Kochi to where? Our next major destination after Kochi was Hampi, that meant two overnight stops, the first in Ooty, the second wherever we reached. We decided on the scenic route from Kochi which first took us north then east through the Parambikulam wildlife sanctuary then north again dropping down onto the plains before climbing again to Coonoor and Ooty.

We were following the Chalakudy river and passed the 80 foot high Athirappilly waterfalls:

Upstream from the falls is the Sholayar reservoir outlet:

and further up still the reservoir itself:

We were making good time through the sanctuary until we came across a road gang laying new tarmac:

We had to wait whilst they sprayed the road and laid and rolled the new tarmac. We were given various estimates of waiting time ranging from two to ninety minutes. Nothing much happened for a while, there was a lot of shuffling of trucks, all kinds of discussions and then, suddenly, we were cleared to go.

We left the sanctuary, passed through Valparai and turned north soon to come across a huge climb with seventeen hairpin bends. We were back up in tea country and crossed a plateau scattered with tea workers cottages:

before reaching the drop down into the plains. After the seventeen hairpins on the way up we had twenty three more on the way down, here’s the midway point, bend twenty:

The descent was stupendous, it reminded us of the Stelvio pass in Italy:

When we took the shot above we could see animals on the road lower down, they were still there when we arrived:

(The bends in our direction were numbered from forty down to one).

 Another shot of the endless descent!

We had started the day early but our route was slow and by the time we had crossed the plains and reached the bottom of the climb to Coonoor and on to Ooty it was already dark. We decided to do the climb in the dark which was more than exciting, it was 52km long and climbed from 325m (1,070 ft) to 2,240m (7,350ft). With all the cows, cars, trucks, buses and bends I’m not sure if reaching Ooty was a relief or a surprise!

Next morning we were on the road again heading north but not before we visited the beautiful St Stephens church in Ooty:

The church was built in 1830 and opened on Easter Sunday in 1831.

Several of the plaques told interesting tales:

 Georgiana, died at 30 leaving 7 children.

 Died at Ootacamund of “Jungle fever” (Malaria).

We drove on in the hills from Ooty passing through villages:

valleys:

and tiger reserves:

 Mudumalai in Tamil Nadu Bandipur in Karnataka

Sadly no tiger sightings 😦

By now we were leaving the Nilgiris (the range of hills we had been passing through) and the countryside became flatter but no less interesting:

 Bamboo ladders. Happy in his work. I remember lining up like this in school! Wide load? A lovely bunch …

Around noon we arrived at a typical Indian one-street roadside village called Adichunchanagiri, a village with a difference. This village is home to an absolutely massive temple complex which sits on a rocky hillside with commanding views over the plains we had just crossed. We visited the temple, here’s the climb up to it:

Every step was numbered and plaques at each flight listed a sentence against each number; this was the last flight:

No idea what they say, hopefully one of my Hindu speaking friends will enlighten us all.

Inside the main temple:

Like the Golden temple this temple offered food to all visitors so rice and vegetables it was!

Further on along the road we came across an entrepreneurial troupe of ladies who were waving down cars and then doing a folk dance. This was the view through the windscreen, they were very talented, very friendly – and very happy with the tip we gave them!

Soon the sun was setting, time to stop. We were very close to a town called Chitradurga so we decided to stop there but not before we took take one last picture: