11 buses, 4 rickshaws, a taxi and a horse drawn cart

Before we came to India Em and I knew that we wanted to split our time between working for Sam and the charity and seeing some of the sights. Sam has been good enough to take us all over the Niligiri hills and to Kerala but as our time here draws to a close we have been eager to get out on our own, have an adventure and see more of what our little corner of India has to offer. So we packed our backpacks with as little as possible, made a few arrangements and early Monday morning last week set off to seek adventure.

Day 1: Monday

The alarm went off at 5:15am and as a shiver of revulsion ran through my spine at the early hour I wondered if this adventure thing was a good idea after all. Nevertheless Em and I got out of bed, made a quick pan of chai and a few slices of toast, picked up our backpacks and headed into town as the sun began to rise. I found myself whistling 'adventure is out there' from the film UP and remembering my best friend Steve comparing Em and I to Carl and Elle.

Standard white person on public transport shot...

The first leg of our journey was a bus from Coonoor to Ooty. We had asked several locals what time the first bus to Ooty left and got a whole host of vague answers so decided we would make our way down the hill bright and early and go from there. As we approached the train station we spotted a bus driving towards us and after a few moments of mouthing, “Ooty? Ooty?” at the driver received a nod we boarded our first bus of the week feeling quite gratified that we had got so lucky. It felt really good to be out and about on our own and despite being a little sleepy we were really excited for the week ahead.

In Ooty we spent 15 minutes using the toilet and buying crisps, biscuits and fruit for the journey and got on our second bus of the day to the city of Mysore. Mysore is about 90 miles north of Ooty. It is rich with fascinating Indian and British history as it was fought over on many occasions during the reign of the East India Company. The road to Mysore runs through several nature reserves with painted signs warning you not to feed the elephants or pet the tigers. It wasn't long before we had sore necks from gazing intently out of the window in hope of seeing some wild beasts. And lo, our diligence was rewarded. As the bus rounded a bend we spotted a whopping elephant with huge tusks grazing from a tree at the roadside. As the bus went round the corner we got a chance to view him from all angles. From then on it was like a little mini safari. A few minutes later we spotted two jumbos on the crest of a hill in the distance then a few miles down the road Emily noticed a little family of elephants including a baby hanging out in the village (hopefully waiting to get to work in the forests and not waiting to trample unsuspecting locals). We also saw some beautiful spotted deer, a handful of boars (though they might just have been rustic looking local pigs...) and some big monkeys with black faces and long tails. Alas, no tigers this time.

The amazing Mysore Palace

When we arrived at Mysore we went into the first hotel we liked the look of, negotiated over price and within 10 minutes of getting off the bus we were relaxing in our room. After settling in and familiarising ourselves with our surroundings we made our way to Mysore palace. The palace is an architectural masterpiece both inside and out. The ceilings are high, the walls clad in elaborate murals and sheet gold and even the pillars are painted in vivid colours. We felt like seriously nerdy tourists as we walked around listening to the free and very interesting audio commentary (we were the only ones out of the hundreds of people that we saw to take advantage of it). We also learned a lot about the Hindu faith, which was fascinating and helped explain some of the temples and statues we see all over India.

We went to sleep that night grateful for a comfy bed, full stomachs and more than anything air conditioning!

Day 2: Tuesday

On Tuesday we woke up and, finding the hotel only served Indian breakfast, decided it would be more prudent to break our fast elsewhere. In the end we grabbed a couple of bananas from a very grumpy grocer on the way to the bus-stop. After asking around for a while and pointed in vague directions we eventually found the bus to our destination for the day, Srirangapatna!

On the walls of Srirangapatna

For those of you who are unfortunate enough not to be avid Bernard Cornwell readers, Srirangapatna is a town just north of Mysore where a famous British assault took place and is the setting for the first book in the Richard Sharpe series. Emily was gracious enough to allow us to visit the fortress town who's walls are still intact and even more gracious to allow me to be her tour guide for the day.

We spent the hot midday hours walking the walls, discussing late 18th century siege techniques (what a woman, listening to me drivel on) visiting the water gate and the Tippu's palace inside the walls and the summer palace outside and generally puzzling out how and where the siege and attack took place. The Tippu's summer palace, about 1km outside the walls, was definitely a highlight with intricate patterns and murals coving every surface and paintings from the era giving faces to names and showing how the town looked 200 years ago. It wasn't hard to imagine a young Arthur Wellesley walking in the same rooms when he moved in after the fall of the city in 1799.

Getting hassled in a busy market

After Srirangapatna we ventured back into Mysore to explore the markets. We found these fairly cramped and oppressive compared to the market in our sleepy home town. Vendors on every side heckling us to buy everything from cabbages to Bindi powder. With almost every step we heard, “Madam do you know how to use one of these?” the mantra of the shop owners dying to put a red spot on Emily's forehead. Watches and sunglasses, bracelets and anklets, small wooden puzzles and plastic nick-nacks were all shoved in our faces in a vain attempt to sell. The really tragic thing was that the constant onslaught drove us out of the market without buying much at all. We would have loved to stop and browse at leisure, and I was very keen to do some haggling, but we could hardly move for vendors nagging us, and it was so oppressive and irritating we got out.

We cheered ourselves up that night with a large Dominoes pizza (which cost more than all the buses for the entire week put together) and revelled in it's cheesy magnificence!

Day 3: Wednesday

Today we left Mysore and headed out into the sticks. Our final destination was a small village called Kakkabe which I found in our ever useful Lonely Planet guide (thanks Nick and Sarah!) Eventually, after several incredibly bumpy, rattly hours on too fast buses on very bad roads, we were deposited in the middle of nowhere at the bottom of a hill. This part of the trip was all a surprise to Emily, so what she must have thought when we got off the bus in the smallest village in the world and started trekking up a hill I don't know.

After about 15 minutes walking up a gradual incline Emily turned to me and said, “This isn't too bad, I was really worried it would be horribly steep, like that” she said pointing at a slope leading precipitously off to the left. “I think we need to go up there Em” I said...poor old Emily. A few minutes later we were both puffing and panting and drenched in sweat as we climbed the 45° slope in 25° heat and humidity on top. “Well,” said Emily, “at least the weather's ok...was that thunder?” It was thunder. A few minutes later we were washed clean and cooled off by a rather persistent rainstorm. But we puffed and panted on.

Eventually we reached the top of the hill and a hikers base camp called Honey Valley. Honey Valley is basic in the extreme, costing a third of the hotel in Mysore we enjoyed a small room with a hard bed and a shared bathroom. But the fairly rustic accommodation was made up for by the truly idyllic surroundings. The estate is set in amongst jungle and coffee plantations and the humming of bees, singing of birds and smells of pollen all under the canopy of lush green trees makes this place a little Eden.

We enjoyed a vegetarian buffet dinner (is there anything more depressing than a vegetarian buffet?) with our fellow diners and swapped stories about our experiences in India before returning to our room to find we had left the light on. Every bug in a mile wide radius had congregated around the energy saving bulb. We waged a mini war against the bigger critters before trying to sleep in the company of the others.

Day 4: Thursday

Emily makes a new friend

We woke up very early on Thursday covered in bites and rather miserable. I think I got a total of two hours sleep on the hard bed being assaulted by mosquitoes. We packed a bag and made our way down the mountain before breakfast for Emily's big surprise. I was feeling really rotten but Emily kept my spirits up as we headed out as the sun came up.

We took a taxi to a nearby town called Maitikiri where there is a camp for retired elephants. These giant beasts are too old to work in the forests anymore so instead they serve as a tourist attraction for whities like us that want to meet the jumbos. Ever since we came to India Emily has been dying to see an elephant so was really excited to get to meet one.

The following three hours were nothing short of magical. After stone-hopping across the wide Cauvery river (and falling in once) we got up close and personal with around 10 elephants in all shapes and sizes. We saw a few baby elephants grazing with their mother before the big boys arrived with giant tusks and massive trunks. First on the agenda was bath time. The elephants were guided down the river where they lay on their sides and allowed us to scrub them with rocks and play with their ears and trunks. Afterwards the elephants returned the favour by giving us a shower. It's amazing how much water those things can hold!

Chilling out in the shallows

Later we got to go for a short ride on their backs and feed them little parcels of hay. It's rather a nerve racking experience putting your hand into an elephants mouth believe me! I never thought we would get a chance to get so close to these amazing, gentle animals. It was simply amazing to be face to face with these powerful creatures, touching them and feeding them, it was a real privilege and something we will both always remember.

When we returned to Honey Valley we met a new neighbour, an incredibly pretentious American who introduced himself as, “Jonny Ray, or JR, whichever you prefer, brother” and told us volubly of his adventures from the back of his motorbike on which he is exploring India for the next ten years...you really do meet all sorts of plonkers on the road.

A naughty elephant gets his own back

Day 5: Friday

Playing with water balloons at Erumad

Today we made our way back to more familiar surroundings as we made our way across country back to the children’s home in Erumad. As it turned out it wasn't as simple as I had hoped because we were essentially moving from one very rural location to another about 150kms away. As it happened it was a very effective test of our ability to get by on India public transport. In the end we took 5 buses, a Jeep and a rickshaw in order to reach Erumad.

Our overriding impression of the experience was how friendly and helpful everyone was. Not everyone spoke English but after repeating our target destination once or twice we were pointed in the right direction and guided onto our next bus. All in all the journey took us 8 hours and we arrived in Erumad rather weary but were immediately swamped by excited children who all needed greeting and entertaining. We did our best! Luckily our American chums were also there meeting the children so we deferred the over excited children to them whilst we enjoyed being back amongst friends and related our adventures of the past few days.

Spotted this beautiful bird on the way back

The following day we travelled back to Coonoor with the Americans and Sam and Laisha spotting even more elephants on the return trip and even seeing a few peacocks and some magnificent bucks with fuzzy antlers. As we bumped our way back home we discussed our mini adventure and both agreed how travel friendly India can be. Most things are really cheap and most people are very helpful. There are of course exceptions and you need to be ever aware of being ripped off but overall the Indian people are usually very friendly and willing to oblige. If you're willing to be a bit flexible, not phased by several hours of discomfort on a sweaty bus and looking to see some truly spectacular sights and experience something amazing then maybe you should come on holiday to India, because it's really really good fun!