Kodanad, Paniyeli poru

Kerala is the land of elephants,apart from being God's own country. Elephants are privately owned and used(for lack of a better word)for temple festivals(Thrissur Pooram). Elephants are very important for temple festivals. Without them,any festival is incomplete.It made me wonder about the origins of this ritual. This was probably initiated(by some very wise men) so that elephants dont end up on the endangered species list.
So, On a bright sunny day, we set out for Kodanad Elephant training camp. Here elephants are trained to transport logs and do other types of work. We were told that we could bathe the elephants and play with them. We couldnt do that because we reached at the wrong time. Still it was nice to see the pachyderms. What was a little disturbimg was the "Kraal". This is a sort of wooden cage where the elephants are kept. We did see a baby elephant inside one of them. Then we went to the river.Periyar. One of the best things I like about Kerala is its greenery. Lush vegetation all around and its really soothing to the eyes. Anyway, since we had the whole day ahead of us and elephants were not near their bath time, we decided to explore. We went upstream and came to a place called Paniyeli Poru. Not many people know about this place, so its virtually untouched.And serene. We walked down a dusty brown road and hit the river. We found a small secluded spot by the river with a natural curtain all around and settled down. The river was shallow and crystal clear. we were not carrying any change of clothes,but we decided to go in anyway. It was beautiful The water was cool and like I said earlier, clear. To top it up, I got a free natural pedicure. Tiny fishes came and pecked at my feet. Initially I jumped in fright, but later I settled down and let them have their way. What surprised me was that they were not afraid of human contact. stayed in the water for hours.Some rocks were put in such a way that it made a natural jacuzzi. Relaxed there, had lunch and came back.While on our way back, we saw this roadsign. Malayalis have a little trouble pronouncing "p".it ends up as "b" or "g". Day very well spent.

Kodanad

Periyar River

Kraal

Baby Elephant

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Baby Elephant

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