Elephants, Caves and Waterfalls

Whilst in Kerala we went to the Waynad National Park which is meant to be the nicest place in an already very beautiful state. Just the bus journey to the Park had spectacular views and monkeys chilling out by the side of the road.

We went on a jeep trip around the park and for this you get a guide who point out all the animals. Within the first 5 minutes we had seen domestic elephants and some spotted deer. We also saw bysons and later a whole herd of the spotted deer, which are very majestic creatures. The best bit, of course, was the wild elephants. It was getting to the end of the circuit and we happened to pass them on the track. There was maybe 5 to 10 of them, including a one month old calf. It's great seeing the herd dynamic and how protective they are over their young, plus I've now seen wild elephants :)

On the same day we also saw what is listed in the Lonely Planet as a cave. It is, however, a rock shelter which means that it is a gap between two rocks with some huge rocks fallen over the top so it is partially covered. It's pretty cool though as it has 3000 year old carvings on the walls and a very nice Indian man explained some of them to us. There was a chieftain, a woman, an elephant and a peacock with two inscriptions; one in Tamil and the other in Sanscrit. It was nice to have them pointd out to us as otherwise we probably wouldn't have noticed it.

We also went to a waterfall and we sat and watched it for a while as it is always quite hypnotising watching waterfalls. The walk to it was also great but isn't designed for those without much agility. That is one major difference about India, they haven't got the insane political correctness and general nanny-state going and so you get the beautiful scenery without it being wrecked by 101 signs telling you that a surface may be slippery when wet.

We are now in Goa and tomorrow are heading to the beach, and Goa is meant to have some of the nicest beaches in India and as we have already seen some very beautiful beaches, it should be good!