After a few hours ride from Coimbatore to Silent Valley National Park, my driver dropped me off at the park entry. I think there were only a few tourists and I got my personal park ranger for the trip. This being remote India, prices were quite reasonable, both for the driver as well as the park ranger.

The park ranger took me into the National Park by jeep, acted as spotter and took me to the standard tourist stops including a view tower. The final stop of the tour was at a waterfall. The roads were rough; there is no way you can do this by normal car. Along the way we saw plenty of monkeys and other animals. We also found elephant tracks, but did not meet any.

What I liked about Silent Valley was its remoteness and space. Most of India, even areas that look remote, are not. You are hard pressed to find idle nature; Silent Valley is. Still, I was hard pressed to identify specific OUV. I have to admit, though, that animal watching is not my thing. I found the chats I had with my driver re living in India way more interesting.

Getting There

The first question you will have to answer is where? The Western Ghats stretch 1600km along western India from Pune all the way down to Kerala. Even if you have settled on the general area you want to visit, you will run into problems. I investigated several national parks and reserves along my route from Goa to Kerala and could find little to no online information or travel information. This was aggravated as most parks are in rather remote areas. I think Kerala is your best option.

Note 2019: The website of the Silent Valley National Park was redone and is now quite fancy. They even list different visiting options. I am not sure if other National Parks also received an upgrade.

In the end, I got a driver and combined my visit to Silent Valley National Park with the ride from Coimbatore to Kochi. Price was okay.

While You Are There

If you are visiting the Southern portion of the Western Ghats in Kerala like I did, there are few other sites to tick off. From Coimbatore you can take the Nilgiri Mountain Railways, one of the Mountain Railways of India to Ooty. In Tamil Nadu you find the Chola Temples.

Not a world heritage site, but quite popular with tourists are the Backwaters in Kerala.