“I just don’t get Ooty,” said a young photographer. “What is it about this place that people rave about so much?” “Maybe Ooty doesn’t get you,“ was the response from Anne.
Anne aka Anita Nanjapa is the founder of Amble with Anne, a venture in which she takes tourists on walks around the hill station and its heritage spots. A national level co-driver and navigator at motor rallies for 22 years, she relocated to Udhagamandalam, her hometown, then launched tailored walks for locals and vistors; each route unraveling different aspects of the town ensconced amid tea gardens and hills.
The Untravel Show, a recent YouTube video by a participant, has turned the spotlight on her. Anne, however, prefers to be incognito and wants the genuine walker to seek her out. “I am just this older person in the hills who likes to walk and tell stories,” she says.
Anne studied at Nazareth Convent School and was encouraged to go walking by her mother. One of her favourite walks was on Wenlock Downs on the Gudalur Road. This wide expanse of grassland was a hotspot for film shootings. Earlier she took walkers to this landscape rich in natural beauty, but the Forest Department no longer permits this.
“I am interested in the plants and little things I see, so during the walks, I point out things that they might have missed or are not familiar with. Like the lilies growing on the roadside , the willow trees, wild flowers, the birds on the lake, little beetles and spider webs,” says Anne who finds the interaction with her guests most refreshing.
Sustainbility in Indian Motor Sports
A successful motorcycle rally navigator Anne aka Anita Nanjapa is part of the Women’s Commission of FIM, the governing body of world motorsport and of The Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India. She is working to introduce sustainability in Indian Motorsports and has framed guidelines on waste management and sound pollution at the race track and in motorsports events.
Before the pandemic, her clientele consisted mainly of western travellers who undertook long morning to evening walks. “We often took a bus out of town and walked back.” The young Indians who now form the bulk of her guests are friendly . “They are the work-cation crowd and I learn many things from them, yesterday even about Metaverse . One was so curious and asked my age. I told him it was not a polite question,” she laughs.
The Jack in the pulpit, a woodland perennial
A popular trail is the five-kilometre stretch from Udhagamandalam to Lovedale and back, which takes three hours. She chooses never to return on the same route. “We see the Nilgiri Mountain Train twice during this trail,” she says. The Heritage Walk and In the Woods are other walks. The routes that include St Stephen’s Church and St Thomas Church too are popular.
Anne says that she builds curiosity among the walkers by asking them if they would be interested in exploring what lies at the end of a wooded pathway. “I take them off the track. While youngsters run down a hillside, I sit down and slide,” says Anne who tells them stories about the 200-year-old lake; of John Sullivan, the founder of Ooty; of how tea came to the hills; of Tipu Sultan’s defeat and how the Nilgiris came to the East India Company; the tribes and villages. She carries light snacks—buttered buns, fruits—and coffee for her group in her backpack. Another snack is her special rice cooker cake made of wheat flour and jaggery.
The Fernhill Palace Hotel is one of her finishing points, while the bus stand near the railway station or the Hill Bunk is the starting point. “These change according to guest’s convenience,” she says. Some walks combine a train journey and a walk back or a car trip and a walk.
Forging new bonds
The walks have brought new friendships to an otherwise reserved Anne. “There is this woman from Mumbai who shares her life story with me over WhatsApp, a walker from Tunisia who has become a good friend,” recalls Anne.
She started them by chance when the first Go Heritage Run was conducted in 2014 and the organisers required a brief history and story of Udhagamandalam to be narrated to the participants. “The idea took shape and I curated my first walk then,” she says. Anne prefers to take small groups of four but often she has just one or two persons. A walk is priced at ₹ 1,000 per person. She has had a busy reopening with four back-to-back walks last week.
As for that young photographer? She says he looked up, midway through the walk, and said, “Now, I get Ooty.”
