Slipped into Silent Valley...

Our journey from Ooty was a long and very windy bus ride down from the mountains. At several points through the journey, people around us were overwhelmed by motion sickness. Hours passed and we crossed through the so-called Palakkad Gap, the only low-altitude route west across this part of the Western Ghats. Soon we arrived at our destination, the dusty and noisy little town of Mannarkkad.

Manarkkad is the nearest town to Silent Valley, a national park we were keen to see. Because of it's remote setting and the difficult terrain around it, Silent Valley was spared the tea plantations and cardamom estates that took over the rest of the countryside. Poachers, loggers, and mining interests were never able to establish a foothold in this region. Shortly after the Indian Government began construction on a dam here in the 1970's, widespread demonstrations averted the planned flooding of this ancient jungle. Today it still remains, the only intact old-growth rainforest in Kerala.

The park entrance, about 28 km north-east of Manarkkad...

When we arrived at the park office, we had some delays and problems with permits and for a while it seemed as though we wouldn't be let into the park. Eventually, everything was sorted and we loaded up on a bus to drive to the heart of the park. On the way we passed through several 'buffer zones' where various tribal people of the region live. As we passed by, we were amazed at the age and biodiversity of the surrounding forests.

 A 300-year old Jackfruit tree...

Strangler fig...

Spiky vines and creepers...

Many bryophytes!

Dense forest...

After about 2 hours of driving, we reached a viewpoint from which the whole valley could be seen.

We got climb up this tall metal structure to get a better view, it is usually used to spot fires in the park.

The proposed site of the dam...

This tree had a couple of unusual things growing on it.
Lichens maybe? 

Fungus maybe?

Neon pink flowers!

Orchids. Unfortunatley for us most of the orchids here flower in June and July, during the monsoon. Hundreds of species of orchids thrive in Silent Valley, some of which can be found nowhere else on earth.

One of the many butterflies we saw...

...and then we left the Silence of  the Valley and headed for the bus station.

~

Ooty-oot!

After saying farewell to my parents in Wayanad, we said hello to independence, and our first stop was to be Udhagamandalam a.k.a. Ooty. Ooty is a hill station in the Nilgiri Mountains of Tamil Nadu, at an elevation of  2240m. It has a unique mountain ecosystem, with many different species of birds, flowers and trees (including eucalyptus and pine).

                                    

On our first day we visited the Botanical Gardens, which had many native and exotic species...

The next day we took a day trip on the 'Miniature Train' that was made into a UNESCO World Heritage site. 

Coonoor

...after an hour of beautiful mountain views we arrived in Coonoor, a neighbouring hill station. 
Here we saw many beautiful tea plantations...

...and got to sample many kinds of tea.

There was what the Indians call a Bison chilling in this tea field, eating weeds I think.

Some buddies we made along the way...

This is a view point called Lamb's Rock, there were no lambs in sight, but apparently this was a favourite picnic spot of a British General, named Lamb.