The truck, Daisy, is all mended and back with us now so hopefully we can continue without any further mishaps.

Taking plenty of rehydration medication, I am back on my feet but energy is still lacking and I don’t have my appetite back yet. Fortunately it was a short drive, only 4 hours, through some amazing scenery and tiger habitat which is well protected. There was an option to take a jeep safari leaving at 05:00 to go and spot tigers. However, the rains arrived and I have never seen rain like this. It was an easy choice for me to skip the safari as am still not 100%; an early start and heavy rains – so the chance of seeing a tiger in the wild are practically zero here.

We stayed in a community home stay in Wayanad. They seem quite common here in India and as nice and as hospitable as they are, I just wanted to retreat to the room and catch up on rest until I was feeling better. Although clean, there was little hot water and no heating so it had a slight damp musty smell to it – even the bedding and towels had a damp feel to them and the mattresses were wafer thin and offered no support, so not a comfortable couple of days, but nothing really in the grand scheme of things.

After the breakfast while there was a gap in the rain I wandered down to the town, had a coffee and then found a market selling all sorts of tat – perfect for decorating the truck. Using a silicon gun, I stuck a couple of plastic flower pots to the dashboard and a really hideous Ganesh statue too, not to mention some plastic garlands to attach to the bull bars. It felt like a Top Gear episode where they ‘sabotage’ each other’s cars just to annoy them. Will see how it goes…

The decorations seemed to go down well and they all stayed in place as we drove another full day’s drive to Cochin. This morning we had a 20 minute ferry ride for 4 rupees to an island which is famed for its Chinese style fishing nets.

We then hired tuk tuks for a 3 hour tour for 150 rupees.

It was quite scenic and it filled the morning, but by 12:00, I was flagging and needed something to eat. Having had enough of Indian food for the time being, I was pleased to see some western fast food chains which, thankfully, seem largely absent in India. I stocked up on a couple of mixers from a local shop to go with the rum but as I did so, the heavens opened again and there was torrential rains for a few hours – enough to turn some side roads into mini rivers.

As we drove off the next morning in the sunshine, the water which had pooled on the roof from the rains overnight streamed down the windows as if someone was tipping buckets over each window for what seemed like half an hour. Thankfully it was only a short drive to Kerala and we arrived at lunchtime. Here we purchased a few emergency snacks and split into smaller groups and each boarded a traditional Kettuvallom, a sort of house boat.

Once on board, lunch was served and it was excellent and there was loads of it – no need to have bought emergency snacks. In the afternoon we cruised down the Keralan river backwaters and saw first hand some of the flooding that still remains. The rivers were a mixture of wide open paces and narrow canals, some lined with houses and shops, mostly just vegetation though.

We moored up just before dusk and had a delicious evening meal and spent the night aboard doing a quiz, drinking and listening to music and then slept in comfortable cabins. It was very tranquil on the river and had a good nights sleep. In the morning, after breakfast, there was a short cruise before returning to port to disembark and rejoin Daisy for the drive to Vakarla.

Varkala is a beach resort, similar to Goa but perched on top of some cliffs. The beaches are sandy but once again there were red flags flying so if you wanted to swim, had to use the hotel pool, which was pleasant enough. We had three nights here and it was a decent enough time to unwind and relax as well as checking out a few of the local bars and restaurants. I really didn’t do much here other than swim, eat and drink but there wasn’t that much more to do.

The next couple of days sees us reach the southern tip of India, Kanyakumari, also known as Cape Comorin, and stay in a hotel that was undergoing renovation work with hammering and drilling going on. Regardless, it was a bit of a milestone as if we kept heading south, we would end up directly in Antarctica but fortunately ran out of land. Now we start heading north up the east side of India and stop off in Madurai to visit the Sri Meenakshi temple which was quite impressive. However I’m growing tiresome of temples; have to dress up in certain clothes, remove shoes and not being allowed to take cameras in. Think I’m all ‘templed out’.

After Madurai, it was a pleasure to visit Pondicherry for a few days. It’s a French influenced town and is one of the few places in India where it’s possible to buy steak. As a pre-dinner snack we had some cheese, french bread and some decent wine on the roof terrace and then went out to a fabulous hotel restaurant that served an absolutely brilliant, juicy, flavoursome fillet steak. It was so good, we went back the second night and I ate the same. Perhaps I was getting a protein deficiency but those steaks certainly hit the spot. The only down side in Pondicherry were the bedbugs as I woke up with quite a few bites over my back, shoulders and legs. Remember I am in India so standards are lower than back home and insects, bugs etc. are to be expected in some places. Still didn’t dampen my spirit over that steak though! 🙂