It is only 100km from Kumily (Thekkady) to Munnar and in India you might expect to be able to cover this distance in less than four hours if your bus driver had little respect for other road users or for human life or lifeforms in general (the usual case). But this is a torturous winding route along twisty mountain roads, potholed village main streets and rutted farm tracks and takes 5+ hours. Happily, there are few speed bumps as the seat cushions, if they ever were, are at an advanced age and severely lacking in suspension.

We stop short of Munnar and take a rickshaw to our next stay. And behold the pleasant home stay that we found, outside a tiny village in this quiet and calm valley. A wooden foot bridge crosses from the road to the house, aptly named Flower valley, nestled in a paradise of flowers, spices and exotic plants.

This home is a true paradise. Ancy and Joy, the proprietors, run a plant nursery and small spice plantation in addition to welcoming visitors such as us into their home. So all around is bursting with flowers – bougainvillaea, camelia, azelia, and so many more that I can’t identify. There must be a hundred banana trees and many more cardamom plants, pepper, coffee, cocoa, fruits and others besides.

We set off to find a ‘tribal village’ but we don’t really know which way to go (just ask people along the way was our instruction) and so instead trace out a big loop through dense cardamom plantations. The cardamom is planted amongst the tall trees of an old forest so the walk is quiet and we meet practically no-one, certainly no-one capable of giving us directions. Miraculously we end back where we started.

The next day we walked to the local tea plantation, about 5km away, being sure to stop for a paddle in the stream on the way. We are of course the only people out walking along the road, at least the only foreign people, and later that evening our host tells us that many people have told her of a sighting of a foreign family walking along the road. Nobody walks here it seems.

The tea plants are all nearly clipped in rows and have the soft glow of new foliage. I suppose it is because of the regular harvesting. We haven’t seen any tea pickers, they must work in the early morning

After a bit of getting lost and being guided by an old man carrying a bunch of bananas and a large knife, we arrive at Vispara waterfalls just as the sun is setting. The falls are not large, probably due to the dry season, but the scene is bucolic. There is no-one there (it is getting late) and we find out that the old man has guided us in by the back way so we have avoided the ticket booth and gate that are already closed.

By the time we get back to the road it is dark and we have to ask a passerby to call our host who then called a rickshaw who picks us up 15min later and about 10 minutes after that we were back ensconced in our homestay where a hot meal awaits.

On the subject of meals, it is worth mentioning that we ate fantastically well with Ancy. Every morning we had a different sort of Keralan breakfast: idli, appam, sambar, also fruit. Dinner was usually a magnificent six dish affair. There is coconut in everything. Elevenses was inevitably banana based. I think the boys ate the farm’s entire stock of sun-dried bananas. Everything was local, mostly from her own farm. This includes the coffee which is without a doubt the best coffee in India. It is made using a pressure cooker. The boys though are not tea drinkers but instead have somehow become chai fanatics to the tune of about three cups a day.

All too soon though it is time to move on again. We could stay here forever but maybe it is for the best – lest we get too fat and idle.