So, after living it up in 20 quid beach front luxury, we continued a bit of a way further south on the coast road......and a few kilometres down the road we could hear loud drums and a party-atmosphere by the road-side. Naturally we had to check it out. It turned out there was a wedding going on and we got swamped by the party-makers and got dragged into the dancing that was going on. Ron P enjoyed his 5 minutes of fame by becoming an instant-celeb!!

We carried on down the road to Calicut which is a huge city in Kerala however every lodging house we checked seemed to be full probably because of the Indian National Games being held in Kerala which had only just started two days previously.
So we decided to get out of town and headed inland towards the hills. When we neared a small town called Mavoor we changed some money in a bank and continued to look for a place to kip that night. A couple of teenage boys on motorbikes passed us and we asked them if they knew anywhere we could stay. Unbelievably (for Ron P but not surprisingly for Ron H), they asked us to follow them, made a few phone calls on our behalf and even took us to the lodging place personally and made sure that the owner understood what we needed etc., before going on their way. What stars!

It turned out that the lodge was on the banks of some backwaters which Kerala is famed for.

We set off early next morning (2nd Feb) hoping to make good ground and reach Ooty by lunchtime. All the best laid plans...

Ron P's bike decided otherwise and snapped a cable! Luckily for us there was a mechanic less than half a kilometre back the way we had come. We limped back there and Javid replaced the broken throttle cable and adjusted the front brake and oiled both bikes' chains and all for one pound sixty pence (parts and labour!) Back home the cable alone would've cost us 15 pounds and another 40 pounds for half hour labour.

As we neared Udhagamandalam or Ooty as its popularly known, we were high in the Nilgiri hills surrounded by tea plantations everywhere. We stopped by the road side and embarrassed a few "Cha ladies" as they walked home from work by unashamedly taking their photos.

More views on way to Ooty

Eucalyptus trees

You've heard of zebra crossings...

Needle Rock view point

Arrived in Ooty by late afternoon feeling quite chilly as we are now at 2200 metres above sea level. Checked into Darshan Hotel (its actually called a hotel and it is a hotel this time!) opposite the lake. In India you can bargain the price for just about anything including hotel rates - we were quoted Rs. 3000 per night but just for asking it came down to Rs 1000 (tenner) per night.

At this price we could afford to stay an extra day in Ooty.

Tuesday 03 Feb 2015

We left the bags in the hotel room and headed out to take in some local attractions. We were told that Avalanchi was worth going to. We had no idea what we would find there but the ride there was spectacular. Lots of twisty roads and as we turned each corner we were confronted with stupendous views.

We heard yet more drums along the way but this time it was a religious festival of a local tribes people. Several men had huge metal skewers pierced through their cheeks in penance and were making the journey up the hill to the temple. Of course I had seen this type of thing before but for Ron P it was a revelation to put it mildly. Suffice to say I won't repeat his exact comments here.

We continued going round the bends...

Once we reached Avalanchi we could no longer continue on our bikes and had to go on a safari bus to the protected areas of rich, bio-diverse forests. Our driver told us how he had seen elephants and tigers along these roads but we were out of luck today. The only wildlife (apart from Ron P) I saw today was...

More superb views of backwaters and big hills...

Tomorrow Bandipur National Park...