We gave up on the national park and headed on to Calicut - the nearest place on the coast.Getting there involved a jeep ride and then a bus down.We just missed the bus so had a 2 hour wait so sampled the Indian cakes at the local bakery - more of a greasy spoon really.

The bus arrived, found a seat.Fran had the window seat but no glass in it.The ride down was pretty hair raising - initially through winding roads surrounded by tea plantations on all sides.Eventually we met a main road and thought it would be a breeze.Then we started the descent - more hairpins but this time in a big bus that the guy was throwing around all over the place - overtaking lorries with cars trying to overtake on the hairpin.When we got down (after 20 mins of hairpins) we said a little prayer of thanks!

Calicut was another big town - we did not see anything of it as we were shattered.It was bed and then up and out for the train to Allepey and the backwaters.