My friend and I started our journey one fine October night, from Bangalore to Munnar, a hill resort in the Western Ghats of Kerala. We studied the map and planned to take the Coimbatore-Udumalpet route to Munnar.

The proposed route

The next morning we reached Coimbatore, had our morning refreshments there and then took a bus to Udumalpet, around 60 kms away from Coimbatore. We left Udumalpet after having lunch; Munnar is 86 kms away and the way is full of scenic views.

After a couple of miles, a wooden board on the right side informed us that the road ahead was through the Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary. And within half-an-hour, we reached the Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary. The word chinnar in Tamil/Malayalam means small river. The name is appropriate, for we had to cross a small river of sparkling water to enter the forest. Being on the leeward side of the Western Ghats, the forest is dry and deciduous.

Half-way through the journey we reached Marayur -- a meeting place of dusty roads, vegetable shops and village people -- in the middle of the forest. It is the only place in Kerala that has a natural growth of sandal wood trees. The bus stopped there for a while, to allow the passengers to have refreshments, before it commenced the second leg of the journey.

I got down to have a 'soda-with-salt' lemon juice. Taking a sip, I glanced around. Voila! I saw a towering blue mountain at a distance over the bushes and the shops on the other side of the road. "That is the destination," my friend said.

Having had our refreshments, we started on the next leg of the trip. The woods on both sides of the road were not green and thick and there was a typical smell of ginger. I was looking out through the window hoping to catch a glimpse of any animal that may cross my eyes. The Ashok Leyland bus was grunting in twelve different voices, occasionally in the thirteenth. Sometime later, another wooden board reminded us that we were entering the private land of the Tatas -- the Tata Tea Estate -- from where we get Kannan Devan tea. There was still over 30 kms to get to Munnar.

The bus took a winding uphill path through that picturesque teascape. Below, I saw hills covered with the green velvet of tea plants. Above, I saw hill slopes with more green velvet of the tea plants. In one scan, I saw countless hills of tea plantation around me. The bus was still on the uphill course. By evening we reached the Munnar town and got down there. It was a small town with a small population and the climate was cool.

Lush Munnar

Munnar literally means three rivers and in fact, has three of them -- Muthirapuzha, Nallathanni and  Kundala -- meeting at the heart of town. This place is famous for the Neelakkurunji (Strobilanthus), the unique plant that blooms only once in twelve years and paints the entire hill slope blue. My friend's uncle stayed at Mattuppetti, 15 kms from proper Munnar. We took an auto rickshaw to his uncle's house.

Munnar

Uncle is an employee of the Tata Tea Company and he works at their research and development (R&D) office at Mattuppetti. That night, uncle took us to his office -- an entire hill is devoted to the R&D department. He showed us the various types of tea plants, the new hybrids developed, the clones and the tissue cultured siblings, the various types of soils in the hills; described the various experiments going on there and the ones in the pipeline.

Then he took us to the laboratory, which had some sophisticated machines kept there. Seldom do we think about how much human effort it takes to make each cup of tea better and tastier! After spending two good, educating hours in the lab we went out for a long walk under that moonlit night; up in the sky, Venus was watching us. We climbed up the hills and climbed down the hills.

In that moonlit, misty night, the whole valley seemed to me like the 'Valley of the Blue Moon'. It was a strange attractor in this chaotic world. I was subdued by the awe that it generated.

After a sound sleep, the next morning we went to the Eravikulam National Park on uncle's Ind-Suzuki motorbike. We started early and reached the park, 18 kms from Munnar, before noon. Not that the path was difficult, but since we stopped on the way to take photographs it took us a while.

Needless to say, the path leading to the park was magnificent. Below, on the right side of the road, the dense forest was abloom with wild flowers of all stunning colours. On the left, a clear stream ran in parallel against us, laughing past the path-blocking rocks. Her laughter filled the silent valley. We stopped to relax for a while.

As we rode through that winding path full of potholes, a seamless sound of gushing water surrounded us. In a few minutes we found its origin. Some distance away from the roadside, a huge mass of water was falling over the rock in to a stream, 20 metres below. Two branches of a karimaruthu tree bent over the falls provided an excellent frame for a picture postcard. I took a snapshot and we continued the journey. We reached a small junction from where we took a left turn as a board there indicated that we have to take a left turn to reach Rajamalai, where the park is situated.  

The small gradient turned steep -- we were climbing one of the highest hills in southern India. We climbed up through the countless hairpin bends. The visibility became poorer as clouds of mist gently breezed past us. Riding through the clouds we at last reached the Eravikulam National Park. After parking the bike outside and buying the entrance tickets, we entered the park on foot.

The whole atmosphere was exciting and stimulating. The majesty of nature truly humbled us. The average height of the region is around 2,000 ft above MSL. In front of us was the towering Aneimudi; being on the top of that hill means being 8,841 feet closer to heaven. We rejected the normal way of walking through the tarred road and instead, climbed up the hill despite the strict instructions from the authorities. When didn't mind control matter! We could see clouds moving past us, dispersing into the thin air in front us, encircling and covering us and...being a part of us.

Magestic Munnar

Through the mist I saw something galloping in front of me. It was a thar, the rare Nilgiri thar (ibex). I looked around and saw a herd of thars, loitering on the grassland hill slopes. They look like deer from one angle, and goats from other. Their body colour, the colour of the cashewnut husk, provides an excellent camouflage against the brownish-black rocks.

We were lucky enough to see and watch them so closely; for they usually come out only in the morning, by afternoon they return to their homes. These type of creatures are found only in this part of the world as they can survive only in high altitudes. In Tamil/Malayalam languages they are known as varayaadu. Varai means rock and aadu means goat, hence the name. Interestingly, they have got rings on their small horns. Somebody told us that the number of rings denotes the age of the animal. The more rings there are, the older the animal is.

I took some photographs of these rare species. It seemed that some of them were accustomed to the zooming eyes of the cameras. A Cindy Crawford amongst them modelled for my Canon. But not all were like her, some galloped away beyond our reach and vanished among the rocks at the slightest disturbance of their privacy. The ease at which they negotiated the steep climbs, ran down the slopes and jumped over the rocks was amazing. There was an air of calm and certainty in their gait.

The model thar

After those close encounters we explored other features of the park. We spotted a small stream flowing down the next hill that jumped over an end-of-the-stream rock as a small beautiful waterfall on to a rocky terrain. We spent some time on the sides of the stream. Later we resumed our walk through the clouds, surveying the hills in front us and enjoying the beauty around us. After noon we left Rajamalai and started off to Mattuppetti.  

Mattuppetti is famous for the Indo-Swiss Dairy Farm project of cattle farming and research. Sprawling grasslands, rolling meadows -- all that greenery would make any other park green with envy! These fields are the source of the high quality fodder produced in the factory there. Cattle research, for the production of high quality species, is also being carried out.

There is a small dam that collects water poured in by the small brooks, streams and rivulets from the surrounding hills. The water from those perennial sources is used to produce electricity during summer. The mesmerisingly moving sheet of dam-water shrouded in the mist is an absolute beauty! Soft, silken green water. With the clear blue sky in it. With the fluffy white clouds in it. (Courtesy Arundhathi Roy for that expression-par-imagination. I just can't express it better than that!) No words can describe the scenery that you see from the side of that blue lagoon.

There were boats to entertain the visitors. It rained mildly when we were on the lakeside. I watched a speedboat cruising on the lake. The pilot raced towards us a la Michael Schumacher, suddenly took a U-turn and went in the opposite direction. The waves due to the wake skimmed over the lake to the tune of a jhil-jhil music. Within five minutes, light rains gave way to a downpour from the heavens above. We put away the idea of speed boating and went back home.

On the way back, I saw women plucking leaves from the tea plants and putting them in bags on their back.   

Behold them! Working in the field
Yon group of highland women
How they pluck and put the leaves
And sing a melancholy strain.     

Anyone with heart would be transformed into a Wordsworth!  

We entered the tea plantation and observed the plants. "The younger the leaves, the tastier the tea, the lighter the purse," one worker informed me. Also, the tea collected from higher mountain ranges is of better quality. At some places we saw, instead of the omnipresent green tea plantations, some burnt-brown tea plants with no leaves. My friend told me that due to the physical contact with the clouds under certain circumstances, tea plants get burnt.

Walking through the clouds. Dancing with the mind. The silence of the hills. Close encounters with the rare thars -- everything still remains as fresh as Munnar in my mind.