Elephant charges in Wayanad

My first stop on my 10 day trip between Mysore and Melbourne was a wildlife sanctuary on the Karnataka- Kerala border.

I took part in a bizarre day trip involving lots of excited Indian families and groups of friends, taking boats across one river and wading across another. Lots of innocent fun!

But mostly in Tholpetty, I went on game drives, morning, evening and night. I didn't get good photos of animals but we did see, lots of elephants, bison, sambar, spotted deer, snake eagles and a tiger print.

The landscape is quite heaviily wooded with clumps of bamboo. It's quite dry on the high ground but there are rice paddies, banana plantations and palms in the valleys.

I loved the little hick towns I passed through on the bus. And they have souped-up rickshaws to get up the hills and navigate the appalling roads.

Health and safety is not high priority in Kerala!

Err...?!?!

This is the kind of bus I took to do local trips- not brilliantly comfortable. There are no actual windows and if you're stupid, like me, and sit at the back you get literally thrown into the air at every pothole. Fun for an hour.

This is my gracious host, Vinnu, who cooked up a vegetarian storm at the Pachyderm Palace where I stayed.