On saying fond farewells to the remaining group members, I was presented with some valuable gifts. Jane had discovered Indian toilet paper was better than she had expected, so gifted me with a huge luxuriously soft US bog roll, as well as some water she knew wouldn’t be allowed on the plane. From Lis I scored some Body Shop shower gel (woo-hoo). Kay and Leslie, I discovered, were planning to jettison their famous stripey bags that had allowed them to travel so...

The ragged blue Nilgiris loomed above us as we edged out of the Jungle Retreat’s driveway. Somewhere up there snuggled Snooty Ooty, ex-summer haven for Colonels and their ladies, the only thing saving them from the insanity of the lowland summer heat.

Climbing the edge of the Western Ghats took some time as we clung to each hairpin turn – 36 to be precise – as the yellow and black signs counted them down, or up, to be more accurate.

Dervla Murphy complained that...

This morning we had to be up at 4am to beat a proposed roadblock for road repairs in Masinagudi. So after viewing the amazing weekly illumination of Mysore Palace last night, we all took to our beds early.

On our arrival at the Jungle Retreat we are served a fantastic western breakfast including banana pancakes. They also have the most delicious berry jam, and a honey that is rich, dark and runny, with a distinct floral taste.

After this we have free time to swim,...

In the Union Territory and former French colony of Pondicherry, we had the pleasure of breakfast at a patisserie. Happily, the French influence in this town extends beyond the red pill-box hats worn by the policemen and I can confirm that the warm crisp apple danish and the pain au chocolat were superb. Real coffee was also the order of the day, although now I’m beginning to take this for granted and feel grossly insulted if I get served Nes-shité.

Prior to...

The coolness of Periyar’s heights (over 3,000 feet) has been very welcome. Up early, we caught tuk tuks to the entrance of the park at 7am. After reading Dervla Murphy's account of Periyar 35 years ago in On a Shoestring to Coorg, I was eager to see if it had changed.

After we donned our 15RS leech socks, we commenced by crossing a river in groups of eight, sitting or standing on a bamboo raft linked to each bank by a rope. Once we were all together again our guide...

After a fabulous breakfast including some coconut noodle pancakes and steamed bananas, we were asking how to replicate the buttery type sauce that seemed to be under the skin of the sliced halves of the bananas. Matthew informed us that the steaming process only worked this well with the right bananas (ie not the tasteless-look-good-for-packing variety we get at home) and no, there was nothing added. Self-saucing bananas!

At 7.30am we flagged down our boat for the...

On the night before our departure from Kochi we were taken to see a traditional Kathakali performance. I say traditional, but really it was observing the bright face paint being put on by the players and having the symbolism of the gestures and hand language outlined with some performed examples. A proper performance would probably go all night and have many intricate subplots and diversions, but our performance lasted just over an hour for us tourists with short...