Kolukkumalai: sunrise above the cloud line

At about 2,170 metres, Kolukkumalai is one of the highest tea estates in the world. It is just over the border in Tamil Nadu, about 35 km from Munnar, and takes 1½–2 hours by jeep, because the final stretch is a rough track rather than a road.

How it works

You leave at four in the morning. Jeeps only — no car will manage the last section, and any driver who says otherwise is wrong. You arrive in the dark, walk a short way to the viewpoint, and wait.

What you see

Sunrise over the Western Ghats with cloud sitting in the valleys below you rather than above. The ridgelines come up out of the white one at a time. On a clear morning it is the best thing in Munnar, and it is not close.

The thing that can ruin it

Cloud. If the weather is against you, you have driven two hours in the dark to stand in fog. September to February gives the best odds. Nobody can promise it, and any operator who does is selling you something they cannot deliver.

Practical

• It is cold before dawn at that altitude. Warmer clothes than you think you need.
• The tea factory near the summit still runs on original British-era machinery and is worth twenty minutes.
• Not suitable for anyone with back or neck problems. The track is genuinely rough.
• Breakfast happens after you come back down, around nine.