The Periyar Tiger Reserve was established along the banks of the Periyar River across 350 sq km of land in 1982, however, the area under the reserve has now been expanded to 777 sq km and, as the name suggests, is famed for its tigers. Being in Kerela it also lives up to the whole pachyderm haven stereotype, because another highlight of Periyar is its elephant sanctuary. We sadly didn’t get to see either during our brief sojourn inside the reserve, but we did find some unwelcome guests using the Santa Fe as a playground on our return to the parking lot.
A bunch of chattering monkeys were using our car as a springboard for easier access to a nearby tree. One particular critter from this band of miscreants seemed a proper Car India fan, though, because we caught him red-handed trying to peel the Car India sticker off the Santa Fe’s hood! The Santa Fe’s tough shell meant they didn’t do any damage, though. We thought they’d scatter as we approached, but they didn’t even bat an eyelid as we walked right up to them and into the car. Careful to edge away at a paltry one km/h so that the monkeys could get well clear of the car we headed out of the scenic hill station of Thekkady and towards the equally scenic hill station of Ooty. And since we were on a hat-trick anyway, we thought ‘what the heck, we’ll go via Munnar’ and complete the hill station jamboree.
That meant more winding road fun, although we had to maintain a sedate pace in the beginning as the ‘highway’ that led out of Thekkady barely qualified as a two-lane road. Although the fact that it was pothole-free for the most part, and flanked by bungalows with design elements, colours, and especially gates that covered the whole spectrum from beautiful to outright bizarre and everything else in between, did slightly make up for its lack of width.
