Nagarhole - Yet Another Attempt to see a Tiger: Kerala and More Part 4

This is a new post, though it covers the events of the Ist and 2nd of March
It will bee moved to its appropriate chronological position soon

Yet Another Attempt to See a Tiger

01-Mar-2024

So Where Exactly are We Going?

India

Kerala

We had enjoyed our day in the port city of Kozhikode (formerly Calicut), even though the combination of heat and high humidity made it hard work. Next day, we headed inland, climbing up the Western Ghats, the long, if intermittent range of hills (and sometimes mountains) that follows the line of the coast for 1,600 km. The temperature changed little, but the humidity was lower and there was even an occasional cooling breeze.

Our destination was the Kabini Jungle Lodge in the Nagarhole National Park, a journey of 140 km that was expected to take 4 hours. Indian roads do not make for speedy travelling.

Southern India

Kozhikode to Kabini

Breakfast at Kozhikode

Before leaving we had an early breakfast at Harivihar, our quiet vegan retreat in bustling Kozhikode. I am not ready to commit to being a full-time vegan (or even a vegetarian), but I would eat a meal like our dinners and breakfasts here any day (just not, perhaps, every day). Breakfast was multi-faceted, but here is a picture of a fried puri with spiced vegetables.

Puri and spiced vegetables, Harivihar

You know you are in Kerala when frying is in coconut oil, mustard seeds dot the vegetables and fried curry leaves are abundant – though they are as invisible in this picture as the coconut oil.

On the Road

The journey through small towns and up into the hills was interesting. The road was not as steep and the bends as tight as some we have seen, but they claim there are nine hairpins.

A modest hairpin on the way up from Kozhikode - all vehicles on the correct side of the road

Once on the plateau we were in the Wayanad district of Kerala, and Wayanad is tea (and coffee) country. The Chellotte Estate on the edge of Chundale is typical, tea bushes fitting together like crazy paving and wind breaks of silver oaks.

Chellottoe Tea Estate, Chundale

Chundale (at least half of its name must have been inherited from the British Raj) was halfway through our journey in distance, but more than that time. We stopped at a clean, smart café where we were charged all of 20 rupees (20p) for a small but excellent coffee.

Some 30 minutes later we reached Panamaram. Built in 2013, Panamaram’s church of St Jude with its exuberant modern style and abundant straight lines is typical of the area.

St Jude's Panamaram (and telephone cables)

Kerala has more Christians (6 million, almost 20% of the population) than any other Indian state. According to tradition, Kerala was evangelised by the apostle St Thomas and an ancient but thriving group of churches influenced by Syriac (Aramaic) language and theology are known collectively as the Syriac Christians. This umbrella covers several denominations, some Eastern Orthodox, some owing allegiance to the Roman Catholic Church and others independent.

St Jude’s, Panamaram is as Syro-Malabar Church, a denomination in full communion with the Roman Catholic Church.

Into Karnataka

Karnataka

20 Km beyond Panamaram we crossed from Kerala into the state of Karnataka. Indian states are comparable in size to US states; Kerala is relatively small - a little larger than Maryland but has a similar population to California. Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, the other southern states we will visit on this journey, are between 3 and 4 times bigger than Kerala and have populations of 70 and 82 million respectively.

India has an abundance of people (1.4bn, having suprassed China as the world's most populous nation in April 2023) and an abundance of languages. Each of the three southern states has its own language, Malayalam in Kerala, Kannada in Karnataka and Tamil in Tamil Nadu, and each language has its own alphabet. These are Dravidian languages, unrelated to the languages of northern India, like Hindi and Gujarati, which are of the Indo-European family.

Across the Park

Indian national parks do not usually have public roads across them, but Nagarhole is an exception. We were stopped at the park entrance to be given instructions – basically no stopping, no littering,

It takes 20 mins to cross this neck of the park, mostly through Kakanakote Forest, though some areas are more wooded than others.

Kakanakote Forest, Nagarhole National Park

There were forest dwellers here long before the National Park was created in 1988. Most were from a tribal group known as the Jenu Kuruba - Jenu meaning ‘honey’ and Kuruba ‘forest dweller.’ They lived by small scale agriculture, fishing, hunting, and gathering roots, tubers, berries and, most importantly, honey.

Jenu Karuba dwellings, Nagarhole National Park

There are today 37,000 Jenu Kuruba speaking their own language which may or may not be a dialect of Kannada (authorities differ.) They have been ‘encouraged’ to leave the park and most now live in extreme poverty in 80 or so villages around the perimeter, eking out a living as agricultural day labourers. 2-3,000 still live their traditional lives within the park. The politics around this issue is hotly debated, and I would be foolish to venture an opinion.

To the Kabini Jungle Lodge

Beyond the park it was a short drive to the Kabini Jungle Lodge. The ground was more open here and the nearby Lake Kabini encouraged the presence of wading birds.

Pond Heron, near Kabini

There were also agricultural villages….

Agricultural village near Kabini

…and domesticated cattle.

Cow, Kabini

In overwhelmingly Hindu Karnataka, cow slaughter is illegal. Cows can, though, provide dairy products while oxen are used as draft animals. Painting the horns is an easy way to mark ownership when herds graze together.

Arrivial at Kabini Jungle Lodge

We stayed in Kabini in 2016. It seemed to have grown since and lost some of its personal touch, but they showed us to a new, clean, spacious ‘Maharaja Bungalow.’ A real Maharaja might have found something to complain about, but we liked it. A buffet lunch was available for all residents and as Nagarhole has a largely Indian clientele the food was much better than at lodges catering for perceived European tastes (see Ranthambhore). In 2016 they had a full bar, sadly that appeared to have disappeared.

Safari (1)

We presented ourselves for complimentary coffee and biscuits at 3.00 and then made our way to the long line of jeeps and buses. There are several places to stay locally but all land and boat safaris depart from Kabini, so the crowd was large and apparently chaotic. Fortunately, we have been here before and know that somewhere there is the Man with the Clipboard who knows everything. We found him, and were soon in our designated jeep and ready to go.

At Nagarhole and ready to go

Our first attempt to see a Tiger was here in 2010, just months before I started blogging. We enjoyed a pre-dusk safari on the lake, and a post-dawn safari in the woods. Our second attempt in 2016 was also here and followed the same pattern (see Kabini & the Nagarhole National Park). We saw elephants, monkeys, squirrels, mongooses, deer, a variety of interesting birds, and a fearsome crocodile or two, but all we saw of tigers was a paw print in the dust. In 2018 we visited Ranthambhore (link above) in Rajasthan, a reserve renowned for its high tiger-spotting success rate. In two trips, our highlight was a distant view of a leopard, while everyone else back in the hotel swapped stories of tigers and sloth bears (and I am not sure what they are!). Now we were back at Nagarhole for two more attempts.

We looked cheerful enough in the photo, but I was unconvinced that tigers are afternoon people. We set out around 3.30 and were scheduled back just before the sunset three hours later – there is little seasonal variation in sunset times this far south. The warmth of the day lingers and tigers, I think, prefer the cool of the morning.

We saw spotted deer - they are always abundant. The larger sambar deer, tigers' main prey, seemed to have taken the day off.

Spotted deer, Nagarhole Tiger Reserve

Gaur were grazing down by the lake – they became the world's largest bovid when the aurochs went extinct in 1627. Though locally plentiful they are considered vulnerable, with a little over 20,000 adult individuals, mostly in India.

Gaur, Nagarhole Tiger Reserve

Elephants like to come down to the lake as well.

Elephants, Nagarhole Tiger Reserve
The photo shows two adults and a juvenile not an eight-legged elephant

We saw no mongoose this time, but there was a wild pig (though no photograph.)

Back in the woods we spotted a Malabar giant squirrel…

Malabar giant squirrel, Nagarhole tiger reserve

….and there are always black faced langurs.

Black-faced langur, Nagarhole Tiger Reserve

The langurs are important for finding tigers. They are vulnerable on the ground as a tiger snack, but there is always a look-out up a tree to give a warning bark. The urgency and frequency of repetition are a guide to the tiger’s proximity and whether it is hunting, walking or sleeping. We heard no langur alarm calls the whole time we were out.

Overall, it was a disappointing afternoon and as tomorrow morning’s safari would be on the lake with little chance of glimpsing a tiger, I was glad we had booked two more attempts at nearby Bandipur.

Arranging Tomorrow and Re-Arranging Tonight

The Man with the Clipboard met us off the jeep. ‘What do you want to do tomorrow?’ he asked. I hesitated briefly, not realising we had a choice. ‘I hear you have had bad luck with tigers,’ he continued, ‘if you really want to see one, a jeep would be best.’ Somebody must have spoken to him on our behalf, which was pleasing, though we had not asked for special treatment. We had enjoyed previous ‘boat safaris,’ but tigers took precedence, so we thanked him and said ‘Jeep.’

Before dinner, we placed our valuables, phones and camera in the room safe. I punched in our usual code and watched my finger make a mistake. I decided to open it immediately and start again, only I failed to open it – with all three permitted attempts.

We went for dinner; at lunch we had drunk water from copper cups tasting strongly of…well…copper and expected the same now, but a French couple on a nearby table had beer. Had they bought it here or had the foresight to bring it in from outside? I inquired in my fluent stumbling French. They directed me to the man who had provided their beer, and I requested two bottles. Drinking is forbidden for Muslims and discouraged among Hindus; whichever he was, he gave me the look of a man who would never put a thief in his mouth to steal his brains, before nodding reluctantly.

After longish wait a different man arrived with a single bottle. I reminded him I had ordered two. ‘One bottle per person’ he replied tersely. I might have moaned about silly rules, but my mind was too busy boggling at his inability to see two people at our table. Lynne often complains of sometimes feeling invisible in India. Indian ladies, of course, do not drink, and if they do, never in public, but louche westerners…. He reluctantly fetched a second bottle - shame they were both Budweiser.

Our brains remained unstollen and one of them suddenly realised we were going out at dawn tomorrow so the safe must be unlocked tonight, or we could not photograph our tiger – if, miraculously, we saw one.

After dinner I went to reception, explained the problem and the receptionist promised to send someone to solve it. A little later a man arrived at our bungalow carrying a broom, suggesting the receptionist and I had communicated less well than I had believed.

Faced with the safe and my inability to open it, Broom Man grasped the problem. He could not solve it, but he knew a man who could and phoned him immediately. His colleague was reluctant to reveal the secret, but even more reluctant to come out and solve it himself. Eventually he agreed to talk me through the process, and, to my relief, the safe sprang open. I promised him I would immediately forget his instructions and was as good as my word.

02-Mar-2024

Safari (2)

We were up and out at dawn and driving round the forest before the sun had got its act together.

Spotted deer at dawn, Nagarhole tiger reserve

I will spare you yet more photos of the usual suspects, but little else happened for the next hour or so…

Tiger?

Around 7.45 our driver had a radio message from one of his colleagues and suddenly our wanderings became more purposeful. After a short, swift (by National Park Standards) drive we parked up behind several other jeeps and a thirty-seater bus. Somewhere to our right a langur was barking a warning, and all eyes were fixed on the treeline.

We stared at the stationary trees and bushes, trying in vain to turn them into the moving stripes of a tiger.

Nothing to see here

I do not know how long we did this. It was not a new experience, in the past we have often given up after 20 minutes as the tiger, if it had ever been there, must have walked off in the wrong direction.

There was still no tiger, but there was, this time, a feeling of optimism I had not experienced before. It probably emanated from the drive and was shared, I imagine, by the other people in our jeep. Very likely the people in the bus and in other jeeps felt it, too.

Tiger!

And then there was a sound, and aah or maybe a murmur, something was happening, but I still could not see anything but trees, and then suddenly I could, already closer than I had expected…

Tiger, Nagarhole Tiger Reserve

…an adult female tiger was walking, with leisurely grace and latent power, not quite towards us, but certainly in our general direction.

She crossed the road in front of the bus, and strolled away on the other side, pausing once to turn and roll her eyes at all the humans sitting there in their noisy, smelly vehicles. Maybe she did not really roll her eyes, maybe I made that up.

Tiger is going now, Nagarhole Tiger Reserve

After a tiger, there is only anticlimax. Even termites lose their shine.

Termite accommodation, Nagarhole tiger reserve

We continued safari-ing until after 9.30, because that was the deal, but there was little to see, and I was beginning to want my breakfast.

And in due course that was what I got, a combination of spice, protein, carbohydrate and more spice. My favourites.

Breakfast at Nagarhole

And Finally...

At the fifth attempt, seventh if you include the lake safaris, we had seen our tiger. I was prepared for a beast that would be graceful and powerful, but I had never expected her to be so big - and males are even bigger. Job done, and I am glad we did it properly

Tiger

We then left Nagarhole and headed north into the next post….

Kerala and More

Part 1: Cooking the Kerala Way
Part 2: Kochi: Not Really a Free Day
Part 3: Kozhikode (Formerly Calicut)
Part 4: Nagarhole - Yet Another Attempt to see a Tiger

and much more to come

Exeter

This is a new post, though it covers the events of the 21st of May 2024
It will bee moved to its appropriate chronological position soon

An Ancient City and the Administrative Centre of Devon

The Inevitable Historical Bit

Devon

Exeter

A ridge surrounded by fertile land, overlooking a navigable and fish-filled river was an ideal spot for our distant forbears. Little is known of the earliest settlers, but the discovery of Greek coins suggests they were trading with Mediterranean peoples as early as 250BCE.

The southwest became the land of the Dumnonii, at least that is what the Romans called them, what they called themselves nobody knows. The Romans arrived in 59CE and built a fort they called Isca Dumnoniorum (Watertown of the Dumnonii) and a civilian settlement grew up around it.

The Romans left in 410 and written history stopped until the seventh century. By then Isca Dumnoniorum had become a Saxon town known as Escanceaster. Except for a brief time in Danish hands, sorted by Alfred the Great, a rebellion against William the Conqueror led by the wife of the recently deceased King Harold, a spot of bother during the ‘Anarchy’ in the 12th century, a month-long siege by the ‘Prayer Book rebels’ in 1549, some difficulties during the Civil War and 18 Luftwaffe raids 1940-42, the city has enjoyed 1,400 years of peaceful development. The name Escanceaster linked the River Esc, now known as the Exe, and 'ceaster' borrowed from the Latin castrum meaning camp. Billions of repetitions by millions of mouths across 70 generations have ground it, like a sea polished pebble, into the simpler Exeter.

The position of Exeter within Devon and (inset Devon within England)
OS material © Crown copyright, Reproduced under CC BY-SA 3.0

Exeter was a mercantile city, but never an industrial city. Today the largest employers of its 120,000 citizens include the University of Exeter, Devon County Council, the NHS, and the Met Office, whose headquarters moved here in 2004.

Exeter Quays

As we often do in May we spent a couple of days with Torquay-based friends, Brian and Hilary. Until today these visits have produced two blog posts, Torquay and Around (1): Greenway, Coleton Fishacre and Brixham and Tq & A (2): Buckfast Abbey, Newton Abbot and Compton Castle. This year B & H suggested that as every Torquay trip involved us rounding Exeter on the M5, we should favour the city with a proper visit.

On a fine day on the cusp of spring and summer, Brian drove us the 22 miles from Torquay to Matford Park and Ride south of the city. Here our old gits bus passes would have given us a free ride into the centre if we had not chosen to get off halfway and stroll to the Exeter Quays.

Exeter Quays

South Devon has a ria coast; every few miles a drowned river valley, formed by rising sea levels after the last ice-age, has become a tidal estuary to a small river. The Exe is a perfect example, and as the map above shows, Exeter was built at the northern end of the estuary at the limit of navigability.

Here, a sandstone ledge provided a natural quay for unloading ships. This worked well before and through Roman times and right up to the 13th century when a weir was built 2 miles south of the quay. With the river blocked to larger ships, the main port moved downstream to Topsham. The response from Exeter was hardly swift, but in 1566 a new ship canal put Exeter port back in business. Wool, hides, and stone were exported, while wine, tobacco, and spices came the other way. In the 17th century the quay was extended and in 1830 a new canal basin was dug, but then, in 1840, the railway arrived and the port went into terminal decline.

Restored warehouse, originally built 1855

A series of redevelopments starting in late 20th century have regenerated the quays as an area of coffee shops, restaurants and those quirky businesses which fit uncomfortably in city centres.

A quirky photograph of a mildly quirky business.
I think I was trying to photograph the plaque saying this is the 1566 quay and the warehouse was bult in 1855

Drinking coffee was our main reason for visiting, but I will spare you a photo of four fit, dynamic (if elderly) people slurping cappuccinos.

In 2015 the Custom House (built 1680–81) was restored and reopened as a visitor centre. The Quays also hosts events ranging from Dragon Boat Racing to Street Food Night Markets.

Customs House, Exeter Quays

To Exeter City Centre and the Cathedral

The City Wall

Exeter is not usually thought of as a walled city, but 70% of the mile and a half mile long Roman wall survives in one form or another. The Quay was, of course, just outside the wall, but it was an easy walk up to the nearest section.

Following Exeter city wall up from the quays

This part is in reasonable repair, much of the upper wall being medieval in origin, but the stones at the base were placed there by the Romans in around 200CE.

Parts of the wall in the way of later developments were removed, so the line can be difficult to follow. Some of the modern buildings are of dubious architectural merit, but a cheerful mural is always welcome.

Mural close to the line of Exeter city wall

We re-found the wall near the Burnet Patch Bridge. After the election of a new mayor on Michaelmas Day (September the 29th, as I am sure you know) the incumbent would lead his corporation for a walk around the city walls to check all was in order. When Burnet Patch was elected mayor in 1813, he found that scrambling down one side of this 18th century cut, and up the other side an irksome chore, so he had Exeter's first wrought iron bridge constructed to save the bother. It is an elegant, if unnecessarily expensive solution to a simple problem.

The Burnet Patch bridge, Exeter

Once under the bridge we emerged beside the cathedral green.

Exeter Cathedral

The bishop’s seat was moved to Exeter from Crediton in 1050 and a pre-existing Saxon minster was used as the cathedral. The building of a new cathedral (on the site of a Roman bathhouse) began in 1133. When Walter Branscombe arrived as bishop in 1285, he declared the cathedral inadequate and set about reconstructing it in Decorated Gothic style. Medieval cathedral builders had to look to the long term, starting projects they knew they would not live to see completed. Exeter’s Cathedral Church of Saint Peter was under construction from 1285 to 1400 – although the Chapter House and Chantry Chapels were built later.

Exeter Cathedral

Decorated Gothic involves intricate stonework, ornate tracery, and richly detailed carvings. Outside, the west front shows this off best, with an array of medieval statues of kings, knights, angels, and saints.

Exeter Cathedral and its west front

We did not go inside, but the photo below, taken on a brief visit in 2017 shows stonework carved almost to resemble lace. It also shows part of the ceiling which, at 96 meters, is the longest uninterrupted vaulted ceiling in England.

Inside Exeter Cathedral

The statue outside is of John Hooker (c. 1527–1601). Chamberlain of Exeter from 1555 to his death and the city’s MP 1570/1 and 1586, he was a historian, writer, antiquary, and civic administrator. Among much else, he wrote a treatise on parliamentary procedure and an eye-witness account of the 1549 siege of Exeter during the Prayer Book Rebellion.

The Guildhall

A short step away, in the High Street, is Exeter Guildhall, which claims to be the oldest municipal building in England still used for its original purpose. I somehow failed to photograph the ornate Italian-style portico that juts out over the pavement. It is held up by four sturdy granite columns surmounted by carved corbels of Beer stone - limestone quarried in the nearby seaside village of Beer and nothing to do with the hop and barley based beverage. Never mind, the portico is a late addition only added in 1594, and instead I have a picture of the rather splendid wooden door.

Exeter Guildhall door

The Guildhall has occupied this site since at least the 12th century though the current building dates from 1463-98. Apart from the 18th century chandelier, most of what we can see is from Victorian refurbishment in the 1860 and 80s. For almost eight centuries, the Guildhall was the city's Chamber and courtroom, and in the basement was a prison known as the "pytt of the Guyldhall".

Exeter Guildhall

In 1685 the Guildhall was one of six locations around the southwest of England used for the so-called Bloody Assizes that followed the Duke of Monmouth’s failed rebellion against Charles II. The vindictive liberality with which ‘Hanging Judge’ John Jeffries and his associates dispensed death penalties shocked even 17th century sensibilities.

Balcony, Exeter Guildhall

The Guildhall is still used for official receptions, mayoral banquets and some City Council meetings. It can also be hired for weddings.

Lunch at the Conservatory

The Conservatory Restaurant is on the first floor of a venerable building on North Street, just 200m from the Guildhall. Having been here for 20 years, it is an Exeter institution.

The décor is minimalist, featuring the exposed remains of decorations from several centuries ago.

Decor, Conservatoy

They have their own style, perhaps best described as fine dining, but without the complications or the cost that incurs, indeed their two-course lunch was very moderately priced. There was ample choice, but all four of us picked the same two dishes. This was unsurprising with the rillettes; Brian and I have often lamented that while good rillettes are available fresh in every supermarket in France, they are hard to find here. Any opportunity must be grasped.

Rillettes - hiding under the gherkins, Conservatory, Exeter

I am bad at remembering to photograph people, so here are Brian and Hilary. They had previously shown us round Hong Kong and Macau without ever appearing in shot, so I did not want to make the same mistake here.

Brian and Hilary, Conservatory, Exeter

That all four us also went for the haddock was less predictable. I thought the combination of fish, orzo and a lemony sauce worked well, though Lynne found the sauce a little too acidic. It looked a small portion and relatively simple, but sometimes less is more, both in number of ingredients and quantity of food. By the time we had eaten two courses, we did not require a dessert.

Haddock and orso, Conservatory, Exeter

[Update. The Conservatory may have been here for 20 years, but three weeks after our visit it closed.]

St Pancras Church

Despite Exeter being no industrial centre, it was heavily bombed during WW2. There were attacks in 1940, and more seriously in 1942 as part of the ‘Baedeker raids’ on historic cities in response to the RAF bombing of Rostock and Lübeck. The damage caused by a direct hit on the cathedral was promptly but painstakingly repaired, but the redevelopment of large areas on the city centre took time, and the results are mixed.

The Guildhall Shopping Centre, behind the Guildhall was only started in the early 1970s. Shopping centres are not my natural habitat, so I will rarely if ever be enthusiastic about them, but the huge, blank brick wall on North Street across the road from a line of much older building, including the (former) premises of the Conservatory, has little to recommend it.

Not all the redevelopment was barbarism; left nestling between the Shopping Centre and the newer Food Centre is the tiny Church of St Pancras, just 14m long by 5m wide.

St Pancras, Exeter

First documented in 1191, the church has been altered over the years and what we now see is largely 13th century. The influence of the Victorian neo-Gothic restoration is uncharacteristically restrained.

Inside St Pancras, Exeter

The Royal Albert Memorial Museum

Another short walk took us to the Royal Albert Memorial Museum on Queen Street. It was the suggestion of politician Sir Stafford Northcote in 1861, the year Prince Albert died. Richard Summers Gard, MP for Exeter, donated the site, funds were raised by public subscription and John Hayward won the competition to design the building.

Within RAMM, as it became known, are the origins of Exeter University, Art College and Public Library. The museum has been enlarged and now owns over a million objects in four collection areas: antiquities, art, natural history and world cultures.

Exeter's earliest known international trade was with the eastern Mediterranean,

It is a treasure house, and while the Percy Sladen collection of echinoderms might be a tad niche, there is something to interest everyone. As such collections have no real narrative, the best I can do is offer some photographs of artefacts that caught my eye. It is not the best piece of Museum photography I have done, but sometimes you win and sometimes you have to settle for a no-score draw.

Roman vase (pity about the reflections). Exeter was once, of course, a Roman City

Exeter was never a major port and unlike like Bristol or Liverpool had no direct involvement in the slave trade, but there were voyages to and trade with the New World.

The Trans-Atlantic connection, RAMM

Nine generations of  the Takahashi family made pottery in Kyoto. The ninth generation focused on the export market; the Satsuma vases inspired the Japonism design movement in the west.

Takahashi Vases, RAMM

I am not sure what connection the Buddha images have with Exeter. The one in the centre is labelled as being from Myanmar. The two on the outside look Thai to me – and since when have I been an expert?

Buddha images, RAMM

The museum is well worth a visit, should you ever be in the area. Once we had finished, we found our way to the appropriate bus stop, headed back to the Park and Ride and thence to Torquay

Torquay and Around

Exeter (2024)
Torqay and Around (2) Buckfast Abbey, Newton Abbot and Compton Castle (2022)
Torquay and Around (1) Greenway, Coleton Fishacre and Brixham (2016)