What would you do if, while scorching the best biking trails of Kerala, you find yourself in the wilderness of a Tiger Reserve with the big cat prowling about in the vicinity?
I say don’t make a run for it. Just chill and check into a nearby lodge and make the most of your Kerala Biking Holiday by hopping on a jeep safari into the wilderness. What you will most likely encounter is great pageantry of wildlife, including the awesome predator, the Bengal Tiger, not to mention the adrenaline kick that comes out of such a trip on the wild side.
The tiger reserve I’m talking about is the Periyar National Park, which is aptly situated at the mid-point of any well-planned cycling trip of Kerala.
Kerala – to give you a broader perspective – is a good place to start off your South India biking adventure. It is a coastal state endowed with beautiful geography comprising, in the west, the stunning lakes and canals that make for the famed Kerala backwaters, and, in the east, the Sahyadri mountain range (or the Western Ghats) that is home to several spice plantations, tea gardens, and cardamom hills. Add to this mesmeric landscape a slew of fishing villages, farming hamlets, heritage towns, ancient churches, temples, and mosques, and you have a perfect layout for an adventure-filled culture trip of South India.
Just make sure you do it at a slow and leisurely pace, which is what makes biking in Kerala so befitting.
The best place to kick off your Kerala cycling tour is the coastal town of Fort Kochi, which, with its many tourist attractions, primes you up for the biking trip ahead. From Fort Kochi onwards, you press inland towards the forests of Thattekkad and Periyar, and it is here that your encounters in the wild begin.
Thattekkad comes first. It is a flatland forest located between a fork in Kerala’s longest river, the Periyar. Moderate temperature, proximity to the river, and bountiful monsoon rains make Thattekkad a thriving habitat of an astounding variety of birds of peninsular India and a favourite haunt of birders and ornithologists from all over the world. The famous Thattekkad bird sanctuary here sees a lot of footfalls in the winter, spring and autumn seasons and is a welcome pit-stop on the Kerala cycling trail to give your legs the well-earned rest after about 60 km of biking from Fort Kochi.
I would even recommend a daylong stay at Thattekkad for leisurely walks and excursions into the bird sanctuary. Whether you are a bird watcher or not, there is a lot to observe and marvel at, not least the picture-postcard landscape of Thattekkad against the backdrop of green hills.
These hills of the Western Ghats are your next destination on the Kerala biking trip. As you push into these mountains, your mettle as a biker is put to the test. The uphill slogs can stretch up to several kilometres, but there is the fantastic scenery of green-carpeted hills, tea gardens, and spice plantations to keep you mentally and physically charged. Every now and then you find a reason, an almost irresistible urge, to stop, not so much out of exhaustion as to take in the breath-stealing view. This place is called the Kashmir of South India for its incredible natural beauty. In the heart of this fantasy landscape is the town of Munnar, your next stop.
Like Thattekkad, Munnar needs at least a day of your Kerala vacation. Just biking around in this hill station can easily gobble up several hours, and not one of them with a dull moment. Again, you have to be equal to the task of mountain biking in Munnar at the height of 1600 meters above sea level. And you would do well to pay a visit to one of the tea plantations that always welcome visitors with much warmth and hospitality.
There is no let-up in adrenaline rush as you descend from Munnar into the region of the renowned Cardamom Hills where you find, sprawled on a plateau 1200 meters above sea level, the Periyar National Park, an elephant and tiger reserve and a sure-fire ticket to many a jungle thrill.
If you are a flora freak, you find hundreds of different flowering plants, grasses and orchids at this national park. If fauna is your trip, expect to see the elephant, gaur, sambar, Nilgiri Tahr, Travancore Flying Squirrel, sloth bear, and, not the least, the majestic Bengal Tiger.
Being the watershed of the Periyar and Pamba rivers, the national park is a biodiversity haven that any nature lover ought to visit. It is a habitat for 266 bird species, 45 species of reptiles, 40 species of fish, and 35 species of mammals.
The Periyar National Park is best explored on a jeep safari or a boat ride in the Periyar lake at the centre. Not every excursion yields a sighting of the tiger, but if you have a good guide on your side, catching a glimpse of the big cat may not be such a tall order. Speaking of myself, I went with a cycling group doing the South India biking tour and we promptly spotted a couple of tiger paw-prints on the muddy forest floor and chased them to a clearing in the woods where we were lucky to sight not one but three tigers.
One of the animals even sauntered pretty close to our jeep and gave us, apart from a momentary scare, a rare photo op in the form of its ferocious yawn. I guess it was too used to human ogling to be excited in any way.
Still, if you want to play it safe, an elephant safari is a good option as tigers rarely attack elephants. Another option is the boat cruise which is quite popular among vacationers, as it does a short round of the park in just half an hour or a little more.
This tryst with wild life at Periyar National Park marks one of the high points of a Kerala cycling trip. It is invigorating and sets you up for more adventures in South India.
What’s the best time to visit Periyar? I would say December to March/April. The weather around this time is perfect for both cycling and wildlife excursions.
So, if you are planning a trip, now is the best time to hit the road.
