Grand South India Hills — Mysuru, Kodagu, the Nilgiris & Kodaikanal

South-west out of Bangalore, about 145 km on a fast road, with Srirangapatna as the stop that makes the drive worth something — Tipu Sultan's island capital until the British stormed it in 1799, with the painted summer palace at Daria Daulat Bagh and the Gumbaz where he and his father lie. Into Mysuru in the afternoon, in time for Devaraja Market and the palace facade at dusk. On a Sunday the illumination runs at seven.

Chamundi Hill at opening, the monolithic Nandi on the way down, and the palace for the rest of the morning — Durbar Hall, the marriage pavilion under its stained glass, the armoury. Then west, and the landscape starts climbing about an hour out. Bylakuppe is on the road: Namdroling Monastery's hall holds three gilded figures eighteen metres high and the settlement around it has been Tibetan since 1961. Into Madikeri by late afternoon.

The estate walk first, in the cool — arabica under a shade canopy, pepper spiralling the trunks, cardamom in the wet ground, and the drying yard working if the fruit is in. Abbey Falls after it, at the end of a plantation path. The afternoon climbs to Bhagamandala and Talacauvery at the head of the valley, where the Kaveri rises below Brahmagiri, and comes back down for the sunset at Raja's Seat.

East and south out of Kodagu, along the Nagarhole boundary and across Mudumalai, then up the ghat into the Nilgiris — around six hours, most of it under canopy, and the stretch of this trip where elephant and gaur on the verges are a genuine prospect in the last hours of light. Pykara's lake and falls come just before Ooty if the timing holds. Into town for the evening with nothing else asked of the day.

Doddabetta at 2,637 m first, before the haze fills the range. The botanical gardens of 1848 below Elk Hill afterwards. Down to Coonoor by the rack railway where seats are available — an 1899 line that takes an hour over half an hour of road — and a working tea estate and factory in the afternoon, from withering loft to grading table. Sim's Park or Dolphin's Nose to finish the day.

The long southward transfer: down the ghat, across the plains by Coimbatore and Palani, and up into the Palani hills to Kodaikanal at about 2,130 m. Around seven hours with a lunch stop, and a genuine driving day rather than a disguised sightseeing one. Silver Cascade appears on the final climb. Nothing is scheduled at the far end; the plateau is better met the following morning.

Coaker's Walk early, along the cliff edge, where a clear morning gives the plains two thousand metres below and a misty one gives a wall of white that is worth seeing in its own right. Bryant Park and then the Pillar Rocks — three granite faces standing over a hundred metres out of the shola. The afternoon belongs to the lake, which is small enough to cycle round, with Green Valley View or Bear Shola Falls depending on how the light is holding.

The Palani ghat down through shola forest into the dry plain, about 115 km and three hours to Madurai for the airport or the main-line station. With a late enough departure the Meenakshi Amman temple is worth the hour it takes — fourteen gopurams, the tallest close to fifty metres, and a hall of a thousand carved pillars. Your specialist will tell you whether the flight allows it once the timings are fixed.