We left Periyar early morning, me and Emmanuel went out to think we would find some breakfast but everywhere was shut at 8am!
It took about 4 hours by mini bus to reach the Kerela Backwaters. We arrived at Thekkady and got a riverboat across the river to our Homestay. As we were on the boat, I saw a man take his two cows in the water and they swam to the other side! I couldn’t believe it!
We arrived at the Homestay and met the loveliest family, an old mother and her two sons Jonathan and Thomas and there cute daughter! We checked into our rooms and then came down as they had prepared a lunch for us. It was a traditional meal with there local kerela rice, it’s basically really puffy rice, it was delicious with fish curry!
We then had a little time to prepare ourselves for our three hour trek around the backwaters. In the afternoon, we explored the island with a local person, Thomas - to observe the different facets of local life - it was a great opportunity to meet and talk with the people who live in this unique location. It was a long walk but with some stunning scenery!
We missed the sunset on our walk as the area we are suppose to walk on has road works. We got a local bus boat to the other side of the island then waited. We then hopped on a small country boat which took us to back to our Homestay. Thomas sung traditional songs so us as we floated in the dark, it was quite a magical moment as al you could here was him!
We arrived back in time for dinner and the lovely old lady had cooked us all our final meal of the trip.
After our meal we had drinks to celebrate the end of the trip!