[mpksuhas]

Liked the view outside in photo with two red plastic chairs next to huge glass window. Is it window of room or lobby?

[mjothi]

Originally Posted by mpksuhas

Liked the view outside in photo with two red plastic chairs next to huge glass window. Is it window of room or lobby?

This is the lobby, in between the 2 opposite rooms.

you get the similar views from the bed room too.

Probably, this would give a better picture of the place.

They have 8 rooms, 4 in each block with a restaurant in between the 2 blocks.

[mjothi]

Kodanadu, Sunday 10:00am

The below is the route we took from Kothagiri to reach lovedale station

After getting the tyres ready, I took the left road in the "Y" fork that leads to Conoor. The right one leads to Ooty directly through Doddabetta.

Since we need to be meeting up with the Train, oops, Lalu & Arvind in Lovedale at 11:30am, we made less number of stops to make sure we reach on time. And we could not have breakfast too.

Did a blunder of not having the breakfast in the resort. Since we want to leave early, we skipped the breakfast in resort. To our surprise, we could not get a decent hotel to get it done. Searching for a good one, we reached conoor.

Once we reached the Sims park, I checked with the auto guys for the route towards Ooty. I took the route they mentioned, but I feel it may be a longer one. Because it went through the Wellington. After crossing the Wellington, we could see a Conoor board with 3KMs sign. So, probably I took a longer route.

But the Wellington route was scenic. With those golf grounds, people in uniforms, model flights parked etc, and etc. There was a caution board mentioning that if you got hurt with the Golf ball while passing through these roads, you can't hold anyone responsible . Hmm.

The traffic from Conoor to Lovedale junction was very bad. There was couple of trucks that was leading the traffic, and never allowed anyone to go pass them. One of the Omni guy got irritated by the slow moving traffic, and thinking he was smart tried to over take a swift. Unfortunately, it was a not a correct move, and hit the swift from behind in the corner.

That's the end of it. The Swift guys stopped the car right in the middle of the climb, got down and picked up fight with the Omni guy. Everyone behind was honking. It took like couple of minutes for those deaf ears to listen to the sound of the horns. Then they pulled down the car towards the corner, and allowed other cars to pass.

I am still not able to understand what these people think. Its a climb, its a narrow road, if you want to overtake, you need to overtake like 5 to 6 vehicles in front to reach the truck, and then get pass the truck too. All this, if you are lucky and do not have any on coming vehicles on other side. But still, they think they can have others stop and give way to them.

[mjothi]

Lovedale Station, Sunday 11:45am

Due to the above incident and the truck, we lost considerable amount of time in the traffic. By then, I get a call from Lalu that the train just passed, and kids felt very bad.

In next 5 minutes, we reach the Lovedale station, and see the Civic & Aria parked in the station. Join those with my Aveo.

Kids ran to the track with a glimpse of hope that they could atleast see the last dot of the train. Unfortunately, it was not. But, little they know that they are going to lucky not just once, but more than that. Infact we too.

We had a small chit-chat, and had photo sessions.

If not the train, then we will try climbing this..


Chikku-Bukku railu..

We checked with the station master if we could get lucky to get the train and come back. There was umpteen chance to take the train from that station to Conoor. Tickets were available, but coming back from Conoor is the problem. Also, the most interesting part of that train travel is between Conoor to Mettupalayam. So, we gave it a go.

Then we came to know that in next 5 minutes there was another train coming from Ooty to the station. Kids were jumping in joy since they are getting lucky to see the train.

So, everybody was back to their position, waiting for the train.

Get to your position...

Here it comes...


Closer...


Even Closer...


Makes a brief stop


And continues the Journey..

It was only click-click-click everywhere. I was wondering, what are we doing? We are not enjoying the beauty with the world most powerful camera - EYES, but try to capture the moments in the camera thinking that we can keep seeing these memories.

So far, the excitement of viewing the train made both us and the kids forget the hunger. Now that the train left, the excitement also went, leaving the hunger behind. We planed to visit the next station - Ketty - where the famous Chaiyya Chaiyya song was shot. But we were sure that we could get nothing on the way there.

There is a history for this tree!! Out guys had their flashback with this.

While we were leaving, i see a scorpio come and park in the station. From it, this gentle man gets down with the Bazooka, rushes to the track and tries to zoom and take some pictures. Probably, his Bazooka is so powerful that he tries the picture of the train that left and now would be in next station.

Later, the next day saw the newspaper article that mentioned that day was a Photographers day and Ooty had a good amount of Photo-heads having a big meeting. So, this one person, have left the herd and was here...

[mjothi]

Ketti Station, Sunday 1:15pm

From Lovedale, we left for the Ketti station. On the way we had nice photographic locations. No wonder Director Maniratnam has chosen these places for his movies.

We park the vehicles on the road, and was collecting the flowers, enjoying the scenes etc, and suddenly we see this Gentleman passing us.

This was the first of the lot to come Nano we say on that day.

When we reached the spot, we were surprised to see the tall trees. Anyone who sees these place will never believe that the song Chaiyya chaiyya was shot here. We were wondering how did they fix the camera in such a place, and gave such a beautiful songs on screen.

When we were walking on the track wondering and discussing about these, we realized station master mentioning that there was a train reaching the Lovedale station from Conoor around 1:30pm. We all were pleasantly surprised looking at the time - it was 1:15pm.

So, it should be here at any moment.

We were preparing to make sure that we get a nice spot when the train arrives, and also make sure that its safer.

And here he comes, slowly revealing himself from the curve. Closer, closer and closer.

Everyone was busy arresting those moments in their very own way!

But our Arvind, was trying to compare how short he is compared to the tress

From here, we were heading to most important place of Ooty...

[joshuakeys]

mjothi thanks for the travelogue, nicely written. Your pictures speak what you have written.

Ooty is in my Trip list. your pictures are influencing me. Hope too make a trip soon.

Thanks for sharing

cheers

josh.

[mjothi]

Originally Posted by joshuakeys

mjothi thanks for the travelogue, nicely written. Your pictures speak what you have written.

Ooty is in my Trip list. your pictures are influencing me. Hope too make a trip soon.

Thanks for sharing

cheers

josh.

Thanks. I am glad that it did of some help. Ooty is best enjoyed during Off-season, with less crowds, in my opinion.

[mjothi]

On our way to Avalanche Lake, Sunday 2:00pm

From Ketti, we moved towards the Avalanche Lake & Emerald Dam. The roads we took from Ketti, to Avalanche was fantastic. We stopped at a small bakery to quest our hunger with healthy (read Junk!) foods.

From there it was a twist, twist and twist of roads. So, here are the pics of those twists and greens.

This power house can be easily missed if not careful. It has a excellent view, hiding between those buses.

[mjothi]

Some more pictures on the our way...

Thanks to Arvind, he stopped to take pictures, and hence me too joined the fun. Else would have missed these wonderful sights.

It was windy, and its clearly "visible" in this one.

[mjothi]

Nearing the Avalanche Lake, Sunday 4:00pm

Some more pics on the way.

The red arrow is the direction from which we entered the town after those numerous curves.

We reached the entrance of the lake (a KM before) and had some rest and kids were enjoying the place running all over. It was little disappointing that we could find broken bottles every where. So, we started to wrap up and continue towards the lake after some customary pics clicks.

[mjothi]

Some more pics before we take off to the lake.

Avalanche Lake, Sunday 4:15pm

Here we come, to the lake. But the water level was a big disappointment. Clearly shows where are we heading to.

Aveo, resting its paws on the Meadows.

Beautiful Tall trees.

Literally Dry. No water

Some were happy relaxing...

Some were happy getting tired...

[mjothi]

After the pics, we went to visit the dam in the opposite side. The path to dam was not a proper road. You need to manage through the trees.

Once we got the glimpse of the dam, we were astonished. One for such a majestic dam, and other because there was almost no water.


The path to the water was risky, and hence we decided to just watch them from the above. We got a nice tree trunk to have some pictures, clicked by our Lalu, flicked from you-know-where.

And here is Lalu, during his stunts with the lenses.

Then we headed to the Avalanche Dam, but roads were not promising. So, we decided to return. Since the road we took was so narrow, we drove it in reverse all the way for like 800m.

Then we returned straight to Ooty, said bye to both Lalu and Arvind, and we had our wonderful ride towards Kothagiri.

I should thanks a "Kutti yaanai" (Tata Ace) who was amazingly driving on those hills. With the help of his powerful lights, and he as pilot, we drove our way to the resort.

And after the wonderful dinner, decided to call it a day...

[mjothi]

Kothagiri, Monday 9:00am

The next day, the plan was to meet Lalu & Arvind in Ooty, have lunch and leave for Bangalore.

So, we completed the breakfast in resort, took some customary pics around the resort, checked out.

Few pics clicked in resort.

Daddy, should we really go back :(










On the way back

After crossing Doddabetta, we stopped for a Tea break just before the Tea Museum. Bought some chocolates, and had Tea. Not so great, but still it was hot. So, ok. This person has Tea estate at the back yard, and collects Rs10 to have a look. Since the whole Ooty was with tea Estates, I said a no to this offer.

I start the car, and move hardly 2 inch, and I see the Civic & Aria coming in opposite direction. not sure of they really saw me, but still i waved my hand on air to them.

Since they were just leaving for Doddabetta, I was sure it would take around 2 hours for them to be back to Ooty. So, till then we got enough time to lazy around Ooty town.

First we decided to visit the wax museum. It is situated in the Ooty-Coimbatore highway. From Charing Cross, you need to drive towards Coimbatore, and you get this in less than 2 KMs. On the way you will cross two petrol bunks - Bharath and Indian Oil.

Keep driving straight, you can never miss the board, or atleast this funny character

No no, not the one with the Cap!!

Kids of Mahesan!


Parked the car, and got the ticket. The museum guys are looking out for money, for sure. Its clearly visible in all pics and signs over there. They were looking for funds, advertisements etc. I would say, Rs10 for the entrance is almost next to nothing, especially for maintaining such places. Anyway, if they keep higher, probably even this crowd may not be present.

The statues are nothing about to comment. But a good time pass, for the kids. The whole scene lasted for less than 30 minutes, and still we have more than an hour to kill.

So, my wife wanted to see the Botanical garden, even though we felt it may be bore for the kids. Thanks to the crowd and not much parking places, we gave it a go and came back to Charring Cross. Parked the car next to the fountain, and started to walk around the town.

After roaming for a while, we got into the Eucalyptus oil shop. Got couple of them. The next store was the one which I would any day hate to enter, yes it was women's clothing.

My wife gave a small smile. I am sure we hubi's know what that small smile from our wife mean

Praying that Lalu & team should be back soon, we got into the shop. It took more than 1 hour to complete the shopping.

After reducing the heaviness of the pocket (by now it reduced by more than a couple of thousands!) we came out. And just in time, we get the call from Lalu that they are nearing Ooty, and we can meet up in Fern hill for the lunch.

So, I come out of the shop, start my car and wait in the signal. Right on the other side, I see our ARIA also waiting for the signal. What a timing?

On the way to Fern hill palace.

[mjothi]

So, here we are, for the lunch at Fern hill palace. Exactly 1:30pm.

Had a good lunch, and we totally forgot that we are about to drive to Bangalore same day And lazing around the palace of Wadayar clicking pics left, right & center.

I do must agree, kids enjoyed the place and had complete fun.

Ok, enough talking. Now for the pics.

And we started from the palace by 3:45pm.

[mjothi]

We started to leave Ooty by 4:30pm. We took the Gudalur route so we can have a visit to the Pykara falls.

One the we gave a skip to the shooting spot. We park the car in Pykara falls, and we were surprised to see this gentle man. For a moment we got shocked if we have come to the "Dubai" as in Paandiyaragan movie

Then we move to the Pykara Boat house. Since it was closing time, there was not much crowd and we just took some pics and left the place.

The road was full of some "smart" kids from kerala - atleast that's what the bike registration tells.

They were shouting and driving like crazy guys. Except for this incident, I think there was not much trouble. Just that we got hold for sometime due to the traffic on a narrow bridge. Rest of the whole drive climbing down the hill was nice.

Suddenly, we see crowds cheering and jumping all round parking the car whereever they got the place to park. Then we noticed that the scene nature provided at that time was amazing. Look at yourself of the wonderful clouds covering the hills. I have never seen such before.

pardon my pics, it do not do any justice. I got these using my Blackberry.

Once we are down we got stuck in the Gudalur town. It was past 7pm, and for a moment was afraid if we could make it on time to enter the Bandipur forest. The Bandipur was closed for traffic from 8pm. But since there was many cars with KL & KA registration, we thought we could have luck.