[antorquetik]

Hello folks!

Just finished the Bangalore-ooty- Bangalore trip. Onward journey was Blr- Mysore-Nanjangud - Bandipur- Mudumalai- Masinagudi - 36 hairpin bends - ooty.

Return journey was Ooty- Mettupalyam- Annur- Avinashi- Salem- Dharmapuri- Krishnagiri- Hosur- Blr.

Key Observations- Onward journey

• Mysore road is filled with irritating cabbies and speed humps. It does not feel like travelling on a highway. It is only after Ramnagaram that one feels 'okay we are on a drive to an outstation trip'.

• For people who do not like their cars rattling, they will not like the Mysore - Nanjangud stretch. Roads have a lot of patch work and erosion.

• There is a stretch after Masingudi before start of 36 Hairpin bends, This is a stretch which will help you identify all the rattle points of your car to be addressed during the next service, Mind it - dare to go fast on this stretch if you want to know the health of your car's Lower control arms.

• 36 Hairpin bends are a good testing ground for your diesel car driving skill.Petrol will be easy to pull, for diesel ( for all you Torqy multijet motor owners ) maintain rev needle above 1500 RPM and in all probability you will be able to finish the climb in second gear provided there is no oncoming traffic slowing you down at the bends.So pace up and spool the turbo before you enter the bend and ease off through the bend. Any stoppage on the course will only lead to burning of clutch while re-starting.

• I wanted to test the so much talked about torque of Multijet motor so I did the entire climb with the AC on and mostly second gear. Personally I did not find this route "So beautiful" as a few claim. It it is just the shortest possible way to ooty I feel.

• For all those who have driven Shimla, Nainital, Masoorie, Kasauli etc, This route should not be of much attraction to you because given the margin of going through the forest also all you will spot is monkeys or a herd of elephant tops if you are lucky. What you will end up with though is rough road test for your car and a sweating short hill climb for your engine.

• You will not be able to carry alcohol through this route because your vehicle will be searched while entering mudumalai forest reserve after crossing karnataka. Even if you have alcohol bought from TN you will be harassed unnecessarily as the on duty officer will give you some gyan on alcohol being prohibited in forest limits. but of-coarse a little greasing of palms will do the job and you will be cleared.

• For all who are running alloys with low profiles - be careful through mudumalai as the roads are narrow at some places and local Jeep taxis will force you to go down the road thus making the side walls of your fancy yokos or michelins prone to cuts.

Key observations while in Ooty

• As far as stay is concerned - Hotel lake view is a good place to stay only if you get a lake facing or a valley facing villa. Service is average but the food is not all that great. You may want to go to Hotel nahar on commercial road for some good vegetarian food. Hotel lake view can offer you a discounted tariff if you chose not to take a bill hence you can do away with the tax bit- saving around INR 500 a day on your room rent.

• Do not take your car to Doddabetta unless you want to do a thorough rough road and suspension durability test on your car.Trust me each and every bolt holding the suspension will be put to test. While climbing some idiotic Force traveller will stop on the steep hill and then you will have some novice drivers rolling back and of-coarse you will also make a bit of clutch pudding out of your cars clutch doing a hill start. Parking also will be an issue at the top during weekends.

• Do not follow google maps to reach Botanical gardens. If you do so, you will end up lost on a narrow residential street on the hills.

• For all the Nilgiri mountain railway enthusiasts - If you are taking the train from ooty to coonoor to see the steam loco, I am sorry to tell you that steam loco runs only between coonoor and mettupalyam.Tickets for this train can be booked on IRCTC so do not show up at the station directly to find the tickets sold out. However tickets can be bought at the departure station 30 minutes prior to departure of the train. Again for people who have experienced Shimla-Kalka rail or Darjeeling rail, It is the same thing. Shimla one has longer tunnels though if you are looking for some kind of quantitative comparison.

• Visit to botanical garden and Ooty lake was fine with ample parking space available at both locations. Tea factory near doddabetta was also fine and roads to these places are good.I did not visit Sims park, dolphins nose, valley view and the likes.

• While in Ooty do carry a strong sun screen lotion or else you are sure to get sun burns while travelling.

Key observations - Return journey (Ooty Mettupalyam Annur Avinashi NH47 Salem Krishnagiri Blr)

• My return journey was long on the odo and experimental. No one might have traveled this route for reaching back Bangalore. Return journey distance was 425 KM.

• Ooty Mettupalyam Roads are good and wide with fast pace traffic ,little or no potholes. Potholes can be spotted easily and avoided. You will like the cornering as the descent is gradual, Just slot the car in third gear and you will seldom need to use the brakes during the descent. Climb on this road should be exciting as you can constantly spool the turbo back and forth in second or third gear due to the ascent and you will stay in the peak torque range.

• Mettupalyam- Annur- Avinashi terrain is flat and road is well laid but un-divided upto Avinashi. There is very sparse traffic and good pace can be maintained.

• Leaving Avinashi behind one can join the NH 47 and then just cruise three digit speeds. There are some unfinished road joints like small humps which need to be seen for few kilometers near Avinashi barring that further proceeding towards Salem just becomes a breeze.

• There will not be a single pothole till krishnagiri, and one can enjoy cruising all the way to Krishnagiri and then work your way through the traffic around Hosur to finally get home. Also one can experience some of the best fueling stations in India at Sankagiri. These fuel stations are owned and run by Lorry owners association of Sankagiri and diesel is sold at a 60 paise lesser per litre with Quality and Quantity assured.
  

All in all If one has a little extra diesel to burn and time to spend, Ooty mettupalyam Annur Salem Krishnagiri Blr route can be considered given the upside that drive is relaxing and easy on the car.

[coolclouds]

Originally Posted by antorquetik

Personally I did not find this route "So beautiful" as a few claim. It it is just the shortest possible way to ooty I feel.

For a scenic drive, Masinagudi route is nowhere close when it comes to Pykara-Gudalur route. Advantage with Masinagudi route is, it takes you to Ooty in a real quick time.

[RajeshK]

Just had a weekend trip to Ooty. On Friday 12pm we decided and started the trip by 1pm. Took Malavalli - Chamarajnagar - Gundlupet (Thanks to HVK) - Masinagudi - Ooty. Roads are good except for 2 or 3 potholes in the Chamrajnagar - Gundlupet route. After Masinagudi, road is rough and little narrow for a small stretch, rest all fine. Reached Ooty at 7:30pm and checked in Tulip Elkhil resort. It was got arranged in the last minute through one of my friend's contact.

Ooty was over crowded specially at Doddabetta peak. There is very less place to park and you need to be there in the morning for a pleasant drive. To take the Conoor train, we parked our car in the Ooty Rly station and came back in Auto from Conoor

We decided to come back to Bangalore in the same day evening. We have started by 6pm hoping that we can go via Masinagudi and cross the check post easily before 7:30. But Police had blocked the road and not allowing any vehicle to go down via the 36hairpins. I had to take the Gudallur route and that demand me to rush up to cross the Checkpost before 9pm.

The road to Gudallur is initially fine and after Pykara it started deteriorating. It is very rough and bad at many places till you reach Gudallur. After TN RTO checkpost, the road is again bad and narrow in the forest. But once you reach KA every thing is fine. We were able to cross all the Check Posts by 08:30pm and stopped for dinner at Gundlupet. Started from Gundlupet at 10pm via Mysore and reached home by today 01:15am. Since it was late night, the traffic was very less in Mysore road and the drive was very nice except for the numerous road humps.

Lessons learned (may be my experience) : Google map is a big failure in Ooty. I had very tough time to find my hotel, Botanical garden and even joining back to the Mysore road while coming back. While coming down to Gudallur the Google navigation was ON and the lady was shouting to take few right turns where there is no road at all..!!!

TN Police and Auto fellows at Ooty are trying to harass most of the KA vehicles. The reverse is happening once are in KA..!!!!

[coolclouds]

Originally Posted by RajeshK

...... But Police had blocked the road and not allowing any vehicle to go down via the 36hairpins. I had to take the Gudallur route and that demand me to rush up to cross the Checkpost before 9pm.

I also did Ooty - Bangalore last Friday. Left Ooty after 4pm and traffic towards Masinagudi was blocked. We convinced the officer with some local contacts and he let us go. Another KA02 registered Scorpio guy with tourists also was there when we reached and he too was allowed to take Masinagudi route.

[RajeshK]

Originally Posted by coolclouds

I also did Ooty - Bangalore last Friday. Left Ooty after 4pm and traffic towards Masinagudi was blocked. We convinced the officer with some local contacts and he let us go. Another KA02 registered Scorpio guy with tourists also was there when we reached and he too was allowed to take Masinagudi route.

In fact I didn't get a chance to talk to the Police at all. There were 4 KA registered car in front of me and the Police was so arrogantly shouting at every one who comes near to him.

Anyway, in my both ways I could see many wild life like Bison, Elephants, Peacock, diff types of Deers etc.

[coolclouds]

One among the 36 hairpin bends and the narrow/bad stretch near Masinagudi.

[arunphilip]

Originally Posted by antorquetik

All in all If one has a little extra diesel to burn and time to spend, Ooty mettupalyam Annur Salem Krishnagiri Blr route can be considered given the upside that drive is relaxing and easy on the car.

Damn, you've stolen my thunder! I did the same route in reverse, and agree heavily with your navigation/driving experience.

For the Easter weekend, I went home (Coonoor) via the same Salem route as you, but returned via the usual Mysore route.

I've decided that going forwards, I'll take the Salem route only, because:

• Despite the distance, it took me the same 6 hours travel time (excellent roads, no speed breakers, no crazy road incursions by pedestrians/vehicles)
• Driving that route is so stress-free, compared to the Bangalore-Mysore route
• No time restrictions or guard harassment at all

The drawback is the tolls paid, however I'll pay this without any complaint simply for the phenomenal roads it enables.

[SILVERWOOD]

I am not sure how i missed this thread as I drive on this stretch (Blore-Mys) quite often.Most of this stretch is now layed with tar and this exercise has absorbed few unnecessary speed breakers.

Waseem.

[kala]

Originally Posted by arunphilip

I've decided that going forwards, I'll take the Salem route only, because:

• Despite the distance, it took me the same 6 hours travel time (excellent roads, no speed breakers, no crazy road incursions by pedestrians/vehicles)
• Driving that route is so stress-free, compared to the Bangalore-Mysore route
• No time restrictions or guard harassment at all

The drawback is the tolls paid, however I'll pay this without any complaint simply for the phenomenal roads it enables.

Why don't you try the NH209 option the next time ? That would be NH209 upto Bannari and getting to Mettupalayam from there via Bhavanisagar. Should give you all the advantages you have listed plus zero toll costs. (And should take around the same time)

[mpksuhas]

Kalhatty roads to be closed for tourist traffic as per news report -

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper...cle5958246.ece

[iVento]

Originally Posted by mpksuhas

Kalhatty roads to be closed for tourist traffic as per news report -

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper...cle5958246.ece

Thanks for the update Suhas.

I am planning a trip to Ooty from 3rd May. What is the update on Gudallur route? Has anyone traveled through this route recently? The road conditions are as bad as before or have they repaired it?

[SILVERWOOD]

How does one reach Mysore from BIAL.?

Need to know the route via ORR/NICE or similar road which bypasses Bangalore city.

Thanks.

Waseem.

[mpksuhas]

Originally Posted by SILVERWOOD

Need to know the route via ORR/NICE or similar road which bypasses Bangalore city.

Depends on time you are planning of starting.
If you are starting early I guess it is better to drive through the town, else you can take ORR from Hebbal towards Yeswantpur and then take NICE road till Mysore road exit. Link

[RajeshK]

Originally Posted by iVento

Thanks for the update Suhas.

I am planning a trip to Ooty from 3rd May. What is the update on Gudallur route? Has anyone traveled through this route recently? The road conditions are as bad as before or have they repaired it?

On last Saturday I came back to Bangalore from Ooty via this road. Initial few KMs are good specially till you cross Pykara. Afterwards road is getting bad at places. Since I was running short of time, I didn't give much attention to the road condition.!! From Gudallur after the TN RTO checkpost road is bad for few KMs. This is very narrow at many places. Once you cross the Mudumalai turn every thing is fine.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by mpksuhas

Kalhatty roads to be closed for tourist traffic as per news report -

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper...cle5958246.ece

Does this mean one cannot take the Masinagudi route to reach Ooty now ?

That leaves only these options for Ooty:
1.via Gudalur
2.via Salem-Avinashi-Annur-Mettupalayam
3.via Chamarajanagar-Sathy-Annur-Mettupalayam