Where are all the elephants?

   Of course elephants are utilised in India. So where do I draw the line? I think when elephants are used as working animals, I could find that acceptable. If you cab watch them interact with their keepers, it can be used as a tourist attration. But these animals had very little to live for. So I'd rather not sit on an elephant then. 

   But this morning, we got a second chance. We had to get up at 5.30 am, to make a boating trip in the Periyar Tiger Reserve, where there are tigers, elephants and other wildlife. The chances of actually seeing tigers are very small, tigers are very shy animals, but we should be able to see bison, deer or  elephants. The hotel made us a delicious takeaway breakfast, so by 6.15 we were on our way to the reserve. The sun hadn't fully risen yet. When we reached the park, someone gave us our tickets. They were already paid for. We were taken to the boat jetty by bus. As we had to wait a while for the boat to depart, we had a cup of coffee and ate our breakfast. As we went on board, we found out we had the best possible seats: front seats on the upper deck.

   The boating trip would take on and a half hours.  The weather was perfect, not yet too hot. The sun was up, and ther was a slight breeze over the water. The views were breathtaking. But we did not see any elephants. Nor bison, nor deer. No animals at all. There were a few cranes and cormorants, but those can be found everywhere. We realise that you can't control wild animals, but it would have been nice to have spotted something. As it was, this was a bit of a deception.

   After the trip across the Periyar lake, we visited a spice plantation. There were no animals here, of course, but we did learn about several spices, and tasted them straight from the tree. We had a private tour. Our guide spoke very well, and to us understandable, English (which isn't always the case here). He told us about when to hatvest and how to process the different spices. This time, we could not resist the temptation, and bought some of the delectable. especially spices that are harder to find in the Netherlands, like true cinnamon, allspice, fresh vanilla and green cardamom. And it all was from organic cultivation.

   At the plantation shop it became clear how the networking in the tourist industry works. The men from the shop were linked to the men who arranged our boatingtickets. And they al knew Lijo. Among them, they arranged for us to have a walking safari through the Periyar reserve. The guide was from one of the two indigenous tribes that live on the reserve. One consist of around 250 people, the other counts around 400 individuals. They each have their own area in the reserve, and their own language. The smaller of the tribes perform the tribal dances for the tourists at night (we saw it last night).

   It felt really good to be walking again. The past few days, we have mainly sat in a car, beinmg driven from one place to the next. The Indians do not understand our fascination for walking without a specific goal. We like doing so, to explore new surroundings. Today we walked for three hours, together with our guide, and the German Susan, who was vacationing in Thekkady. It started quite well: Very early on we spotted wild bison, mingling with a herd of domesticated waterbuffalo. And soon after, we saw monkeys skipping through the trees. And all the while, we were surrounded by beautifully coloured butterfly, the size of your hand.

   Later on we also encountered a few deer, but they ran of as soon as they sensed us. We also spotted the giant Indian squirrel, and several multicoloured birds. Unfortunately, they wouldn't sit still, so we could photograph them. (Just like the butterflies. We cam across elephant turds, and a few broken trees, but that's as close as we got to actual elephants.