Not quite as smooth a journey, got our phones sorted in the morning with local sims (for those I told my number to the other day as I was emailing you to give out the number I was so preoccupied adding pics to the site I walked out of the internet cafe with my phone on charge, sure its charged by now but unfortunately I no longer have it!) Got the ferry then had a few hours wait at the train station so we had quite a nice Thali with egg not sure what all the other stuff you get are yet! We met our Indian vet friends who were on the same train too, small place India. It took 5 hours to get to Calicut and from here we decided to push on and try and get closer to the sanctuary so we could be there early doors. We got a bus from Calicut to Kalpetta which was the scariest bus ride of our lives some are funny but this was far from it. He was a nutter released from some local asylum surely and not only that they let his friend out too who was driving the bus behind. It was 3 god awful hours on this bus luckily in the dark so we couldn’t see quite how drastic the drops on either side of the road were but they were racing each other! The nutcase behind was constantly side by side with ours both with horns on full pelt and often with another bus coming the other way. But we’re still alive I’m glad to report and never taking that route again!

We arrived in a place called Kalpetta about 10pm so didn’t see much but don’t think there was much to see and the people we met were the only really unfriendly ones we’ve met so far. Found some crappy lodgings not sure of the name of it but at 440Rs it was pretty steep for what it was!

Next morning we were woken at about 3am with the call to pray from the local mosque after our long day travelling the day before not what we had hoped for! We headed out for a bus and were glad when it arrived not a good vibe at this place and we were right to assume we hadn’t missed anything by daylight. We got a bus to the sanctuary, no one else was there, we hired a jeep driver and guide for 700Rs and head off with tails of wild elephants, tigers and bears…it was a fun bumpy jeep ride and a great morning but sadly all we saw were termites, deer, lots of deer, bees and a few monkeys…

 

Mon... key! Mon... key!

Mon... key! Mon... key!

we saw elephants as we were on the bus leaving the place so at least we can say we saw them!