In a green paradise

My brother-in-law Dr Ravi and his wife Sandhya had been inviting us to visit Munnar. He is working with Kannan Devan Hills Plantations Company Pvt Ltd and when they were in Bengaluru, we joined them on their return journey to Munnar by car.

 

After having lunch at Udumalpet, we started navigating the ghat section. As we dove up the Munnar hills, we could see only dried-up plants and shrubs initially. But soon, the greenery started unfolding.

A journey of nearly two hours brought us to the bungalow occupied by the couple.

Where did we go?
We got up early next morning to hear the singing of birds. As we started our morning walk, we were stopped by the whistles of a rare bird, which sounded like that of a school boy. The bird has been appropriately named as ‘whistling school boy’!  We enjoyed this walk on all the six days of our stay in Munnar.

During our stay, we visited the Tea Museum, set up by Tata Tea, which is located at Nallathanni Estate. At the museum, we had a look at the curios, photographs and machineries each of which had a story to tell.

Another place that left us impressed was Top Station, which is the highest point in the Munnar hill range. On our iterinary also was the High Range Club set up in 1905.

Teeing off

We also had the chance to visit Kundale Golf Course set up in 1895 by the early British and Scottish planters at an altitude of 7,000 feet - surrounded by tea estates and forest.

We were at the club between 5 pm and 6 pm. The person in-charge here told us that if we were to remain there for another 30 minutes to one hour, we could see herds of bison moving around.

We left the place reluctantly. But on our way back we were lucky to see wild elephants moving in the greenfield nearby!

The wild world

We were equally lucky to see a couple of Nilgiri Tahr on our way to Eravikulam National Park. Actually a large number of visitors had piled up at the park to see this rare endangered animal. However, none of them were lucky as the animals failed to turn up.

Quite surprisingly, we were rather welcomed by them on our way as they appeared in front of our vehicle from nowhere! In fact we could take a few pictures quite comfortably.

Our days in Munnar were so splendid that time just flew. The lovely hills had clearly enriched us.