Where did you get that hat?

On our second day at Kaivalyam, we started with the morning yoga session and then after a quick breakfast it was off in the jeep to the top of the hill where we met our guide Vijay and a hike to the top of the ridge above the retreat. He was an excellent guide with an exceptional choice of headgear:-

Our walking companions were a couple of  young American guys from Washington D.C. who seemed to talk non-stop to each other but had very little that they wanted to share.

An interesting selection of headwear.

It was a challenging hike - starting from the road at 4,600 ft we climbed a further 2,700 ft to reach the peak at 7,300ft. the first section was a continuous climb to about 6,600ft and then the rest was in shorter stages - of course there were a number of false peaks and a stop along the way for a cup of tea - before we were standing right on top of the ridge and could see all the way to the top of the Western Ghats and Ana Mudi - the highest peak in southern India at about 9000ft.

That's Ana Mudi in the top right corner

Interspersed with small patches of forest, the landscape is nothing but tea gardens - nearly 100 square miles in total!

Local history says that the first westerner to arrive was  Colonel Arthur Wellesley (before he became the Duke of Wellington) in 1790 with a company of troops in search of Tipoo Sultan.

my official photographer

From the peak, we headed down into the valley on the other side and walked through the tea gardens until we reached Munnar where we were very pleased to see the Tuk-Tuk waiting to take us back to the retreat.