Wednesday, November 12

Today Olya, Ajith and I have a day out with Radha for reasons only she can explain.

We start early, taking a rickshaw at 8:15 from Kovalam to Trivandrum. We eventually arrive at Radha’s apartment. Then her driver arrives and off we all go in a big, white, air-conditioned car.

Nobody, except perhaps Radha, has a clear idea of our destination. We head towards the hills of Ponmudi hill station; and as we ascend I take some photographs that almost look monochrome.

We will stop at a waterfall where we will walk up steep paths and take selfies with various groups of young Indians who will insist on including one or all of us in their pictures.

We will notice that some of the young men have arrived in a brightly painted tour bus. We will, in fact, notice them everywhere where we stop. They will arrive just after us or, sometimes, they will have arrived first.

At one point we will stop for a picnic to discover the whole area has a carpet of leeches. I don’t think I have ever seen leeches in real life before. Fortunately one of the local men who had joined us had a big bag of salt that he poured over our legs and arms.

Camping tip: salt has the same effect on leeches as it has on slugs. They shrivel up and die. Since these leeches had started drawing as much blood from people as they could these seemed a suitable end.

By the end of the day we will have had a more successful attempt at a picnic by the side of a winding hill road, seen Radha’s family’s rubber fields, and had a second meal at the home of the local men who had provided the picnic.

I will get home about thirteen hours later.