Champions of the Flyway!

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Kumily, Kerala - the homestay


Nesiya, Ansiya, Amity, Shukkoor and I (outside our room)

A final post from our homestay, the highly recommended Panthalams in Kumily, on the edge of Periyar reserve. Very inexpensive, with mouth-watering home-cooked food (still dreaming of it), large, bright, clean, en-suite rooms (with cable TV, if you're weird enough to need such distractions), all run by the lovely Shukkoors, who we ended up spending as much time as we could with.


Shukkoor, Nesiya and five year-old Ansiya - of the latter, a multi-lingual firecracker comedian with killer song and dance routines and a habit of taking the piss - treated us like family, and couldn't do enough for us; a great place to stay, with the bonus of great birds just outside the door. And then there was the reserve.....


Brown-backed Needletails on close-up fly-bys past the balcony

 
 Hoopoe (obviously)


the artist at work

 

female Loten's Sunbird



Nilgiri Flowerpecker

 

Black-rumped Flamebacks