Kotagiri, India

On a recent trip to India, we visited the lovely Hill Station of Kotagiri in Tamil Nadu India. I choose this area as it has some lovely small resorts we stayed in Green Nest Resort and it is much less developed than Ooty. This area is beautiful and abundant in wildlife and it's great to see tea growing all around. 

It is also a good break from the heat of Chennai being much cooler at these higher elevations. The Nilgiris mountains can reach 8000 feet and are truly a stunning mountain range, with the clouds filling the valleys and clinging to the mountains one of the lookouts we visited was Kodanadu Viewpoint this was spectacular you could see for miles, there was a waterfall and lakes and rivers in the valley below.  

These lovely red whiskered bulbul were abundant the sound of the birdsong was so soothing. 

This is the blossom of the Camellia sinensis or the tea plant. 

Did you know all tea comes from this plant its just the way it is dried and processed that decides if it is green or black. 

This hut is modeled on a tribal hut and was at the resort. 

One of our favorite things about the Green Nest resort was being able to walk amongst the tea terraces and meet the tea plantation workers, we just adored their dogs and they really reminded us of Spot our dog, they kindly let us chat with them and take pictures. Tea really is the main industry in this region with plantations and tea stalls everywhere. The plants have a life span of about 6 years and are then removed and replanted. 

Another special thing to see in this area is wild Bison, they graze among the tea. 

Here we are with my in-laws, niece, and sister-in-laws, it was nice to have a few days away and show the kids a different part of India. 

Here you can see where Kotagiri is, its about an hour from Ooty which to me was way too crowded and sadly has too much tourism, not sure what the answer is as its a nice place to visit maybe the idea would be to offer a certain number of passes to control numbers. 

To get to this region you can take an overnight train from Chennai or fly and take a car from Coimbatore. 

Here you can see the workers picking the tea 

In this clip, you can hear the kid's glee at seeing Bison crossing the road. We also saw buffalo, fox, lots of birds, insects, butterflies, and different types of monkeys.

I would highly recommend this region to visit on a trip to India. 

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