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Aplogies for not having left a blog for so long, its been a bit of a hetic five days but we've now landed in Cochin, a small, quaint fishing village with a portugese feel to it and are able to relax a bit and have some proper internet sessions. Well... are last night in Varkala saw us arrange a 5 day whistle stop tour with 'Babu' this crazy, charming Indian ladies man who ran 'The Funky Art Cafe' which we had frequented a couple of nights. He arranged a driver for us, Santosh, who drove us EVERYWHERE, proper luxury. Our first port of call was Allepey where we got a houseboat for the day and night. The boats are based a chinese rice barges and we had 4 guys on the boat with us drvivng, cooking and giving us coconuts to drink from, not something 3 18 year olds are used to back home. The trip was really nice, Graces mum had very aptly described the backwaters as like 'the broads with nobs on' and it was a great sight to see, endless expanses of waters with small houses tettering upon the river bank and guys in rowing bots with umbrella hats on sailing beside you trying to sell you prawns. The rat Grace saw was a down side however, as were the few cockroaches, and Nic did get the Travellers 'illness' while we were on board but she was brave and made it through!
From Allepey it was onto Kumily, a small town which acted as a base for visitng the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary. We stayed in a really nice homestay, the guy who owned it was lovely and arranged for us to go on an elephant ride once we'd settled ourselves in. It was brilliant- we rode this elephant around some spice plantations, up and down hills and over streams and then when we got back to base he layed down and we got hoses out and gave him a bath, scrubbing him with cocnut shells to get the dry skin off- in the wild they would rub themselves against trees. We then sat down with some chai and had a little demonstration of how the 'mahoot' trains the elephant and our guide told us some facts about elephants, the femlaes are pregnant for 20 months! He then asked us if we wanted the elephant to give us a shower- we naviely hopped on bare back ( which was well funny in itself, grace at the front, then Nic then me, i had to use a stool) and then they fill up this massive bucket,he fills up his trunk (7 litres) and flings it over his head onto us, a good 10 times. We got SOAKED, it was so funny, we were freezing and couldnt stop laughing. The tour man had Graces camera and he got some classic pictures- hopefully we will find a way of putting them up here without it taking us hours so you can see them.
The next day we got up at 4:30am(!) and headed on a bumpy jeep sarafi through the wildlife sanctuary- we spotted mongoose, bison, black monkeys, eagles, kingfishers and giant squirrels on the way. Nic kept falling asleep which was classic, at one point she nearly had her head on the guides shoulder, he turned round on the look out for wildlife and was greeted with her face- he saw the funny side of it luckily, we've come to realise Nic really isnt a morning person! The safari was followed by a hard core 3 hour trek ( i struggled, im not going to lie, i kept falling over and the walk up the massive hill in the midday sun was a marathon) but it was well worth it to get a insight into the heart of the jungle. We then had a boat ride, the swedish couple who we met on the jeep rowed for us. They said that with me sitting in the front of the jeep when we picked them up at 5am and Grace abnd Nic looking so young they thought i was their mum! the guy looked liked Benny/Bjorn from Abba but i'm sure that most swedish men do. On the jeep sarfari on the way home the guide spotted some elpehants just a little way back from the road so we all hopped out and scrambled down the hill to get a closer look. It was amazing, 6 wild elephants, 3 Mums and 3 little babies. We stood there for a while watching them. The next thing we knew one came running out of the jungle, ears flapping out (a warning sign) and she was charging right for us. I've never run so fast, Nic face was a picture, and the 3 of us legged it up to the 'safety (?)' of the jeep. The guide kept laughing at us but we knew he was just as scared, Grace siad he legged it past her in his hurry! It was a proper speacial moment for us all. Nic got scratches on her face though in the panic of running away- proper war wounds.
Got to go, this compuer is well slow and doing my head in, i miss broadband! But not as much as we miss all of you....
With lots of love, Carla, Nic and Gracie. xx
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