Day 41, Coorg [Sunday 13th January 2008]
Previous day: Day 40, Madikeri [Saturday 12th January 2008]
Next day: Day 42, Tadiandamol [Monday 14th January 2008]
We turn up at Friends Tours who organised our trek, and meet Nachappa, our guide. His long nose and broomlike moustache are reminiscent of Luigi, of Marios Bros. fame.
We catch a bus north of Madikeri and hike up the huge extended ridge which runs north-south along the entire western length of the Deccan peninsula. It's a gorgeous day, with the sun shining and a cool breeze blowing, and we can see far down into the valley below us. We stop at Nachappa's friend Ramesh's house. Ramesh has a small farm atop a hill, with a veranda overlooking dense forest. He brings out a few bottles of homebrewed toddy - cloudy grey booze made from fermented palm tree sap - and we sit in the sun for an hour or so knocking it back and admiring the view. The sap ferments naturally inside the tree, and needs to be siphoned off daily by a toddy tapper, who shins skillfully up the trunk armed with a lethal looking knife and makes small incisions in the bark to extract it. It's alcohol content is variable, and even changs according to the time of day it was collected, but is generally about as strong as beer.
After a long walk along the ridge our lunch is waiting for us on the porch of someone's house. It was cooked earlier and put into sealed bowls to keep warm. We sit at a table in the front garden and hungrily eat rice, sambar and salty, curried cabbage. Afterwards, Nachappa lays down and puts his cap over his eyes, so we do likewise. The insects buzz lazily in the hot afternoon sun.
We walk downhill through hundreds of acres of private coffee plantations, one of the main sources of income in this area. Nachapa points out robusta and arabica bushes and tells us the difference - arabica berries are much juicier, take longer to dry, and the bush has a productive lifespan of about 15 years, compared to robusta's 100 years. Arabica goes for around Rs. 1000 more per sackful than robusta. The plump maroon berries fill the branches. There are also pepper vines growing up trees everywhere, and cardamom plantations, although their season has passed.
As the sun goes down we arrive at our home for the night - a large hut thatched with rice paddy, containing a bed and a chair. A woman who lives nearby with her son is going to cook dinner for us. Their house is single storey, with three rooms - a kitchen, a dining room and their shared bedroom. Through the door I can see several thick blankets piled up on the bed. The air is thick with smoke from the wood fire in the kitchen and the oil lamps. There's no electricity, and the oil lamps give off a dim, flickering light. The kid is funny, if hyperactive, and we attempt to communicate although he doesn't have much English. He goes to school sometimes, for a couple of hours a day. His mum is Malayali. There are so many languages in this region - Nachappa himself speaks English, Hindi, Kannada, Kodava, Tulu and Malayalam.
Dinner is plentiful and filling. We are surrounded by rice paddies, and outside there is a flat stillness. It is pitch black, and we make our way back to the hut with the help of a torch. Although the mother and son both seemed perfectly friendly and happy, tonight was a stark reminder that the majority of rural Indians live in such a basic way, ruled by the changing seasons and the hours of the sun.
Kate is spooked a little bit by our lonely hut in an otherwise empty field, but the bed is comfy and warm, especially after we've piled 7 or 8 blankets on top of us!
Next day: Day 42, Tadiandamol [Monday 14th January 2008]
Previous day: Day 40, Madikeri [Saturday 12th January 2008]