We came to Ooty to trek in the Western Ghats – and we did, three times.
Talk about keeping it in the family, our first trek was guided by the chef, the second by the driver, but the third and most important we did alone and in secret…
Our shorter 10km trek took us past lakes and through evergreen forests to visit the unbelievably isolated Christian church of the local Toda (indigenous) people. We crossed rivers and vegetable fields (carrots are big here in more ways than one) to get there. Of course we were offered tea, of course we declined – it would have been a sip to far but they were really welcoming. On the way back we came across a group of guys fishing in the bend of a river – the river was generally clean apart from this bit where all of the detritus from upstream had gathered – why they were fishing here we have no idea, but it reinforced our decision to remain veggie. A really good trek, but a bit tame.
We had come for something a bit more rugged and the driver guide delivered it in spades the next day with a spectacular 20km hike through the hilly tea plantations around Coonor. The immaculately plucked tea gardens, often alive with women tea pluckers, as they tended their perfectly topiaried bushes. We were high above the clouds with spectacular settings, waterfalls, more nitms and monkeys everywhere. We called in at a tea processing plant and like the sandalwood factory in Mysore, this too was not working – is India closed? But Ant did get a cup of proper tea, not the chai so often offered on station platforms and the like. We were really lucky (?) on this hike to see a lone, enormous jungle bison bull. Our guide got nervous as they are renowned for being really tetchy. We survived the encounter. This was the furthest Gill has ever walked and is great training for Adam’s Peak. For those of you who are interested, we hiked past Lamb’s Rock to Dolphin’s Nose and saw Catherine’s Falls in the Nilgiri Hills above Coonor.
Before we tell you about trek three, we just want to point out that although this blog has innumerable references to alcohol, we can never get any! Every restaurant we have gone to in Ooty including at our hotel is dry. Although Joshua did manage to find us a dusty bottle of red one night which was well received, although it would have tasted better with some salt on chips! Our real issue is yet again, wine – Indian or any wine. One afternoon we act like a couple of crack whores as we scour Ooty town’s nooks and crannies entering the most unsavoury looking dens in search of a bottle – despite the few we found being called “wine shops”, no wine was to be had. Resigned and dejected we gave up when lo and behold across a busy road we saw a shop with bottles of red wine on display. Dodging buses, trucks and cattle, we raced across with expressions of joy on our faces and were even more delighted to discover that they were only £3 each. “We’ll take them all” we declared to the bemused Islamic shopkeeper. It was only then that we saw what must be the worst words in the English language on the label – “non-alcoholic wine” – our despair was complete. And thereby ended the third trek. It was at this point we decided to make an early exit from Ooty and descend to the warmer plains tomorrow.
Talk about keeping it in the family, our first trek was guided by the chef, the second by the driver, but the third and most important we did alone and in secret…
Our shorter 10km trek took us past lakes and through evergreen forests to visit the unbelievably isolated Christian church of the local Toda (indigenous) people. We crossed rivers and vegetable fields (carrots are big here in more ways than one) to get there. Of course we were offered tea, of course we declined – it would have been a sip to far but they were really welcoming. On the way back we came across a group of guys fishing in the bend of a river – the river was generally clean apart from this bit where all of the detritus from upstream had gathered – why they were fishing here we have no idea, but it reinforced our decision to remain veggie. A really good trek, but a bit tame.
We had come for something a bit more rugged and the driver guide delivered it in spades the next day with a spectacular 20km hike through the hilly tea plantations around Coonor. The immaculately plucked tea gardens, often alive with women tea pluckers, as they tended their perfectly topiaried bushes. We were high above the clouds with spectacular settings, waterfalls, more nitms and monkeys everywhere. We called in at a tea processing plant and like the sandalwood factory in Mysore, this too was not working – is India closed? But Ant did get a cup of proper tea, not the chai so often offered on station platforms and the like. We were really lucky (?) on this hike to see a lone, enormous jungle bison bull. Our guide got nervous as they are renowned for being really tetchy. We survived the encounter. This was the furthest Gill has ever walked and is great training for Adam’s Peak. For those of you who are interested, we hiked past Lamb’s Rock to Dolphin’s Nose and saw Catherine’s Falls in the Nilgiri Hills above Coonor.
Before we tell you about trek three, we just want to point out that although this blog has innumerable references to alcohol, we can never get any! Every restaurant we have gone to in Ooty including at our hotel is dry. Although Joshua did manage to find us a dusty bottle of red one night which was well received, although it would have tasted better with some salt on chips! Our real issue is yet again, wine – Indian or any wine. One afternoon we act like a couple of crack whores as we scour Ooty town’s nooks and crannies entering the most unsavoury looking dens in search of a bottle – despite the few we found being called “wine shops”, no wine was to be had. Resigned and dejected we gave up when lo and behold across a busy road we saw a shop with bottles of red wine on display. Dodging buses, trucks and cattle, we raced across with expressions of joy on our faces and were even more delighted to discover that they were only £3 each. “We’ll take them all” we declared to the bemused Islamic shopkeeper. It was only then that we saw what must be the worst words in the English language on the label – “non-alcoholic wine” – our despair was complete. And thereby ended the third trek. It was at this point we decided to make an early exit from Ooty and descend to the warmer plains tomorrow.
