We're at Periyar which has a wildlife park extending 300 sq miles. Our hotel is a collection of double storey bungalows and we have a balcony outside our bedroom which is at treetop level so great for watching and listening to the birds
The drive here (yesterday) was hair-raising, we are very high up and passed lots of tea plantations. The road was just a never-ending series of hairpin bends. David has had a head-cold for the first part of the trip and I have just caught it from him so was feeling a little headachey and congested and being thrown around in the coach for 2 hours didn't help. Everyone was relieved when our guide suggested we postpone the planned trip to a spice plantation until today - after our boat cruise on the lake.
This morning we went on a 2.5 hour guided walk around the Wildlife park. We had been led to believe we could see elephant, bison (or the equivalent Indian species) monkeys etc., but our guides told us that on our short walk we'd only see birds ..... elephants could be found on the 5 hour trek ... so much for travel-agent speak!
But we had a lovely walk. Breakfast at 6.30am then off we went.
We didn't see much but enjoyed the walk - we've all eaten so much food on this trip we need the exercise
Squirrels !!
But these beasties are 1 metre long from head to tip of tail so much larger than the ones we have at home in Whitstable. They look black from a distance but have lots of reds and gingers shades in their coats:
Woodpeckers - there are two here. They were hanging upside down on this trunk - I haven't flipped the photo:
Mike Woodcock (Scolopax Chronicles) has identified these woodpeckers for me - Common Flamebacks
Blue winged (Malabar) Parakeet
White Cheeked Barbet (thanks again to Mike Woodcock - Scolopax Chronicles) for the identification
The drive here (yesterday) was hair-raising, we are very high up and passed lots of tea plantations. The road was just a never-ending series of hairpin bends. David has had a head-cold for the first part of the trip and I have just caught it from him so was feeling a little headachey and congested and being thrown around in the coach for 2 hours didn't help. Everyone was relieved when our guide suggested we postpone the planned trip to a spice plantation until today - after our boat cruise on the lake.
This morning we went on a 2.5 hour guided walk around the Wildlife park. We had been led to believe we could see elephant, bison (or the equivalent Indian species) monkeys etc., but our guides told us that on our short walk we'd only see birds ..... elephants could be found on the 5 hour trek ... so much for travel-agent speak!
But we had a lovely walk. Breakfast at 6.30am then off we went.
We didn't see much but enjoyed the walk - we've all eaten so much food on this trip we need the exercise
Squirrels !!
But these beasties are 1 metre long from head to tip of tail so much larger than the ones we have at home in Whitstable. They look black from a distance but have lots of reds and gingers shades in their coats:
Woodpeckers - there are two here. They were hanging upside down on this trunk - I haven't flipped the photo:
Mike Woodcock (Scolopax Chronicles) has identified these woodpeckers for me - Common Flamebacks
Blue winged (Malabar) Parakeet
White Cheeked Barbet (thanks again to Mike Woodcock - Scolopax Chronicles) for the identification
OK got to run...... half hour lunch break then off for a cruise round the lake and the postponed spice plantation tour. This hotel has free wifi which is why I've managed to almost catch up on posts but we get so little time between outings its all a bit rushed. Thats my excuse for all the typos etc.
More later:
You're spoiling us with these wonderful photos! I'd be so homesick by now - how are you both holding up?
ReplyDeleteLove the pictures. Squirrels are pretty critters aren't they? Sorry about the colds.
ReplyDeleteWe're very tired, and its extremely hot and humid in Southern India. Think that's making the colds feel worse. Quite a few members of the tour have the same 'sinus/cold' symptoms
ReplyDeleteBut we're seeing and experiencing so much .. we'd never do all this if we weren't being organised/herded along every day.
Luckily we had a few hours leisure this afternoon/evening so have been able to relax a bit - although I've been busy trying to get the posts up to date.
Another 3 days of tours and then driving back to Cochin to catch flight to Bombay. Our flight out of Bombay to London is at 3am so hopefully we'll managed to grab a few hours sleep along the way
what a cool looking squirrel!
ReplyDeleteYep the squirrels are impressive ... wouldn't want them in our garden in England though as I'm sure they'd just rip the squirrel-proof feeders to bits.
ReplyDeleteYour bird is not a babbler- It's a White Cheeked Barbet. Nice pics and I'm very jealous of the whole trip!
ReplyDeleteOh and the woodpeckers look like Common Flamebacks to me.
ReplyDeleteThanks again Mike. We bought a paperback book on our travels (Collins Birds of India) to help identify birds we saw but its woefully inadequate I think. The White Cheeked Barbet isn't in our book but we see the resemblance to the Green Barbet which does appear in the book ...
ReplyDeleteCommon Flameback isn't in the book either !
It was a brilliant tour - so many sights and experiences packed in. Would have liked longer at some of the locations but that's the downside of this sort of holiday I guess