights off most of the time) and by our frequent halts to scan the surroundings with flashlights for wildlife. Again, we saw deer and boars, but also got to hear the sound of the jungle at night. I'll admit it was a unique experience, even if the waivers and rifle proved unnecessary.