A bit of a climate change.

Yesterday we took an 18 hour, 500 km journey around part of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.  We went high in to the hills where the temperature was much different from the 34C temperatures around Thrissur.  There was a good 10 degrees difference so it was very pleasant and a welcome change.  As we headed up we entered the area around Munnar where the hills are covered in nothing but tea leaves.  I would say we traveled at least 100 kilometers where you could see nothing but tea bushes and eucalyptus trees.  The top photo shows one of the views.  I can only imagine the army of people it takes at harvest time to cover this vast territory and pick all these leaves by hand.  

The only problem with such a long trip is not the distance but the fact that the roads twisted and turned for 90% of the drive.  This and the fact that the roads were narrow meant for speeds on average of 25 km an hour.  This limited our stopping and enjoying time as my brother in-law and the driver were not as familiar with this region and planned a trip that really should have been spaced over two or three days.  As such though, I discovered a new region and will come back to explore it more thoroughly when we visit the family in the future and we have no obligations (ie. weddings) that fill our agenda.  Below are a few more shots from the day.

Today was more of a rest and recovery day from yesterday so I documented a bit around our house and area.  The first is a composite of our house on the hill showing views from all four corners.  It's a nice cosy place and very quiet being surrounded by trees and farther from the road.

 Even though we spend some time at our home on the hill, we have stayed at our brother-in-laws house where Lysa's parents and younger brother live.  This has afforded her more time with them as well provided the internet access for me and the boys.  Though neither of the properties could be classified as farms, there are a great variety of produce gown as well as animals around.  So it is very fascinating when you have fine landscaping such as this waterfall which Luke is sitting on and then cows and other animals running around.  Some of these animals became my subjects for today.