We arrived at Olive Brook, a homestay with 4 cottages, beautiful gardens with poinsettias growing outside.
We were taken on an afternoon walk down the road through cardamom and tea plantations and later, after a cookery demonstration for veg and coconut curry, we had a wonderful home cooked meal, where the dishes just seemed to keep coming!
We spent the next day driving 34km up to Top Station at 2200m, through the tea plantations and wonderful views. First stop was Mattupatty dam, where the scenery was very like the Lake District, even with a cloudy sky, until you notice many of the trees are eucalyptus (not incidently indigenous, but planted by the British to provide fast growing fuel for tea processing).
Onwards to Echo Point, where a large group of noisy Indians obliged with the shouts over the water to get an echoed shout back. But this is India, and despite the beauty of the landscape it is marred by the continual rubbish, a pile that was being burnt as we were there.
And finally to Top Station, which was a little disappointing as we were in the cloud, and although we walked down to the viewpoint, it wasn’t until we walked back, the cloud lifted slightly …
The neelakuunji plant grows in the meadows here, and has wonderful blue flowers, but only every 12 years, with the next flowering expected Oct 2018.
Next stop, down the mountain to Madurai.
My husband Chris and I decided to go away to celebrate our two big birthdays which meant we needed to be away six weeks to take them both in … and since funds aren’t unlimited, where better to go when it’s chilly in England than Southern India.
Off Travelling Together 