Munnar, India — November, 2026
Three days in the Western Ghats
We spent three days staying at the Windermere Estate, a coffee and cardamom plantation just outside Munnar in the Western Ghats. We were in India for a wedding and wanted to see as much as we could around the festivities in Bangalore.
Medha was the resident naturalist at the Windermere Estate. There was a daily bird watching walk at sunrise and a tour of the plantation in the early evening.
Munnar seemed to go from dawn mist to morning sun to afternoon rain to evening mist. The plantation was alive with leeches, giant squirrels, frogs, and leeches.
Tea grows best high in the mountains on steep valley sides that catch the sun but don’t hold the rain. There were signs of elephants all through the plantation, though we only found their dung.
Almost a fifth of the population in Kerala is Christian. There were small churches in every town. One day, we hiked up to this crucifix above the valley.