A visit to the land of colors...: Munnar Weekend Trip

Two weekends ago Anja and I travelled together with two other friends went to Munnar, a mountain tea town nestled in the Western Ghats, Kerala. On the map it did not look very far but it turned out to be a 5 hour trip (6 for Anja). Usually a trip like that is not to bad but when your long legs are crammed so hard into the seat in front of you that you start loosing feelings in your legs and feet, then the trip is extremely long. Not to mention that the mountain roads wind on what they call "hair pin bends", which send you flying from one side of the seat to the other. Luckily we were on a state bus and the driver did drive nice and slowly.Still, it was a good work out! We arrived in the damp mountain town and quickly found our small and nice hotel outside the center. We found out they offered day treks, so we decided to join on the next morning.

At 6.30 we had some tea and crackers and then headed out into the heavy fog that was covering the town. We worked our way through the tea plantations in this heavy fog never seeing more than a couple meters in front of us. It did not take very long before we broke through the fog and were able to get a view of the landscape. Rolling hills of nothing but tea and a few scattered trees as far as the eye can see, it was a very impressive sight! Once we reached the top of the plantation the real hiking started, from where we started to the first top was a 600 meter climb from 1500 meters to 2100 meters. It got tough and steep and we were all hungry because we had not eaten breakfast. When we arrived at the first top Anja and Eva, a Swedish volunteer, decided to call it a day and were served breakfast. The got eggs, toast, jam, bananas, pineapple, and tea and I started eating it with my eyes. But Thierry and I had decided to go to the next top at 2300 meters, so it was a while before we would have anything in our stomachs. We could see the top wrapped in a light cloud and started winding our way slowly upwards. At one point it got so steep that I started to question why I had put myself in the predicament. But when we finally reached the top around 10.30 it was a great feeling. I sat down at the top ready to dig into the food at once but our guide sat down and relaxed, it was only 15 minutes later he started to take out the food from his bag. There we sat at 2300 meters half covered by a cloud and enjoyed one of the best and most deserved breakfasts ever! Then it was time to go down. It did not take long before I started to feel weak in my legs and knew it was going to be painful the next day. For some reason the way down always feels ten times faster that the way up, and we were down in a flash. Although the whole way down we were taunted by heavy rainclouds that could burst open at any moment.

After that hike Anja was not feeling well at all and later that night I also got pretty bad in the stomach so the rest of the weekend was extremely low key (including a massage for Anja, which was highly appreciated ;) Except of course for the intense busride back down the mountain, which is a workout in itself. I was completely exhausted by the time I got home and slept a solid nine hours :) But all in all a very nice trip, and just taking in the view form endless fields of tea plants was worth the whole trip! Well worth seeing!