[akroy]

Day-2 (28th Feb): Ooty internal, Train ride to Coonor

We wake up at 6AM after a good night sleep. Wore the woolens as it was very cold outside and stepped out to have a walk in the garden. We enjoyed the beautiful morning and the view of a small valley seen from the bungalow.

Some pics from Satyam Guest House




The first thing mentioned in the morning newspaper was that the Coonor -Mettupalyam train is cancelled on Saturday on account of forest fire. As the day was planned for the Ooty - Coonor train ride, I got anxious to know whether Ooty – Coonor is operational or not. Thankfully Ratan called up somebody (some agent or station) and confirmed that the Ooty-Coonor train is operational.

Our Room


Soon we decided for the morning 9:15AM train. As it was already past 8AM, we quickly finished off the shower, rushed to the dining for some hot Aloo parathas. Gulped them and drove straight to the railway station. The drive to railway station was just 5 min and it was 9:10AM when we reached there. We quickly park the car at the station parking and run to the ticket counter. Train was about to leave. Took the ticket and jumped into the compartment.

About to leave Ooty


Some Random pics on the run





Ooty Lake from Train


This was our first ride on Nilgiri mountain Railway and this trip was basically meant for the train ride. The compartment was full of tourists including a big gang from Rajasthan. As the train with a diesel engine and 4 coaches chugs out of Ooty RS, the Rajasthan gang stood up and we too stood up with them and started singing the “Rashtra Gaan”. The Jana Gana Mana song took me back to my KV days indeed.

Soon the train passed the Ooty lake and through valley, gorges, tunnels. The scenic beauty was breathtaking. The intermediate stations like Lovedale, Ketti, and Wellington reminded us of some movie or the other which was shot here. It finally reached Coonor at 10:10AM. Most of tourist got down there for Coonor sight seeing. Meanwhile I got off to book the return ticket and told my wife to take a decent window seat at the back and settle down for the return journey.

During that 30min at Coonor station, I got down to click some rare pics of loco-shed and the train. Finally at 10:40AM, the uphill journey starts with the engine now at the rear. Slowly it reaches Ooty at 12 noon. This was truly a memorable train ride and all of us enjoyed every moment of it.

Some pics at Coonor RS



Loco Shed - Coonor




We drive out of Ooty station towards Wax museum which Ratan was mentioning a day before. It is about a km from Charring Cross signal onto Coonor road. IT was decent self maintained museum consisting of life size wax model of Gandhiji, Abdul Kalam, Shivaji, Tagore etc. We also purchased some designer candles at the retail shop inside the compound.

Now it is time for lunch. I call up Hari (lukeskywalker) and enquired about Hotel Nahar. Reach Nahar at 1:30PM. I order a Punjabi Thali and a South Indian Thali for my wife. Being a South Indian Hotel, I had an amazing Paneer butter masala there; I can say some of the Punjabi hotels cannot make such paneer dish. Both the Thali consisted of 7-8Katoris. As I was hungry and the food was delicious, finished off everything at a go. Kid too enjoyed the curd and sweet dish as we had no space left in the stomach.

After the sumptuous lunch we head back to the guest house. Wife gave the kid a bath and we all slept off for a while. Got up leisurely in the evening and drove to Charring Cross for the regular shopping whenever we are in the hills. Wife bought some Honey, Cashewnut, spices, Chocolates etc and we roam around there for a while and start back from Charring Cross at 7:30PM.

While returning back, I decide to tank up the car at the double decker BP pump. Car consumed 18.51 lit of petrol for 319.2km. Fuel Adulteration in ooty is not uncommon, but I enquired with the bungalow travel fellow and he advised me for this pump. He told all the govt and bureaucrats’ vehicles are tanked at that pump and it is very good. And indeed, the pump was good with latest machines and staff was courteous too.

Older kids playing with the youngest of the lot

Drawing Room (with family from Chennai)


Evenings were again funfilled like the night before with the kids and other families. We had a homely and hot dinner served with roti, rice, sambar, curry, omlettes etc. It was indeed very sumptuous. We again retire to bed by 10PM. The day folded very well with the memorable train ride and tomorrow we need to start again back to Bangalore.

to be continued...

[snaronikar]

Abhi...good to see you are back travelling. I would have joined you if you had given me a tinkle ;-).

OT:Hari: What happened to the trip that was supposed to take place loooong back? Still in planning?

[Sowmya]

Hai Abhi !!! Nice to see you that u r back on track... I think u have gone through a very though time in the past 2 months. No need to say that for many people it is like that.

I also tried this shorter route with 34 hair pin on Oct 07 in Bike. We had to stop few times. Bike was heating up too much. But this road is comparatively less crowded.

Did you tried some food in Otty Cofee House ? It is near the Market where the road split.

[akroy]

Originally Posted by Sowmya

I also tried this shorter route with 34 hair pin on Oct 07 in Bike.

It is 36 Hairpins to be precise.

Originally Posted by Sowmya

Did you tried some food in Otty Cofee House ? It is near the Market where the road split.

No I didnot go there. Infact I was not aware of it. Anyway, there is always a next time.

Abhi

[dreamdiesel]

Nice travelogue as always Abhi. Very informative. Nahar at Ooty seriously beats other good hotels in Bangalore who serve North Indian food hands down. I really liked the food there.

Didnt go sightseeing at Coonoor?

[akroy]

Originally Posted by dreamdiesel

Nice travelogue as always Abhi. Very informative. Nahar at Ooty seriously beats other good hotels in Bangalore who serve North Indian food hands down. I really liked the food there.

Didnt go sightseeing at Coonoor?

Ya Nahar was too good.
Didnot plan Coonor this time as I have always done Coonor in the previous trips. This one was more on a leisure trip. Main agenda was the train ride.

Abhi

[akroy]

Day-3 (1st Mar): Ooty – PykaraLake - Gudalur – Madhumalai – Bandipur – Mysore – Bangalore

Alarm rings at 6AM. Wife starts the packing up job and I go out to have stroll around the bungalow. In another couple of hours we have leave this wonderful place. The trip was pretty good so far and we enjoyed every moment of it.

We complete the shower, prepare the kid and finally we are ready by 8:30AM. We head directly to the dining hall and have nice hot idlies with chutney. Pack 2 idlies for the kid too. After loading the car, we finally move out of the bungalow at 9:30AM.

The plan was to cover the various view points along the Gudalur route. I took left turn on Golf Road which meets NH67 at HPF. Golf Road itself was very scenic. Another 7-8km from there we reach pine forest. Park the car there and move down a little bit. We did not go all the way to the lake, spent some nice time there. By now we were convinced that the road via Gudalur was indeed very beautiful. Every turn was scenic. You feel like stopping at every corner and click pics. We again stopped at Kamaraj Sagar Dam for pics. Add to all of this, Gudalur road which was not motorable a year back is an excellent ghat road now. We could cover the distances fast and enjoy the scenic beauty too.

Golf Road



Pine Forest



Kamaraj Sagar Dam




Our next stop was a hill (I think it is called shooting point). When you climb that hill, you can see a beautiful valley at the other side. Many renowned films were shot there. Another round of pics we move again. The scenic beauty was just getting better.

At the hill




Pykara Boat Ride: Within no time we were reached Pykara. We took the diversion from the highway to Pykara boat house. On reaching the spot I was amazed such a beautiful and huge lake, infact it is the reservoir of the dam and about 95ft deep and surrounded by all kind of vegetation right from tall trees to bushes. The scenic beauty was breathtaking. We had to take the boat ride now. Luckily we were approached by a 6 member family who booked a 8 seater boat and waiting for 2 more person. We happily joined them as 8-10seater rides were longer and to far off distance. The boat ride was best of the day. It was 11:15AM and very sunny day but the breeze was so chilly that at times we were thinking that we should have got the jackets from the car. It was an amazing experience.

Pykara Dam

Pykara Lake

Some pics from Boat @Pykara Lake








After a wonderful boat ride, we started our return journey from Pykara Boat house at 11:45AM. The road has lots of curves so you cannot do high speeds. I was doing like 5th gear/50kmph. I felt Masinagudi route not only shortest but also fastest as you can reach ooty very fast. But nothing beats the scenic beauty of Gudalur route.

Some pics Gudalur route




Spotted 3 elephants at Madhumalai Forest


Within an hour we reach Madhumalai forest range. It was so hot that I had to put AC in full blast inside the forest. We were passing Pugmark Restaurant at Bandipur at 1PM and thought to have lunch but the kid was fast asleep. We thought we should not wake her up and also we were not feeling that hungry now. Next target was Gundlupet, still the kid was fast asleep. I didn’t stop there as well. Road after Gundlupet was empty and I could 100+ speeds and covered the distance faster. Luckily the kid woke up at Nanjangud. By that time I was also hungry now, I finally halted at Kamat Madhuvan for lunch at 2:45PM.

After a leisure lunch and the regular nappy changing session we finally left Kamat at 3:45PM. Crossed through Mysore and onto SH17 in another 15min. We could good speeds except inside the towns till we reach Ramanagaram at 5:30PM. After that it was regular Sunday traffic on Mysore all heading towards Bangalore. Last 50km to home took us almost 1.5 hours and finally reached out apartment at 7PM.

End a wonderful journey to the Nilgiris.

Total distance travelled: 628kms (home to home)

Signing off
Abhijit Kumar Roy

[kaushik_s]

Nice travelogue Abhi. Good that the road condition is good now.. Now I'm waiting for the Monsoon, will make a trip once the hills are green again.

[Ice]

Abhi,
Fascinating report and great pictures! Happy that you were able to get away to the nilgiris for a bit - the only nilgiris I have seen is the one down the road from my house where I pick up groceries!
Glad to hear that the longer Gudalur road is ok now...had a tough time coming downhill on that road last year.

[arindamray]

Good one again, Abhi. Was away in office work for 2 days, and first thing after coming back was to search for this

Next time Pykara will be added in my list.

[pjay_in]

So you are back with a bang, Abhi. Wonderful travelogue as usual. And thanks for all those beautiful pics.

The greatest piece of news you have given is about the Ooty-Gudalur road! I have been wondering for long if this road was ever going to get repaired. Now it's become too tempting to plan an Ooty trip.

Btw I don't know how they can put up a board on Dodabetta saying it's the highest peak in South India. It is actually the second highest (the highest in Nilgiris), after Anamudi (or Anai mudi) near Munnar.

Anamudi is the highest point in the whole of India outside the Himalaya-Karakoram system, at 2,695 metres (8,842 ft). Dodabetta is a close second though.

[pjbiju]

Good travelogue and thanks for the pictures Abhi. Since we passed through Gudalur before sunrise, we missed most of the great views. :(

[javed406]

Hi Abhi, as usual very informative and wonderful travelogue from you. I've done Ooty two times but all the time it was through Masangudi route. How much is the difference in terms of timing between Gudulur route and Masangudi route?

[BlackPearl]

Good to see you travelling again. The travelogue section has not seen much activity apart from a few of Saurabh_M's visits in USA. Nice travelogue and hope to see many more from you. Hope your company gets stabilised soon.

[akroy]

Originally Posted by javed406

Hi Abhi, as usual very informative and wonderful travelogue from you. I've done Ooty two times but all the time it was through Masangudi route. How much is the difference in terms of timing between Gudulur route and Masangudi route?

Cant say exactly as we stopped at many places but only I can say that it will take an hour or two more through Gudalur although distance wise it is 30-35km more.

Primary reason is Gudalur climb you cannot speed up more than 50kmph as the road is curvy plus traffic.
But Masinagudi road was faster. I was doing like 80kmph (straight stretch and empty roads) till the start of 36 hairpins.

For me, if I have to reach Ooty I will always prefer Masinagudi route. Gudalur route is scenic no doubt which I will prefer in the return journey as it will be steady descent, hence faster. Now anyway you have no choice as Masinagudi route is closed for descent (for outstation vehicles). It is oneway while ascending.

Abhi