Tuesday, Feb 25th, Thekkady, India

Greetings!

A morning boat ride on a lake in the Periyar Wildlife Preserve, a visit to an excellent local spice farm, and an afternoon of leisure on our deck overlooking the Great Indian Escarpment known as the Southern Ghats.  It's a mountain range older than the Himalayas, formed when India broke away from Madagascar 160 million years ago. 

The boat ride was exactly what our sore feet and weak knees needed.  And what we were convinced would not be much more than chugging around in the lake spotting birds on dead tree trunks - took an unexpected bit of excitement.  Along with many birds, and a few large Gaur (Indian Bison - the largest bovine in the world), we got to witness a large Indian elephant walk down to the lake shore, take a drink of water and spray shower herself, and then proceed to swim across the lake.

Our captain decided to abandon our scheduled return time, and we carefully followed her whale-like mostly-underwater crawl-stroke, periodically popping her trunk above the surface for air, journey.  Though most of the passengers and crew had seen elephants before, the opportunity to watch one swim was truly unique.  Be sure to check out the entire sequence in today's photo album.

On our way back to the hotel, we visited The Spice Farm, a plantation for spices and herbs, located on Munnar Road, a mile from Kumily.  Rajesh, A guide there, was extremely knowledgeable (and you know that Pat knows her spices and herbs), and we gained new understandings of the vast uses in both cooking and medicine for what we found growing there. 

To see all of the photos taken today, click on Tuesday, Feb 25th, Thekkady, India.