Category Archives: 2013 – South India

Wally & Catherine’s tour of South India in February 2013

Feb 11 – A Visit To A Coir Factory

 

Today we made a brief visit to a coir factory. Coir is part of a dried coconut shell. The material is fibrous and well suited to spinning into a coarse string or rope.

In this photo the woman is feeding the coir into a shredding/fluffing machine to prepare the coir for spinning.
Here the woman is “fluffing up” the shredded coir prior to spinning it into rope.
The women use a converted bicycle wheel hooked to a small electric motor to help them spin the coir into a small rope that looks a lot like binder twine.

The coconut has to be one of the most useful and eco-friendly plants going – coconut water & meat for drink and food, coir for making rope, mats & bedding and shells are used to make a wide variety of items and also used as fuel for cooking!

 

 

 

February 11 – Houseboat Cruise on Vemanbandu Lake

OK, a cruising blog has to have a boat trip in it, right? Today we boarded a four bedroom houseboat and are spending the next two days cruising the lake and associated canal system. I’m in heaven!

The area is full of river cruising boats. Ours is one of the larger ones with four very comfortable bedrooms with individual heads, a glass-walled dining room that can easily seat 10 people, an open area sitting area in the bow behind the helm and an upstairs viewing room that could double as a small dance hall–really! I’m in heaven again!

The blue dot in the canal above Moola Arayiram was our position at the time I started writing this blog entry.

February 7 – Nature Hiking & A Pickup Cricket Match

7 Men, 3 Dogs, 1 Cat & a Canuck

Today was a very relaxing day at the Jungle Retreat Resort with a two hour nature hike at the foot of the Blue Mountains starting at 6:45in the morning.  We encountered an elderly local man along the way and I bought some tiny cigars from him.

Our hike was followed by hot tea at the village store. Very refreshing.

We rested for the balance of the morning and then took a trip to a nearby village for some window shopping.

The nature walk was really interesting but the highlight of the day for me was to be the spectator & cheering section for a pickup game of cricket by the resort staff.

The cricket pitch was an open area in front of the restaurant. Judging from the way the grass is worn in this particular area it is obvious that more than one game has been played on this space!

It was a lot of fun to watch. Even though I could not understand all the banter between the players it was clear that they were all having a great time with cheering and teasing between the pitches and the swings.

One of the resident cats sat on the sidelines for a while and followed the action closely (its temptation to chase the ball was evident) while the dogs took it all in stride & wandered on and off the pitch. The players simply worked around them.

The game went on for almost an hour. I’m not sure what the score was when it ended but everyone was happy & then we had an impromptu review of the photos & video clips I took with my iPhone.

I think I could get into this game 🙂