Thursday 30 April 2015
Highlights: Watching the many uses of coconuts.

A home cooked meal to start our longest travel day.  Today there is a general strike in India which is supposed to stop transport but travel to the airport is allowed so that’s what our car stated.  A short canoe ride with our bags saw us off the island and away.

Sajin organised a couple of stops on the way to Cherrai Beach.  The first one was St Andrews Basilica which supposedly is the site of miracles.  More interesting was the stop watching local make rope and carpet from coconuts.  Very strong rope at that and still very labour intensive.

Our last stop was to watch carpenters make boats, particularly interesting was watching them stitch together the pieces of wood using coconut rope.  Coconuts are really a big part of life here.

The long travel got me to really pay attention to travelling and the road rules.  I’m fairly certain their are rules like you should try to stay on the left, and using the car hoon is compulsory every few minutes.  It’s amazing there aren’t more deaths.

Cherrai Beach is close to Fort Kochi were we began but is close to the airport.  The beach is protected by rock walls which went up after the tsunami in 2004.  This stay also gives me a change for much needed laundry before leaving for Japan in 2 days.