Rainy Ooty

Arrived in Ooty late last night (the 9:15am bus was scheduled to take 7 hours - it took nearly double that!). It was raining. I checked into my tiny single room in the YWCA, separated by paper walls from a large party of Thais who did their best to make me feel at home by chatting noisily and blasting out Thai pop songs.

When I woke up this morning it was still raining. I ventured out, bundled in my corduroy trousers, T-shirt, cashmere sweater, hi-tec Rohan jersey and the warmest of my dupattas (scarves that go with the salwar-kamiz suits). But it was miserable - visibility was about 20 feet, and practically all the shops were shut. So I did what you might expect from me - I hibernated. I went back to bed in my sleeping bag under a thick woollen blanket, and slept until 2pm.

This afternoon it's still raining, but at least the cloud cover has lifted, so I can see further than the other side of the street. I've found the town centre, and the internet cafe, and - most importantly - the copious homemade chocolate and fudge shops and bakeries! Unfortunately the rain is forecast to continue until at least Monday, so I don't know whether to stick it out until then in the hope of doing a trek and perhaps getting some worthwhile photographs (at the moment it's a dead loss), or just give up Ooty for lost, visit Lovedale for interest's sake, and head on out into Kerala, where in fact it's also raining but at least it's warm!

Pesky weather - I come all the way to India, only to find damn British weather!