Five hours on the train and three hours on a bus later we arrived at Wayanad and decided to stay in a town called Sultanbatheri. We arranged a jeep safari to take us into the sanctuary for 6.30am and headed to bed to get some rest. Nicola was sick with a cold and I think I was coming down with it too, so when the alarm went off at 6am we were both exhausted!!! We tore ourselves away from the comfort of our beds and made our way to reception to meet our driver. It was chilly at this time of the day and we were back in our warmer clothes again, it felt so strange, almost like we were not in India anymore!
As we entered the park we saw some trained elephants, but we were looking for the wild ones which unfortunately we did not get to see, mainly because this is the wrong time of year to do this. You are more likely to see the animals in the dry season when the undergrowth has all dried out and they are looking for food. At the moment everything is so lush and green! We did however see some leopard prints, a giant spider, some bee hives and……wait for it….a wild chicken!!!!! Is that not the same as a free range chicken then?? Ha ha anyway we did not mind we had a great time bumping around in the jeep off road, and just seeing some of the scenery, and we did not really have great expectations of seeing much anyway.
We popped back to the hotel for breakfast and then our driver came back to take us to the Edakal caves. This consisted of a 20 minute drive and then a hike about 1km up a steep hill to the caves, which we both struggled with as we were now exhausted again already due to being ill.
We trudged to the top past all the monkeys without incident, and got some nice pictures of the views of the surrounding countryside, which is really beautiful, along the way before making it into the caves. Once inside a guide explained to us that the drawings on the walls here date back to 4000 BC, and depict local life back then. He pointed out the tribal leader, elephants, a woman and carts and other relics. It was surreal to think that thousands of years ago someone had sat in this cave and drawn all that, and to think about how life here must have been back then! There were loads of school kids also here visiting, and we walked back and chatted to a group of them, they are always so curious about us and us about them, and it was plain to see there is a real friendship here between people, they truly care about each other and are not afraid to show it, seeing boys and men walking arm in arm is a common occurrence and just seems to be the norm, they are very open people.
It was only about 12.30pm when we arrived back at the hotel, but we were so tired and just went to bed for the rest of the day as we had another early start the next day to get the bus to Ooty, which is about 5 hours away, and is Southern India's favourite hill station.
Straight away Ooty reminded us of Darjeeling but was not as beautiful. We were not here at the best time which is April-June, and it was cold!!! By now we were both really sick with colds and coughs and decided straight away we were not staying for more then one night as we wanted to get back to warmer climes. As we were checking into the hotel, who should walk in but Jody, our friend from our boat cruise in Allepey, we could not believe it!!! It is indeed a small world. We arranged to meet for dinner and Nicola and I went off to see some of the sights, and get some lunch. We visited the botanical Gardens and walked around the town for a bit, but we felt so cold and ill we called Jody to meet early as we just wanted to get to bed, she was also sick so was happy to do this. Travelling really takes it out of you, I had no idea! It was so nice to catch up again and we arranged to meet up the next day for lunch before we got the bus out of there for Mysore.
After lunch we said our goodbyes again and boarded the bus ready for the next 5 hour journey to Mysore, looking forward to leaving the cold behind!! On the way we passed through Mudumalai National Park and were lucky enough to see a herd of wild elephants, which included some babies too, so cute, crossing in front of our bus which was an unexpected surprise and lifted our spirits a little as our colds were starting to get us both down a bit now. We arrived in Mysore at about 8pm and with the help of a rickshaw driver found a nice hotel, as the one we had chosen was full, we then had dinner and crashed out for the night, looking forward to a lie in and a nice hot shower!!
We woke the next morning to the sound of banging on the door. It was nearly 10am and our breakfast had arrived!! We were still so tired and sick we decided to rest up and stay in bed all day watching movies and eating chocolate. So that was what we did, but we agreed tomorrow we would get up and go to the palace and quickly see the city before leaving for Bengaluru (Bangalore) in the afternoon. The whole day was not wasted though, as I did manage to get back into writing my book I am working on, and have managed to get as far as chapter 3. Nicola is my only critic so far, but all seems positive so far...
Mysore Palace was indeed beautiful with its marble intricately designed floors and works of art everywhere. We did the whole audio tour which was informative and interesting and made our way back for lunch. We still were not feeling great and were heading to bengaluru that afternoon. We got on the bus and the 2 hours we thought it would take turned into 4 hours….We were shattered now again trying to cram everything in and negotiated a rickshaw to take us to the hotel we wanted, only to find it was full, we asked him to find us one and he did, it was small but we were only spending one night so we cosied up and went straight to bed to watch a movie, as it was now around 8pm anyway. We had arranged a safari for the next day and then we had to catch the overnight sleeper train to Hampi, so we wanted to rest before another full on day!!
We had a private taxi booked for the day to take us to Bannerghatta Biological Park, where we would do the safari, which consisted of an hour long drive through a deer enclosure, a bear sanctuary, followed by the lions and tigers to include the white tigers. They are successfully breeding lions and tigers here, which is a good thing as there are hardly any tigers left now in India, about 1400 only remaining!
We returned back to the hotel to pack and prepare ourselves for another overnight train journey! On the way to the station our rickshaw driver got a puncture, I don't know what it is with us and rickshaws but I am starting to think we are jinxed!!! He told us the station was just round the corner so we got out, loaded up with all our bags and started walking! It was not far but it certainly was not just round the corner!! By the time we got there, drenched in sweat and thoroughly exhausted now, and having had to negotiate a really busy road which we got stuck in the middle of, amongst about 6 lanes of traffic Aghhhh!! We stopped to catch our breath and find our train. We boarded an hour early and made our bed and fell straight asleep before we even left the station, only to be awakened to the sound of a baby crying underneath us as we were in the top bunks!! Agghhh!! So tired!!!!
We finally arrived at Hospett Junction and boarded a rickshaw for hampi which took about 20 minutes. The driver showed us a nice home stay and we booked into a room and just chilled out for the day wandering around the village. We had arranged a tour for the next day of all the archeological sites in the area and just wanted to rest up. Evening came and along with it the rain, and boy did it rain!!! We were just opposite our room having dinner, luckily, so we popped back to the room and just went to bed about wish…sleep at last!!
Hampi is a really laid back village, the people here are warm and friendly and very welcoming! We had set the alarm for 7am so we could see Lakshmi the temple elephant take her morning bath in the river, it was worth the early start. She was so beautiful, we fed her a banana each and walked down to the river to wait for her to catch up as she was still busy with her breakfast. Early morning at the river is a busy place to be! There were people here washing laundry, washing themselves, chilling out and just enjoying the start of the day!
Lakshmi finally arrived, walking down the steps with her bell tinkling around her neck, you could tell she was so happy and looking forward to this time, which was her time to enjoy. She got straight into the water, under the careful instruction of her handler and then went off to submerge herself and have a roll around, before making her way back to the handler and his helpers so she could get a good scrubbing, whilst lying there on her side enjoying every minute, as we were also. I could not have asked for a better start to the day, then to be privileged enough to be here!
After tearing ourselves away from the river, we had breakfast and started our tour of Hampi. In 1336, Telugu prince Harihararaya chose hampi as the site for his new capital, and over the next couple of centuries it grew into one of the largest Hindu empires in Indian history, with about 500,000 people living and trading there by the 16th century. This all ended in 1565 when a confederacy of Deccan Sultanates razed it to the ground and it never recovered. All that was left is what we see today, the ruins of a great empire, mainly consisting of temples, carvings and a lot of stone pillars!
After we were all templed out we had lunch and paid a visit to Hampi Childrens Trust, which has been set up by an englishman and a local man, together they help educate about 30 local children who would otherwise not go to school, they also provide 3 meals a day, school uniforms, and even make them brush their teeth before they go home. Anyone is welcome to help out here, even just to spend time with the children helps to improve their english.
The children were so much fun and full of life and mischief. We bought them some pens and sweets and they thanked us, they were so polite. When we first arrived a few of them were quite shy, and so were we, but after a little while we all settled in and soon there was no stopping them! They were so excited that we were there and were showing us their achievements and what they were working on, so clever! We helped them with some of their work, it was so rewarding and such a nice place to be. No one tried to ask us for money like other places we had been before, it was just laid back and enjoyable, a real treat to be invited to be there.
When the time came to leave, we really did not want to go. I wish we were staying a bit longer and will certainly try and come back again sometime in the future. Hampi is a really special place! The children were sad too that we could not come back and play tomorrow, but I think we were even more upset. For anyone who is interested in sponsoring a child or is coming through this way and would like to help out at the school, the website address is www.hampichildrenstrust.com where you can find more information. It costs about £150 to sponsor a child for a whole year!! Definitely worth considering as this is totally run on donations and funding.
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