Kerala Nature & Highlands

Met at Kozhikode airport or station and driven inland — the flat coconut country lasts an hour, and then the road climbs the Thamarassery ghat through nine numbered hairpin bends into cool air. Lakkidi at the top is the viewpoint, and the chain tree beside the road has a story the driver will tell. Around two and a half hours to Kalpetta or Vythiri, where the stays are estate bungalows and homestays rather than hotels. An estate walk in the late afternoon once you have arrived.

Edakkal Caves in the morning before heat and crowds — the climb is around 45 minutes of steep steps to petroglyphs several thousand years old. Entry is capped at around 1,900 a day and the caves are closed on Mondays, so this is first thing, and a Monday swaps this day with the Chembra day. Banasura Sagar in the afternoon, with boating among the submerged hilltops.

The climb to the heart-shaped lake, starting at opening. Entry is capped daily, a guide is compulsory, and the trail closes in dry months on fire risk — this day needs a fallback, and Muthanga or the Soochipara falls are it.

The longest transfer on the route, down out of Wayanad and across to Munnar. A driving day by necessity — the two hill regions do not connect quickly.

Eravikulam National Park at opening, by the timed shuttle from Rajamala, for the Nilgiri tahr — entry is capped daily and the park closes for calving, roughly February to March. Then straight out along the Mattupetty road while the sky is still clear: the dam, Echo Point, the Kundala lake and Top Station on the Tamil Nadu border, where the escarpment falls away into the Theni plain. Cloud usually closes that view by late morning, so it comes before lunch rather than after. Back to the Tea Museum at Nallathanni in the early afternoon; it is closed on Mondays, and a Monday here gives that hour to an estate walk instead.

Down out of the tea and across to Kumily on the Tamil Nadu border. A spice plantation walk in the afternoon — cardamom, pepper, vanilla and clove growing in the same few acres — and Kalaripayattu in the evening if you want it.

The dawn Periyar boat, then west to Alappuzha, about four hours, and aboard in the early afternoon for the last night on the water — the boat holds the boarding.

Off the boat mid-morning and up the coast to Fort Kochi, about an hour and a half. The afternoon is the harbour city on foot: St Francis Church, where Vasco da Gama was first buried, the Dutch cemetery, Mattancherry Palace for the murals and the Paradesi Synagogue — both shut on Fridays and the synagogue on Saturdays, when Santa Cruz Basilica and the Jew Town warehouses take their place. The Chinese fishing nets at sunset and a Kathakali performance in the evening, arriving early for the make-up.

Kochi airport is about an hour and a quarter from Fort Kochi, so a flight after about ten in the morning is comfortable, and a later one leaves time for the spice warehouses of Mattancherry first.