Kerela

I'm sat in Mumbai airport after a crazily busy few days! Sara and I went to Kerela, one of the most gorgeous parts of India for a grand total of one and a half days! We took a 12 hr night train on Monday, a later train than expected because we missed the first by two minutes and had to change our tickets - TWO MINUTES!! I saw it pull away from the station as we were running across the bridge. Various bus journeys later we arrived in Alleppey, and took a 5 hr canoe journey around the Kerelan backwaters. There are miles and miles of natural canals, surrounded by palm trees which make an inchanting rustling sound in the wind that I could (and did) listen to for hours! Birds frequent the backwaters, and we saw heron, eagles and even a kingfisher!!
After we rushed back to the bus station in order to catch bus after bus to the wildlife park. We spent 7 hrs on buses that night and finally reached Kumily, the wildlife sanctuary, at 2.30 am. The bus driver on the last bus was an absolute mentalist!! He must have been driving at over 50mph down country lanes, with millions of tight bends, huge holes in the roads and in the pitch black. Sara and I had to grab hold of the seat in front the whole time in order to not fall off the seat!.
In the morning we went round a spice garden at 8am (never new pepper grew on vines, and the smell of cloves is amazing in the morning!!) and then a boat trip round the sanctury's lake for a couple of hours. For a wildlife sanctury it had surprisingly few animals! We saw one stag, a couple of otters, three wild boar and cows! The promise of elephants was completely unfounded, but the scenery was incredible anyway.
At midday we caught a 6 hr bus back to Kochi, it went on the most gorgeous roundabout route through the Western Ghats. I have never seen such incredible views! My time in the internet cafe has run out! Write again soon xx