Team-BHP - Bangalore - Mysore - Ooty : Route Queries

I usually time my Ooty trips from Blr. to reach Bandipur checkpoint at 6 am. When the gate opens that stretch of road to Ooty will be wonderfully peaceful.

More important you have a better chance of seeing some wild life. Elephants and deer are passé. You can see wood peckers and all sorts of colorful birds. I lost my ornithologists cap but they are birds which I've never seen elsewhere.

Just allow the initial surge of vehicles to go ahead. There won't be more than 30-40. After that it's like the jungle is yours. The traffic from the opposite end will take a while to come in front. You get at least half an hour of alone jungle time. It helps if yours is a petrol car. :)

Just before reaching Ooty is a place unlike any other. It's a huge strip of land say 700-800 meters long. I believe it's all one persons. All the carrots in the world are grown here.

Or maybe not! Anyway just stop there and take in the sweet smell of 156,789 carrots in that field.

I get a happy pleasure when I see it each time. In particular harvest time. It'll be a sea of orange.

An alternative way down from Ooty is another road which is sort of restricted to the locals. I think it's called Snowdon road. Cops will ask you what your business is on that road. Just pretend you own a tea estate (or whatever works) on that side. I usual mumble incomprehensibly. It probably sounds like the right words.

It's less crowded, well paved and has a hundred hairpin bends. Maybe not hundred but more than the kalatti route!! A drivers paradise at any rate.

It goes through Pudumund, Marlimund, Hullathy and joins the normal route at Bickathy. Then the usual route back to Blr.

I travel often on kanakpura road. Traffic is not so heavy that it needs widening. Much of that road follows Cauvery river. Widening it is going to harm the environment.

I feel govt. must fix every single road in Blr. first. They must clear out the street hawkers who often sell their wares on both sides of busy roads. They also have a penchant for street corners. I have often moved them on my own street up further away from corners. But they simply back the next day.

I've attached a few images from one of my visits. The photo's were all resized to a width of 600 px.

No point in showing the full glory when you can go and see it yourself!

Those carrot fields I mentioned in my post.
The cutest little railway station - like a fairy tale.
Woody Wood pecker.
A huge tusker earning his daily sugarcane by lifting lumber. He was flicking logs like they were mere twigs.
A golden mongoose. I swear thats what it was. You need photo finish type equipment to gets its speed.
The best chinese restaurant in Ooty. Please decipher the name yourself!

Quote:

Originally Posted by hangover (Post 3840635)

I travel often on kanakpura road. Traffic is not so heavy that it needs widening. Much of that road follows Cauvery river. Widening it is going to harm the environment.

Yes, the environmental impact is something which concerns me too. However, regarding widening part I guess it was inevitable since Kanakpura - Bangalore stretch has bit high traffic on weekdays. If not now, in another couple of years it would have to be widened. Kudos to NHAI for taking this step on time.

Regarding using money for Bangalore pot holes, I don't think the roads are not getting repaired due to lack of funds. It is the shoddy work which is causing the roads to return to potholed state in couple of weeks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hangover (Post 3841787)

The best chinese restaurant in Ooty. Please decipher the name yourself!

I would rate this as one of the best Chinese resturants I ever been to. For others who are planning of visiting Ooty, this is located ~1KM from Botanical garden. There is sufficient parking around the bye-lane.

Location

Quote:

Originally Posted by mpksuhas (Post 3842024)

I would rate this as one of the best too. I have been a resident of Ooty for two decades now, and I have grown up eating this food. The taste has not varied a lot for all that time.

Tip of the day: Say you're a local, and see the final price reduced a bit.

8 Hr traffic jam at Bangalore - Mysore highway due to waterlogging at Mandya

Bangalore - Mysore - Ooty : Route Queries-06_11_2015_032_045_002.jpg

Quote:

Incessant rain, flooded river throw Mandya out of gear
Mandya:
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Unprecedented and incessant rain lashing Mandya district for the past three days has left a trail of destruction.Crops have been destroyed, houses damaged, and roads and bridges inundated. In Shivapura, vehicular traffic on the MysuruBengaluru highway came to a standstill for over eight hours after a canal on Shimsha river swelled, washing out the road on Kolli Circle. While no casualties due to drowning were reported, two farmers were electrocuted in separate incidents.
The Shimsha river, which is a tributary of Cauvery, is in spate for the first time in 20 years. This has triggered a flood of events.Bunds of three lakes in Keragodu and Vadeghatta villages were breached. The paddy and sugarcane crops, grown in more than 200 acres of land, were destroyed in many of the villages. The Keragodu-Maragowdanahalli road was completely shut down.The surrounding villages were cut off and students going to school and college were the hardest hit. A schoolboy riding his bicycle got caught in the flooded waters but was rescued by villagers in Honnayakanahalli. His cycle and schoolbag were swept away though.

Senior officers from revenue and irrigation departments vis ited the affected areas and assured the farmers of suitable monetary compensation for crop and proper ty losses. With more rain predicted, SP Bhushan G Borase appealed to people in low lying areas to move to safer places.

Several houses collapsed in the heavy rain across the district.Major damages were reported in Keragodu, Koppa and Malavalli.Two farmers were electrocuted in separate incidents. In Koppa village of Maddur, farmer Ashok (38) was electrocuted after an electric pole fell on him. Relatives and villagers held a protest in front of the Chescom office, demanding compensation for his family. Another farmer Krishnachari (65) of Ullegala village of Malavalli taluk was electrocuted after coming in contact with a live wire while he was cutting the branch of a tree.

More details in ToI

Quote:

Originally Posted by mpksuhas (Post 3840569)

Update from today's Hindu newspaper.

* Kanakpura Bangalore road to be four laned, work to start by December end.
* Kanakpura -Satyamangalam to be widened to two lane.
* Widening of Bangalore Mysore road to six lane to start by March 2016.

Attachment 1435162

Read this in the papers, I feel all SH should be developed further but in a phased manner. Now if they start upgrading both of these routes towards Mysore simultaneously, it leaves no alternatives to reach Mysore or beyond with users having to spend extra hours on the roads.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bharat4ever (Post 3842522)

Tip of the day: Say you're a local, and see the final price reduced a bit.

Oh! So that's what the local guys were talking to the cashier. I was wondering how come he has so many friends!

This is one thing I noticed in Singapore too. You may find the local MRT(subway) and bus very cheap to travel in. BUT if you are a local you pay a quarter of this cheap rate.

Here's a little story. Do you know how a orange came to be known as orange. It seems that when a chap from Ooty first saw an orange, he opened it. On one side he saw 6 segments. On the other side he saw 5.

He said "Aar" "Anji". So aaranji. Hence orange.

Now I will avoid my Conoor friends for a month. Else they may throw aaranji's at me!!!!:D