January 17

Yesterday was just going for a long ride on the scooter to explore. We had a piece of carrot cake, and a chocolate muffin for breakfast. Then we set out north. The weather is nice but it is still hazy/foggy, so not great vistas. We past by the National Park – it was packed, so we'll hope tomorrow is better weather for viewing and we will definitely arrive earlier! We rode on to Lakkom Waterfalls. It is a very popular place to dip in the pools, and wade… a good number of people We saw a most brilliantly colored butterfly fluttering amongst all the people. There were also monkeys hanging out for any scrap of food left, or handouts. We moved and from a distance we saw other waterfalls but could not get there. We pass by many more tea plantations, then they give way to forest, called Sandalwood Forest. The forest is a designated area bound by a chain link fence on either side of the road. Then we come to another town, Marayoor. From here we passed another waterfall, Karimutty Waterfalls. The site has a kitschy coffee shop. That is – it's a giant made turtle. Then we drove on to a vantage point of Thoovanam Waterfalls. Now we head back. The drive was 100 km (60 miles), but it took us much of the afternoon. We left at 11am and got back around 4pm. We went out to Ali Baba and 41 Dishes Restaurant for supper. We split a sweet corn soup; a green salad – which is cucumbers, carrots, red onions, tomatoes, & a dangerous looking chili pepper garnish with section of lime; X3 Chappathi breads; and Butter Chicken. (They had mutton dishes on the menu, but they weren't available!)

Today, we started much earlier, 750ish am. We rode up to Eravikulam National Park. We paid our extra foreigner entry fee, then boarded one of the park's busses. (We did have to wait 10-15 minutes for enough people to get on board.) The bus finally set off on a bumpy, 'need-of-repair' road further into the park. You have to take the bus or hire a Safari Tour. (We were not interested in the latter.) The road is very switchback and the bus actually had to back up on a few of the tight turns to make it. We gained a bunch of elevation. Then we arrive at the furthest the bus goes, conveniently it is a 'tourism zone' (their name, not mine). There is a cafeteria, toilets, and couple of shops. We offload the bus, sat and ate our banana cake and honey walnut tart.

Now we hike about a kilometer (0.6 miles) more, up other switchbacks. There are placards along the way for you to read. A couple of them mentioned the beautiful purple flower that blooms only once every 12 years (most talk about the wildlife). It supposedly covers the hillsides here, but we are not here in right time of the cycle. We saw a natural spring, then… there were some goats! This is what the park is known for. Yeah!! The Nilgiri Tahr (translated Nilgiri='blue hills' from Tamil, and Tragos='goat' from Greek) laying just feet from us and upslope from the path. They were watching us as much as we were watching them! There are supposed to be 700-800 here in this park. Only 1,800-2,000 of these goats are still remaining in the world! And they all reside here in the southern part of the Western Ghats! So This park has the biggest population of them; and it seems to be doing a good job to help keep an area for them. Anyway, we were watching them laying and basking, as they 'chew their cud'. When suddenly the goats all stood to attention! We have no idea why – we looked about but did not see anything. Then it passed and they all laid down again. There were probably 15 of them here, and further downslope we saw a least another 20 from a greater distance. Well, cool! We continued on the path and there was an arched path that lead through a little garden area – saw a few birds, but that was it, as it came back onto the main path. We then trekked to the 'End of Tourism Zone.' We stopped here a bit to just take in the great vistas, albeit, hazy. So  now, we turned around and went back down, taking more photos of the goats. One actually got up and came right to the edge of the little upslope cliff. We thought the goat would come down and cross the road. So we hung out, but he decided to lay back down. With that, we hiked back down, and caught the bus all the way down. 

They have a little history place, that we went through briefly. Also have an Orchidarium that we also went to (these both are included in park fee.) We were not that impressed with the orchids though. But the national park as a whole we liked a bunch. A friend had mentioned the park in the comments, and we thank you for it. But we already had it on our list to see – just waiting for a good day, and that was today! That being said, if you know of something of interest in an area we are in, just send a comment.

Then, went back to our place – I blogged and Jeff read, plus his magic to the editing. Deciding we were ready for lunch, we went back out and zoomed (well, that's an exaggeration in Indian traffic!) to Rochas Restaurant. This is the place we ate at on our tuk-tuk tour. We sat in the same exact spot – the whole table was empty (but it was the only one)! Anyway we ordered the 1/2 tandoori chicken, garlic naan, and egg masala. This is masala sauce with hard-boiled eggs – our homestay in Alleppey introduced us to this! All was so good!! The place was not as crowded as before. As in people did not hover for a table, but rather people wondered in as soon as a table emptied, and they weren't empty long!

Back to our place and siesta time. Around 430 pm we went back out, walking to the end of the road to get in some more steps. We trekked along the dirt roads in-between the meandering rows of the tea plantation. It is so quiet and peaceful up here. Since it is heading toward sunset, the birds are more active and trilling all about. I can't remember if I mentioned – there are not near as many crows. This is a definite positive for me! As we hiked along the sun was starting to cast long shadows, but it lit up a red blooming tree. Lovely. We circled this particular hill and went back down the road till it changed to the asphalt of our road. We arrived back at our place and decided to take our scooter for one last run – to sunset point. Again the haze, ever-present, hampered a great sunset. We now take the scooter and turn it in.  🙁  

We walked back to our place and had our last bottle of “wine”, no food still not hungry from lunch. I finished this blog, and of course Jeff read. Tomorrow we move on! We will miss this hill station of Munnar!