It sits on the Thamirabarani river in the far south of Tamil Nadu, with its twin town of Palayamkottai across the water, a former garrison that earned the nickname Oxford of the South for its colleges and schools. The big Nellaiappar temple, with its musical stone pillars, anchors the old town, and the city's other claim to fame is halwa, a dense, glossy sweet of wheat, ghee and sugar that people carry home in boxes. The river water is said to be the secret.
At roughly 9.5 degrees north and 77.2 east, it falls in the Western Ghats on the Tamil Nadu side of the border with Kerala, in the green fold of mountains near Gudalur and Cumbum, a good twenty kilometres from the nearest sizeable town. The Cardamom Hills rise here to the west, and the vegetation changes quickly with altitude from dry scrub and tamarind on the Tamil plains to wet evergreen forest, cardamom shade and tea on the cooler heights. Rubber and spice estates fill much of the lower ground.
Riding through this belt is a pleasure of hairpins and shade. The ghat road between Cumbum and Kumily climbs in a long series of bends through banana and grape farms, then enters forest on the Kerala side, where macaques sit on the crash barriers and the air smells of damp earth and cardamom. Surfaces vary, with smooth sections and sudden potholes after the monsoon, and trucks carrying produce and pilgrims make blind corners something to treat with respect. Early morning, before the trucks wake up, is the best time, with mist in the valleys and a low sun on the hills.
Once you climb into the hills, assume services thin out, so start with a full tank. Street food in the towns is cheap and very good; a plate of parotta with salna, a spiced gravy, is the sensible lunch, and filter coffee in a steel tumbler is the sensible finish. The monsoons, from June to September and again in October and November, bring heavy rain, so plan for dry months.