26-28 October 2012

After Mysore I decided to visit Wayanad. Situated in northern Kerala, it is an area renowned for its animal sanctuary and treks. It was only a three hour bus ride west to cross the Karnataka-Kerala border from Mysore.

On day one I got up early to visit the animal sanctuary. Many of the guide books claim you are almost guaranteed to spot wild elephants. I just managed to jump on the last jeep entering the park. In short, it was disappointing. I saw a peacock, some deer and a fat squirrel. The same sort of wild life you would expect to see at Richmond Park. We did however see a tiger's foot print. The closest l'll ever get to an actual tiger. The driver was driving around at speed so either he was very eager to get rid of us or he knew the futility of our mission. The guide even told us at the end of the safari, "It is bad this time of year. Elephants stay deep in forest. Don't come out." I'm was so glad he decided to disclose this knowledge at the end. The rest of the day was much better. Along with two Indian tourists I'd met on the safari, I visited the Edakkal caves with 6,000 year old petroglyphs. After our cave expedition, my two new Indian friends had trouble finding a place to stay so they crashed in my hotel room. It was fun. We grabbed some beers and watched American game shows on television.

On day two I climbed Chembra Peak with my Indian companions. 2100m above sea leve, it is Wayanad's tallest mountain. Accompanied by a young guide, we walked through a tea plantation, negotiated steep grassy slopes and scrambled up rocky mountain faces. Good thing I packed my hiking boots. The view at the top was simply jaw dropping. Weather was sunny with a light dusting of clouds. We were told the ascent should take around three hours so we were thrilled to scale it in two hours ten minutes. What was more astonishing was that our guide went up only in flip flops and he didn't even break a sweat! When he wanted to, the guide was twice as fast as us going up and down. I'm sure even Sir Ranulph Fiennes would have trouble keeping up with our guy.

Next stop - Goa.