Mesmerising Kerala Part I

Landed in Kochi.. from Calcutta via Chennai.. spend the entire day in Kochi.... first visited the Its an unique museum, with a traditional Kerala architecture, the building being made of wood, laterite stone and clay tiles. Museum has a vast ethnic collection of art works. After spending some quality time at museum, it was time for driving around through the backwaters of kochi. Then we visited the Dutch Palace, the Jewish Street, and finally headed for Fort Kochi and its famous Chinese fishing nets, had a wonderful evening there watching the sunset before we retired to our hotel. Late evening stroll through the streets of nearby places and savouring the famous bakery of Kochi.

It was Munnar only!!

It was time to say bye to Munnar, the next destination Periyar Reserve Forest.. we had booked the Periyar House inside the Reserve Forest. Started early for Periyar... reached there by noon... in between had our lunch on the way. Could feel the excitement in me as we entered the gates of the forest. This was an wonderful experience, the forest being so beautiful, calm... after checking in, retired in our rooms since all were a bit tired. Then again after some rest and snacks, went in the garden area and spent the entire evening there.. after dinner also we were outside, the silence of the forest, the cold weather, an eerie feeling thruout. We were gearing up for an adventure that night... a night walk thru the jungle...

Our night trekking was supposed to start from the Main entrance. The are three time slits, ours was 12 am to 2 am. A jeep collected is from out hotel to the main entrance, where we had to gear up with special shoe covers to protect us from leeches and snakes It was amied at the feeling of the wilderness during night. We were accompanied by an Armed Forest Guard and a Guides.

The Timing of this trek is 7pm, 10pm, 1am in which maximum 6 persons and minimum 2 persons to run this programme. The experience cant be expressed in words.. walking through the dense forest in the darkness of night with only torche lights showing the path, an eerie feeling amonst the darkness and unknown sounds from all over, the unknown path and the unknown jungle, we felt we have landed in a different world. Spotted a family of Sambar deer on the way. An adventure to cherish.

The morning started at 4 am.. its was time for cruise through the waterbody. The chilling cold and mist all around was entralling... Its a walk through the jungle path to the jetty. We had boomed the first ride since chance of spotting animals in higher.. The ride was wonderful, cruising through the water, the mist all around, the variety of birds, the variety of deer, sambar as well as spotted and gaurs, bisons... as if they were only waiting for us.. only elephants did not turn up. But it was okay since there were so many animals we could spot all around... and above all the cruise. After almost 2 hours, came back to the jetty, spend sometime around, spotted the giant malabar squirrels, groups of monkeys and well as Nilgiri Langurs, the best time and place for photography..The walk back to the the hotel thorugh the jungle terrain was another experience to cherish for.. enjoyingvtge cool breeze and mist, the dense forest around and photography.

Next was a jeep safari outside the reserve forest, through the forest areas outside, landing at a hillside with plush green trees and the hills of Sabarimala. Spend some time at spot had a walk though the rough and rocky terrain, to have a view of the Western Ghats.. though there was always a chance of meeting the atriped one or the king cobra, but they happened to elude us...

The entire evening was again in the garden area, as night fell, there was again an eerie silence, and just then we happened to meet a group of porcupines and sambar deer around the Periyar House.. the staff helped us spotbtgese animals. This was the last night in Periyar, it seemed time flew by, could have stayed another day!! But then..