Travel UN!imited

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Silent Valley

However. To return to Manakkad. We had been told that Silent valley is a further 30-40 km from Manakkad, at a place called Makeli. This stretch is steep and winding. Our driver obligingly gives way to all oncoming vehicles regardless of traffic regulations which decree that uphill traffic has right of way. The drive from Palghat takes almost two hours and there are still another 20-odd km to go when it ends at an office of Silent valley administrators. Private vehicles are rarely allowed further, we are told, we should hop into official vehicles to cover the remaining distance. We can either take a jeep with driver and guide for ourselves, or wait for an expect party of eighteen and gatecrash on them. The latter option will be cheaper by about Rs 500, involving payment of only Rs 120 as sundry entry fees. The downside is that the other party has not yet arrived and when they will, may well decide to have lunch before they leave venture any further. Although only 20-odd km remain, it will take an hour and a half to cover these on an untarred, narrow and steep track. Add an hour spent in the interiors, and it makes it a four-hour affair. For us this is a serious consideration as we have to get back to Palghat and thence to Cochin where we are booked overnight (or not, as it emerges, but that we learn of later). However money is an even more serious consideration and in the interests of saving some, we choose to wait a while, and feel very virtuous about it.

This is our undoing, because the party arrives an hour later, elects not to have lunch, but wastes another half hour dallying in the indisputably pleasant surroundings of the office, where a river, a garden pavilion, a couple of deer, a nilgiris langur sad and lonely in a small, bare cage, and a peacock which does not spread its tail feathers despite the ongoing light rain, all have been keeping us entertained. We set off around noon, and endure a painfully uncomfortable journey of the threatened duration, with Amit sitting sideways in the confined seat of a Swaraj Mazda, his knees sticking out into the aisle.

The drive is lovely though, with the others chattering and handing out food. Unfortunately Amit won't eat because he is prone to car sickness, especially in the hills. And so, being a good Hindu wife (???), I naturally can't be seen to be stuffing my face. I suffer in silence. However excitement is provided in the shape of the occasional sighting of a nilgiris langur, a small black furry thing high up in a tree. There are stops for the trigger happy to squeeze off a few frames, while secret, whispered adulations are exchanged among others.

Though zealously guarded, there is nothing much to signify the attainment of the sanctum sanctorum, as it were. A couple of notices warning tourists not to disturb the wildlife. Then there is a tall tower for the enthusiastic to climb, which on a clear day affords a view of Ooty. It is not a clear day, the steps are steep and narrow and wet and there is water dripping from above. We attain the first landing and turn back, while others proceed to the top. It is nicer below though, with a good view, and, away from the crowd, the silence promised in its name. With mists covering nearby hills, the scene is romantic, and I realise for the first time how beautiful a light mist can be.

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