Kumily

Next was Kumily a short step from Periyar National Park. Arriving again during the middle of the night after a very long, bumpy and cold bus ride we decided toe spend the next day for R and R. Apart from the proximity to the national park, Kumily was also a great place to explore the Spice gardens and nearby tea plantations. We decided to do a tour of the gardens and plantation, which turned out to be in a took-took, which ended up breaking down. The tour was rather interesting and we were shown a whole manner of plants and herbs including the coco plant, black pepper, aloe vera and even viagra. After climbing up the steep hill to the rubber trees and seeing huge spiders (and getting attacked by ants) we decided to move swiftly on to the tea plantation.

Here we watched the women at work in the fields picking the tea leaves and then moved into the factory to watch the tea making process. Later that evening we decided to watch another Kerelan dance (strangely enough the last one hadn't dettered us) except this dance was to involve knifes, swords and fire. Performed in a swimming pool/ampitheatre the dance was rather enjoyable especially when the sparks flew from the clashing metal and when they jumped through fire hoops, a much improved view of the Kerelan dance after the disaster of the last.

Early next morning (6am yawn) we took another boat to sightsee in the national park, we saw an eagle and an otter in the hour and half we spent on the freezing water!!