Soon after we arrived we took part in a short 2-hour trek down into one of the many plantations. The scenery was unbelievable, the only way to describe this part of the world is as a 'Tropical Scotland'. Tree and tea-covered hills and mountains soar to the sky while lush valleys filled with yet more tea plantations stretch in every direction. Waterfalls cascade down from the highest peaks and the blue sky is dazzling.
It was very cool too. After the humidity of Cochin the dip to about 18-20c was welcome and it felt almost like an English summer's day.
The next day I took part in a five-hour trek into the mountains behind our guesthouse. It truly was magnificent. Tea plantations stretched for miles in every direction, and you could make out distant peaks and valleys. Our guide pointed out signs of where elephants had been only weeks before (unfortunately we missed them - they tend to follow the monsoon and the fresher weather), and as we sat down to lunch eagles soared below us looking for theirs.
(Once I find a reliable computer I will upload the pictures, but in the meantime there are some on my flickr account - follow link at top of page).
The next day after a brief visit to 'Top Station' which is a 40km climb from Munnar and 2,000m above sea level (and may or may not be in the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu - lots of conflicting reports), we headed on to Thekkady, home of the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary.
Where Munnar was a relaxed hill-top retreat, Thekkady (and neighbouring Kumily) is your traditional Indian town, very busy, very noisy, with someone trying to sell you something at every turn and everyone trying to run you over. During our brief stay here we managed to squeeze in a visit to a working tea factory (wow), a spice garden trip (actually quite good), a ride on an elephant and a visit to the wildlife park.
The wildlife park. Now, as wildlife parks go Periyar is quite big - 777sq km. There are apparently 3,500 elephants, 40-70 tigers and a host of other exotic creatures. Unfortunately after spending a full day there trekking and bamboo-rafting the jungles and lakes all we saw were some black monkeys, some wild boar, a hare, some blue/black butterflies, strange black and orange tadpoles and a dead buffalo - apparently killed by a tiger a couple of days ago (but remarkably unchewed).
This was a little disappointing, especially as one of our guides was armed with a rifle, an indication that we would at least see some magnificent and deadly creatures. Plus, the guides insisted on stopping every hour or so for a break when we could easily have carried on. Call us cynics but by the end of it we were questioning exactly what had killed that buffalo, and were wondering if that and the constant 'sightings' of things on distant riverbanks by our guides were genuine.
I'll stop whinging though it was a nice enough day and the tranquility of the park beat staying in the town.
After massacring our budget for four or five days we decided to brave the buses and trains and spent yesterday travelling the 250km south to the coast - a snip at 300R for both of us (just over 3 squid).
We're now staying in Varkala, where black and clay-coloured cliffs drop onto rocky beaches. It's got everything the backpacker needs and we'll be staying here for a few days of R&R before going onwards to Trivandrum on Nov 24th and flying to Sri Lanka on the 25th.
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