Damn its cold!

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Yes you're right there is no pleasing some people. But what is an englishman (/scotsman) if he can't moan about the weather!

We have moved over the border into Tamil Nadu after a litlle more difficult journey than we were hoping for. The guide book indicated that you could either walk (6 hours) or get a jeep most of the way between Munnar and Kodai. However for some reason (we haven't been able to get a definitive answer on this as everyone gives us a different reason) the trail is closed. So we had to get a taxi all the way round as there didn't seem to be any buses that ran between them (although there seem to be plenty running from Kodai!).

We left at 8am and didn't arrive until 5pm but we had a 3 hour stop in Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary. It was 11am by the time we arrived (perfect timing for the hottest part of the day!) and we didn't expect to see much. Luckily though we heard some elephants calling to each other and thanks to my hawk eyes we found them sheltering under a tree (I saw them before the guide which I think he was a little sore about). We sat on a ledge for a while and waited. Finally the group moved out into the open for a while and then some minutes later were joined by a second group. All in all there must have been 10-15 wild elephants of all ages feeding about 200 metres below us. It was amazing and much more than we could have hoped for.

The next part of the drive took us about 3 hours. We had driven most of the way down from Munnar to Chinnar so we now had to drive all the way back up again to 2100m. We were now in Tamil Nadu and we noticed the difference almost immediately. It is much poorer here and many of the roads are in a terrible state. The road up the mountain gave us some breathtaking views but it was a bonecruching experience! After we got about halfway up we noticed a significant drop in temperature and realised we should probably have asked for a heater in our room.

Kodai is quite an nice picturesque place and at first I had high hopes for it. However once we were there for a while you realised it was just another Hill Resort that was desperate for the tourist dollar and in danger of ruining its own livelihood by overdevelopment. There are hotels everywhere you look and as time goes by the white paint jobs look more and more tired. It is off season so everyone in the tourist trade is fighting to make a living and it makes it quite uncomfortable.

The drive down from Kodai (to Kodai Rd station on the other side from where we came up) was even more amazing than the drive up (and infinitely more comfortable!). It has to be one of the best drives I have ever been on. It's a shame we were in a minibus and we couldn't stop anywhere to take pictures but I doubt whether the pictures would have been able to capture the breathtaking views and huge sheer drops at the side of the road.

Next we have another overnight train journey to look forward to. The train leaves at 11.50pm and arrives at 5.30am so we'll need to be up at 5am just to make sure we don't miss our stop. Damn I'm looking forward to this!!!

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