Kerala flooding was getting worse and many of the places we had planned to visit were now unreachable but the rains seemed to be abating so we just moved another 40 Kilometres or so down the coast to Kollam, with a view to coming back for the Snake boat races if they were rearranged.

The journey was our first experience in India of using local buses. We boarded the bus along with the locals, the bus was overcrowded so we had to stand up and manoeuvre ourselves and our rucksacks into adjacent positions. The bus driver was unable to decide whether he should drive on the left-hand or right-hand side of the road ……. so, he didn't. He drove all the way along the centre line of the road with his horn permanently blowing - oncoming vehicles were swerving into the hard shoulder or the pavement to avoid us. Heather, who is not a good passenger at the best of times became highly agitated, but amazingly we survived and reached our destination without physical damage.

We stayed in a little cottage on the banks of Ashtamudi Lake with plenty of palm trees with hammocks and a coconut tree for Dan to climb.

That afternoon we took a tuk-tuk to explore the sights, including a very busy harbour where we watched all the boats come in with their catch and being packed up in ice to be taken to the local processing factories.

Next day we we joined 4 Italian girls - Daniela, Barbara, Maria and Desiree and went into the narrow canal backwaters of Munro island in a canoe. We witnessed village life along the shore and saw men climbing up trees to harvest coconuts as quick as monkeys. All seemed well again but when we got back to our accommodation the rain had started in earnest and the Italians moved to a hotel on higher ground. We met two girls, Krystle and Laura from (would you believe it) Warwick, who were also staying at the same place and with the rain beating down we resorted to playing cards for the evening.

A slight let up in the weather the next day gave us and our new Midland buddies the opportunity to watch an Elephant feeding ceremony at a Hindu temple. We have kept 1 step ahead of the devastating Kerala weather up until now but it was closing down around us ……