"Is that a stain on the wall, or is it a lizard?.............Yep, it's a lizard." It is safe to say that we were not too disappointed to be leaving our Mysore hotel! Bright & early (6.00) on Monday we get up to catch our pre booked 7.30 delux mini bus to the mountain hill station of Ooty, worth the early start so as to make the most of the day after the 5 hour journey. So as you can imagine, we are slightly miffed when 9.30 arrives & we are still at the bus stop! Now if they'd have said it was a 9.30 departure, we wouldn't have got up at 6am, would we?! When we eventually set off, it seems that we have unwittingly enrolled on to the old people of India sight seeing tour bus, as the man at the front tells us everything we need to know about the surrounding countryside. The driver looks incredibly like an Indian Graham Leather & I'm convinced that he also doesn't have a valid driving licence, as he swerves from one side of the road to the other......this would be fine in usual Indian road circumstances, but kind of scary at 5,000ft! By the 36th mountain hairpin bend, LJ was ready to get out & chance it on foot. Regardless of this, the white knuckle ride was well worth it as once again, the views were undescribable & we saw our first elephants. Just wandering along the side of the road, fantastic. The main purpose of our journey to Ooty was primarly to take a trip on the Blue Mountain steam train (this is one for you Tony) which is said to be one of the most magnificent train journeys you can take, which is probably why, as we learnt on arrival that there is a 2 month waiting list for tickets! Never mind, we'll get the bus back. As we had to stay a night, we make the most of our day & a half in Ooty. Unbelievably, it's freezing in Ooty, & the microfleece makes it's first appearance, we even had to sleep with extra woollen blankets! The next morning, it started spitting (that fine rain, soaks you through), so out came the kagools! If you told me last week that we'd be wearing the microfleece & kagool in the space of 24 hours, I'd have eaten my (yet to be worn) hat. We took a trip to the race course earlier today, which was funny, all of the horses were 2-1 favourites! We won over 7p on the first race, but lost near 40p on the second & called it a day, there's only one winner at the races - the bookie, & that one's got 35p of ours. We are currently sitting in an internet cafe in the city of Coimbatoire (about 100km south of Ooty), awaiting our midnight train to Kochin. The first train journey of the trip, will let you know how it goes. Will update again soon Stay classy LJ & Dan xx PS We've put a few photo's on so check the photo section.