We loved the area of Kumily/Periyar/Thekkady* so much we altered our travel/hotel plans and managed to stay an extra night at the lovely Periyar Inn.
*Whilst researching it seemed strange that the three place names seem to be interchangeable but being on the ground it seems that Kumily is the town north of Thekkady, which seems to be the area which hosts Periyar and its lake and tiger reserve. Even more odd is that we stayed at the Periyar Inn which is neither in Periyar nor Thekkady.
The whole area sits at 1200m above sea level and delaying our travel to Madurai meant we could keep cool for a few more hours. When we did eventually get to Madurai yesterday with its blistering heat we realised what a great change of plans that was.
Anyway, back to Periyar.
Periyar Tiger Reserve is formed around a large lake, surrounded by forest and a few hills, it’s a beautiful area. The lake itself is a very irregular shape, with lots of inlets going off in many directions and definitely adding to the beauty of the reserve.
Away from the lake there was about 7 vertical metres before the tree line starts, and some years during August the bottoms of the trees are submerged. Clearly the monsoon hasn’t been so favourable this year.
A double-decker boat trip
The 90 minute boat trip on the lake is done by multiple double decker sightseeing boats which have noisy diesel motors. We’d been warned that the locals talk so much that they scare away the animals but I was surprised how quiet they were, in comparison to the engines that is.
NOTE: booking tickets for this is very confusing, so if you’re thinking of going please the the bit at the bottom of this article.
Birds, dogs and turtles
As the boats motored away we saw quite a few birds perched on the tops of the dead trees half sunken in the lake with its monsoon raised levels. The less-interesting cormorants gave way to a Common Kingfisher, then some different herons. A few turtles were spotted surprisingly at the top of the dead trees.
Two wild dogs appeared on our left, ran along the shore past the deer they had killed and stripped bare the day before, then jumped in the lake and started swimming. It looked like they were heading for the boat just in front of us but were very fast swimmers and before we knew it they swam in front of the boat and reached the far shore.
Sadly, that’s about as exiting as it got.
We didn’t really get to se much wildlife in this “reserve”, in fact I was shocked how little we saw. The contract is stark when compared to Ranthambhore where you hope-but-not-expect to see tigers but come away realising that animals and birds were everywhere.
Tigers?
Apparently the park has tigers: when you ask how many you’re told it’s difficult to count them exactly, then you’re told four tigers exist; when you ask when the rangers last saw one they quickly change the subject. I kind of knew this already as during a google images search of ‘Periyar Tiger’ you don’t get much back. TripAdvisor is the same.
So, Tiger Reserve? Hmmm.
Reserve?
I think I only spotted 6 species of birds, two dogs, 3 turtles and a water snake, just.
Nothing else.
There’s meant to be elephants too but we weren’t lucky enough to see any of those.
I’d really expect more from a reserve. Sariska and Ranthambhore showed us some animal or bird every minute, be it deer, crocodiles, boar monkeys, birds, mongooses and of course a tiger.
Would I go again?
Well, yes, I would.
In its defence we went on a busy boat trip with noisy diesel engines and crying children. The boats left at 9:30am.
All of the above is not conducive to animal spotting.
Yes, I’d go again but I would definitely make sure I did the 7:45am trip.
Alternatively though I’d do the bamboo raft trip, where you’re punted along on long bamboo rafts which have a couple/few rows of chairs. These trips go at 7:30am and 9:30 and last for a few hours, and they’re clearly done in an area away from the boat trips. With a silent 7:30am trip you’re much more likely to see some wildlife.
Or maybe I’d splash out and spend one night at the KTDC Lake Palace, right in the center of the reserve. It has disadvantages in you not being able to go anyway after 6pm – when the park shuts – but its advantage is that the animals can be seen at sunrise and sunset and just by walking outside your hotel.
Booking tickets for the Periyar Tiger Reserve Boat Trip
NOTE: this is not exactly we did, we cocked it up and didn’t buy a boat ticket at first. There may also be other methods, like using agents.
First, go to the booking office on the south-west edge of Kumily town.
Queue up – very likely unless you go really early. We had failed to get tickets the night before we actually went.
Buy your tickets (Rs550 for both, £6.50). You’ll get two tickets for your money.
One ticket is for the right to enter the reserve.
One ticket is for your return bus journey.
Join the queue for the bus journey to the reserve, get the bus and get dropped in the reserve.
Join the queue to purchase your boat trip tickets, Rs225 (£2.50) each for foreigners.
Find the boat trip holding area with its seats and as soon as you see people start queueing at the gate (for the boat trip), join them.
All the time you’re in this holding area make sure you are aware of the pickpocketing monkeys.
Finally, show your tickets to the officer and walk to the boats.
Our problem was that we were told that our Rs550 tickets included the entrance, the bus and the boat. So we just queued up for the boats straight away, waiting 45 minutes with the jostling locals. Then the guard told us our tickets weren’t valid and we had to rush to persuade an admin clerk to let us buy tickets without queueing, which he did after patronising me quite a bit suggesting that I didn’t want to queue as I didn’t think I was equal to the locals. *grrrrr* The reason of course was that I was told I didn’t need to.