Saturday in Kumily.

This was a very last minute destination for Christelle and myself thanks to the organisational skills of Anitha. We wanted to explore some more of the area but not have to venture too far away. So we chose Kumily which is on the border of The Tamil Nadu District which is where I am in Madurai and Kerela which stretches to the West of Madurai and takes in a pretty coastline as well as Lakes , tiger country and jungle . I only wish I had more time to explore .As soon as the decision was made to go Anitha contacted Cheryl (whom she has never met but had heard glowing reports about ) and got us booked into her guest house . My instructions were to phone her when we set off on the bus and 4hrs. later we would be met off the bus at the other end .I kind of guessed that we would be pretty easy to spot getting off a local bus  in the middle of nowhere .

Oh goodness I really wasn't looking forward to 4 hrs. on this . I am a nervous passenger with my family so you can imagine the fear I had of this .

Blinking gear stick , but what you can't see is the ground under the stick .. I could .

Our seats were right up the front which I wasn't sure about but at least I could ask the driver to slow down if necessary. They find this hilarious and am in two minds whether to say anything or not as it means his eyes have to leave the road to speak to me !

Our conductor. 4 hrs.travel 80p. thank you. The only stipulation was that we had to endure loud blaring Indian music from his music centre on board for the whole journey ... Not one break . Our ears were ringing at the end of it . Infact I took video of it but I can't put it on here . Maybe I will try Facebook .

Interesting advertising !

and these were our co - passengers , grumpy fat snoring men . As you can see the music sent them to sleep .

Here are a few sights en route .

You don't see much water around here so this was a surprise .

I think they were marigolds growing in between new palm trees .

Watermelon

So after a hairy trek up into the hills again we reached Kumily in one piece thank goodness and Cheryl's husband was there to collect us.We hopped into his car and got back to their house .

Our balcony , forgot to take photos of inside but it was pretty basic ,clean and perfect for one nights stay. As time was short for the visits we had planned , we dumped the bags , gave Cheryl our itinerary and within 20 mins we had booked tickets and a plan for the day. Starting with lunch here but it wasn't very tasty.

Christelle and Cheryl. 

As soon as lunch was had we headed straight for the Elephant Junction.

My view from the top of an elephant .

At one point on the treck I could hear music and searched around to see this guy collecting peppercorns half way up a tree whilst listening to music !

Then it was back down the hill for a bath.

I let Christelle have the honours of a shower !

A tasty bit of pumpkin for being a good girl.

A very pretty lily.

So then it was back to the guest house ( bearing in mind that we were taxied around by Cheryl's husband ) all as part of the service ,for a cup of their own grown coffee and it was rather good.

Once again a quick about turn and out to do some shopping just for a change. This time as it is a spice growing area it was yes , mostly spice and oil shops. Amazing , I could have spent  hours wandering and if only I could let you smell the smells there were, I just love it .

The guide book says you should visit the martial arts demonstration followed by a story telling and facial expression demonstration , so that's what we did.

The martial arts arena . We really didn't enjoy it but all the Indian men did .

We were stuck in a corner and kind of had to stay.

Then it was round the corner to this odd but quite interesting display.

Men doing these demonstrations and as you can see dressed as a women .

He was telling an old kerelan folk tale .

And this guy specialised in traditional Kerelan facial expressions. This was quite interesting and at times funny to watch.

A huge amount of time and effort went into dressing and putting his make up on.

We left a bit early as we were tired and hungry , found the "western style " hotel in town had a bite to eat , and that was Saturday.

Sunday to follow soon.