My fave part of the Kerala trip
In my last description of my Kerala trip-Day 5, I completely forgot to write about the absolutely best part of that day! As soon as we reached the Cardamom Club Plantation Resort, I knew I Had to go for a exploration walk of the plantation. The owner George Cherian promised me that he would arrange such a walk....and he did!
A few of us set off walking down to the stream, which wasn't really a stream anymore as it had been lined with stones so that the water did not seem into the soil. There was a couple of open tanks of water for irrigation there as well. Accompanied by the old caretaker, we started climbing through the groves of cardamom, and if you've seen cardamom plants you know they are lush and planted quite close together. So that meant that we had to bend down to avoid some of the branches and create a path in front of us with our arms, literally like swimming!
As someone who has grown up in the hills, and on a working orchard, I've always been interested in knowing about the crop cycle, harvesting and so on and learned a lot on this walk about cardamoms. We also got to see the famed Malabari squirrel high up in the trees and a bison footprint. Definitely more interesting than the boat ride at Periyar! Interestingly, the upper border of the property touches the Periyar wildlife reserve, but we didn't have enough time to climb up all the way.
A few of us set off walking down to the stream, which wasn't really a stream anymore as it had been lined with stones so that the water did not seem into the soil. There was a couple of open tanks of water for irrigation there as well. Accompanied by the old caretaker, we started climbing through the groves of cardamom, and if you've seen cardamom plants you know they are lush and planted quite close together. So that meant that we had to bend down to avoid some of the branches and create a path in front of us with our arms, literally like swimming!
As someone who has grown up in the hills, and on a working orchard, I've always been interested in knowing about the crop cycle, harvesting and so on and learned a lot on this walk about cardamoms. We also got to see the famed Malabari squirrel high up in the trees and a bison footprint. Definitely more interesting than the boat ride at Periyar! Interestingly, the upper border of the property touches the Periyar wildlife reserve, but we didn't have enough time to climb up all the way.
Comments
Sharanya, never took any as it was getting dark. I only took one shot before we left for the walk, and that's the last photo in the description of Day 5. The best time for a plantation walk is early morning, which I will definitely do on my next trip...whenever it might be!
Will plan soon and re-read these posts then.