Kefalonia

We took the ferry from Astakos and stayed in the campsite at Argostoli, but each day drove around the island visiting other beaches and villages.

Agia Kyriaki was a beautiful beach with a taverna where the owner would let you stay in the car park (N38.3103, E20.4888). We thought we might wild camp there until an Italian camped there showed us the invasion of ants in his van, but we had a lovely swim in the wonderfully warm water.

Fiskardo was a very pretty town with a beautiful harbour with lots of boats. The town was full of cafes and very tasteful gift shops (rather expensive). We had some delicious ice cream and sorbet.

Our friend Caroline described Myrtos beach as the loveliest beach she’d ever been on – sandy, white pebbles and turquoise clear water. It certainly looked lovely but the road down to it looked far too steep for our van. Still at least we saw it from above.

We drove to a lovely little beach called Trapeziaka. Again it was a very steep and narrow road down and unfortunately as it was a Sunday lots of people had driven there and quite a few of them were leaving as we arrived so we had to try to reverse up the hill to let them pass. Then there was a burning smell and we realised the clutch was overheating so Valerie had to run down to all the cars coming up to say “sorry” in Greek and persuade them to reverse, as we couldn’t. The upside was that there was a great taverna at the bottom so we ate a delicious meal as we waited for the clutch to cool down, and all was well.

Ranakpur- Narlai village

Women shelling fresh chickpeas

We stayed outside Jodhpur in a village called Narlai and one of the staff from the hotel took us on a village walk showing us around the village and taking us into some family homes.

This village has a population of about 3000 but had over 300 temples! The first we saw was tiny and built into the rock. You had to climb over 100 steps to reach it.

Steps up to the temple in the rock

Bell outside the tiny temple

Then we saw another large temple built onto the side of the rock

and then we saw their newest temple built from white marble which was pretty spectacular

Evidently quite a number of families now live in the city and have more money, just returning for holy days. The whole village paid for the new temple which took five years to build.

We also visited three families going into their homes.

Grandfather with his pipe

Cooking over wood fires is the norm.

Baby covered up in a cradle

Mother and grandmother

The women in this area commonly completely cover their heads with their dupattas.

 

Older men in the village

Bullock cart

Rawla Narlai where we stayed

Jodhpur- Chandaleo Garh

Staff at Chandaleo

at Jodhpur we stayed slightly outside the town at Chandaleo Garh which Mary had told me about. The estate has been in the family of Pranduman Singh for generations and in 1997 he turned it into a hotel. But it’s rather different to other places and was our favourite accommodation of the whole trip. It’s very simple, peaceful and beautiful.

Main building

In addition he has established a craft centre where women from the village can develop new skills and earn an income.

Little bags we purchased

The evening meal was held on the rooftop and we were lucky enough to see the blood blue moon which was an amazing sight

Mr Singh took us out in his jeep to visit the weaver and on the way we saw camels and a blue antelope.

Blue antelope

 

Takeaway thali for the train

16649 Parasuram Express

Travelling by train today from Cochin down to Varkala – a four hour journey. Found a lovely veg restaurant which did us a thali takeaway (South Indian Thali Parcel it was called).

delicious and we managed not to spill any!

The restaurant is also part of a hotel and we’re going to stay the for our last couple of nights. Simple but clean rooms with a/c for £26. It’s called OYO Gokul Ottupura. The restaurant is lovely.

Varnam Homestay – Wayanad

Travelled to Wayanad from Kannur on the local bone shaker bus. Good air conditioning (no glass in windows) and an easy 3 hour journey.

Varnam is an organic farm and our host Beena is extremely knowledgeable on all the plants and trees on her land, together with their medicinal properties. Here are some photos of the farm.

Our host Beena

Good spider (not dangerous)

Jackfruit

Ockra

Cobra chillies – hottest in the world

Umbrella Palm Tree

Hana climbing a coconut tree

Beena hugging one of her trees

Breakfast at Varnam