Kerala is famous for its Backwaters and many tourists - both Indian and foreign - come here for this reason. It is a vast area of inland waterways and reclaimed land which run parallel to the Arabian sea for 150km. They were formed over a 1000 year period from an original delta of a river that begins in the Western Ghats. The first setters built up the higher land to live on, realising that the soil was very fertile for farming. Gradually the network of interlinked higher land, dykes and waterways extended and the land behind the dykes was reclaimed for cultivation. Nowadays the people live on the narrow banks of the canals, which is the highest land. Behind the banks are vast lower-lying rice fields, irrigated from the canals, or with excess water pumped out into the canals depending on the requirement for watering the crop. In times of flood not only can the houses be washed away, but the rice crop can also be destroyed if the dykes break.
I took a canoe trip with Shane, a tourist from Ireland.
Me and Shane on the canoe
Raju was our boatman. We sat right t the back with his legs tucked under him and a single paddle.
Raju, the boatman
He paddled us out of the small canal and across the main waterway into a larger canal. We passed many houseboats, ferries and various smaller boats which were transporting people, goods or crops. The waterways are beautiful. The banks have dense vegetation of banana and coconut palms. Occasionally the waterway opened up into larger stretches of water.
views from the canoe
house on the bank
small boat carrying grass to feed cattle
flowers by a house
house boat
The people in the house boats took pictures of us in our small canoe and we took pictures of them. The houseboat trade is the major form of tourism in the area. The boats are converted from the original spice boats that plied these waters. The construction on the deck is of bamboo. Originally they would have been punted along the waterways and been closed in with a couple of side openings for loading and unloading. Nowadays they can be very grand affairs with several bedrooms, balconies and air conditioning. The houseboat industry is controversial. On the one hand it brings much-needed currency to the region, but on the other the pollution caused by the boats is threatening the natural environment. Fish stocks and birdlife is diminishing. The lives of the people who live on the banks are also impacted. The canal water is vastly important to their lives. Most of the houses on the banks have an access point to the canal with wide concrete steps going down into the water. These people use the water to wash themselves, their hair, their clothes, their cooking utensils, clean their teeth and prepare food for cooking such as de-scaling and washing fish. An additional problem is the added erosion of the banks caused by the increased traffic by these big boats.
We passed a place where men were building boats.
Boat yard
We paddled into a tiny canal no more than a couple of meters wide. A woman came out of her house and stepped into the water fully-clothed. She started to lather herself with soap on the exposed skin of her tummy and arms. Then she submerged herself fully and ran the water through her long hair. When she came up she twisted her hair and tied it in a knot at the back of her head. I couldn’t help thinking that their lives are being lived so publically and it seemed voyeuristic to be paddling through their lives. If it were me I think I would feel like an animal in a zoo, or an exhibit in a theme park.
little canal
woman washing her hair
washing clothes
On one bank of the canal there was a small school and the children were just coming out at the end of the day. They gathered with parents on the boat jetty and a small boat with a motor came alongside to take them home.
School children waiting for the 'bus'
Boat to take them home
We stopped at a small café for a cup of tea and Raju showed us the rice fields on the other side of the bank.
Rice fields
On the journey back we saw several kingfishers. There are little ones that are strikingly blue, like we get at home and bigger ones that are not so colourful.
Some men were cutting banana leaves. Raju explained that there was to be a big wedding the next day and they are gathering leaves for the traditional wedding meal eaten off a banana leaf platter
Cutting banana leaves
It started to rain and Ragu tucked the handle of an umbrella under his arm as he continued to paddle. Shane and I took turns paddling from the front. We got soaking wet, but it was warm and rather nice to be on the water in the downpour.
As the rain stopped Raju called to us and pointed out something in the sky. We could see what we thought were big black birds flying quite high above the water. They were about the size of big rooks, or seagulls. But he seemed to be saying, ‘Bats’. Surely not! But as they flew over the shape of their wings was unmistakeably bat-like.
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