The day started with a huge breakfast! Neither of us like to waste food. So, we end up eating everything in front of us. Then we’re very full up. We’re going to have to tell them to cut back on the food!
Our homestay hired their normal taxi for the day. He took us to several places.
Our starting point was the Wayanad Heritiage Museum. For a local museum, this had a surprising number of artefacts over a thousand years old.
Our main destination for the day was Edakkal Caves. To get to the caves required a walk uphill of about 1km. We walked pass the monkeys and chose not to try out the “12D experience”. This was followed by a steep ascent up some rocky steps to the caves.
These caves are famous for their rock carvings (also called petroglyphs, which was new to me). These date back to at least 6,000 BCE. Although called caves, they’re not caves! Rather, they are a natural rock fissure formed by a split boulder. In the carvings, you can see people (a king and queen), animals and symbols. They’ve not yet been fully interpreted.
The descent from the caves bypassed the rocky steps. There was, instead, a metal staircase all the way to the bottom. On the way down, this family asked Helene if they could take a photo of her holding their daughter! This is a fairly common event. The photo shoot took longer than usual. Dad made various gestures to grab his daughter’s attention. She, however, was more interested in picking her nose than the camera.
We rejoined our taxi driver and popped into an unexceptional ruined Jain temple. Then we drove to the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary. There were two options for seeing the wildlife: a bus or a jeep. The bus was considerably cheaper so we chose that. Earlier, someone from Mysore told Helene that animals are unlikely to be out at the time of day (3pm). It was too hot.
We had arrived at the wildlife centre an hour early. We were first in the queue. After waiting for the ticket office to open, we bought our tickets. We were allocated seats one and two, right at the front.
Whilst waiting, I was taking a photo of the front of the sanctuary. This family saw me and started waving. So, I included them in the photo!
Straight away, after the bus started, we saw an elephant. Everyone got excited. However this was a “government” elephant and therefore tied to a tree. We later saw another (government) elephant, monkeys, deer, two vultures and a colourful kingfisher.
The sanctuary is renowned for wild animals. They come and go as they choose. So it’s a matter of luck if you see them. To manage your expectations, you’re warned about this at the entrance.
I noticed on the way from Calicut airport to my hotel that there were many pristine-looking nut and date shops. On the way back to the homestay, we stopped at one. It seems a state speciality. I bought some cashew nuts, pistachios, walnuts and sweets.
On the way home, we were treated to a beautiful sunset. Not long after returning, we had another feast for dinner. We’re definitely going to have to talk to them about portion sizes!
