Getting from Varkala to Ooty involved no less than 4 trains and two days. The trip from the south west coast up into to Western Ghats range was fairly unremarkable apart from the last train. Unfortunately the pictures of this Swiss-Rack "toy train" are among those on our corrupted SD card which we are yet to recover. The train runs on the last remaining steam powered locomotive route and the Swiss cog system means it can climb much steeper inclines as the cogs prevent it from slipping down the hill. The 5 hour trip in the 6ft wide carriages had awesome views as well as a surprising trumpet from a wild elephant as we passed through his territory! Monkey armies at the stops too of course.

We were hoping for something similar to Shimla and Munnar (old Raj-era tea plantation town) but ended up with a shabby generic Indian city in the mountains. Indisciminant development and a sadly typical lack of respect for the environment meant the once pretty town and lake were ugly and polluted. It was cold too. And we saw a cloud. Ruined our day.

The one saving grace was the botanical gardens. We took a few photos on the phone so will try to publish those to give you a taste.

Needless to say we cut our stay short to only a few days and decided to head to Pondicherry...Oh well you can't win all the time.