Journey the Nilgiri Tea Highlands

Our Intrepid Travel tour is made up of eight individuals, four of whom are well known. Two couples have joined the trip, one from New York, Ina and Anatole and the other from New Zealand, Suzanne and Scott. The guide is VJ from Rajasthan. Everyone is a veteran traveler. So far so good.

Yesterday we left Kochi and headed up to the tea highlands by train. We rode in second class cars and were fortunate to have seats together. I got a little bored on the train and spent part of the time taking photos of all the methods concocted to keep trays latched. We had an amazing lunch at a roadside restaurant along the way. Thali trays of South Indian delights. One of our number, Suzanne, is a chef's consultant in Auckland and is really into the food end of things. This should be fun!

Once we made it to the Tiger's Hill Inn in Conoor Nancy, Sophie, and I took off on a nice hike in the tea fields. The road snaked along the side of a steep mountain dipping in and out of dense forest. As dusk set in a gentleman came alongside on a scooter and urged us to turn back because 'animals are coming!' Up here that could mean any number of things, including lost big cats so we decided to grab the next rickshaw and hightail it back.Read more