Thursday 22nd : Cold Showers & Birding (with photos)

If you think that you have already read this you are probably right. This is a repost to include pictures.

The Venice Castle loses a fraction of a point as the morning shower is lukewarm rather than hot but we arrive refreshed at breakfast which is served on the button and to our liking. We definitely recommend this as a budget stay in Alleppey. Thomas has ordered an auto for us and it arrives promptly for the ten minute run to the station. Our train will be on platform one and our coach will draw up opposite the seats adjacent to the station entrance. Once again Alleppey makes a good impression for cleanliness.

We are taking the Trivandrum-Calicut Jan Shatabdi for the short ride back to Ernakulam Junction but trading down to 2S as we have not tried it before. The seats are more closely packed than in Chair Car and there is no AC. The train was 15 minutes late and a lot of people got on. We evict a man from one of our reserved seats and sit at a table for six with a family on their travels. Besides us, they were the only people with luggage and our rucksacks went on the overhead racks with no bother. These coaches have 6 seats across and are a bit of a squeeze for lard-ass Europeans. It was nice to have the window open on a pleasant morning but there must be a problem in inclement weather. 2S will do in a pinch but we don't recommend for long trips.

We are to meet our driver at the Information Centre on Platform 1 which we soon find.  D's phone rings. "Where are you?" Inevitably there are two information centres, one for IRCTC and one for Kochi Tourism, and both are on platform 1.  Soon solved and we board a fairly elderly Land Rover clone built by Mahindra. Every internal surface of this vehicle is upholstered in purple and eau de nil velour. The young man who is driving is clearly embarrassed and apologises for bringing the 'field car'. The morning traffic in Kochi is pretty desperate but eventually we progress out of the city and start to climb into the Western Ghats. The roads are quite narrow and winding but get emptier as we head inland. After a couple of hours we turn off on to a dirt track which takes us to Eldho's.

This is a small resort run by a man who is renowned amongst the birding community.  He has got the gig because of this and because unlike some of his competitors he answers emails promptly. The man himself greets us with glasses of mango juice and shows us to our eco-cabin. We are given a few minutes to sort ourselves out before an early lunch and our guided bird walk through the forest. Lunch is fried chicken with dal, rice, mixed vegetables and a chapati, with sliced fresh pineapple to follow. Straight after fodder Mr Eldhose leads us out to a large tree where he picks out a well hidden Mottled Wood Owl before wishing us a good afternoon's birding.
There is a drive of about 10km to the first venue and we pick up Sainu, our guide,  en route. We park up near a Forest Department blockhouse and walk into the forest along a broad track. After about a hundred metres we are ushered into a small clearing and instructed to look into a particuar tree. At first we see nothing but eventually we make out the camouflaged form of a female Sri Lankan Frogmouth,  a rather ugly bird that is only found in this area. This spot is followed up in quick succession by various woodpeckers and a pair of Great Racket Tailed Drongos which trail a pair of streamers around behind as they fly.

 After a while staring upwards into near by tall trees gets quite hard on the neck and we move down a side track, across a stream and up the far side of the valley to where we are on a level with the tops of some quite bushy trees. There are a lot of smaller birds flitting about but Sainu is really good at spotting and naming some of the more static ones. At this point D's camera battery expires and he realises that he has left the spare back at the cabin. In total we spend around three hours in the forest and spot around twenty species. As a finale Sainu finds a pair of aforesaid Frogmouths among the bushes. We also bag a Red Tailed Skink and a Giant Malabar Squirrel. 

We move on to the next location via base to collect a battery.  This time we occupy a purpose built hide overlooking two concrete water bowls set in a clearing in some scrub. There is a slow start to proceedings as some locals are working in a nearby field and making a real racket. They move on and we wait...........and wait..........and wait. 

Just as we are getting bored the birds start to arrive.Watching from about 4 metres away as various small birds arrived to bathe was quite something. Eventually the big boys (Orange headed thrushes) arrive and try to muscle out the small fry but they keep sneaking back until the light runs out. A really good day with 29 different species clearly seen.

Our driver does not really believe in headlights which makes the trip to base quite exciting.  We arrive back with a few minutes to spare before supper. This is much the same as lunch but with raita and cake for pudding.  We retire to our cabin rather sweaty but having had a great day. What a splendid opportunity to try out the cabin's eco shower with pebble bed soakaway. The water was freezing!