To Ooty

Arrived at breakfast earlier than opus days, atmosphere was v diff and has suddenly become buffet rather than a la carte - more people staying now is probably why, but I liked the menu choices.

We'd booked a car to ooty, the first part out of mysore was along very bumpy roads, and Mysore extends a long way. It's classed as a small city but numbers 1m people!

As we left the city behind, the Landscape became very green and lush, palms lined the road and fields stretching away into the distance.

We passed some villages that looked very idyllic amongst the green.

Traffic decreased (there's still the hooting thing.)

A note on using the car horn: the horn, as I have previously mentioned, is a most essential piece of car kit. It is used to say "I'm here", "get out of my way", "I'm passing you", "I've just passed you", "I'm going to pass you", "you are coming towards me", "I'm behind you" and ""I'm going round this bend" to name but a few. Truly, it is a tool of infinite variety.

So, traffic decreased in the rural areas, and the road surface wasn't too bad.

Part of the route goes through Bandipur National Wildlife Reserve which has elephants and tigers, however cars mean that they tend to stay away from the road. We did see some monkeys tho and some great signs:

"drive slowly or you might kill a wildlife" and "be quiet or you enrage the wildlife"

After the national park came the climb up to Ooty. The road rises steeply and includes 36 hairpin bends as well as the other bends not classed as hairpin. We rose 1000m over this route, with spectacular views until the cloud thickened, and rain began to fall. We had been warned that it was wet, and it is!

Our hotel is called Glyngarth Villa and is old colonial style. It's very much in the shabby grandeur style. I am reminded of James Lees-Milne's diaries from his time as a National Trust assessor going about the grand old houses of England. There are fantastic wooden floors and lovely bits of plaster moulding.

It is also raining like a wet day in the west of Scotland, thunder is rumbling and there is an almighty leak from the guttering outside our room!

Our room is pretty and smells of damp! And there are is list of rules we must follow, including pre-ordering of meals some hours in advance. This is hard for me, I barely know what I would want as a snack 5 minutes from now, let alone dinner tonight or breakfast tomorrow!

Still, the rain might clear...and meantime we can plan our route through Kerala...

Enjoying a thali

Location:On the road