Year 3 -6 March 2026 -Mavatupuzha-Munnar -India

It was another lovely morning when we woke and

we went for breakfast about 8.15AM. We had our usual mese of fruit and an omelette each.

We packed and prepared to leave but had time to relax by the pool. Jules swam and did her exercises and I relaxed and did emails and wrote the blog.

We left about 11.10am bound for Munnar, the tea plantation area that I had been to before and about 1,500-2,000m. We passed through quite a lot of urban sprawl and towns and then began to climb up into the hills.

We stopped for a break in a town and we had a ginger tea and a Masala Dosa for a snack which was quite good. We then continued on up and the road became very windy and steep. Gradually this became tricky for Jules and she began to feel sick and so eventually we had to stop for 5 minutes or so before we could carry on. The driver had been going round the corners quite fast and I asked him to slow down.

We eventually came to Munnar and stopped at a tea shop. Our journey had brought us through the jungle and hillsides. We were met by a guide called Matthew who was to be our guide for the next few days and we did not know this. He suggested a walk around the town and so we walked round and we were in a busy town in India and we initially went to a café for some tea and fruit and a brownie. We then walked around going into market areas and through alleys etc. Matthew grew up here and he know the town well. We passed through an area which was obviously the rag trade area and they were making all sorts of clothes with sowing machines etc. We then went to a spice area with shops selling all sorts of spices and the mix for various Indian dishes so you could buy the mix and add fish or meat etc. We then went to the fruit and vegetable area and there was a vast range of fresh fruit and vegetables including the betel juice leaves which they chew here and which gives them terrible teeth.      

 Betel leaf (Piper betle) is a heart-shaped, stimulant leaf from the piperaceae family, often chewed with areca nut and lime to produce a bright red, psychoactive saliva. While traditional for medicinal uses, this practice is highly addictive and causes serious health risks, including oral cancer, cardiovascular disease, and severe staining of public spaces. They also add tobacco here meaning they get higher quicker or so I guide said.

We wondered on through the town and we were seeing real India here with everyone going about their business. We wandered back to the car and went into the tea shop. Jules bought some white tea and I bought some early grey with a little tea strainer to help.

We then drove to the Lockart Tea Plantation some 20 minutes away. It is one of the oldest plantations in the area. The Lockhart Estate, which is one of the earliest tea plantations in High Range (Munnar), established by Baron John Von Rosenberg and his son, Baron George Otto Von Rosenberg in 1879.[3] Initially they planted cinchona then coffee and afterwards tea.

The tea factory building, which houses a museum and was constructed in 1936. The Lockhart Tea factory produces about 20 million kilograms of tea annually and is owned by Harrisons Malayalam Limited, one of South India's largest tea cultivators. The factory allows public visits during regular working hours, allowing visitors the opportunity to observe the various stages of tea processing. The museum houses photographs and machinery that was used in earlier days of tea production. The factory and museum are located on the slopes of Chokarmudy, one of South India's highest peaks, from which the entire valley of Lockhart can be seen.

When we arrived Matthew pointed out the Chokarmundy mountain and then took us on a tour of the factory. The tea arrives in lorries and is weighed and then lifted by an old-fashioned type of conveyor to the third floor where it is laid on a long platform to have the moisture taken out of it and they have a fan which blows underneath. If necessary they can introduce heat which is created by a wood burning type boiler. Once dry they put it down shoots to the ground floor when it is put in a metal cylindrical cylinder which starts to break up the leaves and stalks etc. It is then put in these spinning machines and ground and then eventually put on these tables to ferment and dry further. It is then put into a drying machine at over 100 degrees centigrade and dried.

It is then put through further machines depending on whether they are making loose leaf tea or ground tea. For the former it is graded and then bagged according to its grade.

We tasted 5 teas namely White tea (which is just a sprout of a leaf and merely dried in the sun), Green tea which is the first 2 leaves steamed and them dried and 3 types of black tea which go through the process I have described above.

It was a good visit but we were tee’d out and so we were then driven to our hotel Spice Trees and we went through the usual welcome process. However, they could not find our booking until they realised we were supposed to be in the other Spice Trees Hotel about 10km away and our driver had got the wrong one. We set off again through the windy roads which Jules did not enjoy and came to the right hotel which had an open fire going in their reception. We checked in with another welcome reception.

We were shown to our room which was a lovely room and the hotel had a nice pool. We decided to have an early supper which was delicious and then we decided to turn in ready for tomorrow. The views on the journey had been fantastic and the tea plantations were spread out over the hills as far as the eye could see. It is such a beautiful area.

The picture of the day is Jules and I with the tea plantations behind.  

 Need/Opportunity Year Three

In year three I will be going from Thailand to Sri Lanka, India, Maldives and then on to Mauritius, Reunion, Cape Town, St Helena, Azores and back to the UK. 

I am looking for one crew from Mauritius/ Reunion Island to Cape Town (mid June to end of July). If of any interest do email me.

The blog will continue as we continue the journey. If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog then do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com