Coonoor - Sights to See

The moment Coonoor is mentioned to any of the taxi drivers, it elicits the same response - 'Ah! Sims' Park' and a sage nod of the head. Like as if this entire town were built around just the one place of note that tourists can flock to. Tourists do flock to Sims' Park but there are plenty of other places to see in and around Coonoor.

Sims' Park on a sunny afternoon is like a slice of paradise tucked away in a forgotten corner. The sun tries vainly to break through the gloom of thousands of trees, some of them more than a century old, and light up the emerald lawns and sloping paths that make up about eight levels of this Victorian garden. Botanical specimens, duly labelled, from all corners of the Empire were brought in and laid out amidst this hollow around an ornamental lake, replete with pergolas, summerhouses and clipped hedges. We sat on the lawns and breathed in the fragrance of eucalyptus, pine and wintergreen while thousands of birds called and cooed far above us. A fruit show held here in May is the event of note and many tourists flock here to visit during that time.

Up ahead of Sims' Park, Lamb's Rock, Dolphin's Nose and Lady Canning's Seat are all noted view points and on a clear day, we can see a dizzying vista of smoky blue mountains, green valleys, winding roads right down to the sultry plains. Lady Catherine's Falls can also be seen cascading in milky white in the distance. The journey to these places (about 8-12 kms from Coonoor town) is just as enchanting - you pass through shola forests so thick that the sun cannot penetrate the thick cover of eucalyptus, oak and pine. Ferns and moss grow beside oozing rock that channel many a mountain stream that comes to sight unexpectedly round a bend. Birds like the red vented Himalayan bulbul or the canary flycatcher call and colorful flowers grow by the wayside. Manicured tea bushes grow on the slopes of the mountains as you keep climbing upward. The feeling of getting away from it all is very pronounced as each winding bend takes you to your destination.

I just wish the Government would pay a little more attention and make these places neater and easier to reach by repairing the roads more often.
At Dolphin's Nose, we bought tea grown in the nearby Singara and Adderley estates - rose tea, ginger tea, chocolate tea and broken Orange Pekoe. And eucalyptus oil, wintergreen oil, clove oil. Spices are found in abundance, thanks to the foresight of planters who often interspersed the tea bushes with spice trees, teak and pepper vines.

Needlecraft: On our way back from Dolphin's Nose, we stopped at Needlecraft, on the Singara Estate. Needlecraft is situated at a lovely vantage point at the truly beautiful Erin Villa- a tourist spot in itself. Erin Villa dates back to British times and is surrounded by a garden with a fountain and summerhouse. Quaint and so much a symbol of the Coonoor experience that you expect a roaring fire and chocolate cakes once you're inside the cool, dark interior. Exquisitely embroidered napkins, serviettes, bedsheets, bedspreads, pillowcovers, cushion covers and handkerchiefs in petit-point, cross-stitch, satin stitch and herring-bone are their forte. The prices are steep however , with a pair of pillowcases costing Rs 280/- , but for a good cause as the lady who owns the place tells us. The money goes towards supporting convents - so I guess that's fine.
Outside Sims' Park is the Pomological Station- where research on fruits is conducted along with growing of hybrids and Pasteur's Institute - only one of two in all of India, that manufactures anti-rabies vaccine. You can purchase nutmeg jelly, pear jam , strawberry jelly or loquat jelly - to name just a few, at the Pomological Station.