I heard about the mountain range called the Western Ghats from PBS documentaries. I had already flown over them several times on this trip and could see from the plane that there was something worth seeing. If I could arrange it affordably, I did not want to leave India without experiencing them. I had seen most of what I wanted to see by foot in Fort Kochi. Though not on the original “see it all” plan (which is not really a plan but an idea I am trying to act on) for this trip, I started investigating. Kochi is full of ways to get tourists to spend their money. Many shops have their owners standing outside beckoning tourists to come in and see what they have to offer. I don’t mind talking to people or looking in their shops, but anything I might buy I would have to carry with me for the rest of the trip. Another business that Kochi has plenty of is tourist information shops. I stopped in a few and got some ideas, but ultimately settled on getting a driver through my hotel. Most people do what I was trying to do in two or three days. My hotel was booked and paid for, so I settled on trying to do it in one day.
The hotel manager encouraged me to get a very early start in the middle of the week for the best chance to have a worthwhile experience. He said he had a good driver available who knew the area well and spoke English. The fee was based on distance traveled but he thought the trip could be done for the equivalent of about $60 not including food or entrance fees. That seemed reasonable to me. On the day planned, he arranged a wake-up call for 4:30 am and since I would miss breakfast at the hotel, he would pack one for me. I met my driver, Josie, waiting at the hotel door; informed him that I was a lucky guy and we would have a good day. He smiled, opened my door, and we were off.
He had an idea of what I wanted to do but we talked while he drove, dodging around traffic and people I could hardly see, while I let him know I was trying to get images for my website. I told Josie that I had not yet seen wild Asian elephants. He said there was a chance (which I knew from my investigation) and he would try his best to put me where they might be, while we made our way through the windy route into the Western Ghats. We were off to the tea growing region near the city of Munnar. I had been to a tea plantation in the Seychelles, but my eyes were not prepared for the beauty of the sun rising above the mountain top. We were only three hours into an all-day trip and it was already apparent to me that I was indeed a lucky guy. I wanted to ask him to stop, but I could see he already had a plan. There was probably no camera lens that could capture the image in my mind’s eye of the intense greens of the manicured tea trees, mixed with the pink, orange and yellow rays of the early morning sun as it filtered through mist and taller trees, some filled with blue flowers, some with red. It was an ethereal moment.
Up the road we went through the town of Munnar with the intent of making it to a national park where a rare and endangered species of wild mountain sheep, the Nilgiri tahr (Nilgiritragus hylocrius), might be found. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the park entrance, a sign said it was “closed due to calving season.” Undoubtedly, this is a wise measure needed to help save an endangered species, but he and I agreed that it gave me another reason to come back some other time. Josie said, next time bring your wife. He then started into an explanation of the driving tours he could take us on in southern India. We headed back down the mountain because now the Tea Museum that Josie had planned to take me to would be open. Along the way we looked for elephants, but we only saw pretty scenery, including huge but non-native eucalyptus trees. Josie stopped to show me a gigantic tree, next to the eucalyptus grove, that was filled with massive honey bee hives. They were impressive, but the lighting was not good, and so another moment for the lens of the mind.
The museum was nice, but no nicer than the one in the Seychelles. It did offer a documentary film on the history of the region and a tea tasting that I enjoyed, even though I am not a tea connoisseur. The young lady doing the tasting must not have thought I was enjoying it though. I was in a class of one, and she asked me very directly if she was boring me. I quickly answered no, but the real reason I was probably looking bored to her was my old and poor ears, which were having difficulty understanding her accent. I didn’t think quickly enough to give her any other answer. Instead, I smiled as the thought crossed my mind of a story my wife tells of herself falling asleep, when she was in a class of one. The young lady moved on. It was apparent to her that I was not going to be good at tea tasting as I guessed everything wrong. I could not even get the mint tea right until she let me smell the unbrewed mixture. Oh well.
Since I finished earlier than Josie expected, he suggested we drive up in elevation on a different route to the area called Top Station. He expected the day would be clear enough to see views into the border state of Tamil Nadu. We also would pass two man-made lakes built during the British colonial period that provide hydroelectric power to the region. He had seen wild elephants along the shore there in the past. We did not have any luck with elephant sightings along the way to the destination, but the drive was excellent. When he could drive no further, he let me out and said to walk up the gravel path to the overlook. I looked for birds and pleasing views. The light was harsh and the clouds not cooperating to give me opportunities to take the ideal photo. Then I saw something move in a tree. It was rather large and not clearly in view. I thought it might be a Malabar Giant Squirrel (Ratufa indica maxima) which I had heard about from Dr. Jake Goheen, the mammal expert from the University of Wyoming I met and wrote about while in Kenya. I did not choose it as the lead photo here (instead, I chose one of the pictures of the Bonnet Macaque (Macaca radiata) I saw on the path back to the car). However, it did move into better view and I got a few decent pictures which you can see here. I was again feeling pretty lucky with how the day was going and this post is already too long so I will end here and say: to be continued…