Munnar in monsoon is mesmerising. This is the second part in this series. We explored Munnar in last week of July, 2014. The first part was covered in this post.
Leaving Bodhimettu behind, we drive on. The roads gets excellent. The valley views gets fabulous.
We now realise how beautiful Munnar is in Monsoon. And regret why we never came here earlier in rains.
Cloud kissed Mountains in the horizon provides a perfect backdrop to the green valley in the foreground. The mountains rise sharply. They are conical in shape, their summits covered by thick monsoon clouds.
The rains have actually made late entry into Munnar. The locals say that rains only started in Munnar in the previous week. We could see that ourselves with the lake which otherwise look beautiful when full is not even half full.
( Please click on the pictures to see them in original size)
( Please click on the pictures to see them in original size)
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| The first sight of verdant valleys of Munnar.... |
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| The lovely lake. Notice the water level. |
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| Manicured tea gardens with mountains as backdrop |
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| Sometimes, the green expanse gets a white contrast in the form of lovely cascades. |
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| This was a beautiful sight. A tea village with colourful houses in the middle of green valley! |
Our journey now gets slower as we stop now and then to click pictures. The valleys now pave way to immaculately maintained tea gardens. The landscape is dotted by huge boulders amidst the manicured tea gardens. The boulders of Munnar makes the terrain interesting. Strewn at random, covered by green, they look as if some one has done landscaping. The green expanse is disturbed by orange trees with lovely fruits. We never knew that Orange is grown in these areas.
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| Orange trees amidst the tea gardens |
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| Natural landscaping! |
We get into the car and start driving on the winding roads. Slight drizzle and mist add to the beauty of our drive. Around the corner, Brinda suddenly notice a lovely waterfalls at distance and we are all excited. We drive closer and this happens to be the beautiful "Chinnakanal Waterfalls". The rains in the last week has made it glorious sight.
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| Chinnakanal waterfalls @ its glorious best |
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| A panoramic view of the falls as we drove away past and turned on a curve... |
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| A panoramic shot of the boulder with its cascades. Mesmerising! |
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| The vistas on the winding roads are lovely |
A lovely drive in the mountains leads us to Munnar town. A small hill town, typical of a tea country. To some extent, Munnar town resembles the town of Nuwara Eliya in Sri Lanka's Hill country, though it lacks the lovely Gregory lake. But that is compensated by two lovely lakes away from the town. We will cover them in future posts.
The entry was like a fantastic prelude to next few days in paradise!
Travel Tips
a) Munnar is not for some one in a hurry. For that matter any mountain. It has to be savoured slowly.
b) It is worth driving up to Bodhimettu even if you are reaching from other two routes of Udumalpet and Cochin. The vistas are beautiful.
c) Stop and click pictures for memories!
d) The water falls will be at their best in monsoon. Do not expect Chinnakanal in the same glorious best after rains.
e) Roads in Munnar in excellent condition. The best thing to do in Munnar is to drive around. It is an exhilarating experience.
If you want to experience the beauty of monsoon in India, you can check this post on this blog.
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