Feb 17, 2011 to Feb 20,2011
Feb 17,2011
0615Hrs : I started my journey to Kotayam from Calicut in Shatabdi Express. I had mistook Janashathabdi for Shatabdi express.Difference is you don't get food in Janashathabdi express ! Poor peoples chair car but still 25% more expensive than other express train chair cars :-(
From Kotayam railway station took prepaid auto to KSRTC bus stand. Boarded bus to Kumily. It took me 210mi to reach Kumily. Had a great Kerala lunch with beef fry in a restaurant nearby. From there I went tot the Kumily police station where I met the station SI as advised by my cosine Rahul. The office helped me with the stay and the local arrangements.
Our stay was confirmed at Haritham residency( http://www.thekkadyharithamresidency.com/ ). A great place to stay. Biju Mathew is the manager over there. He is a registered government guide and tour operator also. We can book our full trip through him. Mob No - 09447387344.
Please follow my link below to see the pics of the room we stayed. Please note there is no in house dining available here. We need to walk to a nearby hotel for the same. Checked in to the room and called the day to an end.
Feb 18,2011
Rithwik joined me in the morning. We went to the forest wardens office and met the Warden to understand the procedures and permissions needed to camp in the jungle. It was the same as for Silent Valley Forest. The permits needs to be taken at Trivandrum.
For the evening we decided to go for a Nature walk. At 4.00pm we started with a guide allocated to us. The trking was really good. It was raining also. We had a great time. Got few sun set shots.
Feb 19,2011
Early morning we geared up ourselves for the Border Hiking. We were a group of 6 people. Only 2 of us Indians ;-) This was a 24 km long trek. Would not reccomend for Indians. The food provided was not great and very less in quantity. We dint get any good sighting also. Reached back by 1900Hrs. We were so tired that we dint even know when we went to bed and when we slept !
Feb 20, 2011
This was the last day and relaxing day for me. Rithwik went to the nearby jingle for capturing birds with his new tele lens.We were ready to leave Thekkady by 4.00pm. I had my bus back to Bangalore from Thekkady itself. Rithwiks bus to Chennai was from Theni.
Sharing some moments of our trip ... click here
