It's Not Every Day...

Seeing as Mysore was a bust we were eager to get out of Sari-land and into the wild! Well, wild is what we got as we drove into the district of Wayanad, Kerala. Living the high life we hired a driver to take us to Kalpetta, a small town that serves as one of the bases into the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary. We tooted along in our little car (think Whitey, only new and working) through the jungles and lush forests of Kerala. I rocked out to my ipod while Mom held on the the "holy-shit" handles and worried about there not being any seat belts (ever). We were doing just fine until we turned a corner and the driver slammed on the breaks to a halt. I was half snoozing and wondered what was going on until Mom pointed out the front windshield of the car to a very very angry elephant charging full speed ahead at our car. As soon as I blinked the driver was reversing like a mad man as fast as the car could go back and behind the corner until the elephant let up. I was in awe, the driver was beading with sweat and Mom was shitting her pants. Moments later a local bus drove by and we shadowed it past the angry 'annah' (that would be how you say elephant in the local dialect) and there standing on the edge of the jungle were two more big annahs and two itty bitty babies! Thrilled to bits I couldn't understand why Mom was so spooked and wanted to tip the driver and extra hundred rupes for bailing us out of there - fast! ... "Well Francie! It's not every day you're charged by an elephant!".

Because 'a watched pot never boils' the day we went into the actually sanctuary we didn't see any angry herds of elephants, or any babies - just one male loner looking rather blue by himself at a watering hole. But it was no waste. We were the first Jeep into the park at 5:45am and we spotted a lot of animals: deer, peacocks, gigantic squirrels, and lots of other critters I don't even know the name of. There are many tigers in the park and we found some fresh tracks but no tiggers attached as they are mainly nocturnal and tend to hide from the noisy Jeeps. Our driver/sudo-guide was great and apres the early morning sanctuary took us to a delicious joint for some quality Indian breakfast and chai. We then headed out to the 3,000 year old Edakkal Caves that overlook almost all of Kerala. We climbed the hill and the steps all the way to the caves which proved the effort worth while. They were beautiful and massive and steaming with hidden history. The caves were created by an earthquake which caused giant boulders to wedge in between large gulley's and this is also how they got their name: "Boulder stuck in between rocks". There were some carvings of "man", "woman", "dog" etc still preserved in the caves which was my first good look at cave art - very prehistoric and stunning.

We continued our tour through the wandering valleys and hills of Wayanad which is by far the most beautiful and lucious place in India I've seen so far. Green of every shade and shape protruded everywhere and we learned of all the agricultural produce that Keralans labor over every day. Things like rubber, coffee, papaya, pineapple, mango, cashews, ginger, tapioca, rice, tea and a million different spices. So delicious. No wonder I'm getting so fat here, the food is just so good. Our last stop took us to one of the three major water falls in the area which like any other place in India it totally stunning and covered in garbage. Either way, it was a great way to end a fantastic experience in Northern Kerala.

The next day we took off to Calicut for an overnight pit stop on one of the most comfortable beds I've had in a loooong time. We celebrated the New Year with a buffet dinner where of course I ate way too much and watching the ball drop on our fellow Goa partiers we rang in 2007. We hit the hay right after that as there was no time to waste - onto Fort Cochin (Kochi) at 6:40am. Hope your New Years celebrations were safe and happy and here's to a great start to 2007.