We scratched our heads and continued the loop around the lake to find tea-terraced mountain views, huge bugs and more monkey gangs. In one dense bamboo area Leon spotted a huge fluffy something snacking on slivered leaves up high. I never saw its face, but it was all a fuzzy reddish brown...and very hungry for plant matter - mongoose? giant squirrel? red panda? I dunno.
When we finished a lap and were heading out, Amer questioned the ticket man for not alerting us to the fact that the park's currently elephant free. The man explained their elephant is leased, he spends a month or so at one area, has vacation then a month or so at Pookot Lake. Although it wouldv'e been nice to try, I am please that even elephants have labor contracts in Kerala and get vacation days! :)
so we continued uphill
Climbing even higher
The park seems to be positioned in a wealthy suburb-type area, because the houses we walked by were pretty spectacular and set into layered coffee and rubber tree plantations. Our path led us out of the neighborhood and into the forests, where native rainforest and eucalyptus groves merged overtime to mist a purifying fragrance through the air - it was glorious! We climbed boulders and smooth river paths to reach a dramatic waterfall above, then looped our way to gain expansive views of the dam and golden reservoir below, just in time for setting sun.