2nd March In the Hills

We took a 5 hour bus journey to Munnar, in the heart of the tea plantations in the Western Ghats, yesterday. The journey was hot and tiring, but a cool breeze made it more bearable, and it got cooler as we got higher in the hills. We are staying in a fairly basic hotel - no food provided. We have to walk 15 minutes to another hotel even for breakfast. But they do tours and are very good in all other respects.

We did a six mile "soft trek" round the tea plantations this morning with a guide, who was really interested in birds and fairly knowledgeable about their English names, which was a great help.He had very sharp eyes, and could spot and identify many birds without binoculars. if we didn't know one and had to look it up he pored over my bird book with me and remembered the markings better than I did. A great help! We saw a pair of Brahminy kites hunting some poor hapless lbj and a magnificent kingfisher - haven't got the name with me, as well as lots of others, bulbuls and barbets and minivets et al... We saw several species specific to the Nilgiri Hills, including a laughing thrush. The views from the hills were wonderful, and we learnt a lot about tea and how it is grown, and also saw coffee and cardomom plantings on the hillsides. We had to get up a 6 am and walk for 3 hours without breakfast for the privilege, but it was worth it!

We have plans for the next few days for walks round other hills and the Chinnar nature reserve, and plan to go to the bird reserve at Thettakad for 2 nights at the weekend.

It is amazingly good and wonderful. we're really enjoying ourselve and appreciating the cooler evenings. It is still 32-34 in the days but the nights are cold - we need a blanket and pyjamas.