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Paul Dudley | profile | all galleries >> 22 Overseas Trips >> Kerala 2015 >> Eravikulam National Park tree view | thumbnails | slideshow | map

Cochi | A Kathakali Performance | A quick stop for a waterfall, and monkeys | Windermere Estate, near Munnar | Eravikulam National Park | Marian Pilgrim Shrine, Pattumala | Tea Road Munnar to Thekaddy | Kottayam | Lake Vembanad and "Whispering Palms" | Alleppey Houseboat | Kumarakom: Bird sanctuary and boat trip | Periyar: Boat trip on a reservoir | On the way by road | Neyyar River Boat Trip to the Sea | Padmanabhapuram Palace

Eravikulam National Park

"National Park" means something different here from its meaning in Australia, where a national park is somewhere to go to where you can get away from people, and where you might sit on a rock in silence surrounded by bush or sand or unoccupied rocks. Eravikulam National Park is not like that: you queue for tickets to catch a bus up a narrow winding room with hairpin bends the bus can only just negotiate. Then you get out of the bus and walk up a continuation of the road for a mile or so, admiring the views on the way, to a sign telling you that's as far as you are allowed. (Apparently the road goes a lot further into the mountains, to villages of people who avoid contact with strangers.) Then you walk back again, admiring and photographing the "goats" (tahrs, actually) on the way down. The views are spectacular, and the goats quite charming, but be prepared to share all this with lots of people who are having a wonderful time. Frances didn't attempt the long walk, for knee reasons, and instead waited in the shade at the first bend. Here she became very popular, being photographed, and being asked to take photographs of dozens of couples on the walk. She was still busy when the guide and I returned followed by goats.

5325: Tea
5325: Tea
5333: View from bus window
5333: View from bus window
5355: What the Ghats are made of
5355: What the Ghats are made of
5361; Looking east from the end of the walk
5361; Looking east from the end of the walk
5362: Note the Australian eucalypt
5362: Note the Australian eucalypt
5363: More Australian trees
5363: More Australian trees
5365: At the turn-back point
5365: At the turn-back point
5364: No further
5364: No further
5366: At the turn-back point
5366: At the turn-back point
5367: Mother photographing wet-ankled boy
5367: Mother photographing wet-ankled boy
5376: Tahr posing
5376: Tahr posing
5378: Tahrs wanting to be photographed
5378: Tahrs wanting to be photographed
5379: Two Tahr
5379: Two Tahr
5381: Good looking tahr
5381: Good looking tahr
5392: So that's why!
5392: "So that's why!"
5390: Frances the photographer
5390: Frances the photographer
5396: On the way back
5396: On the way back
5395: On the way back
5395: On the way back