Spice tour

We spent a few days in Thekkady - a beautiful Keralan hill town famous for its Tiger Sanctuary (where I saw no tigers but two ELEPHANTS!) and also for spices. We stayed at a guesthouse that backed onto the reserve so woke and fell asleep to the sounds of birds, monkeys and wild boars. It was so nice to be in the jungle, to see so much green and so much mist. To be so far from a desert!

The town was very quiet because earlier in the season there was a terrible boating accident on the lake in the sanctuary. Over 40 people were killed when many people apparently rushed onto the upper deck to get a better look at the view and the boat capsized.

Again I think how lucky we are to be Australian - this time because we are (almost all) taught to swim at a very young age.

Outside of the sanctuary, the town is surrounded by delicious plantations - forests of cardamom, cinnamon, coffee, tea.

We went on a short tour of an excellent spice garden with a very proud Abraham (you may have seen him on BBC's Around the World in 80 Gardens):

He showed us how cinnamon actually grows on a plant:

The tiniest chillies can be the deadliest:

My favourite (cocoa!):

and who knew 'Allspice' was a single plant? I always thought it was a mixture of all spices. I swear I could identify distinct spices in that mix!

I now want a spice garden.