Rockin in them cotton fields ... October 1, 2007 Monday

Fresh and quick to wake up. Great morning, the sun was about to rise. It was 6 AM. Not a soul out on the tread. I went around the campus to figure out if the morning safari was on as that would’ve been fantastic. Alas there were no other takers at that time so it had to be in the afternoon.

So we spent the morning in the fields. Cotton and paddy. Walking around with the village folks. Chilling out right in the middle of the fields and way off the roads… Almost fell off the Bullet in one of these fields rides in the mud.

But then, this is just the right concoction to beat the heat of the city.

3:00 PM our resort manager comes looking for us and takes us on for the Jungle ride. The ride in the cramped up Gypsy was ok for wifey, but for me there was no leg room at all…

While we started off with much gusto this became a wimp as we discovered it had rained last night and we were not allowed to take the mud roads into the real terrain to do some real spotting.

So we had to settle for some deer, wild elephant, fox, bison and monkeys…so much for Jungle Jim. To top it off a short shower followed, so the very thought of probably doing it again next day was off.

That night was the drifting for the next destination. Much discussion, debates, references. Books, routes, times ... Kerala seemed like a destination. Somewhere I read about a fascinating ritual called Theyyam. And Kannur was the hot spot for experiencing this, it said October was the given time for it.

That was it. Both of us were in agreement. To the land of Theyyams be it. Let the free spirit rock.

After a quick dinner we told the manager that we would be out the next morning after breakfast. We told him where we were headed. He gave us a mysterious look (which we'll realize why later on the next day when hit the road) and then told us that there were bad roads ahead. A long stretch of it. And it was raining on the other side. The total distance would take us about 4 hours.

That was enough for another round of debate between me and wifey and we left it undecided till the next morning. We were going out anyway we’ll decide if it’ll be Mysore or Kannur on the way!

The journey to land of Theyyams or Gods... click here.