Superb views and wonderful people

Having arrived here at 5.30am I grabbed another hour or so sleep before having more curry for breakfast. Wait for it... I have to be honest I'm looking forward to some Grapefruit and a cup of coffee now more than curry in the morning. I never thought I'd say that!

4 of us were all set to go out to the tribal hill areas of Tamil Nadu to meet with Organic Cotton farmers and start collecting Key Performance Indicator data from them. So off we went in a 7 seater up into the hills where we met up with some field workers who have been helping the farmers and onwards to our first encounter. Along the way the views were spectacular.



Some cheeky chappies looked in the windows of the car as we passed them.



And before long we met our first farmer and his son at his beautiful farm. And guess what...? He even had a stinky engine!






Onwards we went for another 30 mins or so until we came to a tiny little village about as remote as you can get in the hills. What a beautiful place to live. The whole village was out in their best Saris and they anointed my forehead and washed the path in front of our feet. I was bowled over. These people are about as poor as you can get. They have electricity in some of the houses, but no running water or sanitation - despite that the place was spotless.




After we'd had a bit of a chat with them about why we were there, they cooked us a traditional hill tribe lunch of various grains they grow, spinach curry and chicken curry (they don't eat this except occasionally on special occasions). This was really good and filling. I was a little nervous I have to admit as there wasn't much in the way of modern cooking and hygiene equipment for a hundred kilometres or more. I feel fine still so guess it was OK.

All my plans to capture the data on-line fell by the wayside as there was no mobile phone signal. One of the few places in the world I've been that hasn't got one apart from where I live! So we resorted to pen and paper.

Everyone was so pleased to see us, and welcomed us completely. We waved goodbye and headed off to the next meeting through more spectacular scenery. The people we were working with are considering creating some sort of eco-tourism in these areas and I can see why. It is by far the most beautiful place I've been to on planet earth.

After climbing for an age, we eventually reached the next small settlement. Here the whole village turned out to see us in the pouring rain.

Once again everyone was smiling and happy despite their complete financial poverty. These are one happy bunch of people, and what a place and way to live. I could be happy somewhere like this too I think...






They invited us into the village school to carry out out data capture and have a chat. What a great bunch. They were so lively and cheerful. I've never been so honoured to talk about Traceability before as I was then. Explaining to them that the cotton they grow will end up in the west in famous brands products. Because they were providing us with data about how they grow cotton, this information would become known to people on the other side of the planet from them and these people would know who had grown the cotton for them. This amazed them. Prabha translated for me!

The day ended with a group photo and lots of hand shaking and thanks all round. I'll never forget it. Spot the big fella in the crowd.







Every time I do something like this I get tears in my eyes as we in the developed world just don't realise any of this goes on 99% of the time. The people at the top of the supply chain move heaven and earth for next to nothing to give us clothing and that is truly fantastic. They deserve recognition for what they do. I feel so lucky to be in a position to see this stuff first hand. Wow - what a life.

Here's exactly where this place is. I used the GPS features of my Nokia N95 to locate us to within 50m or so.


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