Guided Walk in Spice Plantation

After the 'cruise' we went straight on to do the guided walking tour of the spice plantation that we missed the day before. We were expecting to find regimented areas dedicated to production of various spices but the plantation was a real higgledy piggledy mix …. very interesting and inhabited by lots of free range chickens

When he heard that we'd not seen elephants at the park, the guide introduced us to his two working elephants. This was one gorgeous, she was so gentle and friendly:

We were invited to take a ride on her around the plantation but as you can see from this photo taken later on, we'd have had to ride astride (not sideways on in a pannier) and that looked very uncomfortable.

She's well trained … show her a wad of rupee notes and she'll gently take them from your hand, bless you by resting her trunk on your head and then hands the cash to her keeper!

Our guide was very knowledgeable and had a great sense of humour. It is the 'flowering season' for most of the spices at the moment so we couldn't see all the fruits/berries but we learned a lot. For instance we were shown Allspice growing. I'd always thought Allspice was a blend of spices but it is just one plant/spice.

Peppercorns – and we were told that we should always try to buy Malabar peppercorns as they are best quality. Our supermarkets in the UK are routinely supplied with hybrid corns which are softer which is why so many of them don't work properly in peppermills.

Kerala exports 60,000 tons of peppercorns each year which takes some doing as they are tiny things.

Cardamoms: A huge eight-foot high plant produces buds...flowers...seeds at the base. The spice is the dried bud. 

Coffee Beans

Cocoa – young pods and old ones

Avocado (early stages of growth).  Not popular with the Indians apparently who tend to sweeten it with sugar if they do eat them

and lots of plants – not grown commercially, but just adding colour

he called these cat tails

and these candle flowers

and these he did tell us the latin name for these but I've forgotten !     JENNI to the rescue here please LOL

Kerala Part VI Boat Cruise on Lake Periyar

The boat cruise was supposed to allow us to catch a glimpse of wildlife when they come down to drink/play in the water – antelope, elephant and various other species. But we were on the boat just after lunch yesterday. Being a Sunday lots of Indians came to the park/lake to enjoy their weekend and the place was packed. So lots of sailings and probably the wrong time of day. I don't know why we didn't go later in the day … but hey ho.

The Lake is in the wildlife park and it seems there has been a baby boom in the monkey population … lots of little ones playing in the sunshine

This one had found/stolen a bottle of water and was happily rolling it around like a new toy.

And these 'little monkeys' were playing on our coach in the car park

A list of the'Do's and Don'ts'  governing the boat trips - they do like their rules and regulations in India

Boarding point

and some dead wood that I liked … looks like a bird if you squint slightly

and here we are packed in like sardines and wearing bulky lifejackets which had no flexibility so taking photos was nigh on impossible, even if we had seen anything iteresting.

Actually it was a very relaxing couple of hours and we did see antelope and lots of seabirds .. but no elephants or tigers.

The crowd waiting to get on our boat when we returned to the docking station.

As we went to board the coach to leave the park, a pony crossed the road in front of us and happily started grazing in the car park. I've no idea if he lives wild in the park but he wasn't fazed by the crowds.

oh .... and David wearing the hat he bought at the park 

Kerela Part V Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary

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

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:

Kerala Part IV – Rubber and Spice Plantations

Rubber Plantation and Lunch at Reni's Bungalow (Bungalow is an Indian word by the way)

After another hearty breakfast cooked by our Houseboat crew we sailed back to where our coach was waiting to take us to Periyar (a 4 hour drive) . We stopped at 'Reni's Bungalow' which is a very old Manor house and rubber plantation. We were shown how the rubber trees are tapped:

Every morning at 5am the trees are tapped. Each 'tapper' manages around 600 trees and they are tapped on alternate days so as not to 'exhaust' the trees. The 'cut' is made on the same side of the tree each time for 7 years and then they start on the other side .. this is all to keep the tree healthy apparently.

At this plantation the rubber is used for medicinal purposes, ie surgical gloves. We were shown how the latex is pushed down into trays and pressed. It is then hung on lines to dry like this:

We also saw mangos, peppercorns, coconuts, pineapples, bananas, tapioca plants, mace/nutmeg , cinammon and lemon trees growing. Kerala is such a fertile area with an abundance of fruit/spices growing wherever you look

Mace/Nutmeg

These are peppercorns – a bit like a vine which can be grown on any tree

and some drying in the sun on a blue plastic sheet. They are much hotter than the peppercorns we get in England so I'm looking forward to visiting a spice market where we can buy some to take home.

We had a fabulous meal on the lawn of the manor house, arranged by the family.   We're spread out like this because we had to find shady areas under the trees

 Not many coach tourparties visit here so it was really friendly and the nicest meal we have had to date. Fish curry and various veggie curries with Indian breads then fresh pineapple and tiny bananas to follow. 

This was the 'lady of the manor' presiding over the lunch table.

After lunch our host gave us a little lecture on coconuts and showed us how they break open the husks with a special piece of equipment. Kerala is Land of the Coconuts. Coconut trees live for approx 100 years and no part of the tree is wasted. The leaves are used for thatching house roofs. The trunk is used to make furniture. Young coconuts have more more milk/water inside so s ome are harvested young and others are left on the tree to mature a bit more – less liquid inside but firmer flesh.

We stopped for a coconut tasting session yesterday … the milk/water is sweet and rather nice but the flesh is very rubbery and wet.

You wouldn't  want to upset this lady, she was very good with that knife

Today we sampled the more mature ones. When the mature coconut husk is cut open it reveals the 'hairy stuff' which is then soaked for weeks and processed to make coir which is used in ropemaking and floormats. So a very versatile plant and a staple for Keralan families.

This bird was flitting around the trees but was hidden by foliage most of the time. Finally he showed enough of himself for me to get a photo. He is a male Drongo – crested head (and a tasty lunch)

This isn't very good but the only shot I got of his tail which has two long strands with tassles on the end

and two of the local butterflies – this one is stunning and VERY big. Our guide doesn't know what variety it is so will have to look it up when back in England with proper internet connection.


I've now worked out that this is one of the red-bodied Swallowtail butterflies but don't know if its the scarlet rose or the common rose swallowtail ...whatever it is, its incredibly beautiful

This was smaller but still very attractive

then we said goodbye to our hosts and set off for Periyar National Park where we'll be taking a guided walk at 6.30am