Day 3-Sunday, 26thMay
Route Taken: Coonoor - Ooty - Gudalur - Mysore - Kanakapura – Bengaluru
Once again headed out for a walk in the morning at 7:00 am. This time we spotted bisons among the tea garden. We were told by the hotel staff that one could spot bisons during the night in the area surrounding the tea gardens but they would not harm anyone. The hotel staff locked the gates of the property after a certain time to prevent their entry into the hotel compound. It was really nice to be able to spot them among the tea estates.
We also spotted a hoopoe on one of the trees in the tea garden. It was the first time that we were seeing a hoopoe. The hoopoe is the national bird of the State of Israel.
We freshened up and had our breakfast. This was the view from the hotel while leisurely having tea.
We loaded all our luggage into the car and cleared the dues that had to be paid. It was really good time that we had spent at Coonoor and it was time to head back to Bengaluru. The two nights that we had stayed at Coonoor had passed by so quickly. We had a lot of fun.
A parting shot before we headed out of the hotel
We started from Coonoor at 10:00 am and managed to reach Ooty only at 11:30 am due to the heavy traffic enroute. I guess that the day being a Sunday, the traffic was heavier than usual.
After crossing Ooty, we took the route via Gudalur to reach Bandipur. The route via Masinagudi was open for one-way traffic only, that is the one coming from Bengaluru to Ooty. Hence, we took the Gudalur route. The Gudalur route is lined with tall trees on either side of the road. It is a pleasant experience to drive on this road due to its scenic beauty. There was a small lake enroute that we stopped at.
We continued on with our journey and after a while we stopped at a shooting point, whose name I am not sure of. It had tall trees and it opened up to a huge plain land. There were quite a few tourists there.
Sheeps could be seen at a distance
We were back on the road by around 12:15 pm and decided to not stop at any more view points. There was increase in traffic density as we neared the 9th Mile shooting point. We decided to give this a skip as the crowd was heavy and there was a huge queue for parking as well. The sun was also beating down quite heavily and we were already slightly exhausted. The situation was similar even with Pykara Lake and hence we did not stop there as well.
Photo taken as we were passing by 9th mile shooting point The Gudalur route is beautiful and scenic. A very beautiful scenery we saw along the way. Tall trees on either side of the road
We started searching for places to have lunch just after the ghat section ended. It was already 2:15 pm and we were starting to feel hungry. We stopped for lunch a few kilometers before entering Madumalai Tiger Reserve. After having lunch, we were back on the road. At around 3:00 pm we entered Madumalai Tiger Reserve. Within about 300 meters we spotted a huge elephant to our left that was very close to the road. We were pleasantly surprised to spot an elephant so early into the forest. I could not get a photograph of that elephant as we did not expect it to appear as soon as we entered the forest reserve.
As we continued our journey through the forest reserve, we spotted deer, peacocks and elephants.
As you enter into Karnataka from Tamilnadu you move from Madumalai Tiger Reserve to Bandipur Tiger Reserve.
The tree growth on either side of the road in Bandipur Tiger Reserve is not as dense as that in Madumalai Tiger Reserve. The effect of the forest fires that took place here in February were still evident. Never the less, we spotted quite a few animals in the Bandipur Tiger Reserve.
We also spotted a bison and a few deer which I did not capture. After crossing Bandipur there was nothing much to see. We slowly continued on with our journey towards Bengaluru. At Mysore we took a diversion towards Kanakapura as the Bengaluru-Mysore Highway is known for its heavy traffic on Sunday evenings. Even google maps suggested the same. I do not know whether it was the right decision at that moment and time because there was still road widening work going in many places in the Kanakapura route. Besides this there was traffic in Kanakapura town as well. So, in the end I felt that we would have pretty much reached at the same time even if we had taken the Bangalore-Mysore Highway.
Just as we entered Bengaluru it started raining heavily. We had our dinner on the way and returned back to our home at 10:00 pm. This brought an end to our little trip of three days.
The final reading on the odo
We made a lot of great memories during the course of this trip. We enjoyed our stay in Coonoor thoroughly and also got a much needed break from our everyday duties. Such trips help in rejuvenating oneself and give the mind and body a break. The memories from this trip will be etched in my mind for a long time to come. Thanks for reading through.