Kummilly, Thekkadi

(Sorry not had chance to upload photies- to follow)
Staying here was amazing!!! Our guesthouse was set in the forest/national game park so the views were fantastic, our room was so clean & spacious that we immediately booked a few extra nights to take advantage. The guys at Shiva Gardens had already recommended things for us to do so we booked on the spice & tea plantation tour as well as an elephant ride.
It was a really lovely walk into the town, and on the way there & back every day we saw families of monkeys & their babies so that was a treat in itself.
The next day we woke up, excited for our visit to see the Elephants!!! I was like a child, too excited but we were both a bit worried about it being too 'commercial' and just hoped the animals were going to be well looked after..........the fab news was they were. So much in fact we saw a pregnant elephant who had conceived within the reserve so that was lovely. The ride lasted for 30 mins and was great, a bit bumpy , but the enormity of these amazing creatures when you're riding on the back of them is pretty unbeliveable. The BEST part of the day was that we got to actually wash an elephant!!! - we both washed & scrubbed it, then sat behind it ears & gave them a good wash! We then took it in turn to climb on it's back where it proceeded to squirt a trunkfull of water over us. It was great! I could go on & on about it, a bit boring for you to read, but we both loved the experience.
Day 2- Tea Plantation & factory tour which was so interesting, lots of facts including they use the same type of tea leaf to produce 6 kinds of tea ( i always thought green tea came from another tea plant?) as well as they only export 20% of the tea they produce, the remaining being consumed in India.
Ou guide for the Spice Tour was pretty mad- an old Indian guy who kept on telling us how much he loved the UK & quoting Mr Bean episodes! WTF?!!!!! Again we learnt a lot about spices such as 'All Spice' is actually a plant- which we originally thought was a manufactured mix of several different spices. Monty Don had actually been to this very Spice plantation so it seems we were in good company ;-)
All in all, we loved Kumilly its a great place to chill out & soak it all up

Kummilly, Thekkadi

Thekkadi, India