General strike over the whole Karnataka state today due to a dispute over water with Tamil Nadu. The palace we were due to visit today is closed, the market we were going to visit is closed... The rally is just outside our hotel and they even started the demo at midnight last night. Luckily not for too long. Seems quite peaceful but we're being cautious and staying indoors. Having cups of coffee, writing our diaries, chatting the breeze and just generally chi...

At the end of a somehow tiring day, some dinner and a drink and off to hit the 'disco'. We had a long, twisty drive from Wayanad this morning followed by a huge lovely locals lunch served on a banana leaf. Then off to a thirteenth century monument and temples in the afternoon. Older photos and posts to come. Slight technical issues...

So after 14 days of walking and trekking through rainforest, desert, woodlands and anything else you can pretty much think of, I finally got caught in the rain. Torrential rain that ran in rivers down the path, and soaked every inch of my body. On the plus side the rucksack performed wonderfully and not a thing was wet (except the rain cover). After a hot shower and a cup of tea I got to watch all the other trekkers slowly traipse in soaked, whilst I warmed mysel...

This is the hot shower option at the resort! Cold real shower available too. It seems to be the traditional Indian way to shower as most of the bathrooms have the large bucket with the smaller one in. The hill stations are beautiful with tea fields, paddy fields and banana tree fields.

A landslide halted my progress on the local bus to Tatopani (think sheer drops and crazy Nepalese F1 wannabes). I had to walk the remaining 5 hours, so we stopped for lunch at a tea house and this was the view....