Trip to the backwaters in Kerala

As our last trip, Benjamin, Stefan, Nienke and I planned an outing to the backwaters. The backwaters are a branching network of waterways in the hinterland of the Malabar Coast in the southern Indian state of Kerala. They stretch from Kochi in the north to Kollam in the south and cover a total area of 1,900 km².

On the first day we had a look around town, saw several parades and took a short boat tour. That made us want more. We decided to rent a houseboat and spend two days enjoying the beautiful scenery from it. The houseboat came with a crew of three, who took care of navigation and our physical well-being.

By the way, the backwaters include 29 larger lakes and lagoons, 44 rivers and a total of around 1,500 kilometres of partly natural, partly man-made canals. The largest lake is Vembanad Lake, 83 kilometres long and open to the Arabian Sea. Other large bodies of water are Ashtamudi Lake and Kayamkulam Lake. 41 of the 44 rivers running through the backwaters flow west into the Arabian Sea; three flow east.