After the wilds of the Palani Hills, we are back in wifi-land in Coimbatore, a very busy Tamil Nadu city second only to Chennai, and so our loyal readers will be wondering what we were up to.
We drove up the side of a very, very sheer-sided hill (felt more like a mountain to me) with our driver Arun taking each bend very carefully and tooting loudly in case of oncoming traffic.
We eventually reached our home for two days which is situated at the top of the ridge and overlooking the valley and an enormous plain. As soon as we arrived, the wonderful manager Shyni warned us about going near the edge – and no wonder:
By the way, if the video is missing from your email, then click on the link at the top of the email which says ‘Read on blog’ and you should find it there. We’ve noticed a number of videos missing from the emails.
On to the story: you’ll see that those clouds promised rain – and rain it certainly did! We were woken in the night by what sounded like hailstones crashing on to the roof and woke to deep cloud mist plus rain from time to time.
The rain cleared up by lunch and the birds came out for their late breakfast. We spent some time listening and identifying what we heard with that wonderful bird app Merlin. And of course I tried to take photos:
We went for a walk that evening around the property, looking out for the wild buffalo which come to drink from the swimming pool but they obviously didn’t need it given the rain.
Instead we saw monkeys including this one peeping at us (unlike most other places, the monkeys are properly wild here and avoid humans for the most part):
The area is full of pepper vines on the trees and we understand that the staff had harvested some a couple of days ago:
We saw the damage the bison had wreaked as they pulled up trees and rootled around in the undergrowth:
We were quite taken with this unusual tree which produces fig-like fruit which the chef makes into jam:
The walk round the soggy vegetable garden was interesting with many plants to smell and taste:
And there were some rather wonderful flowering trees and plants:
We arrived back at the view for the obligatory photos – Shyni and Sue, Shyni and me, Sue and me … here’s one of the Shyni and Sue for you to admire with Sue rather concerned about falling off the edge on the slippy rock:
We were fascinated by the property’s history – a rather imperious elderly woman called Isla who lives in a bungalow nearby built the place and ran it herself but now rents the property to the CGH group. We suspect Shyni has her work cut out managing the property and managing relations with Isla! It’s a remote place to be: when I joked about Amazon deliveries she said they were able to order, but goods arrived at the bottom and then someone on a motorbike would bring them up all those dangerous curves.
And then, of course, there was the departure photo, taken by our driver Arun who was, I think, rather amused to spend the night with only five other people anywhere nearby: us, Shyni, the cook, the waiter and him!
\What a fantastic panorama . How amazing to have a hotel entirely to yourself! No doubt it was nothing like ‘The Shining’
The view across the valley and plain was very beautiful even in the mist and rain. Thankfully the place wasnothing like The Shining. The only faintly alarming thing was what we think was a particularly noisy gecko in the room – it may of course have been doing Jack Nicholson impersonations…
How lovely to be up high, with god’s-eye view of the world, amidst all those birds and flowers. We saw very few birds in Vietnam, apart from herons, egrets, bitterns, sparrows.
It was an extraordinary and sweeping view, very beautiful. We noticed the same thing in Vietnam and didn’t manage your four, just the occasional pigeon I think. We had this slightly sinking feeling they might have eaten the birds in some period of hardship.
Magical. Absolutely magical. Exquisite flowers and views and lovely meditative slow video – and while I’m no birder, that Eurasian Hoopoe? (says Inaturalist) is wonderful. The rain and solitude must be welcome after all that heat and noise- or is that just my own bias talking?
The birds were an absolute treat and the hoopoe – which has a lovely crest not displayed in the photo – was just gorgeous. I loved the silence which became even deeper when we were the only guests. I think we both love the crowds and noise of the temples – but it’s always nice to retreat to a quiet room afterwards!