Travel · Viewpoints · 4 min read

Pothamedu Viewpoint: Munnar's Valley of Three Crops

A few kilometres from Munnar town, a hillside opens onto a deep valley where tea, coffee and cardamom grow in layers, and the Muthirapuzha winds far below. A quiet viewpoint for sunsets and slow walks.

By GK Global, Adimali, Munnar · Trails & Tales by GK

Most visitors to Munnar look up: at the tea hills, at Anamudi, at the clouds on the peaks. At Pothamedu, you look down. From a bend on the hillside a few kilometres from town, the land falls away into a deep, wide valley, and in it you can read the whole agricultural story of the High Range: neat, clipped tea on the upper slopes, darker coffee lower down, and in the shade of tall trees in the valley bottoms, the glossy leaves of cardamom. Far below, the Muthirapuzha glints as it flows towards Pallivasal.

Three crops, three heights

What makes Pothamedu special is the way the crops follow the altitude. Tea likes the cool, misty upper slopes, and the estates of the Kannan Devan Hills cover them in their unmistakable pattern of clipped rows and winding paths. Lower down, where it is warmer, coffee grows in shrubby rows, its white flowers scenting the air after the first showers of the year. And in the moist valley floors, under a canopy of shade trees, grows cardamom, the "queen of spices", in the traditional forest-garden system of Idukki. (Read the story of Munnar tea and cardamom, the Queen of Spices.)

Pothamedu is also a small village, home to families who work on the estates around it. As you walk the road you will pass their line houses, small shops and temples: a reminder that this landscape is also a workplace. (Read the history of Munnar's tea workers.)

Sunset and mist

Pothamedu faces out over the valley, and in the late afternoon the low sun picks out every ridge and fold, turning the tea gold and the valley floor blue with shadow. On clear evenings, it offers one of the finest sunsets around Munnar. In the monsoon, the view comes and goes: clouds pour up from the valley, blot out everything, then part for a few seconds to reveal the green depths below. Some guides claim that on an exceptionally clear day the line of the Idukki reservoir can be made out far to the south; it is not often visible.

Walks

Estate roads and footpaths wind through the plantations around Pothamedu, making for pleasant short walks. Stay on the paths, ask before entering any estate, never pick tea leaves or spices, and keep an eye out for leeches in the wet months.

Nearby

• Attukad waterfalls and Pallivasal, home of Kerala's first hydroelectric station. (Read the Pallivasal story and the waterfalls of Idukki.)
• Munnar town, with its old church and the tea museum. (Read our Munnar sightseeing guide.)

Visitor's guide

• Getting there: about 6 km (15–20 minutes) from Munnar town by road.
• Best time: September to March for clear views; late afternoon for the sunset.
• The road is narrow with sharp bends; park only where it is safe and do not block traffic.