Zig Zag Zag Zig

Tuesday 28th and apologies to our growing band of readers for failing to blog yesterday. The 290 km or c.8 hours of down and up the mountains from Kodai to Cardamom simply meant that an ayurvedic massage and a beer followed by some post meal traditional dancing laid on at the hotel ate up the available time before getting some shut eye in preparation for the final 190km dive down to Kottayam.

During the day we simply lost count of the number of bends causing us to saw constantly at the steering wheel, to the point where it became almost mesmerising. The first part retraced our steps down the hill's before we climbed again hitting the very dramatic countryside created by the numerous tea plantations stretching as far as the eye can see in some places. The plantations were established by the East India Company in the early 19th century when the chinese embargoed exports. The sheer human endeavour required to create the terraces is staggering with these in places rising to the hilltops interrupted only by massive black boulders randomly dumped by nature across the landscape. The bushes themseves are neatly trimmed and carefully fenced with occasional tea factories with their piles of firewood to fuel the boilers interupting the view.
Yesterday was so long that we snacked our way through the day rather than stopping for a midday meal. There are plenty of little shops/shacks along the route where local delecacies can be purchased including deep fried peppers, which I am told were delicious. (I did not partake - peppers being poison to me!)
The afternoon continued the switchback ride with the landscape changing as we started to encounter cardamom plantations, pepper trees etc. Kerala, where we now were, growing a massive range of spices including vanilla, star anise, bay and nutmeg.
The town was full of merchants pushing their wares but a quick trawl through the town showed that there were bargains to be had further away from the hotels. More things to find room for!

Towns visited today were:- Palani, Udumalapet, Chinnar, Munnar, Pulianmalla, Kumli & Kodai with the overnight stop in Cardomom

It is nearing 1 o'clock a.m here and I am being bitten to death here so I'm signing off for now and will post more text and photos of which there are many (!) tomorrow.
I'll also update you about the run in to the end.
We all arrived safe and well and after an 'Indian dress evening' are looking forward to our 'day off' before a very early morning start for Cochin airport on Thursday. The flight change via Male in the Maldives being a minor irritation but not changing our arival time of 7.45pm (from memory).