Tag: Cherthala

It was a long day’s drive to Cherthala, with the only real excitement being our desire to see a cashew nut tree .. and our driver’s determination to oblige, and show us the fruit, so here it is in the tree, with the little cashew nut in a case underneath, and the yellow cashew apple above …

Here is our driver, and a auto-rickshaw man who stopped to help, throwing stones up into the tree to dislodge the fruit and here is the fruit with nut case attached.

The fruit was not very ripe and rather bitter … but it explains why cashews are so expensive when you only get one nut per fruit growing spread out on the tree.

We finally arrived at the Backwater Farmhouse, tucked in the middle of nowhere, with several bungalows overlooking the canal. So here I am taking in the view … and what a view!

Nothing to do but turn up for meals, watch the water and the birdlife, take the odd boat trip and walk for a bit of light exercise. Late one afternoon we were punted in a small canoe and saw the sun set behind the coconut palms …

On the way back, as the light faded, the sky was filled with streamers of pink cloud, the sound of the muezzin was carried across the water from two directions towards us as the boat glided silently through the water, with only the sound of waterfowl and the creak of Chinese fishing nets lowering and rising in search of prawns.

Also spent a whole day and night on a punted kettu vallam, or rice barge (literally a boat with knots, with thatch made from plaited palm fronds).

Hard work for the boatman, both punting and pulling the barge along.

While some of us watched … or had a go.

The backwaters eventually reach a bund which has the Arabian Sea on the other side …

Then we moored up for sunset, then dinner a deux, and a night on the water.

Then it was time to leave and take a tuk-tuk 30km or so to Alleppey, the capital of the backwaters!