Oh, them mountains

Again, record riding- -we made Munnar in one day from Malapurram! The ride up here is absolutely stunning, 80km of climbing-starting thru scrub and onto Teak, Mahogany -tons and tons of tea, Flame trees, Jakarranda-all flowering their heads off. Stopped to watch a truck being loaded by elephant. Weve never seen this before and the great beast was more positive and carefull than any machine could have been. We watched for ages and took lots of film [we have to work out how to take stills off the video].All told we were 9 hours in the saddle that day - and by the time we reached Munnar we were shattered. Our first hotel was abit mickey -mouse so we moved. Our present hotel isnt much better, but the views are amazing, we dont have to go out we can just sit on the balcony with the binoculars and bliss out.
The first day we tried this hotel - we couldnt find anyone in, the next day we tried and we must have woken them up. Hotel is empty, so we bargained the price down from 20 quid to 4 ! The staff spend all their time watching t.v. and keeping out of our way, we can , if we are patient and cunning get them to make tea but thats it! We have to go out to eat- this is great as we are eating with the local tea pickers. The diet consists of egg curry and parrotas for breakfast and beef curry and parrotas for dinner. Tonight we are going to try tapioca instead of parrota.
The diet is a minor inconvenience-- the scenery, atmosphere climate are great- so I guess you cant have everything.
Last night we sat on the balcony smoking, and watching fires raging all over the surrounding mountain tops we dont know if these are accidental fires or what, but they sure are pretty!