[rajshenoy]

Well, i am not the kind of guy who will write detailed review of my travel. but i didnt see much information about masinagudi in T-BHP, so thought my exp will be useful for others.

It all started with the plans of going to Yercaud(yes you may think i am crazy, but its true)

I was hunting for an ideal weekend destination and had decided to go to yercaud. (28th-29th july)

To my badluck(or good), there was some sports fest on 28th and hence all the resorts were running full. still i manage to book a room through yatra.com and i got confirmation as well.(All this was done a week in advance)

So i was all set to take my 3 month old Swift to her first trip to Tamilnadu. and all of a sudden on 27th july evening , i get a call from yatra saying my booking was not possible.I had a confirmation letter in my hand,had done all the packings and preparations(route query etc..) and was already dreaming abt driving my new car.. and these yatra guys were saying as if it was a MTV Bakra show.(sorry sir, we tried our level best!!!. they took money from me,gave me confirmation letter and then say this that too at the last minute!!!) my advise to all of you is never try this yatra.com. I wish to take legal action against these guys..let me see..

anyways, after 3 hours of continuous shouting and blasting them, i finally said as an alternative, i dont mind going to masinagudi(as it was in the same radius) and to my luck, i got the booking in Monarch safari park resort(Owned by Mithun chakraborty).

So finally i was so happy that atleast my plan was still on.

28-07-2007

I had filled up petrol from Shell, old madras road on the previous day so that i can start early morning. so as per plan, me and my wife started from my house in CV raman nagar at 6:15 AM.

it didnt take us long to touch mysore road, and by 7:30 we were having our Mangalore style breakfast in Kamath lokaruchi(after ramnagar).

after filling ourselves, we started by 8, and could reach mysore ring road junction by 9:45.

Here, we need to take a right on the ring road(towards GRS fantasy park and KRS) and proceed further(around 18 KM to reach Ooty road). For those of you who know about mysore, the shortest route would be to cut through the city and reach Ooty/Nanjangud road.(it starts near the palace and exhibition grounds,Zoo etc.) Having studied in mysore for 4 years, i very well knew about this road, but then, i wanted to try this ring road. so i took right and took a looooooong round of mysore outskirts(crossed mercara/mangalore highway, passed close to infy and L&T and so on...) road was never ending but everywhere the directions were put up(just to make sure people dont loose their patience)

so i reached Ooty road and then started towards my destination. the route is Bangalore->Mysore->Nanjangud->Gundlupet->Bandipur->Masinagudi town->Bokkapuram

from mysore, this place is around 100 kms, and passes through the scenic Bandipur forests(the best part of my trip) I would say, the best time to visit masinagudi and near by places are in this season. To my luck, there was no rain on both days(just slight drizzle to cool things down)

Roads are little bad(5-10 km strech after gundlupet->bandipur) but not very bad( i could manage 30-40kms speed)

I slowed down inside Bandipur forest to enjoy nature and i could see deers and peacocks every now and then. not to mention those monkeys. i even spotted few elephants carrying logs. so slowly i reached karnataka border. after you reach tamilnadu checkpost, you have to proceed about 5 kms further to meet a junction. there you need to take a left to go to Masinagudi town(there is an old bridge which can allow only one vehicle at a time)

from this bridge, you will reach masinagudi town, and proceed further to find another small bridge. here you have to take second right after the bridge(it is well marked) and most of the masinagudi resorts are located in this area.(place is called bokkapuram)

from this second right, hardly 4-5 kms, i could find my resort.

So i reached my destination by around 12:30(keeping a steady speed of 80kms, and controlling myself to not to cross 100kms limit,which was set by myself during run-in period of my car)

I really liked the view from this place, it is right below the foothills of Nilgiris. and i heard from here, Ooty is just 30 kms away(this place is just before those 36 hair pin bends)

My idea was mainly to relax so i didnt venture out into the jungle much. though the resort arranges for a jungle safari at a cost of 1500 per jeep(6 people).

If you plan to go to this resort, please make sure you stay in those Machans. since i didnt have much time, i had to compromise on staying in hotel rooms. They were just ok. nothing worth mentioning.

There are few more resorts which one can give a try, and they are Jungle retreat(owned by vikram mathias,if i am not wrong) casa deep woods(this one is a new resort)

you can perhaps try either of these three resorts.

The weather over there was really chilly(alot of breeze) and the view of cloud covered Blue mountains from your window is breath taking. i would say this resort has the best view of the mountains.

Ideally you should visit such places in bigger groups as the choice of food was very limited in the place i went.(but food was really tasty)

to my luck, there was a big group staying in the resort and since it was running packed, they had prepared enough variety of food.

They only have the concept of buffet. so if you are the person who likes to order what you want, this is not the place for you.

In the night i could here some people complain about the safari, as they could not spot even a bird it seems.(i was shocked,as i could see many animals on the main road itself). that made me think of dropping the safari plan.

29-07-2007

Since i didnt have much time, i didnt want to travel much. Initially i did have plans to go to Ooty next day morning and reach bangalore by night. but then, i decided to relax and enjoy nature. we had our breakfast and checked out by 11 AM, and dropped the plan of going towards Ooty and returned to bangalore.

One thing i want to tell is, the tamilnadu roads are pretty narrow and have sharp edges(tarmac and ground gap) so you may have to leave the road partially to make way for incoming vehicles. be careful so that you can avoid hitting the cars bottom with those deadly rocks. I must really appreciate Swift for its ground clearance. it felt like driving a jeep, i never hit any of those rocks due to ground clearance.(touch wood)

In Bandipur, Govt. runs Bus safari's(20 people in a van, comes up to abt 30-40Rs per head, turns out very cheap)
But we were bit late as it ends by 10AM. so we decided to try our luck again on the main roads of bandipur.

Again, we could spot deers and peacocks every now and then and reached mysore at 1:45.(for those of you who want to have food in the jungle, there is jungle lodges, bandipur safari park, which has a restaurant) this place is about 10 kms from Bandipur(towards mysore)

Finally, we started at 2:30 from Mysore and reached Bangalore by 6.(there was heavy rain from Maddur till kengeri)

All in all a short and sweet experience. and i have no regrets for not being able to go to yercaud.

So for those of you who are confused between yercaud and masinagudi(both are same distance from bangalore) and if you are planning to go in the month of july/august. dont think twice and proceed towards masinagudi. as this is the time when you will see nature at its best.

And i forgot to mention, road from Gundlupet to bandipur is bad, but full of scenic sunflower fields.. worth stopping your ride, and clicking snaps.

That doesnt mean i dont like yercaud. i have never been there. so perhaps this would be my next destination.

Details:

Car: White color Swift VXI
petrol: shell regular, full tank
distance travelled: 550 kms.
FE: i havent checked completely, but i guess i still have more than 10 lt of petrol left.

so with AC on almost all the time, i guess i might have got about 16-17 KMPL mileage which is pretty decent for this gem of a car.i am really happy with my decision to buy this car.

(Yes, i am sitting on a wooden chair now)

you can have a look at some of the pics.

Picasa Web Albums - Vandana - Masinagudi

[rajshenoy]

Forgot to mention,

the picasa link also has a route map(googlemaps) for direction

[Surprise]

Good that you could not find accommodation in Yercuad. My personal preference would be Masinagudi.

Good report & nice photos

[shailu]

Fantastic photographs......hope you loved staying n masangudi. i have also been there couple of times. any way next time you get a chance also visit these places which is still unexplored near ooty which nobody knows...lucky i had a chance to stay in all these places...

Upper Bhavani 60kms above ooty
Avalanche 35kms from ooty
West end chatchment 30 kms from ooty

But you should know somebody from forest dept to enter these places & to stay too....

[akroy]

So you sneaked into masinagudi after doing all those research of Yercaud...
Nice travelogue, Cannot access your pics in office, will check it out in home

Abhi

[lohithrao]

Good report...anyday "Masinagudi" would score on "yercaud"... guess you need to thank "yatra"

190mm (if am not wrong) of GC would definately be helpful.

DId realise it when driving in my home town (Mangalore), esp when you have to get off the road.

[rajshenoy]

Hey Abhi,

Initially i thought those yatra guys screwed my weekend.. but this place was just awesome..

Anyways, my next holiday would be yercaud.

[sammyboy]

very nice write up bro .. in yercaud would recommend this place called shevroys --2200 bucks for an independent cottage ..with a jaccuzi ..awesome value for money

[hondadude]

Good Travelogue. I stayed in Monarch 3 years back and had a great time as well. Since we had gone around March, it wasn't as green. Like others said, Masinagudi is way better than Yercaud.

[-GT-]

Good Report. We had also been to Theppakkadu (Mudumalai) the same forest reserve as Bandipur (of Karnataka) and Wayanad (of Kerala) three years back.

The Masinagudi jungle safaris operated by private jeep operators (in collaboration with the resort owners) are, most of the times, nothing but jeep rides on the peripherals of the reserve forests that are closed to outside traffic at nights. The locally owned jeeps are allowed to move around.

When we went to those areas, we stayed for two nights in Theppakkadu at the Tamil Nadu Tourism (TTDC) cottages located just within the reserve forest itself. The best part was the 50 to 100 spotted deers that play around the cottages at about 2.00 AM.

You should have driven up a few kilometres towards Gudalur, either early in the morning or towards sunset; there are good chances of spotting some wild life. In fact, that was the only place we could spot some elephants.

Safari within Bandipur or Mudumalai (the TN government also has safaris similar to Bandipur's) are good - but spotting wild life pure chance and luck of that day or time.

[rohittk]

I just came back from Ooty. While returning to Bangalore I took the ghat route from Ooty to Masinagudi. It was really an adventurous and picturesque climb down to Masinagudi. You can see the travel video in my You tube channel here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6R0jMgL-Pwk