The entire set shows the pictures of Botanical Gardens and the Ooty lake besides the last 2 pics are at Doodabeta and the view of the underlying valley from there.
Finally I can get back to this thread once again:-
The road info for the day 10 goes as follows.
Mettupallyam, 0915 hrs, 20272.
Kattey, 1600 mts MSL, 1020 hrs, 20304
Coonoor, 1025 hrs, 20308
OOty, 1110 hrs, 20328.
Kalliati
Masinagudi, 1730 hrs, 20382
Bandipur, 1745 hrs, 20388.
Mysore 2100 hrs, 20500.
After we left Mysore we had decided to take the shortcut but were amazed to see that the road cutoff was blocked by the police. They waved us away but we stopped and I got down to talk to the policeman. Hello, Is this the road via Kalliati Falls?
Yes, but its closed.
Why?
We dont allow cars from other states to go through this route.
Ohh, Why?
Its a dangerous road, Mountain curves, very steep.
Ahha, but do you notice the number on our car?
Yes but I dont know which state it is.
Its Himachal, you know the place where there are himalayas, huge mountains with Snow.
Yes Yes, Simla, Manali.
Good, yes so we know how to drive on hilly roads. Can we go now?
NO. Out of state cars not allowed.
Ok but we are Army guys we know how to drive.
ID cards? yeah sure.. One look then ok I will let you go but remember, 1-2, 1-2, 1-2.
Man did he expect us to do kadamtal and march in front of him now?This was getting hilarious now. 1-2, 1-2 means?
See thats why no out state cars, 1-2, 1-2 means drive only in 1-2 gears. Ahaa how educative. We nod our heads and promise to 1-2, 1-2 only.
The road was good though steep. Every single turn took you about 20 feet closer to the mean sea level.The road was through some of the densest forest we had seen.After about 25 minutes of driving we soon reached level road. As we drove along a large heard of spotted deers ran across the road. Everyone was excited and what followed was an experience of a life time.
We drove slowly and kept our eyes opened and ears primed. Soon we saw a huge herd of Bisons. The alpha male was huge and my younger brother soon oohhed and ahhed his video shooting. This was his day and he was soon dreaming about an alternate career as a Animal Planet videographer. I did envy him and his camcorder as he sat perched on the windowsill and shot his way into the Bison's hearts who merrily posed for him.
As the day drew on the other wildlife spotted were elephants,wild boar, barking deer with huge antellers, and numerous herds of small spotted deer and cheetals.
We also visited the Veterinary Dispensary at Bandipur. There we saw a little lelephant who was being broken in. Besides the stopover gave us a view on how the working elephants were fed. They were given around 10 kgs of mixed grain, gur, nuts in a single time.
The road turned bad from thereon and right upto Mysore we had a harrowing time. The potholes were so big that they seemed like small gullies and ravines. Traffic was infrequent and whatever there was they were trucks. After reaching Mysore we had dinner at Shree Durga Residency. Excellent food, good place and it costed us Rs 425. Fine Dinning indeed. I was already in love with the city.
27th August 2008, 23:05
