Mountains! (Again:)
Today we went up to Munnar. But I should start we the morning. No breakfast at the hotel, we decided to not go out first for a bite, but to ask our driver to stop on the road. Our plan didn’t work out that way. Luckily, I had my morning coffee based on my emergency kit! Our driver – like the taxi from the airport – could not find our hotel, he told us after he got a call from his boss. We had called because the driver was late. We had not called because we were worried if the driver would come, but because we already knew the place was hard to find. A minute later, our driver received a call that his sister was brought to the hospital, again. Thus he arranged that we would get another driver and he could go visit and support his sister. Because of that, we took a little d-tour. Didn’t mind.
The driver which took over is much younger then the driver we had. First point: he definitely was not used to the car, couldn’t find the gears. The plus of it was he was driving much slower and with more care then the first driver, with just his sister in his mind. At some point our new driver was steady enough to ask him to stop at some restaurant for a quick bite. Almost noon, already.
The next two stops were for some waterfalls. Made my day! Never can see too much of them.
Unexpected, we had another break. At an Ayurveda garden. We have to tell him, that his tip will be better when he not drops us at shops. Will work. With the garden I accepted the educational tour. Finally, learned about some plants and trees we already were wondering about what it would be. Learned also about treatments and medical use of some plants I never would have thought of, they would have any. For instance, asparagus. I have one at home. Seems, it helps with a lot of “women issues”.
A bit later, we gave the address of the hotel to the driver. He used Google Maps for navigation. Soon, we were sent into the woods, through villages, up and down hills. For us, lovely views. For him, a difficult drive. At a steep sloop with major holes in the pavement, we stepped out of the car to give him a chance to get around the next corner. Just as we thought when it get just a bit steeper he won’t make it at all, we reached the highway, again. Quite sure, it was the same highway we left about two hours earlier because of the navigation. Highway, indeed, was the right term for that narrow street. About 1800m above sea-level, I guess. A bit more up and down and some other crazy slopes before we reached the hotel. It has one neighbor, another hotel. We are up on a hill, have a great look over the valley, lovely nature sounds and… nothing more. Not even WiFi đŸ™‚
Thus, we used analogue ways to plan our day tomorrow. Actually we thought we could go to the Eravikulam National Park, but seems it is closed because of breeding season. It’s a pity, for us. Somewhere, I had red it would be closed in February/March, but also found other information. Travel guides confuse people as much as they can. Intentionally we liked to go to a nearby lake the day after tomorrow, but now we start with that. Just made a plan B for the second day here. Maybe, because of the special tour through the woods we took today, we haven’t seen the town itself. We also will include that in our plans. Foremost, the stay in Munnar will be about nature and animals.