ooty

 Otherwise known as Udhagamandalam (abode of the clouds), Ooty is high in the Nilgiri Hills, Tamil Nadu.  The British used to hide there in the hot summer months.  We  wound up 30 hairpin bends on a local bus from the Park on the baking plains to this 'paradise'. 


we passed tea bushes hugging the hills, bottlebrush, grevillea and gum crowding the edges (all australian plants).  Cool air, walking through clouds hillstation - but also too bustling, mad, polluted and odd.

 We found a YWCA on the edge of a racecourse to stay in. The call to prayer came regularly from the mosque across the green. our next door neighbours were a huge family preparing for a wedding. women sat on the floor weaving jasmine into strings for their hair; the groom resplendent in high pink turban.

this looked like a statue in a burqua, in the middle of a roundabout

About 10 women walked past carrying huge loads of wood from the forest, barefoot. I only managed to catch the last one before she disappeared.