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Where Kodai leads to

Having become a tourist centre, Koadikanal is now connected by frequent buses to various other places of interest. As far as wildlife is concerned, one of South India’s most magnificent man-made lakes is Periyar, within the tiger reserve of that name. It is a five to six hour drive away, and there is a daily direct bus. There is a wide range of accommodation there including Aranya Nivas, located near the boat landing, Lake Palace in the heart of the sanctuary and a string of less expensive hotels on the way to, and in, Kumili. One of the most unique aspects of this sanctuary is that there are no roads. All wildlife-viewing is done from the several launches that ply the lake every day. Avoid weekends and holidays and the monsoons if you are a serious wildlife watcher. You are likely to see elephants, wild boar, otters, sambar and gaur. There are good walking trails and elephants rides are available. The well-placed watch towers within the sanctuary can yield rich results to a patient and quiet watcher. If walking inside the sanctuary, take a guide from the reception centre; this is elephant country! One tourist was unwisely washing his clothes in a jungle pool outside the reserve when an elephant came along. The man managed to run away but the jumbo swallowed the freshly washed underpants abandoned on the bank. The story goes that they were later recovered from enormous heap of elephant dung.

Four hours from Kodai by bus is Madurai, the home of the meenakshi temple, said to be one of the most sprawling temples in the world. Madurai is a typical town of the “deep south” and now exhibits a cacophonous mix of the old and the new. A good place to south for south Indian fabrics and artifacts.

Kodaikanal is in many ways a centrally located crossroads whithmany interesting places reachable within five or six hours by road, including the hill station of Ooty, the tea estates of Munnar, the T-shirt town of Tirupur and the Fort Temple of Dindigul.