Shaking our Booty in Ooty

Scenes from train ride to Ooty

Not getting enough of the mountains we decided to go even further up to the hill station of Ooty. This is where my mum went to boarding school in a place called Conoor which is one town before Ooty.

The only way to get into Ooty is via an old minature steam train, which takes you back in time (all be it very slowly) to travel in the age of the Raj (not really as grand as it sounds but lovely none the less). The scenes as you ride up the mountain are of lush emerald green trees wrapped in fine white mist, as the wet air rushes into the train and your hear the tooting of the old steam whistle.

The distance itself is very short but the steam train combined with the many food stops draws the trip out to about 5hrs. At one of the stops, we had a rush of little monkeys who stealthly climb into your carriage and try to lift everything that isn't tied down, they are beautiful animated creatures, but unfortunately the constant feeding by tourists had made them very aggressive.

As you make the climb further and further up the mountain the cold starts to set in, I was wearing everything I packed including my beanie, we even had a roaring fire at the YWCA where we were staying, before finding the fire wood however we had to be constantly on the move to keep warm. We did a four hour guided hike through Ooty where I guide insisted on showing us the different countries that converged in Ooty, so a field of Eucalptus trees represented Australia, green misty field scotland, and tiered mountain sides Tibet. A single tied up cow in the middle of an empty forest represented the irony of India, in a country where cows roam freely in the cities but are tied down in the forest.

Mum we did got to St Josephs but it is not a covent school anymore it is now run by priests and is a co-educational school.