Wildlife!
This morning, I went out early on the balcony. Enjoyed the changing morning colors, observed how domestic noises slowly took it over from the woods. Watched the sunlight fighting the morning fog. The kind of morning I like the most.
Overthinking how much of real India we have seen so far (of course, leads to the question “What is ‘real India’?”) I realize that I still feeling trapped a bit in the tourism path. Don’t misunderstand! I enjoy this trip very much… I am just too curious. Always want to see en experience more. We had lots of sight seeing, some tourism scams (we fully accepted at that point as such), were safely watched over. Now and than a glim of a home situation, the daily life and its advantages, the differences of the regions, beliefs, social positions and underlying assumptions. Thus, on the other hand, which depth is possible within two an a half weeks?
Its also time to think about what I gonna do after this vacation. I know, what I want. Some steps for that path I already have in mind, but there are also some I have to decide. Time for sketching. Helps me think.
After breakfast we wanted to go to Mattupetty Lake. The roads are crazy: small, frequently badly maintained. A drive here is a journey on its own. Photo stop here, photo stop there. At least, we stepped a few times out of the car. A stop at an elephant park was interesting, but not very nice: you could ride an elephant to a nearby lake, mostly 4 people on her backs, with a steep, loose path. Some of the elephants definitely were not healthy. Some had really dead eyes. We saw a few with wounds and abscesses. DONE! Left the place immediately. Told clearly to the driver, why. Our reward came a few minutes later: a wild elephant at the edge of the woods. Just saw his back before he stepped into the bushes. About a 100m further, we saw another wildelephant in a small valley in the woods. Seems to be a young one. Stood there, didn’t do that much at all. Could have stand there for hours, just to watch! We could not go to the National Park, but – with the risk to see there nothing – that might have been even better! All happy. All day good. Couldn’t become better. I thought. We drove on to the next dam, had a quick look and drove back to the lake for a boat ride. But first: coffee! We just left “Gate 2”, when the boatsman showed us another young elephant in the woods near a beach. He told us, that the older once were laying down there, thus they you couldn’t see, just the younger kept standing. Three times in one day! We are very lucky!
Saw some cormorants on our tour around the lake, checked a second time with the elephant before we had sand under our feet again.
Last point of interest today was a small rock cave, with a lot of bats in it. Thought, might be better to not take a picture inside…
Beside the amazing elephant spotting, something else was interesting today. We met almost none other western tourists. But we saw a lot of young Indian families, also on a tour. Surely a sign of wealth, crowing in this country.
Almost back home, I decided to walk the last two kilometers down to the hotel. Had more than enough been in a car. Listened to the sound of the woods, saw much more then with a drive. Feld all good.