Situated at the confluence of three mountain streams - Mudrapuzha, Nallathanni and Kundala. 1,600 m above sea level, this hill station was once the summer resort of the former British Raj in South India.  We were heading for a lovely  budet hotel on an ellettaria cardomen plantation

        Chef in the kitchen at Olive Brook

                   They make it look so easy

I always get a kick out of seeing poinsettia growing wild

At the Tata Tea museum on the Nallathanni Estate we saw the history of tea making from the original 'Rotovane' tea roller of 1905 to a fully automated tea factory.  Unfortunately there was no photography or video allowed

The tea pickers were working high up on the plantation slopes, there was nothing to do but wade into the prickly tea bushes from their reaction I guess it didn't happen too often.

Other than in postcards and guide books, they no longer float among the bushes clad in beautiful coloured saris, picking by hand 

These days they have polythene under rubber aprons for protection and use what look like suburban garden hedge shears attached to a metal box

At the end of a long day the pickers weigh in their crop. They earn 80Rp. ($2US) for a minimum of 100 kilo then a few Rp. for every kilo over the daily minimum. Their take home pay is about 120 Rp. per day

In colonial times this area was the game preserve of the Kannedevan Hill Produce Company.  The game keepers were Muduvan tribal people, famed for their tracking skills.   In 1975 the Kerela Government designated it a sanctuary and in 1978 it became a national park.  It spreads over 97 sq. km., and is home to several species of rare butterflys, animals and frogs

 At the park gates we transferred to a bus which took us up to a point from where I could walk

I thought it was a nice warm day for a walk in the park but my walking companions thought otherwise

Nilgiri Tahr

The park was created for the express purpose of saving these little guys from extinction
 
They may not look that special but they have a genus all to themselves. They are even toed, horned, ungulates, not goats, nor antelopes nor cattle

 Currently the experts think their closest relatives are sheep but they do keep changing their minds

Not really once in a blue moon or even every 'Preston Guild" but every 12 years like clockwork the blooming of the neelakurinji paints the hills blue

  We had missed it by weeks, maybe in 2018 we could have better timing