We spent a couple of wonderful fresh, cool days in the mountains driving through the beautiful tea plantations and staying in a cottage overnight.

The transport was four wheel drive and we shared the tour with a couple of retired journalists from New Jersey and two lady nurses from Vancouver, a really nice group.

The whole landscape is planted with tea bushes, they grow very well in the mountain climate and terrain and their roots help to stabilise the steep, sloping ground.

Tea was introduced by the British in the 1800’s , several tea processing factories were set up and dams were built to harness the mountain rivers and lakes for hydro power to run  the factories.

India have since reclaimed ownership of the  large tea plantations and all the workers are now given shares in the company. Healthcare, childcare, housing and community services have long been established for the workers in and around the tea plantations.

 The young shoots of the tea plants are picked every 10 days and taken back to the processing plants where they are crushed and rolled, oxidised and then dried and packaged.

The tea company soon found that women make the best pickers as they are much more dexterous and therefore faster and more accurate than the men.

We walked to a look out at the ‘top station’ for spectacular views across the mountains over the Western Ghats and on the way back we sampled the local passion fruit and tree tomatoes squeezing the fruit straight from the skins.

Back at the cottage Rajid prepared our lunch and dinner each day, making some great tasting Kerala vegetable curries, so I quizzed him about the spices he used and made some notes ready to buy some local spices from the supermarket.

While out and about we stopped at the local government liquor store, for Mark & Charles to buy some beer to drink with our dinner, a very covert operation carried out behind private screens.

The Indian women look so elegant and colourful in their saris – even when collecting fire wood, water and supplies.

It prompted us to visit the shops and  buy some local fashions – but we just can’t seem to carry it off the same way ! I have bought a lovely patterned sari but I need more practise wrapping myself up and I certainly need a lot more safety pins before I master the art !

By the way, contrary to current rumours, the photos below are not taken from inside the local prison !