Backwaters at Kumarakom March 17th -19th

We only spent a night at Kottayam, and in the morning went to see some temple murals at Ettanmur, quite early in the morning. They were nice, but not as good as the ones in Cochin, and the priests were a bit fierce. We left for Kumarakom at midday and arrived at a slightly shabby homestay with a really sweet family, two small children, and lots of neighbours' children always playing over.  We arranged to visit the Bird Sanctuary that evening and our guide Sabu, an ex-army man set a cracking pace, barely giving us time to look for birds. It was a narrow peninsular, with the path running up each side. We were allowed to stop to admire the colonies of fruit bats suspended in the treetops, just waking up, stretching and quarrelling with each other - really spectacular. Even when we reached the end with its welcome cooling breeze, stretching out onto the lake, we didn't linger. On we marched seeing several kingfishers but not much else, in the streams that ran along the path. When we reached the watchtower we saw why the focus was all on this. In the space between the two paths lay a wide glad filled with bushes, small trees and reeds, in a marshy area. this was filled with egrets, purple and night herons, cormorants and darters, all either courting, nesting, feeding, or in the case of the entirely male cohort of night heron, waiting for the females to arrive. At any one time I could see 6 night heron in my binoculars only 20 feet away, without moving the. The same was true of the purple heron. Here indeed we were allowed to stay and watch and marvel, before being marched briskly back to base. At the homestay the mother cooked us an unforgettable meal of fish from the lake - the best food we've tasted so far.

The next morning at 6.00 am we reported for duty at the backwater, where Sabu paddled us round the backwaters and the edge of the lake for 3 hours, brigning us back via narrower backwaters in a cicle to where we started. He stopped to show us some amazing birds, fleets of beeeaters and swallows lining the telephone wires over a lake, and darters, with only their snake like heads showing above the water. He also showed us the incredibly long snake boat, paddled by 100 men which takes part in races in Augsut. he is one of the team, and keeps fit by paddling people like us and by running for an hour at 5.00 am before setting out!
[S}Here are some pictures:
Dawn

 DayL

Later that day both Samuel and I had an Avurdeyvic massage in a purpose made facility on the roof above our homestay.p. We were smothered in oil, massaged mainly by feet, the masseurs (masseuse in my case) holding on to a rope to keep their balance on the slippery floor, and then baked in a hot steam oven (really hot!!!), before showering off all the oil and emerging relaxed and very clean.

We had a more leisurely browse in the Bird Sanctuaty that night and realised why we had done the route march the night before. We saw very few birds just doing the first half, and by the time we came home we or at least I ws covered in insect bites. At high speed you leave them behind I suspect. We had another delicious supper, but both evening meals were in the open air and once again I got badly bitten.

We decided not to risk more bites on the very expensive house boats - urged also by the Rough Guide to avaid them as the sheer numbers are really polluting the backwaters. Our hosts who rented out houseboats were disapointed, but a houseboat for just 2 was far too pricy.

We elt the next morning for Kumily, where we have a nice hotel room overllking a garden. Today we climbed a small local mountain, drank coffee grown by the lady in the house at the top, and after a midday rest went out for a tour round a local spice garde. Very relaxing. Tomorrow at 7 am we go for a 3 hour guided hike through the Periyar wildlife reserve.
Here is a picture of a pepper vine (produces black, white or green pepper):

Here is a picture of a cinamon tree (the bark is used as a spice):

Cathy