Varkala - seafood, yoga and dolphins

And relax we did… Staying at a lovely guesthouse called “New Heaven” with a balcony looking out to sea. Varkala is a one mile stretch of guesthouses, restaurants, shops, spa and yoga centres set precariously along a cliff top. There is one main beach, but if you wander further north, you can also find lots of small secluded coves. The waves here are huge so the swimming can be a challenge!

One of the best things about Varkala is the seafood which is amazing. All the restaurants display the fish freshly caught that day. I’m told by Di that you can actually go and help the fishermen drag in the huge nets each morning at 7am (I won’t pretend that I went and did that – no one would believe me anyway!). Have had some delicious prawns, grouper and red snapper, and all this fish makes a nice change from the veggie diet of Rajasthan.

Yoga is also big here so I’ve done a couple of morning yoga classes which have been fun. Loving the dolphins too who can be spotted most days. It rained one day which they seemed to love as they went into a complete frenzy of flips and jumps, putting on quite a display.

You know, we’ve been in Varkala so long that even the shopkeepers don’t really hassle us anymore!

So, it’s our final train journey today – just a mere one hour to get us to Trivandrum, our final destination. After spending a night there, I fly up to Delhi tomorrow morning via Mumbai which in total takes 4.5 hours. This gives you some idea of the size of India and the distance we have covered. A direct train from Trivandrum to Delhi takes 50 hours – can you imagine?!? I’m then going to have a very boring afternoon and evening at Delhi airport as my flight to Nairobi doesn’t leave until after midnight. Back on Lewa by Friday lunchtime and very much looking forward to seeing the horses and cats!!



Amazing seafood

Varkala Beach

Enjoying mojitos