The trip to Kumely was quite long because we needed to take the train, 4hours, and the bus through the mountain, 4 hours again. At time the bus was struggling up the hill,when nearing Kumely there was many tea plantation with pepper threes neatly interspersed, from the bus the tea plantation looked like a green carpet on the hillside. Despite of the dust of the road and exhaust fumes we could smell the fresh and sweet odour of the tea.
Arriving in Kumely, because we looking a bit lost, people were asking us if we needed a place to stay but we needed to arrange the jungle safari for the next day. In the end an Indian guy persuaded us to look at a cheap accommodation that was owned by friends of his. Surprising the room was really nice (hot water, clean bathroom and jungle view) and really cheap but always more expensive than the original price we asked him J.
The next morning we needed to wake up at 5.15am to go on the safari jungle, it was really early but the fresh air was really enjoyable. A jeep was waiting for us outside the homestay. The trip by jeep was quite scary … he was driving fast that we can be there before the rest of the tourists, he drove so fast we still had time for a tea and a coffee at the entrance of the TIGER RESERVE. After paying a fee of 300rps plus 25rps for the camera we entered the national park through thick banks of fog. The fog obscured the three trunks making the leaves look like they were floating in the air. We saw several animals from the jeep, a family of bison, plenty of monkeys (that we forget the name), giant squirrel and lots of different kind of birds. After 2 hours of looking in the jungle we arrived at the “government camp” where we had our meals (including curry for breakfast). An Indian guy from NPC (national communist party), which had just been elected, proudly presented us with the program for the day and gave us information about the jungle and the animals which live there. The day was divided in 2 parts. In the morning there was a 3 hour trek and the afternoon included boating on the lake near the camp. The day was like a military operation. Each activity was scheduled at a precise time and we were escorted by our guide from one activity to the next. The morning trek was really nice and interesting. We hiked through the jungle like Indiana Jones cutting bamboo in order to pass and the guide explained to us about what we saw, bark which is used as anti-mosquito agent, vanilla beans and termites eating trees from the inside etc. The views of the park were stunning, with undulating green hills in all directions. After lunch we chilled out on the grass under the shade of a tree, waiting for our ride in the boat on the lake. The boating took place in a pretty small lake that we went around in 15 minutes even with Jacquie stealing the paddle to drive the boat. The next activity was a quick trip to a cardamom plantation. They showed us the cardamom plant and the raw seeds. Then inside they showed us roasting (to dry them) cleaning and finally they showed us the storage room. When he opened the door to the storage room, it was as if a wall of smell hit us. On the way back in the jeep we were still hoping to see a tiger or an elephant, but instead we saw a HUGE male bison (approximately 900 steak J) looking at us and chewing, a mongoose running on the road avoiding a motorcycle and we saw the silhouette of a deer on top of a hill.
In the evening we went to a really “interesting” local culture performance of traditional kerelan Christian dancing. This involved six grown men jumping about stamping feet surrounding a seventh guy dressed as Jesus. It was typically Indian, a fussy and messy affair with plenty of pomp and hyped up ceremony. The stage curtain did not want to close, the dust from the stage made a fog by the end of the show, the wrong CD was put on and on the stage everybody was thoroughly enjoying themselves. At the start of the “performance” the room was full, with approximately 30 people present. by the end there were 5 people, including us. when we realised it was finished we made a quick exit. After our long day we went back to our “jungle palace” and crashed out for the night.
The next morning we were very excited to finally meet an elephant. We booked ourselves into an hour long session with Lakshmi, the 32 year old elephant (the equivalent of about 25 human years). She was gorgeous! After meeting and greeting her we went for a 30 minute ride on her back. To get onto her back we had to climb up a set of stairs onto a small platform (we were shown the much cooler way to mount an elephant later - you stand on her leg and she raises it up as you climb onto her back!!). It was an amazing experience to be on the back of such a majestic animal. We were moving slowly but we could feel the movement of her shoulders and the power that she might be capable of. Then we gave her a shower with a hose pipe and we gave her a good scrub down with half a coconut shell. She seemed to be enjoying this quite a lot (especially behind the ear!). We came to the conclusion that she had landed her self a nice job and life for her was not so bad (three or four small walks a day followed by a shower, massage and possibly a bite to eat…). She was extremely well trained and very obedient, responding to voice commands from her trainer, or as were we shown, she could also be controlled by sitting behind her head with a foot under each ear and using the toes to signal commands. When out time was up we were sorry to say goodbye but we had to catch our bus to Kottayam to catch the last ferry to Allepey across the Keralan backwaters.
Kumely and the Tiger National Park was a really nice place, the trek was really good but it would be even more impressive during the rainy season when animals come out of the deep jungle. Driving round, standing up in the back of the jeep, hanging over the bars, like a dog with his head out of the car window, we could not help but think this was the closest we have ever been to a wild tiger :D
