Plantation, Plantation, Plantation

A passing truck

Our 120 mile drive inland from Kochi to Kumily passed over beautiful hills and through valleys, a seemingly never ending sequence of plantations – tea, coffee, fruit and all manner of different spices. With not a dual carriage way in sight we were on the road for nearly five hours. It was a fascinating and at times spectacular journey.

View fromthe Western Ghats

You begin to get a sense of the size of India’s population when a journey through such green and fertile land still involves negotiating countless large, bustling and ramshackle towns and a quick glance at the map of India shows how small a part of the whole is formed by Kerala.

Towards the end of our journey we paid a visit to Abraham’s Spice Garden. This enchanting place is not advertised or signposted anywhere, although it has gained in popularity with British visitors since featuring on Monty Don’s BBC programme ‘Around the World in 80 Gardens’ a couple of years ago. There’s no admission fee, although if every visitor enjoys a similarly delightful and informative hour as we did, I am sure Abraham’s garden tours generate a significant income in tips.

Abraham and two of his pupils!

Of course, we had already learned a little bit about how spices grow from Kate Humble, but Abraham’s wealth of knowledge and experience added a whole new dimension to our understanding. That is in addition to the sensory thrill of being able to taste and smell the leaves and seeds that were plucked and handed out. Sometimes you come across people who have something very special about them, an inner calm and quiet authority. Abraham is one of those people; he has a great sense of humour too and is highly intelligent. When a French speaking couple joined us part way through our tour, he was able to seamlessly switch between English and French and instantly drew them under his spell.

Abraham's (bamboo) ladder

There’s something else I need to tell you about Abraham, though. He has the thickest, darkest, most visible ear hair you will ever see. And judging by the length he’s allowed it to grow, he’s obviously proud of it. Amazing! It wouldn’t surprise me if there’s an additional spice garden concealed in his left ear and another one in his right.

Elephant Junction just outside Kumily was our next stop for an unashamedly touristy and not entirely comfortable thirty minute elephant ride. Boy are elephants big! Nevertheless it felt surprisingly safe up there, although the shifting to and fro of such enormous muscles exercised some in my own inner thigh for the first time in many years. Hannah loved the ride, and enjoyed the added bonus of having her legs regularly slapped by the elephant’s enormous ears.

All aboard the elephant!

Our ‘home’ for the next two nights has been the Aanavilasam Plantation House in the Western Ghats, South India’s highest range. Up in the hills, it has felt much cooler than Kochi and as well the accommodation being very comfortable, there is plenty of interest in the seven acres belonging to the property.

The owner is Salim Pushpanath, a well known photographer and publisher in India, who we have been fortunate enough to meet during our stay; a really charming and interesting man who is clearly a very shrewd businessman too. A lovely Finnish lady, Pirkko, acts as host and has made us feel very welcome. Cardamom and pepper are produced commercially on the estate, but many other goodies are also grown in small quantities for in-house use, bananas, papayas and coffee to name but a few. It’s been especially thrilling to know that some of the fruit we have been enjoying at breakfast has been picked outside only a few hours earleir. Without exception the food has been delicious and plentiful.

Aanavilasam staff processing pepper grown on the estate



Apart from the accommodation itself, the highlight of our two days at Aanavilasam has been the trek into the forests of the Periyar Wildlife Reserve that began at 7:00 am this morning and left us ravenous for our breakfast when we returned to the plantation three hours later. We thought we had signed up for the gentle sounding ‘Soft Trek’ but it transpired we were on the ‘Cloud Walk’, which involved climbing up and down numerous seemingly impossibly steep inclines in our search for wildlife.

Up in the clouds at Periyar

We were led on our trek Krishna, who like all of the forest guides, is a tribesman living in a village within the reserve.

Our guide, Krishna

He was rather taciturn and spoke limited English but was desperate for us to see some of the big beasts in their natural surroundings. However, apart from two black monkeys swinging high in the trees, the briefest glimpse of a wild bison and numerous species of birds, our quest was unfruitful. But it was very exciting! We could hear just how close the elephants were and see and smell their freshly made deposits, but mindful of our safety as well as his desire to please us, Krishna was unable to manoeuvre us to a place where we could view them safely. Having experienced first hand the day before just how huge elephants are, it was incredible to think that they can traverse such steep terrain. It felt like real David Bellamy stuff at times, emerging from thick undergrowth with bits of plants stuck in our hair – great fun with a bit of tension thrown in too. Watching Krisha move was a real joy as well; dressed in dark khaki he moved with silence and stealth, often gesturing to us to hold back while he sought out his prey. A real creature of the forest, and whilst we were all drenched in sweat within minutes of starting the adventure, Krishna remained completely dry despite his uniform appearing to be made of viscose, and with his impressively coiffured hair unruffled throughout.

Our other planned event whilst staying at Aanavilasam was a visit to a performance of the traditional Kerala martial art form of Kalaripayattu. I have to say that whilst the skill and in particular the strength and fitness of the performers was highly impressive, this was not really my kind of thing. It was genuine stuff, though, with one of the combatants in a sword fight receiving a nasty looking cut on his arm.

Our short time at Aanavilasam has fairly flown by, and in the morning it will be time to head to the Backwaters. In other news, the giant spot on my face has now started to shrink, but my bite count is up to 31, largely made up by the 26 that Hannah has counted on my back. Funnily enough, after the first four, which have now receded, none of the subsequent bites have itched or hurt at all. With our final three days to be spent beside inland waterways, I can only hope that this trend continues.