Our
guide Raju pulled us across, the raft had ropes to both sides of the land.Home Indian Trips << Previous Kerala Next >>
Another activity we undertook at the park was a 3 hour jungle trek. To walk around the park you are required to go with a guide, but this was invaluable, not just so you don't get lost, but also because he spotted many things we would not otherwise have noted and had lots of information. Again we did not get to see any of the larger animals, tigers, elephants etc but lots of example of the smaller wildlife. Apparently we were not there at the best time of year. Being shortly after the rainy season, too much water is available with the forest for the animals to need to come to the lake for water. March to May is the best time of year to see the large animals, otherwise its just pot luck.
The trek started with a bamboo raft ride across the lake.
Our
guide Raju pulled us across, the raft had ropes to both sides of the land.
When we signed up for the trek we were given, large over socks to put on our feet, we were not quite sure what these were for. When we landed our guide started throwing salt over them, it was apparently to stop leaches climbing up us from the forest floor.
We then started to proceed through the rain forest. Some of the things we saw that were not possible to get good photographs of were, wild chickens, many insects, black monkeys, and evidence of elephants and tigers.
We also found some porcupine spines.
Emerging from the forest you come to flat grass areas leading to the lake. Here four local tribesmen were making their way through the park. As native residents of the area they are allowed open access to the park and many fish on the lake.
One thing we noticed was a certain similarity of the landscape to parts of the UK
The top view is of Mount Snowdon when we visited North Wales a couple of years ago, the lower picture is at Periyar.