Hiking in Munnar, India

We spent 3 days in Munnar, and enjoyed every moment. Two of those days we hiked to Chokramudi Peak and in the Lakshmi Hills. The scenery was incredible!
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SCRIPT:

The area known as the Western Ghats is a very long mountain range that runs parallel to the western coast of the Indian peninsula, located entirely in India.

In the southern part within the state of Kerala, there is Munnar, a beautiful hill station surrounded by rolling hills, dotted with tea plantations established in the late 19th century.

It sounded like a great place to explore, so for 90 rupees, we boarded a bus in the port town of Kochi 130 km away. It took 4 and a half hours to reach whilst along winding and scenic roads.8
Eager to explore the region, we booked an early morning hike through our hotel to go up Chok-ra-mudi mountain with a great local guide, Velu.

He picked us up at 5:00 am in the pitch black and bundled us together with another couple into the back of a tiny rickshaw.
We were driving into the middle of nowhere in the dead of night, along small bumpy roads, with barely enough space to move, and a canopy dropped over the sides so we couldn’t see outside. It felt like we were taking part in an illegal smuggling operation.
After 50 minutes we reached our starting point just as the sun was beginning to shed light on the dark sky.

Once we reached the summit, we enjoyed a delicious meal among the changing clouds and mist. An hour later, bellies full and feeling well rested we started our descent. We bumped into a group of young Indian army corps on training. So excited to see us, we were greeted with lots of handshakes and requests for selfies. They even waved their flag for us!

On the final stretch, we walked through a few tea plantations. We wanted to see more, so the next day we took a less arduous trek along Lakshmi hills with a friendly guide called Kumar. A short man with long fingernails and a gold tooth.

The scenery of the tea plantations was out of this world! The hierarchy of roads, tracks, and small paths separating curving rows of tea plants was sprinkled with huge, ancient rocks fallen from the higher parts of the mountain.

The region in and around Munnar varies in height from 1,500 m to 2,695 m above sea level, and is home to some amazing wildlife. We spotted a Malabar giant squirrel, his long tail hanging from a branch. Some trekkers ahead of us spotted a leopard crossing their path just meters away, and we saw elephant dung belonging to wild elephants.

We could have spent a lot more time tasting tea, finding more waterfalls and spotting wild animals, but it was time to move onto allepey and go exploring in the backwaters of Kerala.

On the bus to allepey, it was our fourth day admiring the tea plantations, and we were still blown away by the sheer beauty of this area. Goodbye munnar, you will be missed.