A short weekend trip to Munnar started off badly as the bus I was on, arrived 4 hours late. Things got worse off in Munnar as a strike for higher wages by the tea garden workers had brought the town to a standstill. After finding some food, we decided to head out to Thekkady for a boat ride, however by the time we got there, it had closed down, so spent the evening on the shores of the lake. The ride back was pleasant. Fortunately the strike had cleared up for the evening. The club Mahindra guest house where we were put up was also outside of town with some good views of the surrounding hills and tea gardens.
Spent the next day walking around Eravikulam national park and the nearby ghat section. Eravikulam was not too crowded due to the strike and as a result, the wildlife was out in numbers. We saw a couple of bamboo pit vipers, over 20 nilgiri tahrs, a Kerala laughingthrush, nilgiri pipits, redstarts and white eyes. The surrounding ghat sections had quite a few malabar giant squirrels, grey tits and a brown capped pygmy woodpecker. The sandalwood tree plantation was quite popular as well considering the damage caused by illegal sandalwood logging. The nearby forest section also had a few photographers spotting fairy bluebirds and more giant squirrels.
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