The Kerala Backwaters by Caravan: A 10-Day Coastal Circuit from Kochi to Kovalam

Introduction

Six in the morning. Marari. The trailer is parked on a coconut grove property about three hundred metres from the beach, down a laterite road that the owner swore was fine for vehicles and, for once, actually was. The sea is somewhere behind the palms, not visible from here but audible, this low continuous hush that’s been running all night. You slept with the windows cracked because the breeze off the Arabian Sea at this latitude, in January, is cool enough that you didn’t need the AC after midnight.

Your wife is making tea in the trailer kitchen. Not the tea from the resort buffet. Her tea. Her kadak chai with the exact amount of ginger and elaichi that she likes, made in the steel pot she brought from home, at whatever hour she woke up, without waiting for room service or walking to a breakfast hall in hotel slippers. The kitchen smells like cardamom and the gas burner’s blue flame, and outside the window a crow is sitting on the trailer’s awning rail like it owns the place.

Yesterday you were in Fort Kochi, parked near the Chinese fishing nets. Tomorrow you’ll be in Alleppey, somewhere near the backwaters but not on them (more on that shortly). In three days, Varkala’s cliffs. In a week, Kovalam. The entire Kerala coast, from the spice markets of Kochi to the lighthouse at Kovalam, strung together at whatever pace you choose, sleeping in your own bed every night, cooking your own food, and never once standing in a hotel lobby wondering whether the room will have hot water.

This is what a Kerala caravan trip looks like. And once you’ve done it, the houseboat thing starts to feel like a very expensive, very cramped, very overhyped way to see a canal.

If you’re new to travel trailers and wondering what we’re talking about, start here: The Complete Guide to Travel Trailers & Caravans in India (2026). This article assumes you know the basics and gets straight into the route.

Why Kerala Works by Caravan (and Where It Doesn’t)

Kerala is one of the best caravan states in India, and also one of the trickiest. Both things are true and you need to understand both before you hitch up.

Why it works: The entire state is basically a 550-kilometre coastal strip. Kochi to Kovalam is under 300 km by road. You can cover the whole coast in ten days without driving more than 80 km on any single day. The roads, especially the national highways and state highways along the coast, are excellent. Tarmac quality is genuinely better than most of north India. Fuel stations are everywhere. The food is extraordinary and available roadside at every price point. And the scenery changes dramatically every hour or two: backwaters, paddy fields, coconut groves, beaches, cliffs, lagoons, and if you detour slightly inland, tea and spice country.

Where it gets tricky: Kerala’s interior roads are narrow. Very narrow. The roads through villages, the roads to most beaches, the roads to the scenic spots that aren’t on the highway. A travel trailer is 7 to 8 feet wide. A typical Kerala village road is 10 to 12 feet wide, sometimes less, with coconut palms on both sides and no shoulder. This means you stay on the main roads with the trailer and use your tow vehicle (unhitched) for the last-mile exploration. This is the same principle we recommend for hill stations in our Himachal Mandi to Spiti itinerary: park the trailer at base, explore with the SUV.

The other tricky part is humidity. Kerala is humid year-round, and from May through September it’s monsoon-level humid with actual rainfall. Your trailer’s climate system, insulation quality, and ventilation design matter enormously here. We’ll cover this in detail later, but the short version is: a well-built, properly insulated US-import handles Kerala humidity without issues. A cheap conversion van with thin walls and no vapour barrier will grow mould inside a week.

When to Go: The Season Question

Kerala has three seasons for caravan travellers, and they’re quite different from each other.

October to February (the sweet spot). This is peak season and for good reason. The monsoon has washed everything green. The humidity drops to manageable levels (still more than Rajasthan, but comfortable). Temperatures hover between 23 and 32 degrees on the coast. The sea is calm. The backwaters are full but not flooding. Beaches are accessible. This is when you go if it’s your first Kerala caravan trip.

March to May (hot, quiet, cheaper). The coast gets properly hot: 33 to 36 degrees with high humidity. You’ll run the AC all afternoon and into the evening. Beaches are emptier, prices are lower, and the crowds vanish. If your trailer has a strong AC and good insulation (which it should), this window is perfectly doable and you’ll have popular spots like Marari and Varkala almost to yourself. The trade-off is the heat, and you need to manage it actively. For the full picture on running a trailer in Indian heat: Heat & Humidity Masterclass (India 2025).

June to September (monsoon, for the brave). Kerala’s monsoon is not a drizzle. It’s walls of rain for days at a stretch, waterlogged roads, and sea conditions that close beaches entirely. Some people love it (the landscape is at its most dramatic, Ayurveda season is in full swing, and the prices are rock-bottom). A caravan is actually quite nice in the monsoon if you’re parked somewhere safe: the sound of rain on the trailer roof is hypnotic, and you’re dry and warm inside while the world outside is being washed clean. But towing in heavy rain on wet Kerala roads requires experience and confidence. Not a first-timer’s window.

The Route: Day by Day

This itinerary starts in Kochi and ends in Kovalam, moving south along the coast with one inland detour. Total driving distance: about 350 km over 10 days. No single day has more than 100 km of towing. The pace is deliberately slow because Kerala rewards slowness.

Days 1 to 2: Fort Kochi

Arrive in Kochi. If you’re towing from Bengaluru or Tamil Nadu, the drive in via NH544 is a comfortable 8 to 10 hours of highway (plan an overnight stop at Thrissur or Palakkad if you prefer splitting it). If you’re shipping the trailer by truck and flying in, arrange delivery to your parking spot in advance.

Park the trailer on the mainland side of Ernakulam, not in Fort Kochi itself. Fort Kochi’s streets are built for autorickshaws and pedestrians, not travel trailers. Find a property or parking area near Vyttila or Thevara, connect to shore power, and use your tow vehicle or autos to explore Fort Kochi, Jew Town, the Chinese fishing nets, the spice markets, and Mattancherry. Evening walks along the Fort Kochi waterfront, where the fishing nets are silhouetted against the sunset and the air smells like frying fish from the stalls along the promenade.

Eat at the stalls near the Chinese nets (they’ll cook whatever the fishermen caught that morning, right in front of you) and pick up fresh spices from the Jew Town shops for the trailer kitchen. You’ll use them for the rest of the trip.

Days 3 to 4: Alleppey (Alappuzha) and the Backwaters

Kochi to Alleppey: approximately 55 km, 1.5 hours towing via NH66.

This is the stretch everyone thinks of when they think Kerala. The backwaters. The houseboats. The postcard. And here’s where we’ll say something that might be unpopular: you don’t need a houseboat.

The houseboat experience in Alleppey has become, frankly, a factory. Hundreds of boats on the same canals, diesel engines chugging, tourist boats bumper to bumper during peak season, and the overnight boats are often cramped, noisy, and overpriced for what you get (we’ll do a proper comparison later in this piece). What you actually want from the backwaters is the scenery: the canals, the paddy fields, the village life along the water, the light.

You can get all of that without sleeping on a boat. Park your trailer at a homestay or property near the backwaters (there are several along the Alleppey to Kuttanad road that have open land and basic hookup potential). Book a half-day country boat ride (a small canoe-style boat with a local guide, ₹1,500 to ₹3,000 for 3 to 4 hours) through the narrow canals that the big houseboats can’t enter. This is where the real backwater experience lives: the quiet canals, the kingfishers, the toddy shops, the old man fishing with a Chinese net from his front yard. You see more in four hours on a country boat than you do in 24 hours on a houseboat, and you come back to your trailer for a hot shower, your own dinner, and a proper bed.

Day 4: spend it slow. Walk or cycle along the Alleppey beach road in the morning (the trailer stays parked; you’re on foot or bicycle). Visit the Alleppey lighthouse if it’s open. Buy fresh fish from the beach market and cook it in the trailer. Alleppey karimeen (pearl spot fish) fried in coconut oil with curry leaves and chilli is one of the great meals of your life, and you can make it on a two-burner stove in twenty minutes.

Day 5: Marari Beach

Alleppey to Marari: approximately 15 km, 30 minutes.

Marari is what most people imagine when they imagine a Kerala beach: long, clean, coconut palms leaning over the sand, fishing boats painted in bright colours pulled up on the shore, and almost nobody else there. The big resorts (CGH Earth’s Marari Beach Resort, primarily) have kept the area from being overdeveloped. But you don’t need the resort. You need a coconut grove.

Several properties along the Marari beach road have open land under coconut palms. The kind of place where you park the trailer, string up a hammock between two trees, and walk to the beach in five minutes. The beach is public. The sunset is free. Your trailer is your room, your kitchen is your restaurant, and the only sound at night is the sea and the odd coconut falling.

This is a rest day. No driving. No sightseeing. Just beach, book, food, sleep. If you’ve been doing offsites at ₹15,000-a-night beach resorts, this is the same beach, the same sunset, the same quiet, at a fraction of the cost, with your own kitchen and bathroom.

Day 6: Kollam and Ashtamudi Lake

Marari to Kollam: approximately 120 km, 3 to 3.5 hours towing via NH66.

Longest drive of the trip. The highway is smooth but this stretch passes through several towns (Kayamkulam, Karunagappally, Chavara), and Kerala town traffic with a trailer requires patience. Your driver should be briefed on the narrow stretches and the tendency of Kerala buses to pass with approximately four inches of clearance. If your driver hasn’t towed in Kerala before, read and share: Hiring a Driver for Your Caravan Trip: The Owner’s Handbook.

Kollam is underrated. Ashtamudi Lake is a wide, calm backwater lagoon that’s less touristed than Alleppey’s canals. The Kollam waterfront has a quiet, old-world feel. Park near the lake’s edge (there are properties along the Ashtamudi eastern shore that work) and take an evening boat ride on the lake. The light at sunset on Ashtamudi, with the coconut palms reflected in the water and the toddy tappers climbing down from the trees, is the sort of thing that makes you understand why people keep coming back to Kerala.

Days 7 to 8: Varkala

Kollam to Varkala: approximately 35 km, 1 hour towing.

Varkala is dramatic in a way that nowhere else on Kerala’s coast is. Red laterite cliffs dropping straight to the sea. The beach at the bottom, accessible by steps cut into the cliff. The cliff-top path lined with cafes, shops, and coconut palms. If you’ve been on Goa’s beaches and thought “this is nice but flat,” Varkala is the corrective.

Parking here needs thought. The cliff-top road is narrow and not trailer-friendly. Park inland, on one of the properties along the Varkala-Edava road (about 1 to 2 km from the cliff). Use your SUV or an auto to get to the cliff-top area. The Papanasam beach (the main beach below the cliff) is a 10-minute walk from the cliff-top path. Spend the morning swimming (the waves here are stronger than Marari; be cautious). Afternoon on the cliff-top, eating fresh juice at one of the shacks and watching paragliders launch off the cliff edge. Evening at the Janardhana Swamy temple at the cliff’s north end, which is old enough that nobody’s entirely sure when it was built and atmospheric in a way that’s hard to describe without being there.

Day 8: Varkala rest day. Walk the cliff path. Take a yoga class if you’re so inclined (Varkala is full of yoga centres, some genuinely good, some tourist traps; ask locally). Buy fresh prawns from the fishing boats on the beach in the late afternoon (they come in around 4 pm) and cook a Kerala-style prawn curry in the trailer. Coconut milk, kudampuli, turmeric, and a slow simmer. The trailer will smell incredible.

Day 9: Poovar and the Backwater-Beach Confluence

Varkala to Poovar: approximately 50 km, 1.5 hours towing.

Poovar is where the Neyyar River meets the Arabian Sea, creating a peculiar geography where backwater, river, and ocean all exist within a few hundred metres of each other. The beach is accessible only by boat (which is part of the charm). The area is quieter than Kovalam, less developed, and has a few properties along the river that could accommodate a trailer.

This is the surprise stop on the itinerary. Most people skip Poovar because it’s not on the main tourist circuit. That’s exactly why you should stop. Park near the river, take a boat to the beach (local boats run for ₹200 to ₹500), and spend the day on what feels like a private island. The sandbar between the river and the sea is narrow enough that you can see both water bodies from where you’re standing. Pack lunch from the trailer. There’s nothing to buy on the beach and that’s the point.

Day 10: Kovalam

Poovar to Kovalam: approximately 15 km, 30 minutes.

The trip ends where Kerala’s tourism began. Kovalam was India’s original beach destination before Goa took over, and it still has a particular quality of light and a crescent-shaped bay that photographs better than anywhere else on this coast. The lighthouse beach is the main attraction; the Hawa beach to its north is quieter.

Don’t try to park in Kovalam town. The roads down to the beach are extremely narrow, steep, and hostile to anything wider than an autorickshaw. Park on the Kovalam bypass road or at a property on the outskirts (the Vizhinjam side has more space). Walk or auto to the lighthouse beach. Spend the last evening of the trip on the rocks near the lighthouse, watching the fishing boats come in and the sky turn orange, with the knowledge that your trailer is parked ten minutes away with a cold drink in the fridge and your own bed waiting.

From Kovalam, Trivandrum airport is 15 km if you’re flying out. If you’re driving the trailer back, the return to Kochi is a straight 220 km on NH66, or you can head east into the Western Ghats via Ponmudi and loop back through Tamil Nadu for a different return route.

Route Summary

Day	Destination	Distance	Nights	Highlight
1 to 2	Fort Kochi	Arrival	2	Chinese nets, spice markets, Jew Town
3 to 4	Alleppey	55 km	2	Country boat ride, karimeen fish, backwaters
5	Marari Beach	15 km	1	Coconut grove, empty beach, rest day
6	Kollam	120 km	1	Ashtamudi Lake, sunset boat ride
7 to 8	Varkala	35 km	2	Cliff-top beach, temple, fresh prawns
9	Poovar	50 km	1	River-sea confluence, boat to sandbar
10	Kovalam	15 km	1	Lighthouse beach, trip finale
Total		~350 km	10

Where You Actually Park in Kerala

This is the question that stops most people from attempting a Kerala caravan trip. The answer isn’t campsites (Kerala doesn’t have formal RV parks yet). The answer is people.

Kerala has the highest density of homestays in India. The state’s tourism model is built on small properties, family-run guesthouses, plantation stays, and rural homestays. Many of these have open land: a coconut grove, a rubber estate, a rice paddy with a clearing. Not all of them can host a trailer, but a surprising number can, if you call ahead and ask.

The conversation goes like this: “I have a travel trailer, about 20 feet long and 8 feet wide. It needs a flat area to park, a power outlet, and access to a water tap. Do you have space?” Most homestay owners will say yes. Some will be excited about it (they’ve seen caravans on YouTube, never seen one in real life, and want to know everything). A few will say no, and that’s fine. Move to the next one. In each of the stops on this itinerary, there are multiple options.

Some tips that Kerala specifically demands:

Check the access road. Kerala’s property access roads can be absurdly narrow. Ask the homestay owner to measure (or video call you) the narrowest point between the main road and the parking spot. If it’s under 9 feet at any point, don’t attempt it with the trailer. Use the property for your personal stay and park the trailer on the main road nearby.

Coconut groves are ideal. The ground under coconut palms is usually level, the canopy provides shade, and the spacing between trees is wide enough for a trailer. Just park away from the trees’ direct drop zone (coconuts fall, and they can dent a roof).

Ask about power stability. Rural Kerala has decent electrical supply but outages happen. If you’re running AC overnight, ask whether the property has a stabiliser or inverter backup. Your trailer’s battery bank will handle lights and the fridge for several hours without shore power, but the AC draws too much for battery alone.

For property owners reading this who want to make their land caravan-ready (and earn income from caravan travellers), the full guide: The RV-Ready Venue Blueprint: Building Caravan-Friendly Hospitality from the Ground Up.

Eating Your Way Down the Coast

Kerala’s food is reason enough to make this trip. And a caravan changes the food game entirely, because you’re not limited to hotel restaurants and tourist-priced beach shacks. You have a kitchen.

The strategy is simple. Breakfast in the trailer (dosa batter from the local shop, or eggs, or puttu and kadala curry if you’re feeling ambitious). Lunch at a local “meals” place, the kind of hole-in-the-wall restaurant that serves rice on a banana leaf with four or five side dishes for ₹100 to ₹200. These are everywhere in Kerala and they’re consistently excellent. Dinner in the trailer, cooked from whatever you bought at the local market that day.

The markets are the key. Kerala’s fish markets are legendary. In Kochi, the Thoppumpady fish market. In Alleppey, the beach market. In Varkala, the boats on Papanasam beach. In Kollam, the harbour market. You buy the fish two hours before you eat it. Karimeen, seer fish, prawns, squid, whatever’s in season. You cook it in the trailer with coconut oil, curry leaves, kudampuli (Malabar tamarind), and whatever spice mix you picked up in Jew Town on Day 1. The result is better than 90% of the fish you’ll eat in a restaurant, because the fish is fresher and you’re cooking it the way you actually like it.

For snacks, stop at roadside stalls for: banana chips (Kerala’s version is fried in coconut oil and salted, and it’s a different thing entirely from the packaged stuff), pazham pori (ripe banana fritters), and kattan chaya (black tea, strong, served in a glass, the state’s unofficial beverage). These cost almost nothing and they’re better than anything a resort will serve you as a “local snack experience.”

Toddy shops. If you drink, you should eat at a toddy shop at least once. These are roadside places that serve toddy (fermented coconut sap, mildly alcoholic, tastes like nothing else) alongside Kerala-style karimeen fry, tapioca, and duck roast. They’re loud, chaotic, and unpretentious. You sit on a bench, eat with your hands, and the food is devastatingly good. Not every toddy shop welcomes families, but many do, especially during lunch hours. Ask your homestay host for a recommendation.

Humidity: The Kerala-Specific Challenge

We need to talk about this because Kerala will test your trailer in ways that Rajasthan and Himachal won’t. Humidity along the Kerala coast runs between 70% and 95% for most of the year. In the monsoon, it’s basically 100%. This means everything that can absorb moisture will: fabrics, cushions, mattresses, food packaging, clothes, towels, books. In a poorly built trailer with thin walls and no vapour barrier, you’ll start seeing condensation on the inside of the windows within two days, and mildew on the soft furnishings within a week.

A properly built trailer handles this. US-built trailers from manufacturers like Forest River and Coachmen are designed for the American South (Louisiana, Florida, the Gulf Coast), where humidity levels are comparable to Kerala. They have vapour barriers in the walls, proper insulation that prevents condensation, sealed window frames, and ventilation systems that cycle air without letting moisture in. The AC also dehumidifies as it cools, which is half the battle.

What you need to do on your end:

Run the AC. Even when it’s not particularly hot. The dehumidification function matters as much as the cooling. If you’re parked and connected to shore power, run the AC on a low setting overnight. This keeps the interior dry.

Ventilate when you cook. Open the range hood vent, open a window on the opposite side of the trailer for cross-flow. Kerala cooking involves steam, and steam in a closed space in high humidity is a mould invitation.

Don’t leave wet towels inside. Hang them outside on the awning. A wet towel in a closed trailer in Kerala humidity will stay wet for days and start smelling within hours.

Check the seals before the trip. Window seals, door seals, roof seals, the seal around the AC unit on the roof. If any of them are cracked or peeling, water will find its way in. A pre-trip seal check is standard maintenance, but in Kerala it’s non-negotiable. For the full maintenance checklist: Ownership, Maintenance & Support in India (2026).

For the complete deep dive on how climate management works inside a trailer (hot weather, cold weather, humidity, insulation, airflow), this is the reference: Heat & Humidity Masterclass (India 2025). Read it before a Kerala trip. Seriously.

What Rig Handles Kerala?

Kerala specifically rewards certain features and punishes others. Here’s what matters:

Compact footprint. Kerala’s roads, access lanes, and property gates are narrower than most of India. A 16 to 22 foot trailer is the sweet spot. Anything over 24 feet becomes a headache on interior roads and at property entrances. The shorter the trailer, the more doors open to you in Kerala.

Insulation and vapour barrier. As discussed above. This is the difference between a comfortable 10-day trip and a mouldy nightmare. US-built trailers have this engineered in. Indian conversions mostly don’t. For the honest comparison: US-Built Travel Trailers vs. Indian Van Conversions: A Honest Comparison.

Strong AC with dehumidification. A 13,500 BTU rooftop AC is the minimum for a Kerala coast trip. The AC isn’t just for cooling; it’s your primary humidity control tool. Make sure it’s serviced and the filters are clean before you leave.

Good kitchen ventilation. A powered range hood with an external vent, not a recirculating filter. When you’re frying fish in coconut oil in a small space with 85% humidity outside, the ventilation system earns its keep.

Tow vehicle with enough power for the terrain. Kerala’s highway is mostly flat, but the approach roads to some destinations involve short, steep gradients. Nothing like Himachal, but enough that a properly sized tow vehicle matters. For the full guidance: How to Choose the Right Tow Vehicle for Your Travel Trailer in India.

For a framework on what makes a rig genuinely maintainable on Indian roads (and Kerala’s salt air and humidity make long-term maintenance a real consideration): Serviceability Index: What Makes a Camper Easy to Maintain in India (2025). Salt air corrodes poorly protected metal and electrical connections. A well-built rig with galvanised or aluminium frame components handles this; a cheaply built one doesn’t.

The Houseboat Comparison

This had to be its own section because the houseboat is Kerala’s most iconic tourism product and anyone considering a caravan trip here will ask: why not just do the houseboat?

Fair question. Here’s the honest comparison.

Feature	Houseboat (Alleppey)	Caravan (10-Day Coast)
Cost	₹8,000 to ₹25,000/night for a decent boat. 2-night package: ₹16,000 to ₹50,000.	Trailer + parking + food for 10 days: ₹40,000 to ₹1,00,000 (excluding trailer amortisation).
Bathroom	Cramped, often questionable plumbing. Shared on budget boats.	Your own, full-size, clean, working every day.
Kitchen	Boat crew cooks (you don’t choose the menu).	Your kitchen. Your menu. Your spices.
Route	Same canal loop, same as every other houseboat.	550 km of coast, your pace, your stops.
Privacy	Crew on board. Other boats alongside. Limited.	Your own space. Total privacy.
Duration	Usually 1 to 2 nights maximum.	10 days, or as long as you want.
Noise	Diesel engine during cruising. Other boats. Generator at night.	None (when parked). Sea breeze and crickets.
Flexibility	Fixed route, fixed time, fixed schedule.	Leave when you want, stay where you like, change plans on the fly.

We’re not saying skip the backwaters. We’re saying skip the houseboat and do the backwaters by country boat instead (half-day, a fraction of the price, better experience). Then spend the other eight days of your Kerala trip doing things the houseboat can’t: Varkala’s cliffs, Marari’s empty beach, Poovar’s river-sea confluence, Kovalam’s lighthouse, and the entire culinary adventure of cooking your way down the coast.

The houseboat gives you 24 hours on a canal. The caravan gives you 10 days of the whole coast. That’s the comparison.

Before You Go

A few things to sort before you start.

Driver briefing. Kerala’s traffic has a particular character: fast-moving buses, autorickshaws that appear from side roads without warning, two-wheelers that overtake on the left. If your driver hasn’t towed in Kerala, give him a full briefing: Hiring a Driver for Your Caravan Trip: The Owner’s Handbook. The first hour on NH66 will teach him what Kerala driving is about.

Pre-trip maintenance. Seals, AC filter, tyre pressures, battery health, fresh water system flush. All covered in: First 90 Days with Your Caravan (India 2025). The pre-trip section applies regardless of whether you’re a new or experienced owner.

Stock the kitchen before departure. Carry your basics: tea, coffee, oil, spices, rice, atta, dal. You’ll buy fresh produce and fish along the way, but the staples should be in the trailer before you start. Kerala’s grocery shops (particularly the small-town ones) won’t always have the brands or products you’re used to, and you don’t want to spend your first evening in Kochi hunting for a specific type of filter coffee powder.

Book your parking spots. Unlike Rajasthan (where open desert means you can park almost anywhere), Kerala’s density means advance booking is important. Call the homestays two to three weeks ahead. Explain the trailer size. Ask about access road width. Confirm power availability. The 15 minutes of phone calls save you from arriving at a beautiful property only to discover the gate is 7 feet wide and your trailer is 8.

And one more thing: take the route in this article as a starting framework, not a rigid schedule. If you arrive in Marari and decide you want three nights instead of one, stay. If Kollam doesn’t grab you and you want to push straight to Varkala, do that. The entire point of the caravan is that your schedule is yours. No cancellation fees, no rebooking hassles, no hotel checkout times. You wake up, you look at the map, and you go where the day takes you.

Kerala’s coast has been waiting for this. It was built for exactly this kind of slow, intimate, kitchen-first, no-rush travel. The houseboats got there first. The hotels got there second. The caravan gets there best.

Browse the range that handles Kerala’s coast: Enthusiast Range. Our showrooms are in Bengaluru and Mandi, Himachal Pradesh. For Kerala-bound owners, Bengaluru is the natural starting point.

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