Wallowing in Wyanad!

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  Wayanad, Kerala, India
Friday, February 3, 2012

Wallowing in Wyanad!


The journey was tiring 3.45 hour train followed by 4.5 hour car ride! Lovely drive over a mountain pass into the lovely Wyanad district of North East Kerala – it is an area of forests, miles and miles of coconut groves, hills, lakes, waterfalls, wildlife and rich in coffee,  , cinnamon, cardamom and sandalwood, fruit and vegetables.

We arrive at Blooms to the sound of many birds and the stream. Nothing else. It is blissfully natural here. Our honeymoon cottage on stilts is a little  disappointiing , very basic with hard beds (very common in India!) , but clean. The verandah overlooks the stream however and the bamboo and trees and for the first time since being in India we experience complete stillness and nature. We have tea (with hot milk)! Very few people understand the term cold milk here, we have grown used to it! , on the balcony and relax before shower and dinner. We wander up to the reception and dining area a few hundred meters up the path and find we are the only ones staying here. The staff put out a buffet , just for us – of lovely dahl , rice, potato curry, chicken curry (which we think is rabbit), raitha and chapatti. We eat well, as usual , and soften the heat with pineapple. A bit strange dining in the round seating area, which is stark and open but functional alone, but nice too! We sleep well on our beds of steel!! We are becoming accustomed I think....

Awakening at 4.30 to go to Muthtanga gate for a jeep drive around the Wyanad Wildlife Sanctuary was not easy! But we did, our host determined that we should leave by 5 to ensure we get the first jeep into the park at 7. Well, the journey was 45 minutes and then we waited, and waited – the ticket office was on Indian time , not opening at 6 as we were told but at 7! The watchman and our driver light a fire on the road side and we sit with them and watch the day break – another lovely moment in India! By the time the office opens there are many people trying to push to the front of the queue , but our driver and fire companion watchman ensure we get the first jeep in. We have been chatting to a young Czech couple who got the bus here from nearby Sultan Battery and they ask if they can share a jeep – we readily agree, and discover that she now lives and works the summers in Woolacombe and travels the rest of the year after visiting home!

The Jeep driver drives far too quickly scaring any wildlife away I think! We see many small herds of spotted deer, some stags too. Two Buffalo and a peacock. The road is the worst dirt road I have ever travelled on and thats saying something after South Africa. Because the jeep is travelling too quickly its painful! The drive round the park is over in an hour and they rush the next lot in! We feel a little cheated and cheer ourselves up with talk of the fresh air the rising sun and the deer!

We drive to Sultan Battery for breakfast with our driver – we have toast and coffee , he has puris with masala and chai and we go to visit the local Jain Temple, the oldest in Kerlala , built in the 1500's and beautiful in its simplicity. A caretaker explains the fundamentals of Jainism and the building to us , its lovely to see how many young people visit these sites in India. He tells us that there is a group of Jains who do not wear any cloth or clothing at all , live completly naturally and very strict vegetarians. I wonder how they do their shopping? Or maybe they live purely off the land? What about shampoo and moisturiser? Clearly not the life for me! Returning to Blooms we have a stroll and notice some young men who have come to stay – they are chatting amongst themselves over breakfast . We ask if we can visit the blooms organic farm owned by the same people . What a fabulous place, they are so resourceful and every plant or tree is used for something. They make bio gas on the premisis, they have a fresh water spring and use rainwater which is filtered and treated to increase the water table. They show us the animals, cows, goats, dogs, chickens , rabbits and the crops of coffee, their harvesting and drying process and coconut and cardamom, bananas and jack fruit. Herbs that grow wild and are medicinal in various ways and nutmeg. We stop for a drink in their homestay house of lemon squeezed into coconut milk with cardamom and sugar and eat a passion fruit picked on our walk. Fabulous. We are home by 1ish and snooze in the midday heat.

At 4 we are collected for an aruveydic massage. We are dropped in front of the aruyvdic medicine shop and ushered down a dusty alley to some rooms at the back , very basic with beautifully carved wooden beds – beautiful but hard on our poor naked selves! My masseuse is a lovely lady called Sabinda, she tells me with sign language to get naked and shows no shock at my one – boobedness bless her! Or even the size of the bottom she is going to have to massage! She sits me on a stool to start with and I wonder how many naked ladies have sat on it and of course whether it has ever been sanitised! She pours hot mixed oils with cinnamon and spice into her hands which are formed into a cup and offers them up for a minute before trickling the oil gently onto my hair, then massages it into my scalp with deft , firm , but not tough hands.                I begin to relax! After 10 minutes of lovely head and neck massage she asks me to lie on my back on the wooden bed and does the same action with the oil taken from a wooden bowl and drizzles it all over me and then starts to massage my  stomach and torso, then arms  with wide sweeping movements, firm but not too firm. Legs follow and feet and then she turns me , slithering aroud in the oil I am, not very graciously, onto my side and does one side at a time , even under the arms so no part is missed and then my back , oh its amazing!! The only unpleasant part being the few bony protusions I have digging into the hard couch. Quickly forgotten though. An hour later she asks me to sit again and finishes with my back and then stands me to take the oil off with a dry towel. Arvin found his male masseuse a little less gentle and relaxed a little less than I , but enjoyed it despite feeling he had been in a wrestling ring!

We are driven back to our books, tea and balcony with birdsong by the aruyvedic practitioner. We collapse and read in blissful contentment before attempting an hour or two later to remove the oil from our heads! Followed by dinner , almost identical to last nights – no alcohol again chaps! The bottle of gin Arvin had purchased from the "wine shop" , a licensed but strange place our driver took us to, was down an alley up a flight of stairs, the vendor behind a cage , a queue of 30 people and the gin – well – we tried it . No tonic available – 7 Up ?! Warm as no fridge on the first night! Awful -  poured the rest down the drain – it was painful to me to pour a bottle of gin away – however it only cost about £3.00 so that was our comfort! After dinner the chef/waiter invites us to join the small group around the bonfire, they have set up some music too! We join the 4 boys we had seen at breakfast, I feel a little unsure as they are young and I wonder whether conversation will be difficult. They are lovely – speak good English are down on a boys weekend from Bangalore where they all work together for an IT company as programmers. They chat away about their lives and opinions and ask us ours. The music is chosen for us I am sure, not the bangra we expect but the theme from titanic, shakira, makarena! Suddenly the boys start agitating at the chef waiter who only half an hour later produces chilled beers that they had brought with them , tandoori style chicken and some fish for them to snack on , they insist we share so Arvin has a chilled beer which he enjoys and they produce very sweetened juice for me! Bless them . We take our leave at ten and go to bed to leave them to have fun – they are still partying in this peaceful place when I wake for the loo at 2.45am!

We go for breakfast at 8.30 to be ready to leave for Bandipur at 9.30 – the chef speeds off on the motor bike to get a pineapple to squeeze for our juice the coffee is terrible , the juice lovely , the bread for toast as in most places is sweet , more like brioche without the butter says Arv and the omelette cold, but hey this is India – he makes at least 4 trips to our table outside to bring it to us too!! Off to Bandipur we go! xx

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Wayanad Sunset	Wayanad Sunset	Wayanad Buffalo	Wayanad Spotted Deer
Wayanad Antelope	Wayanad Jain Ruin At Sulthan Batheree	Wayanad Jain Ruin At Sulthan Batheree	Wayanad River At Blooms
Wayanad Blooms	Wayanad Big Dog	Wayanad Lunch	Wayanad Supper
Wayanad Coffee Drying	Wayanad Blooms	Wayanad blooms	Wayanad rice Paddy

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