Day 6 - Tea Gardens and Ootacamund

This region of the Western Ghats is famous for the growing if tea, As described earlier, the British East India company wanted to break the monopoly the China held in the tea market so they targeted India as a suitable place to start to grow and produce their own tea. They already "owned" India so there were no problems acquiring the necessary land. Coonoor and Ootacamund started as "hill stations" built to manage the tea production and grew into proper towns and cities as time went by.

Coonoor stands at 1600m above sea level while Ootacamund is a further 800m higher at about 2400m. Planting started in the 1830'S with the first profitable crop being sent to England in the mid-1850s. 

The day started with a tour of a tea plantation and its processing facility. All tea come from just a single variety of plant. What sort of tea one gets depends on which part of the leaf is picked and when in the production cycle it is packed. I noticed, scattered across the hillsides in amongst the tea trees, a familiar looking tree. The guide confirmed it was indeed grevillia robusta (aka Silky Oak), a plant native to our homeland. I'm not sure why they chose to plant them there but I do know that they cut the branches off for firewood from time to time. 

After the tour Kerry bought some tea and we headed off to Ootacamund, about an hour away. But we didn't go in any normal way. Our driver took us to the Coonoor station and we caught the old narrow- gauge railway. The train steadily climbed all the way up to Ootacamund (known locally as Ooty) through  forest, past farmland and tea gardens. I've gotta comment about the forest. The forest was mostly of eucalypt – stringy-bark and/or maintain ash, I think. Without a word of a lie, we could have been on Puffing Billy! Eucalypt forests were grown here to allow the addition eucalyptus oil to the large range of other oils manufacture;d in India. Over time they broke loose from their plantations and are now extremely prevalent across the whole of the landscape. Indeed, they extend for hundreds of kilometres beyond this region. BTW, the Coonoor railway station platform garden sported a nice little row of callistamens (bottle brush).

Clement picked us up at the station and drove us a short distance into the centre of town. From here some of the girls, including Kerry, went to wander the streets and lanes. I headed for the Ooty Botanical Gardens. It was nice to get some relief from the hustle and bustle of the city streets. Today was a special day of some sort in this area. The main lawn of the gardens was teeming with excited school children and proud parents. On the stage was a constant steam of award presentation. The children were all wearing their respective school uniforms and beaming smiles as they showed of their awards to friend and family. It was a very happy place.

We finished the day with a drive back to Ootacamund via the large military base at Wellington. The contrast between this well-ordered place and the haphazard towns was quite marked. We finished the day with a lovely banquet provided by the hotel.