A day in Ooty

The area that is known as Ooty came under the rule of the East India Company at the end of the 18th century. It developed 19th century as a prime Hill Station with a distinctive English character.
The economy today is based on tourism and agriculture, along with the manufacture of medicines and photographic film.

We visited the Botanical Gardens immediately after after arriving in town.

The following full day in Ooty started at the Municipal Market. You can not see in the photo in one of the butcher shops that the meat is covered with many flies; you will just have to take my word!

Everyone we encountered in the market was friendly and helpful. We bought some bananas and white grapes. Lenore also bought some children's cloths.

The rich soil, temperate climate and abundant rain fall means that the area is perfect for tea growing on the hills, and vegetables on the flats (potatoes, carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, beans, onions all thrive.




These days everyone knows how to pose including the store keeper (top photo). Similarly the man on his foot sowing machine. In contrast, the young lady in the store immediately turned away.

1. In the tea factory. We had the production methods for green, black and white tea explained to us.




2. Some local infrastructure has a birds nest look.







3. This pigeon was getting a good feed from one of the open bags in this store. The shop keeper appeared not to mind. Possibly she took pity as the pigeon had a misaligned beek!

Doddabetta is the highest peak in the area, and is about 10 km from Ooty. It overlooked our hotel which in turn was a few kM out of town. We felt very cool at the top, and the street vendors were doing a great trade selling warm caps to local tourists.

Although the hills are almost exclusively covered with eucalyptus, these timber getters were harvesting