Jeeps in the Jungle

I awoke to a rousing melody of birds at the Wayanad Nature Resorts. We are staying in cute little cabins and eating our meals outside. The cook is great and every meal has another new food. I went for an early morning walk and enjoyed looking at all the different kinds of trees and beautiful flowers.

After breakfast we loaded into jeeps and set off for the Edakkal Caves. The pictorial writings in these caves date back to at least 5 000 years. The climb was hot and tiring, but at least we got to wear shoes! Along the trail we saw black pepper plants growing up the trees, monkeys playing along the trail, and young men celebrating Holi. They paint their faces bright colours and then throw colours at other people...luckily we escaped the latter.

It was a riot in the jeeps charging through the chaotic streets. Because I was riding at the front, I am actually starting to understand the "rules of the jungle". If you are going to pass a vehicle, you may do so at any time by simply honking your horn (no signal required)...you are actually talking to the vehicle in front of you. It is the job of the vehicle you are passing to assist you so if on a curve you meet an oncoming car, the oncoming car will move over as well as the vehicle you are passing so at any given time you have three vehicle abreast OR if there are motorcycles, you can have four abreast.

After dinner we roasted chicken over the bonfire and enjoyed Kingfisher beer. I didn't see how they could really cook the chicken properly over the fire so when the cook passed the chicken to me, I said, "Oh no thank you, I am vegetarian." This turned out to be a very good decision as people started getting sick in the night.