My most Awaited trip Bangalore - ooty - Mukurthi Fishing Hut - ooty - Bangalore.

[bglsrini]

Yes.....I did my most awaited trip last weekend.It was a great trip and we enjoyed it a lot.It was our P.G gettogether of around 11 people who are in different walks of life.We almost went back to the past and lived the life during 1993-1995.

Days - 15th august from bangalore
16th august stay at fishing hut
17th august back to bangalore.

vechile - Tata safari 2.2 vtt Lx - My BULL - black colour

Total Km - 730 km

Fuel - Turbo JEt
F.E - 10.5 kmpl

Good - My Bull proved itself thats its best

Bad - There was a hissing noice while driving back - Ac Ideler bearing worn out,changed the same in bangalore in warranty,The stearing got jammed and became tight in Gudelpet junction...then through prerana contacted URS CAR,Mysore on sunday...drove slowly...since they could not attend to it immediately and said it can be driven slowly,drove it to bangalore.....here on monday at prerana they checked and found that the AIR DUMMY has fallen off in the power steering pump and it was replaced and my BULL is back in form.


MY TRIP:

We planned for our gettogether around 1st of august and we shortlisted some forest guest houses.The final list was:
1.Bangitaapal
2.Fishing Hut

Since bangitaapal guest house restroom was under renovation,We narrow down to Mukurthi fissing hut

Booking : My doctor friend at OOty was contacted and he is so close to me and agreed to help me.He checked with the forest DFO and confirmed the availability.

Place of booking : NILGIRI WILDLIFE & ENVIRONMENT ASSOCIATION,
C/O.District Forest Office(North) Mount Steward Hill,
OOty.

Place of stay : Maj.Richard Radclifffe Fishing Hut,
Parsons valley Range.



The hut was booked for 15 people for a day and we have to pay Rs.150/- perday.We got our booking confirmed and my friend called the care taker Mr.James and gave him the menu and money to buy the rawmaterials for the food.

So,all set for our trip.........


15th August - My wife had her plans for the day and i have to take care of my daughter.A friend of mine from Trichy came to Bangalore to join me for my trip.One more friend started from bangalore on his HONDA city at 12:30p.m and was proceeding to ooty. Finally,I set everything and we started from HSR layout At 2:15p.m

We took the kudulu road - AECS layout - Out through HOSA road and took NICE road at electronic city.....we reached mysore road within 40 minutes and we proceeded towards mysore.....we were in touch with my friend who was already on his way in his city.Some friends started from pondy....came to erode picked a friend and to sakthi picked a friend and were comming.....another 3 friends from pollachi/coimbatore reached ooty by then.We were discussing all those days......and enjoyed our drive....traffic was less,we crossed mysore and near coffee day at gudelpet met our friend who was going slowly after lunch.We all boarded My BUll and the city was following us.....

We entered Bandipur and saw some elephants/Bison/Monkeys/Deer.....But was able to catch the elephants only on lens.




we took the kallati ghats and finally reached ooty at 8:00p.m by then all my friends reached ooty.

We spent the night at a friends resort (Julia resorts).....and it was full of fun and we went to bed at 3:00 a.m

We got up at 6:00 a.m and got ready and had break fast at preethi palace.

friends in front of julia resorts:


We the friends:


We then started at 10:30 a.m made some purchases and started finally at 11:00 a.m. We took a jeep for rent too since we could not take the car's there and MY BULL too.

We passed through Parsons valley - avalanch - porthimund - Mukurthi - and the Fishing hut. we reached there at around 1: 30 p.m.

at ooty:



The route:





The slush......




The foxes and Sambar:

[mjothi]

Good. So here comes the travelogues for those pictures you posted in your ownership records.
Spotted the Fox too, great. Keep them coming. Waiting for more details and pictures.

[bglsrini]

The route......







Freshness of Nature..........






Finally we reached the the Fishing hut at 1:30p.m......2 hours to cross 40 kms.It was a great drive.

[muralisk]

Cool. I like the snaps where you have railway track and a small stream. The shots of both the vehicles crossing the stream are good. Looking forward to further updates and snaps.

[shankar.balan]

srini
nice pictures of the wildlife - wondering was that a jackal or a fox - looks like a jackal from this photo - distance. But with the bushy tail and pointed face it possibly is a fox.
enjoy!

[hellstar]

very nice pictures my friend i see that you ride is getting up close and personal with some of the vegetation inturding on the road , hope there are no premenant remenants of such encounters left on your vehicle.

The the pictures keep coming .....

[bglsrini]

Care taker/Cook : Mr.James and the driver Mr.Sadish.


The Fishing hut:

Its a great place in the forest and fenced.There is no power no mobile connectivity.....

Its a great relaxing place....the freshness/the beauty.....its great to enjoy.











We were relaxing for a wile and the cook was preparing the lunch...

He prepared:
Rice/rasam/chicken/ potato fry ....and brought curd and some snax too.
we had our lunch at 3:00p.m and it was really great food.

[Rotorhead]

Off topic, but who is this doctor friend at ooty. Are u Dr.Ashok's friend?

[akroy]

Nice Travelogue Srini and amazing pics..Must have been quite a nostalgic meet and reliving those beautiful college / hostel days

I am sure the bull enjoyed the 40km drive to the hut. Amazing scenary there !! Keep them coming

Abhi

[bglsrini]

Originally Posted by Rotorhead

Off topic, but who is this doctor friend at ooty. Are u Dr.Ashok's friend?

He is not the one rotorhead

[suman]

Nice travelogue & wonderful pics of your "BULL", keep reclaiming!

[snaronikar]

Nice pics and tavelogue. You took the Bull into the forest? That's good mild off roading you had in the forests with the Bull. How was the sound of forests in night? Was it scaring?

[bglsrini]

After we had our lunch,We took a small walk to the catchment area.....It was drizziling...and the climate was great.....








At the catchment......the water was pure and unpolluted....It is of great taste and crystal clear........









Thats my friends and Me.........




They said we can treak to mukurthi peak and said it will take 4 hours to reach and another 4 hours to come back,There is an amman temple too..... .Since we wanted to spend some time together,we postponed it for our next trip.

We walked back to the Hut for snax........

[muralisk]

Awesome snaps of catchment area. Adding this place to my list. Looking forward to lot more snaps.

[bglsrini]

The night gripped.......and the sound was great for some and bad for others.

We lited up the fireplace and the candles.......and it was drizziling outside and pitch dark.We stayed in the hut and were sharing our memories....in college/hostel/the fun/the success/the failure........the girls........and on and on.........





By then the dinner was ready with chicken dry/chicken gravy/onion and tomato fry/chapatti.........we had our dinner at 9:00 p.m and the food was really great.

Then we were off to bed at 1:00p.m.....It was a gr8 feeling in wilderness.The stream of water flowing sound/the twigs breaking and falling/noices from insects/birds......etc.the feelings cannot be explained.we did not get sleep and some friends woke us every now and then for the sound they here.......It was fun pulling their legs in the middle of the night.

17th morning....we got up at 6:00a.m......and had some coffee and went for a walk.






we came back and the breakfast was ready......
Poori/potato masala/egg masala
It was a great breakfast.

Here comes My BULL and Me :








Then we packed up at started towards ooty.....the drive was great and we reached ooty around 1:30p.m.There we had our lunch at preethi palace and we all said good bye to eachother and moved our way back home.I was to drive alone........We started around 2:15p.m and when i reached the kallati ghats,the road was closed for down going vechiles and so i drove through cudalore road.The road 5kms before cudalore was bad and the strech from cudalore to mudhumali was bad...but otherwise the road was great with scenary and beauty.



I was driving happily and there came the worst part of my trip.....at Gudelpet junction near the police checkpost,The steering got jammed and tight.the Bull was slow and i stopped to check what it is and could not find any thig.Then called prerana helpline and they diverted me to URS car at mysore.I called them and since it was strait road..i drove to mysore.There they checked and said being sunday they can open the pump and check on monday morning and assured me that i can drive slowly.so,i drove to bangalore and reached home at 11:00p.m

It was a great trip.....Next day prerana took my vechile from my house and checked it for the hissing noice and found that the A/C ideler bearing was worn out and replaced it.And for the steering the pump air dummy has fallen off and the oil circulation was stopped resulting in jamming of the steering.They corrected it.I checked with them if it will happen again.....They said it will not.....Lets see.

But,It was a great trip for me.