Sadan came up trumps this morning, he found an ATM which had money, and no queue. We dashed down with him and managed to get some cash. Tony tried to get some cash about an hour later, but it had already run out of cash by then. Breakfast was delicious!
At 9.30 we left in the coach for a short trip into the Periyar National Park. There we donned leech proof socks and were given, on two groups, into the tender command of a guide for a walking tour.
We saw lots of birds as we walked along side the lake, then slightly further inland we saw an Indian hornets nest. Apparently if you are stung by five of these at the same time you will die. Pleased to say we saw no live hornets at all.
Further on our guide asked for complete silence, and as we rounded a corner we saw several,other tour groups on a bank ahead, and a wild elephant in the distant trees. Suddenly he started to charge towards us, and our guides told us to run. Indeed, they nearly picked us up and carried us away! I got a quick photo, which was much admired.
We waited on a further bank, and four more elephants came into view, including a baby and a young male. We stood transfixed for about 30 minutes watching them until our guide made us move on.
We left the park and headed back to our hotel, where we had a quick, cold swim, before heading into town for a quick shopping trip. I bought another saree, and Mick tried some local chocolate.
At 4pm we got back on the coach for a visit to a spice plantation. Though the area for the tours was relatively smallish there were a huge variety of spices growing, including cardamon, ginger, pepper, vanilla, allspice and tumeric.
Our guide was very knowledgable and entertaining, and there were many animals on the farm next door as well.
Next trip was to a small elephants trekking area where 6 of us paid to have an elephant ride for 20 minutes. It was a small trail round the edge of a field of coconut palms, and the saddles where just thickly padded blankets with a wire frame providing hand and foot holds. Our seat kept slipping sideways, and the elephant was huge which made sitting astride close to painful.
Mick and I got off the coach early on the way back, and did a bit more shopping, this time for a pair of cooking pots. We also got another suitcase and some more cash from the ATM which had been re filled during the day.
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