BANG - and then there was tourism. After chilling on remote and far away beaches for the last few weeks, finding lots of 'white' tourists ironically came as a bit of a culture shock. Possibly we can direct blame at the start of the holiday season, but to be fair Palolem itself is rather hard to leave... our planned stay has been well extended already.
It is quite possible that I can be a little susceptible to challenges at times, and upon meeting the French version of Steve Irvine (Emanuel) we were easily convinced that heading into the jungle to canyon down some waterfalls would be a good idea... and so we did! A TV show was recently filmed at said waterfall, with 'French Steve' leading the presenters down the route that we would follow. Basically we began by driving into the middle of the jungle in an open topped jeep (I really want one), before hiking 1/2 hour to the the river we would conquer. 'French Steve' decided this an appropriate time to inform us of all the ways that we could die today, not least his story about bumping into a tiger in this part of the woods (sorry, i mean
Jungle) before. If we were to meet one ourselves, it was deemed best that we run at it with our hands above our heads making loud noises (presumably so that it would think we totally bonkers and rather untasty)!
The actual canyoning was great fun, although I recommend doing the same in Europe where you don't have to check for snakes before jumping into the water. Speaking of snakes, we had an encounter with the worlds most poisonous variety - the King Cobra. The King Cobra diets on other snakes, and the Cobra in question was enjoying a nice snakey dinner when we made our introductions. Crazy 'French Steve' offered to
clear the snake from our path and sent us a short distance away, with instructions to leave him should he be bitten (there is not serum for the King Cobra in India). We were left to mull over that fact that should he be bitten we would actually have to pass the snake on our only way out anyhow. Luckily our snake charmer friend was less than charming, and Mr King Cobra hid long enough for us to pass. We met his intended dinner further downstream, who was taking his last snakey breaths thanks to the venom (see photo).
All a bit hungry from this action, we ended our jungle adventure for the day by eating some red ants (which surprisingly tasted of lemon) before heading back to our nice and safe touristy beach. Suddenly the beach seems a nice safer place, if a little less fun. x
