Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary

We went to the Periyar Wildlife Preserve near Kumily, Kerala. The Preserve is in a mountain forest. It was way, way colder than where we live near New Delhi!First we went on a jeep ride through the forest. On the way we saw lots of animals: giant black squirrels, wild elephants (even a baby elephant), bison, Sanbars and two kinds of macaques (monkeys). We also saw what we thought was an inchworm... it was really a leech! A leech sucks your blood and looks like a little inchworm. Our dad had 6 or 7 on his ankles at one time. Gross! We found out that if leeches suck too much blood they die.

After the jeep ride we ate breakfast. We had fruit, idli, sambar, fried eggs and chai. Then we went trekking for 3 1/2 hours. We were way up on the top of mountains - sometimes in the clouds! We hiked across a river and got our feet very wet. There were lots and lots of leeches on the trail. Leeches hate salt so we used some on our feet and special leech-socks to keep them away. The socks go up to your knees to help keep the leeches from biting you!

We had lunch after our trek and then went on a rowboat ride and climbed a waterfall. The boat ride was very short. I wanted it to be longer. Before we left the park we saw a small museum full of animal bones. The had all of the bones from a female elephant! Then we went back home through the jungle to the hotel in our safari jeep. It was a long day, but very fun!