The narrow Muthoral Road leads out of Ooty to the villages of Palada, Ithalar and Emerald, all surrounded by acres of cabbage and carrot, and further to an area called Red Hills. Take this road out of the clamour of Ooty to put the magic back into jaded Nilgiri holidays. For here, you'll be transported back to the time of the British, with the landscape giving you enough evidence as to why the man-darins of Team Britannica so loved the Blue Mountains.

It is here in Red Hills that the forests are magnificent and vast, the foliage is dense and the air crisp and pure. Lush, eye-soothing greenery covers whole areas right into the horizon. A great change from the clamour of Ooty, the wildness of Mudumalai and laidback Coonoor. Best of all, Red Hills offers a permanent guarantee of natural beauty, since no further development is possible under the law in the ecologically fragile area of the sensitive Upper Bhavani Sanctuary nearby.

Ringed by an almost neverendig array of mountains clothed in green finery, Red Hills, so named by the British in remembrance of a similar area in England, is where tranquility meets calm to produce a scene that is soothing and soul-enriching.

Best from September to May. The resort is normally closed between June and August for the monsoons. But if you insist that you are the type who loves the rain, then you can head there after calling up the place. Otherwise it is open through the year. Summers are wonderfully pleasant and winters cold.

THINGS TO SEE AND DO

Eight lakes form the finest beauty spots on the face of Red Hills; you can take a tour of these, all within a 25-km radius of Red Hills. A gentle walk along their shores, with a myriad birdsongs as accompaniment, is a great afternoon spent. You can also fish for car and trout in the lakes while you relax and take in the scenery.

But the best thing to do in the Red Hills is to take a long, unhurried amble through the wilderness along the pencil-thin pathways that go all around the valleys.

Lake District

The area is dotted by eight lakes, aquamarine in colour and distilled in purity from atop the lofty perches around Red Hills; they appear as impossibly odd-shaped mirrors reflecting the clouds. The occasional glint of the sun is magnified on their surface, as the waters break into fine ripples.

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