Kodaikanal

Kodaikanal sits at about 2,130 metres on the upper Palani hills, and unlike most Indian hill towns it was not a British creation: American missionaries from Madurai founded it in 1845 to escape the heat and malaria of the plains, and the Kodaikanal International School they started in 1901 still runs. The lake came later, when Sir Vere Levinge dammed a marsh in 1863 into the star shape you can cycle around in an hour, past boathouses and horse stands. The town's pleasure is walking.

Coaker's Walk is a paved kilometre cut along the cliff in 1872, and on a clear morning before the mist rises you can see all the way down to the Vaigai dam and the plains. Bryant Park's terraced beds sit above the lake; Pillar Rocks, seven kilometres out, is a set of three granite columns nearly 120 metres tall, with Guna Cave beside them, sealed off but famous from Tamil cinema. Further along that road, Berijam Lake lies inside reserve forest and needs a day permit from the forest office, which caps vehicles and keeps it quiet enough for gaur.

The Palanis are kurinji country too: Strobilanthes kunthiana flowers once in twelve years, last in 2018, turning whole slopes blue-purple.