Munnar!

Munnar is covered in tea. The hillsides in every direction are a carpeted in a maze patchwork of what looks like lush, leafy green, batting. It's like something out of a Lewis Carroll novel- very other worldly. We spent a few days exploring the hillsides by bike. Though there is no shortage of offers for guided trekking, it's easy enough to head for the hills and find plenty of public cow paths and roads carving through the plantations. The few days of rest at about 5, 000 ft allowed us a brief reprieve from the heat and humidity. The decent from Munnar was breath taking. The topography of the landscape is exaggerated by the tea bushes, so the view from above look out over an undulating sea of green, with hilltops capped in green spirals. From Munnar we headed toward the Western Ghatts through the Chinar Wildlife Reserve, miles and miles of coconut palms, and on into Utamapelt. The mostly downhill day allowed us to push a 130K in to Pollachi, in Tamil Nadu. We ended up in a dodgy back alley hotel, but spent our time there exploring the Parambikulam Wildlife Reserve. The reserve is home to 15 of the 1,411 tigers left in India (there's a very well publicized Save Our Tigers campaign) but none in sight during our visit. We were required to hire a guide, but were fortunate enough to be led on a great hike through tropical, deciduous, and pine forest. We ascended a grueling 3,000 ft in a short amount of time, but the view of miles of jungle were well worth the mild heat stroke. Our guide took more pictures of us than the landscape, leading us to believe we might have been on his inaugural trek as a true blue guide.

From Pollachi we headed back along the coast to Thrissur, where we discovered ice cream cones and the zoo. Both cost only 10 rupees, but the ice cream was significantly more enjoyable. The animal cages were hard to stomach. They were devastatingly under sized, crude, barrack-like animal prisons. Dramatic? Maybe. The furrier animals were lethargic to the point of barely conscious, and I could very literally feel their pain. We nursed our depression and cooled off with not one, but two frosty cones.

The heat in Thrissur and beyond has been borderline oppressive, so we've been getting up in the dark and hitting the road at first light every morning. Lucky for us it's watermelon season! We've been dividing our roadside rehydration between coconut water and melons (piled high) along the way.