If there was a day that I was worried about its today,we are planning to stay at an Indian water theme park, Black Thunder, not somewhere that I have previous experience of and it’s the first day of the hills. Leaving Massingudi yuh faced with another near vertical climb over the space of about 5 miles you raise up several hundred feet without actually driving forward very far at all.

Those attuned to it will start to smell the brakes of the lorries going the other way, which is the first warning the second being the sign st the bottom warning you  that your approaching hairpin 36 of 36 what follows is a switchblade of twist and turns similar to an Alton tower ride, although much safer,

We stopped at bend 11 for a cup of tea at the Nilgiris tea stand. Where I had for the first time chocolate tea, all I can say is I have bought a packet against the advice of my wif who had told me not to buy any this year as we have three years worth to drink left at home, all I can say in my defense was it was rather special and you make this with hot milk.

The climb stops as Ooty starts and your soon in the coolness, for this year read bloody coldness of Ooty the much loved hill poasting during the days of the English rule.

It was not just cool it was decidedly cold and I was glad that I had worn two shirts.

Ooty has many throw backs to English rule the roundabout in the Centre is called Charing cross and it’s the birth place of snooker

Following a stop for lunch we had a quick tour/ride by of some of the sights and sounds of Ooty including the world heritage railway station before we started the trek back down

. A quick briefing “don’t over use the rear brake” anybody who’s done advanced with me will know this is the opposite of my normal teaching but with a drum brake and almost continual braking the

Brake will soon overheat and boil the grease

Let’s say the ride down was interesting everyone got to the bottom and it was only a short ride to our BLACK THIUNDER and I was pleasenly surprised with the accommodation, a bit tired as is all of India but large airy rooms and a good meal.