After the tea plantations of Munnar we continued south by bus to Kumily a town that borders Periyar National Park, Southern India’s most popular wildlife sanctuary encompassing 777 sq km of land and a 26 sq km artificial lake created by the British in 1895. There are numerous tours available in the park including bamboo rafting, 3 hours hikes and over night tiger trekking to name a few, but be warned, the programs are government run which means that booking them, getting park passes and finding out where to start will make you want to pull your hair out.

trekking through Periyar

On our first day there we took a tuk tuk to Abraham’s Spice Garden.  We were given a tour by Abraham himself, an elderly gentleman with lots of character and multiple languages under his belt. His garden was featured in the BBC Documentary “Around the World in 80 Gardens” which is pretty impressive since he was considered in the company of the Taj Majal’s garden and the Grand Palace’s garden in Bangkok. If it could be grown in India he had it. We were given the opportunity to look, touch and taste many of the spices and fruits he nursed to life.

Abraham in the background leading us through his stunning back garden

We bought so many spices at his store that we were forced to send a parcel home of all the useless things in our backpacks to make space for them.

We might have gone a little overboard with the shopping!

On day 2 we met at the gates of the Periyar reserve where we were introduced to our fellow trekkers  from South Africa and England.  We were also introduced to Leech Proof Socks! That’s right, we needed to wear special socks to stop the tiny creepy blood suckers from latching onto us.  We found out just how necessary they were within 30 minutes of walking. We were also given giant brown paper shopping bags with our lunch. Only in India would you drag a shopping bag around a trek through the jungle!

Stephanie with her bagged lunch and Leech Proof Socks

If you want to close your eyes and imagine where we were, just remember that it was a wildlife reserve just like this one that inspired Rudyard Kipling’s the Jungle Book.

Following our guide through the jungle

The vistas were stunning and in the distance we spotted the Indian version of bison grazing in the high grasses.

Peek-a-boo!

We didn’t see any tigers (although we could never be quite sure if they could see us) but we easily followed their fresh tracks in the mud and even found a few of their scratching posts.

Fresh Tiger Tracks!

As for the smaller members of the animal kingdom we found frogs, dancing spiders and a snake who’s venom would take 10 seconds to kill you. We did not get close enough to take a photo of the snake!

Dancing Spiders

This guy looked so much like a leaf we almost missed him.

We thought that that would be our last day in Pariyar, but that night Steph woke up with horrendous food poisoning.  We still don’t know why I didn’t get sick.  So while she stayed in bed all day I decided to do what any female with time on her hands would do in India and got a sari made!

It only cost me $10 to get my sari top sewn. I still need to practice wrapping it.