Adventures in International Education

Thursday found our group touring the Western Ghat Mountains, elevation about 3500 feet and reminiscent of Vermont’s mountains.

We stayed at Wyanad Gate and received a warm welcome from the sari-clad hostesses.

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All around us were tea plantations and mist-shrouded peaks. When I asked our guide if we could climb one of the mountains, he told me we’d have to start early, around 6:00 a.m. in order to finish the 12-hour hike in one day.

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Both sides of the road contain hundreds of acres of tea plantations. The terraced slopes contain 150-year-old trees! We walked through part of one plantation and saw women harvesting the crop. They’d been working since 5:00 a.m. They wore burlap sacks and carried umbrellas to protect themselves from the sun. Our guide explained that the women would harvest one section, move to another, and return to this section when the leaves had grown back. There is no “official” harvest time; they keep harvesting all year long—and have been doing so since the British created these plantations.

The mountain climate provides a daily mist, which waters the tea trees, and a warm climate that promotes growth. The women use a special cutter to clip the leaves and then dump them in the sacks they carry. It’s hot work on a steep hillside.

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From the tea plantation, we moved on to a tribal museum. The artifacts included tools, weapons, and “hero stones” unearthed from the area. Some of the artifacts dated to 1000 BCE. Others were more recent: the 1700s.

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Edakkal Caves

These caves—actually a rock shelter—contain prehistoric stone carvings that archeologists believe come from 6,000 BCE. Our guide indicated that the letters are a pre-Sanskrit vintage. These early people came to the area 30,000 years ago and lived in the caves around 6,000 years ago. The carvings include images of a sun god and elephants and both Tamil and Old Sanskrit languages.

The two kilometer hike passes shops offering water, coffee, ice cream and souvenirs. There is a “no plastic” policy, so visitors must check their water bottles at a guard station before beginning the vigorous climb up a metal staircase attached to the steep slope.

The caves provide a link to the earliest civilization around the Indus Valley.

Kalpetta for Lunch & Shopping

We ate lunch at a vegetarian restaurant in Kalpetta and wandered the streets looking for khurtas that might fit a size 44 body like mine. Rathnakaran and our guide found a shop and I now possess two khurtas, marked 6XX. Peter also owns a khurta, a gift from our host.

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We sipped delicious Iranian tea at a street-side booth and resumed our journey. The roads deteriorated and we saw many children on their way home from school, all wearing uniforms. Some of the girls wore hijabs.

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We arrived at our lodging in the Arayal Resort—high in the Ghat Range, near the Banasura Sagar Dam—in the early evening and spent some time admiring the views.