December 22nd Thekkady

In the morning we met with our guide who took us on a tour around a spice plantation. In addition to seeing all the usual spices, pepper, cardamom, ginger, cloves, coffee etc we also learned all about how rubber is collected and processed. Following the tour we had an elephant ride on “Meera” around the plantation and Bethan later fed her pineapples, pumpkins and papaya. We had a brief lunch in a coffee shop and returned to our hotel for Bethan to have a well earned holiday sleep.

Feeding the elephant

Periyar Lake

At 3.30pm we left for our boat trip on Periyar lake. About five or six boats of varying sizes all set off down the lake together in a convoy and I was sure that any wildlife in the vicinity would be keen to make a hasty retreat in the face of such a flotilla. We had been told that the chances of seeing a tiger were very low, apparently there have only been one or two sightings this year so we were not overly disappointed when none materialised for us.

A snakebird...

and a wild boar