Day 1. Periyar wildlife sanctuary

I went to Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary today. I hopped on a plane at around 6:30 this morning to get to south India by a reasonable time. Once we landed, they loaded all the people on the plane into two jeeps, and we headed out to the lake in the middle of the sanctuary. It had not rained in two weeks there, and the water sources in the forest were starting to get dry. This was the best time to see animals apparently. Immediately upon arriving at the lake, we heard our radio crackle to life and another ranger told us that a herd of elephants had just come to the water to drink. We headed over immediately. Sure enough, right in front of us were around four females and two baby Indian elephants, who were splashing around in the shallow part of the lake. The babies were having a lot of fun tussling with each other on the shore. We watched there antics for a while and decided to head on. We went into the jungle a little ways, and started to look for deer and wild pig tracks. After a while we got on the trail of a very large wild pig who was walking down the path. He was huge, with big tusks and a bristly back. We estimated he was around six years old. We saw a few other animals, but it was getting hot, and we turned around and headed back to the main area for lunch and a movie on the history of the park and its animals. It talked about the different types of animals such as elephants, deer, pigs, and primates, but it focused mainly on the tiger. It was really interesting and I really liked it. Once it was over, we headed out again. It was much the same as this morning, but around half way through the safari, we heard the radio crackle to life again. Tiger sighting, right along the bank of the lake, near where we saw the elephants this morning. We all got really excited, event the ranger. There are only about forty tigers in the entire park, and it is rare to see one. WHen we got to the site, there were already two jeeps there. The tiger was sitting at the edge of the water, holding a small deer looking thing in her paws. she was feasting so vigorously that she barely noticed us come up. When she was done with her meal, she went for a swim in the water. I was amazed at how agile she was. It was beautiful. Finally it got dark, and I had to go home, so I got on a plane heading for New Delhi, and I was off. I checked into my hotel and went straight to my computer to wright down what had happened today.