Southern Wayanad Safari

Our first day in Wayanad was a serious day of trekking around the south, including the Muthanga wildlife sanctuary, a Jain temple, Edakkal Caves and, att the end of a hot afternoon, a wonderful waterful.

We started at 5:30 AM so as to be in time for the two hour queue and confusion at the wildlife sanctuary.  This is a National Park which only allows forty jeeps in each morning.  It was chaos.  Our driver had a ringer in the line, which was barely explained to us, and in the end, we were allowed in with two other foreigners and a naturalist guide.  Our ranger friend proved to be amazingly sharp eyed.  We spotted deer,  peacocks, spectacular woodpeckers, huge termite mounds and the most amazing wild bee hives far above us in the tree canopy.  I felt deep camera envy as our new friend, Marcel, snapped pictures of the actual bees with his huge telephoto lens.

We did not see any wild elephants, which seemed to greatly disappoint our driver, but we were totally fine with that.

In the late morning we were off for a stop at a Jain temple, a quiet oasis from the heat and noise.  It was small and peaceful.  Unlike thailand, where visitors are welcomed at Wats (temples), most Hindu temples in Kerela are off limits to Non-Hindus, so this was the first temple that we were able to explore.

Our next stop, after a well earned breakfast of Dosa and curry, was the Edakkal Caves.  This grotto, not really a cave, has walls covered with neolithic carvings.  More interesting was the scrum of Indians climbing the very steep stairs and rock scrambles in their Sunday best.  Liam and I were busy helping old ladies in saris and being completely entranced by the sheer mass of humanity interacting with each other.  A great opportunity for the young anthropology student.

Tea plantations, waterfalls, and the afternoon got lazier and hotter.  At the waterfalls, like everything "One Kilometer" from the gate, I was lucky enough to save a young Indian girl from a nasty fall.  As we waded on the slippery rocks in the wonderfully cool spray, her feet literally shot out from under her.  I was able to snatch her under the arm and gently set here back down.  This spread goodwill amongst the parents present and all was well.