Blore-Western Catchment Trip

[Harrie]

Wednesday 11.30 PM

Damm! Should have had less for dinner. After effects of hogging too much of home cooked kerela style mutton chops, chicken gravy and fish fry with boiled rice Was too good to resist and filled up my tummy. Feel too heavy andcant sleep now

P.S - Sorry Akshay!

Thursaday 2.30 AM

:Mobile Phone rings: I can hear MI2 being played somewhere in the distance. Bang! I wake up realising its my mobile ringing.

Me - Hello...
Dei... get up! Its 2.30 we didnt sleep the whole night. he he he
Me - Oh damm! sure will get ready!

Got up cursing the mobile phone. Was all groggy and could barely open my eyes. Brushed with eyes half closed and took a hot shower. 10 minutes later I was full awake, shaved and dressed up.

Thursday 3.00 AM

I am in the car. Shell super petrol topped up, air pressures checked, bags packed, cash in the wallet (something I often forget) and on the way.

First stop electronics city to pick up 4 friends. It was drizzling. Visiblity was a bit poor but with the street lamps on that was not an issue.

Thursday 3.45 AM

Hit Mysore road. Visiblity was getting poor. All my plans of making it to mysore in 2 hours seem to be going down the drain.

Just then saw a maruthi van going in front. He was doing about a 80kmph. I stuck behind him leaving a good distance between. Stopped enroute for a cup of coffee and bun - the combined growling of 4 stomach's started to drown out the music

Thursday 6.00 AM

Reached Mysore. Hit Ooty road. The roads were absolutely fabulous. That along with the early morning sun shine made the drive great. The scenery was green and looked straight out of a wall paper.



Thursday 10.00 AM

Took the Masinagudi route to ooty.



A herd we saw on the way near bandipur.

Reached ooty by 10.00 AM. I am skipping the details in between. Met 4 other guys who took the train to Coimbatore from madras. Reached Parson's valley by around 3.00 PM.



This is the road to the resort where we were staying. Incidently this is the best strech of the road. The road is about 400 metres and leads to the plains nestled between mountains.

Thursday 5.00 PM

Left for western catchment area. This is a restricted forest area. There are a couple of reservoirs here. What yuo see here is simply out of the world. Rolling hills with lush green carpet cover, meandring streams, pristine lake like reservoirs surrounded by hills... Not much photos here because it was raining.

Friday 9.00 AM

Went for trekking. It was a 5 hours trek. This is what made the 5 hours worth while.

http://img319.imageshack.us/img319/8...20050059tl.jpg

Please click on the link only if you are sure. Its pretty graphic. So didnt put the thumbnail for this.

A 3 day old kill. The group that went trekking the previous day were luck enough to see the tiger eating the flesh. But they shouted and scared the tiger off. So we couldnt catch a glimpse of it.

BTW the tiger lives very near to the resorts. But the people hardly fear it. They walk up and down the roads in the night without any fear. Humans and wildlife living in perfect harmony.

We stopped at the Mukuruthi reservoir for 10 minutes, enjoyed the sight and made the trip down.



This is when we ran into a pack of dholes (sen nai - in tamil) i guess that is wild dogs. There were about 40 in the pack. My blood froze for a moment on seeing it. It was like so beautiful. Looked like a miniature lion. But they ran away pretty fast, again no pictures of it.



Friday 5.00 PM

Paid a visit to near by dams. Saw a few deers. Nothin much. But neverthless the dams were beauties. Restricted to visitors. No photographs allowed. (i did take a few photos but not posting it here)

A photo I took while waiting for the keys to the dam.



Wherever you go, Our network follows... Hutch ad

Saturday Morning

Got up at 6.30, drove the car near the stream. Well there is a stream right in front of the cottages. Started washing the car. Was finished after 3 hours. The dirt and grime were so thick that it took me 5 buckets of water.

The end result...



Rudra Sir should be proud of me for washing the car with freezing water at 6.30 AM.

The climb up back to the main road - This where the Palio's torque rescued me. The rains had lashed away whatever little mud was present in the road. The road was just stones. It was pretty steep too. I had to take care not to get any wheel spins for fear of damaging the tires nor could I drive slipping the clutch as it is already nearing its end.

I was counting on 9 guys to push the car up. I had absolutely no idea how the car would climb up the incline and preserve the tires and clutch too.

I started the car, plonked in first let the clutch out and the car started crawling. I was pressing teh gas pedal slightly to keep the momentum up. To my surprise it did climb up without any effort Viva La Fiat Torque engine! I had to slip the clutch only at two places to negotiate two really big stones. Glad that I took this car.

Visited the parson's valley dam. Still thinking that the last scene in the movie "Roja" was shot in Kashmir?

This is where it was shot.



Saturday 2.00 PM

Started the return journey. Nothing eventful. Ran over a snake and hit a bird. Had food at MTR near Cafe coffee day on mysore road. Reached home by 11.00 PM

Hit the bed. The next thing I knew was getting up on sunday at 12.30.

A great trip. The place is to die for. This is the best time to visit Parson Valley. A absolute "not be missed" place.

[nitinbhag]

Hey Harrie.. that looks like a very cool trip..
Is the Mysore-Ooty road really good now?. I went on it last year and it was horrible..

Yes, the Fiat 1.6 engine makes life worth living, doesnt it?

[artofzen]

A lovely piece of travelogue dude.Well written.Which other car was used?.I guess there was 10 ppl altogether!!

[Harrie]

Only one car. We hired a van from Ooty for going around the place. Had to push that stupid thing 4 times. The driver has a knack for finding soft soil and getting the tires stuck there

[GTO]

Hey nice pictures with an even better report. Interesting reading. Looks like you had a great time.

GTO

[gkrishn]

Myself and my brother planning to drive back home for diwalli in this route. How is bang-mysore stretch? heard that except for few bridges rest of the highway is complete.Also how is mysore-ooty stretch?

BTW ur car looks cool... cooler than most GTX. Where did you get those skirts done???

[Harrie]

Thnx for the compliments. Guess the credit goes to my brother who got the skirts and black paint work done. It was done in coimbatore.

The roads are very good now. Blore-Mysore during day yuo'll be able to cover in 2.5 hours. Mysore-Gundulpet is good. Best done early morning to avoid traffic. Gundulpet-Bandipur road is ridden with pot holes. Once you enter Mudumalai range, the roads are good. Freshly laid and no pot holes.

[Harrie]

Forgot to add one more point. The western catchments are one of the very few places in India where "Trout Farming" has been sucessfully carried out. I was told that the trout is one of the few species of fish that can climb up a waterfall. (is this true???) Also the fish is supposed to be so transparent that you can see its insides...

BTW if yuo are caught fishing in the western catchment, yuo can be imprisoned for 2 years and fined upto 15,000 bucks!

Wonder what is so special about this trout...

[v1p3r]

Harrie you bad person!!!

Anyway, a visit to my aunt's place has cured me of all envy...

[mclaren1885]

great writeup there harrie..man!!! seems like u've had a ball out there..

[Steeroid]

Harrie

Great drive, and great pics! Must visit this place soon!

Keep driving!

[Rudra Sen]

Harrie, that's a nine read.

Rudra Sir should be proud of me for washing the car with freezing water at 6.30 AM.

Yes my boy. I'm proud of you. Hope you're not carrying cold.

[c10]

gr8 write up harrie,
wondering when il be goin on my next trip...planning for the drive in beach at kerela...

regards,
c10.

[prkothan]

Great time harry. Your GTX looks sexy.

[nitrous]

Nice pics , nice writeup. I must take the road trip to ooty once.