Tuesday 21 January 2014

Day 16 - Yoga Studies Tour 2014

A wonderful day which started with a brilliant breakfast, continued with a boat trip and a happy elephant, and finished with a red snapper . . . . .

At 8 a.m. I watched the fishermen hauling their boats out to sea whilst eating puri masala - a hearty breakfast!
 
At 8.30 we took a minibus away from the busy resort to the calm and tranquil backwaters of Kerala and its bird wildlife (although there was little of that to be seen today).

 
 
An extra surprise took us to an area where three elephants worked. Two of them were out on hire to a local temple for a festival so the remaining she-elephant, called Gobalan took us for rides, three at a time and posed for photos before we rewarded her with an enormous supply of mini-bananas. We placed two inside her nostrils which she inhaled then waited for another two before transferring them to her mouth.

 
After the sanctuary it was great to see a happy elephant, She was very placid and her relationship with her mahout (keeper) was obviously very close. He just had to say 'back' 'forward' 'left' right' 'stop' 'bend your trunk for the photos' and she did exactly that.

 
She seemed to take each step as a walking meditation, being especially careful when the path dipped into a hollow, which was gratifying if you were at the front, as I was.

After an afternoon of snoozing and catching up with sleep I had an amazing meal of grilled red snapper with lemon, garlic, butter and spices, accompanied by a vegetable curry, coconut rice and a naan. I should of course have said 'we' because I did not manage all this on my own!




Namaste !

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