We had set our alarms for 6am intending to make an early start. When the alarm went off, it got quickly turned off. Chris dragged himself out of bed about 6:30am only to open the door to our balcony, decide it was too cold for bike riding, and leap like a gazelle back into bed.
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| Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary |
We got on the road about 7:30am and it was cold! Chris' poor exposed hands copped the brunt of the chill as we rode down the mountain, watching the sun teasingly hit everywhere but the road on which were we riding. Thankfully, with the sun rising, and us swiftly decreasing in altitude, after 50km or so it was time to strip off some layers. Riding through one of the many random towns along the way Chris was zipping between two, almost stationary, buses and managed to stall the bike. Thankfully, Big Red works well under pressure and started first go, getting us out from the between the two buses before we were squished. After a pretty good run, we rode into Kumily and found a place to stay, thanks to some forward planning, with little hassle. We settled on The Cottage at Coffee Inn and with views of the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary from our room and 24 hour hot water in probably the cleanest bathroom yet, we were pretty happy. Especially when Chris bargained the price down to 1000 INR per night. We're slowly accepting that this kind of price is going to be the norm if we want some kind of semblance of clean. Oh well, luckily food costs close to nothing.
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| Mali, our trusty guide |
After dumping our luggage we went straight to the Ecotourism Centre to organise a trek for the afternoon. We were told it simply was not possible as all places were filled and that we would have to wait until tomorrow. But, we wouldn't let a small hurdle like that stop us! We found a spice store that advertised trekking and after a few phone calls back and forth, a man arrived and informed us that he would let us tag along on somebody else's tour. Whether this was legitimate or not we have no idea. But for 1200 INR for the both of us we had spot son a three hour Cloud Walk with two Germans and a friendly guide named Mali and we didn't have to wait until tomorrow. All it took was handing over our money to a guy on a motorbike, who ensured us he would buy tickets for us, trusting him and walking to some side entrance which led to the park.
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| There's no escaping technology |
We were wary of how good the walk would be when we set off on a sealed road. But, after some time, we entered the park through a gap in the huge concrete fence and, at a snail's pace, explored the park off the beaten track. We walked the 4km so slowly that it took almost the entire three hours. We figured that pace was good training for Nepal. We got to see deer, monkeys, giant black squirrels, woodpeckers and a bunch of other birds and learnt a bit about the spices which are so sought after in Kumily. For instance, did you know that there are guards who watch over the sandalwood trees at night because poachers try to cut them down to sell? Sandalwood...the new elephant tusk. While we didn't see any elephants or tigers and we probably see more monkeys along the road than we saw in the park, it was a quiet, relaxing three hours and Mali did seem genuinely keen on trying to spot us as much wildlife as possible. We were made to feel like real trackers as Mali picked up animal poo to show us. He picked leaves and bark and crushed them for us to smell making us feel right amongst it. Every now and then he would stop us all and listen for animals and, on two occasions, left us in the wilderness while he went 'looking.' I was grateful to have Chris and his magic GPS watch in case Mali decided not to come back.
After finishing the trek and wandering around to the main park entrance we were told it was too late to enter the park again to see the lake. And, despite only having bought our ticket at 2pm, it would not be valid for use tomorrow morning. Bummer. Sorry Pete...no lake for us. I'm not sure how kindly they'd have looked upon us taking a dip anyway. Did you even have to pay when you were here?
After showering we had a disappointingly bland dinner, the first of our trip. We tried to remedy the situation with ice cream and beers but, like most things, this was exceptionally more difficult than we imagined. The only ice cream we could find was the scoop variety, not the 'on a stick and takeaway' variety. And the beers? Well, after asking a place whether they sold Kingfisher Beer, and having them agree, we climbed a wobbly spiral staircase and sat down. When they quoted us 300 INR for the kingfisher it sounded expensive so Chris asked how big it was. When the man finally returned, looking quite pleased with himself, he set a plate of whole-fish down on the table and said 'Kingfisher!' There was absolute confusion when we tried to explain that we did not actually want any fish as they seemed to have no concept of beer.
After wandering back and forth through the streets of Kumily for a while we gave up and headed home. Just as we thought we'd had a great day and would go to bed enjoying India and have a full night sleep for once...the music started. To make matters worse, it was blaring straight out of the general vicinity of the Wildlife Sanctuary. It's almost like people just can't deal with quiet. So, just when you find a place away from the honking and yelling, they ruin it with shit music. I mean, Aqua's Barbie Girl? Seriously? Thankfully the music eased and after a while all we could hear were crickets. Unfortunately, just as Chris couldn't sleep in the peace of Kodai, I couldn't sleep here.
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| View from our room at sunset of Periyar Wldlife Sanctuary |
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