tea with tigers - kerala adventures
‘Happiness is hanging out a bus window with a camera at 2OOOm catching my first view of tea through the mists and some of the highest plantations in India. And, I love this bus driver, he beeps the monkeys to get off the road!’
Happiness is hanging out a bus window with a camera at 2OOOm catching my first view of tea through the mists and some of the highest plantations in India. And, I love this bus driver, he beeps the monkeys to get off the road.
Today is a real adventure, I haven’t anything other than a vague clue as to where I’m going nor with whom, other than it’s a guy who works for a mate of Sajeev’s who has a house in Wayanad National Park. I had planned to go up to Mananthavadi and from there to the northwest Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary at Tholpetty and then visit the temple at Thirunelli and the Pakshipathalam Bird Sanctuary. So, when my landlord at Thottada beach said his friend had a homestay inside the National Park there, and maybe I could stay for a couple of days, I jumped at the chance. A bit over my budget but an unbelievable opportunity and I’d surely save on travel costs.
This morning before I left, he was explaining the route I should take and I realised I was heading in fact to the Tamil Nadu side of the park in the east at Muthanga and that it’s his mate’s house, not a homestay and he won’t be there but a guy will pick me up at the bus station in Sulthan Bathery and take me there on a motorbike, not to worry. OK then, game on!
After another breakfast of Kings, I said goodbye to the lovely German family I met over shared chappatis the evening before and lugged my bag to the auto-rickshaw for Kannur. I was delighted to get a seat on an old bus, the ones you can hang out the window of. We set off for the three-hour climb around ever rising hairpins into the Western Ghats and finally the fulfillment of a dream, tea plantations wrapped elegantly around the curves of each greenly crested hill.
By the time we pulled into Manathavadi I could taste the roadwork dust on my lips and didn’t know if it was still a misty morning or my lens had clouded over. But I haven’t doctored my photos ‘cos this is how it appeared to me and I was, and still am, enchanted.
After buying a hoodie in Century department store, in preparation for the chilly evenings, followed by a quick chai I hopped on the next bus on to Sulthan Bathery. I was a little less lucky; no hanging out the window on this security minded modern bus and the back seat over the hard shoulder is a rough ride but the good company made me forget all that.
I didn’t even recognise the coffee plants when they appeared along with rice paddies to replace the tea but the two lads next to me were happy to explain and that the skinny palms rising up through the plantations provide the betel nut for paan and paint. At one stop a hoard of men scrambled to get on the crowded bus while an equally large crew of fellows battled them to get off. I caught my first whiff of alcohol in 6 weeks when the boys pointed out the queue outside one of the few state controlled liquor stores in the Wayanad region.
Arriving in Sultan Bathery I was fascinated to see the continuing number of churches and schools named after saints Margaret, Mary, Joseph and so on… RC as my two self-appointed guides specified, as if any self-respecting Irish girl didn’t ‘sus that.
I got off the bus and took an autorickshaw to the NSRTC bus depot where my lift to the house would be waiting for me. A helmeted man took my bag on the front and I climbed helmetless onto the back of his bike and off we went, don’t know where don’t know when, Mum, sorry, you’ll be horrified. But I’m off to have tea with tigers!
We drove about ten miles to Muthanga and then turned onto a meandering red dirt track for several more, heading deeper into the jungle and while I realised any of my friends would kill me, I just felt a combination of fascination and privilege. Only in my fantasies did I imagine coming to a place like this.
We passed some tribal hamlets along the track eventually coming to a sprawling hamlet where a traditional green house with a palm thatched look-out perched above it hovered above us among the trees and I knew that unbelievably I had arrived. Surreal folks, Surreal.
At dusk the villagers bring in the animals and I was warned not to venture out after dark. Too risky, my neighbour Maryu, told me, of becoming a tiger’s tea.
After chappatis, eggs and potato bhaji it’s time for bed. As I finish writing and preparing for a 5 am stint in the look-out the heavens open and batter roof above my head. I’m glad of a quilt, my hoodie and my wooly socks. It sounds like Ireland out there!
“TOP TIPS
You’ll get a less bumpy ride if you sit towards the front or the middle of the bus and on the driver’s side. Also, men seem to gather at the back of the bus, women at the front.
It’s easy to assume that department stores are more expensive than street stalls but it’s often not the case. They also often have reductions, sales and bargain bins. If you’re not a confident or patient haggler, they are fixed price and so that pressure is off.
If I have no idea what the going rate is for something, I either ask a friendly local, the landlord where I’m staying or look online or in a fixed price store. That gives me a ballpark for bargaining.
If you’re heading to the highlands, layers are pretty useful, even if it’s still pretty warm in the day the nights and mornings are fairly cool especially in winter.
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