Tuesday 26th February - Door Riding in the Western Ghats

The Kuttalum Herittage is, to our eyes, a slightly odd hotel. In some ways it is top end, with a swimming pool and extensive grounds. But the rooms, while clean enough, are a bit basic and the dining hall is very institutionalised. It has notices extolling the virtues of Ayurvedic health treatments, but operates a dive bar. The food choices are limited but what is served is good and very reasonably priced. As far as we can see there are only a couple of other guests. Nevertheless we are grateful for their ability to accommodate us.

Sengottai, a town which occasionally aspires to borrowing a horse, is in the far south west of Tamil Nadu, almost at the border with Kerala. We have come here in order to travel the railway to Kollam, on the Kerala coast. This originally formed part of the metre gauge line from Quillon, as it was then known, to Madras (Chennai). The metre gauge line closed in 2010 and the line was converted to Indian Broad Gauge, reopening in 2018. To think that we complained about a few rail replacement buses while the overhead wires went up between Edinburgh and Glasgow. The line is considered to be scenic but only has one train running along it during daylight hours. This departs from Sengottai at 12.30. We could have got a crack of dawn train from Madurai and made a connection, but ten hours of Unreserved might have been pushing R's goodwill a bit too far.

The 12.30 departure gives us a lazy morning, which makes a change from lazy afternoons. We don't rush to breakfast but are still the only people in there. The complimentary breakfast appears to be a choice of idlis, dosas or uttupams. We aren't crazy about idlis so order one of each of the others. A couple of substantial platefuls arrive along with bowls of curry gravy and delicious coconut sludge. This is coffee country and we can tell from the way that they make tea.

There is some cloud about today, and the humidity level has risen a lot. Reading in the AC seems to be the best option for a couple of hours until we check out. They organise an auto for us and we take the 5km ride back to Sengottai station. Just inside the main entrance there are two ticket machines. These are manned by two chaps who ask our destination, put the details into one of the machines and ask for 50 rupees. Quite how this constitutes modernisation or economy of labour eludes us. Are they just chancers who have worked out how to get the machines to issue tickets without having to pay? 

Inside the station three of the four platforms are occupied by trains. The nearest to us is the late morning train to Madurai, platform 2 is vacant, number three contains a train in a reverse variety of blood & custard livery and the final one appears to be a Rajdhani. This is an impressive collection, soon enlarged when the morning train from Madurai rolls into Platform 2. The coaches of this train will also be used for our train to Kollam. We cross the footbridge and quickly find seats that meet with the approval of both parties.

D has time for a nosey round. The blood and custard number is apparently a super exclusive Suvidha Express that charges higher prices and opens for booking only 30 days out. Why such a train is needed between Sengottai and Chennai is not obvious. The one decked out in grey and red Rajdhani colours is a fraud. It is a Superfast, therefore pretty ordinary, and has Unreserved and Non AC Sleeper coaches as well as a few AC ones. It also runs overnight to Chennai. 

A locomotive manoeuvres in the yard and approaches the east end of our train. D is a bit surprised as we are due to head west. The driver is not keen for photos to be taken, but is happy to explain that his charge is the banking engine for this trip through the Western Ghats. Some of the shunting staff do not share the same scruples about photography and donut D as he stands on the platform talking to R through the coach window.

The 16 coach train leaves only a couple of minutes late and sets a leisurely pace. D bags the shady side centre door. After the first stop the climb begins in earnest and both locos are having to work. There is an extremely long runaway siding at that station for the benefit of trains descending. We plunge into the darkness of a 2,000 metre long tunnel and when we emerge we are in Kerala, the climbing over. At the next stop nearly everybody gets off and we share our entire coach with only two other people. Every quarter mile or so there is a large stack of redundant metre gauge concrete sleepers. The man who finds a use  for them will become rich. The line must have cost a fortune to regauge and barely carries any passengers. We didn't see any evidence of goods trains either.

The scenery is of the mountains and forests variety, quite a change from the plains of Tamil Nadu. The line snakes its way between hills and along hillside ledges, with the odd short tunnel for variety. D is able to cross the train from door to door as the curves dictate. There is a door each for the inhabitants of the coach, with a couple to spare. The loco on the rear now has no pushing to do but is presumably there for its braking capacity. Speeds are very low and there are some long stops at stations as we descend. None of these are to allow for crossing an eastbound train. At one of them the banker is detached.

The train fills up a little and then empties again as we approach Kollam. R remarks that we have never had so much space on a train trip. Our hotel in Kollam is one that we used in 2015, so we know that it exists. We also know that, while in theory it is just beyond the end of the station platforms, it is not worth the hassle of trying to walk there. For a 2 rupee service charge, the prepaid counter gets us a ride for 30, and we are are delivered promptly. 

We check in and a man appears to show us to our room. He picks up two small pieces of hand luggage and strides towards the lift. We shoulder the rucsacs and follow, muttering oaths. The room is smallish but equipped with a fridge and kettle, items we have not seen since Pondicherry. There is no bar in the hotel as Kerala's licensing laws only allow really expensive hotels to sell booze. A bit like Bangladesh really. We have a really good supper in the restaurant and then enjoy nightcaps of Out of State Liquor. Manor House French Brandy made in Maharashtra.