3rd Jan – 16 Jan 2014
Our driver Sennan who was found thru Sylvia at Gracefulhomestay (who also beat him down to Ru2800 per day, thats £28) was an excellent investment! For the all in price per day we got him, his local knowledge of Munnar (he does this trip quite regularly) all fuel, tolls, mileage & his living expenses plus he’s at our beck & call. I’ve got to say he couldn’t do enough for us, and was quite surprised when we didn’t use him but rather walked out & about.
So making full use if Sennans knowledge we planned the next few days tourtastic adventure.
Ann & Carl wanted to do some elephant riding….seeing as I was only just back up & about I didn’t feel up to it so became the official photographer
And feeding!
Then we went to Top Station
How cold?
As you can see it was a tad misty & not crowded at all. Annoyingly more expensive for foreigners. ….again!
The following day was out gallivanting in Sennans very comfortable Innova taking in the countryside, from the large plantations of eucalyptus trees (the seeds of which were smuggled into the country by the wife of a Tea plantation manager…in her stockings) still used to provide fuel for the boilers, to the never ending tea plantations themselves
Weighing in the T leaves
Then popped into the T museum
I’ve no idea what this concrete crocodile has to do with Tea, but it has pride of place right outside the front door!
Maybe something to do with the Old Dodgy handshake club?
But talking of Crocodiles we also checked out the crocodile rehabilitation centre
Then we drove for miles to a nature reserve so Carl “Grills” could have us trekked around allez uber in the mid day heat looking for wild animals……we didn’t even see a mildly upset one, other than Ann, refusing to climb the (wobbly) watchtower and still suffering with her broken arm
To be fair it was a long way up!
Whilst out exploring around the hotel Carl had noticed some advertising for a Quad bike experience just down the road, so early doors the next day we went & had a thrash! Brilliant fun & needless to say I thrashed his lap times!
Then that afternoon it was time for a bit of culture. ..we went to an Indian theatre to see a performance of Kathakali….a danced mimed artform performed to percussive instruments and wailing….think really long drum solos and that long wailing song from Pink Floyd!
1st the dancing with accompanied wailing
Now the drummers equaling Cozy Powell doing his 1812 overture drum solo piece (he played for Rainbow, Black Sabbeth & Whitesnake amongst others)
So after 5 hectic tourtastic days at Munnar we did the long drive back to Trivandrum, spent a last couple of days panic shopping in both Trivandrum & Kovalam….well Carl did, fitted in another trip to the Zoo, at Ru20 its just such good value, before sending Carl back to Blighty on the 0400 o my god its early plane.
Then it was a day or two at Graceful homestay prepping for the next leg…backpacking South East Asia via Sri Lanka.
The boss and I have decided to limit our baggage to One daysack each, that we can carry onto any plane; which means no sharps, no liquids over 100ml and weighing less than 7kg!
When I look back at all the gear we had…..oh boy!
How much kit?
So we’ve gone from that to this:-
oneoftwonowgopedalling 