The vibrant hills of Munnar
Jackamy
Paul & Derry Harper
Fri 4 Feb 2011 19:12
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Friday 4th January
Around 125 km from Cochin, Munnar town
itself is not worth a visit, but just a few kilometres our of the town and you
are engulfed in a sea of stunning green. The lolling hills all around are
covered by a thick carpet of tea trees, with breathtaking mountain scenery and
fresh crisp air. We finally had a glimpse at tea-pickers and how they work.
Using a pair of shears with a bag attached to collect the clippings, the women
prune the bushes to a height of around 1 metre.
  We've umm-ed and ahh-ed about
elephant riding all the way through south east asia and up to here and we
finally gave in with India being our last chance. We were extremely lucky as our
elephant, 24 year old Julie, seemed to be walking alone and we did our trek
by ourselves, whereas other people were stuck in a group of three as the lead
elephant was holding them up. It was great fun and very peaceful making our way
through the forest on the back of an elephant with our mahout Abu to direct
Julie. The funniest thing was that all 3 of us had to go on together, Amy is
starting to feel guilty about mustling in on our trip, particularly when
she was sat between us on the back of an elephant.
 Climbing aboard........Ready to
go
 Whoa, she was big!
 Julie posing for the camera in
the forest............Following Abu the experienced mahout (4 years with working
elephants at a timber yard and years here)
 Heading
back..........
 Julie and her
bindi's.........Thanking Abu, it was nice to find a friendly mahout for a
change
We were having to guide ourselves
around Munnar because our hired driver/guide didn't speak any English
whatsoever. Oh no, yes he did, bizarrely he knew to say 'one second' when he
hopped out the car to get something. We elected to go to Top Station, which, on
Kerala's border with Tamil Nadu, supposedly has great views over the Western
Ghats. We now know that driving 32 km up a steep hill in a car that you have to
hot wire each time you want to start it, and with a driver who either drives in
1st gear or 5th gear up the hill, was not a wise idea! To make matters worse
when we finally made it to the top we couldn't see anything because of the mist.
We could kind of make out faint mountainous shapes but it was very
disappointing, especially considering we had just risked our lives to see the
view.
 Thankfully, on the drive back
down the scenery took our minds off Mineshs' atrocious driving. Beautiful green
fields of tea plants stretched as far as the eye could see, giving the
impression that you could stroke the mountains and they'd feel like velvet, it
was incredible! We even came across a bunch of tea pickers at the road side who
were having their bags of leaves weighed at the end of their working day. They
were then soon off home to see their families and I'd like to say to put their
feet up, but no doubt they'd be going home to do cooking and
cleaning.
 Velvety mountains
  Weighing the bags on the
left.........Tea leaves piled high
 Home time......With a bunch of
firewood on her head
 Tiny homes nestled at the foot
of the mountains surrounded by vegetable plots
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