Motorcycle Diaries

India continued...

Oh dear, after 6 weeks I'm finally getting round to the second instalment of my Indian trip write-up. Sorry for the delay, I guess life is just like that sometimes...better late than never I hope.

After a few days acclimatising in Pondicherry and familiarising myself with all-new elements of survival, namely buying flip-flops for the first time ever and learning how to haggle with rickshaw drivers, we hit the road proper, or rather the rails, heading West on an overnight train from Chennai. This took us 300km east to Mettupalayam, a small town in the shadow of the Nilgiri Hills. After an amusing attempt at 'negotiating' with the guard of another train we’d hope to catch but was full, we took a taxi the 40-odd kilometres to our next stop high in the hills - Udhagamandalam (thankfully also known as ‘Ooty’).  

At over 2200m, Ooty promised something a bit different from the tropical haze of Pondicherry and indeed that’s how it came to prominence – as a cool summer retreat for sweaty, puff-cheeked English in the colonial era. The cooler climate also created ideal growing conditions for tea and this industry still clearly dominates the landscape. These same conditions also mean Ooty and the surrounding hills are home to a number of Western Ghats endemics and rare species - none of which I actually saw. It was frustrating to hear only days after we'd left, that a park we'd walked past several times was one of the better spots for Kashmir and Nilgiri Flycatchers but nevermind, I did manage a further haul of birds in the two days we were there. 

To be honest, Ooty was not really the genteel retreat most places hyped it as and after a walk down it's heaving main drag we promptly decided to head for the hills on a couple of scooters we hired from a 14 year old kid. Getting out of the town was great and with no map and no clue where we were going we soon found ourselves bumping and skidding through quiet villages with curious looks from the locals. Stopping briefly at a turning just outside of Ooty, I spotted a pale bird take flight, owl-like, across a field; a better view and I was chuffed to see it was a Black-winged Kite - only my second ever. The bird quartered momentarily before settling on a telegraph pole a short distance away, giving even better views - fantastic and quite unexpected. A short way on, we found our path winding through a forest before a government department sign warned against going any further. As we turned to leave, a villager appeared and seemed amused by our reticence, "hey, no one worries about that, go on, you'll be fine"...so we did and wow, it was stunning. In places, large sheets of glowing honeycomb hung from branches over the path and I had a hard time keeping up with the other two as I indulged in some 'scooter birding' through the forest. The softly purring notes of a dove were proceded by an Oriental Turtle Dove bolting overhead as a little further along a Raven-esque Large-billed Crow picked over the remains of something furry. The path eventually took us down to a secluded reservoir where several Spot-billed ducks lurked on the far side along with five or six Little Grebes (always nice to see) and ever-present Indian Pond herons. Despite the litter gathered at its rim, it was a beautiful spot. We wrapped up our motorcycle diaries drinking tea in the unlikely surrounds of a Raj-era summer palace that we stumbled upon as the sun went down - god knows quite how that fell into place but it's something I won't forget in a while.

Large-billed Crow (Corvus macrorhynchos) Ooty, 18/2/13

Spotted Dove (Streptopelia chinensis) Ooty, 18/2/13 

Birding in style

Back in Ooty for another day and there were some pretty decent birds knocking about the vicinity of our homestay. Incidentally, the homestay, was the kind of place you'd affectionately describe as 'basic' and I ended up in a room more closely resembling a stable. To be honest I wouldn't of minded had the temperature at night not dropped so much that I woke up absolutely freezing, I had to put on virtually everything I had with me. That said, the breakfast was nice.

Jungle Myna (Acridotheres fuscus) Ooty, 17/2/13

Plain Prinia (f) (Prinia inornata) Ooty, 17/2/13

Oriental White-eye (Zosterops palpebrosus) outside the homestay, 17/2/13

The scrubby slopes and terraces around the homestay held a decent selection of birds. Pied Bushchat, Ashy Prinia, Clamorous Reed Warbler (a really sleek, monster Acro) and Common Hoopoe were all fairly conspicuous, while less obvious but worthy of note was a secretive male Eurasian Blackbird looking distinctly paler than those at home. According to the fieldguide there are a number of sub-continent sub-species of merula. A nice White-browed Fantail showed well briefly and this bird had me puzzled for a bit as it hopped around under a hedge making sharp 'tack' calls; one for LBJ fans out there - it served some useful pointers should I ever find myself on the east coast in October:

Blyth's Reed Warbler (Acrocephalus dumetorum) Ooty, 17/2/13

And that was mostly it for the hills, a day or so later we headed south west towards Kerala and a part of the trip I had been particularly looking forward to...Thattekad bird sanctuary. More soon (honest)

Accommodation in Ooty- despite the above, I'd happily stay at Hotel Sweekar again, just ask for more blankets. The location is ideal and the owner went out of his way help us arrange lifts. The scrambled eggs were superb.