Ben’s mountain got it’s name from an Irish man who stayed at the hostel and through whom we ended up here. Apparently he climbed it every day…. We four tried it one day but got stopped by a group of men telling us that it was not allowed to go all the way up along the big water pipes.
Two days later I tried it again with Anina, a German friend,without getting stopped by anyone.. And it was absolutely amazing. Although I sometimes thought I was never gonna make it. It was speep, hot and humid and the path towards the end was through hig sharp grass and rocks – perfect leopard area by the way and I guess for snakes too. Anyway, we made it to the top looking forward to a spectacular view but all we could see was mist that was getting worse. At one point we could only see about 5 to 10 meters. I just knew that I couldn’t go back the same way. It was far too steep. So we decided to walk along the rim. Then, as quickly as it got misty the clouds parted to give way for an absolutly stunning view on one side of the rim while the other side was still misty. Tea plantations down in the hilly valley, even higher mountains on the other side, small forests scattered.
Uplifted we continued our hike, passing elefant poo and big cat and bison footprints, some stairs to nowhere on a mountain top. (who knows what they are good for?)
After three hours we decided to make our way down again. I was freezing cold at that stage and it was slowly but surely getting dark. Just made it in time to reach the valley floor with its main road just at the edge of old Munnar. What a fantastic hike on Nikolaus day! Thanks for that adventure, Anina!