[SkyWalker]

"You wanna to go to Ooty, May 1-3?"
"Yep"
"You aren’t joking, are you?"
"Nope"
"Dude, it’s gonna be a mad rush over there now - it’s the season and a long weekend"

Hmmm... Not a very encouraging start. I weighed my options - me and my wife wanted to get away from the City during the long holidays. We crossed our 7th anniversary in Jan and hasn’t done a single trip to mark it yet. I am pushing my luck I had finished the run-in for my ANHC and wanted to test the highway prowess of the car. The summer is acting up and we want to cool our heels. I don’t want to spend a long time driving for a 3 day trip, so it has to be under 300 Kms. Options were limited - Wayanad,Coorg,Yercaud, and Ooty. Wayanad and Munnar are planned during Dec 09, so we ruled it out. All decent hotels booked out in Yercaud. We have been to Coorg a few years back in April and it was a bit too warm for our liking. Seems like we don’t have any other options - So Ooty here we come - for better or worse.

I won’t keep this chronological; this will be more of a picture blog. nnandi has written a nice chronological report, and I highly recommend it. It has helped me a lot while driving to Ooty. Here it goes the link:http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...nd-2009-a.html


Some Statistics before I proceed:
Travelers : Me-n-my better half
Steed : ANHC S M/T Mar 09
Distance Travelled : 619 Kms
Odo Pre:1004, Post 1623
Petrol Consumed : 48.38
Overall Mileage : 12.8

More pics coming. Here's a teaser from shooting point aka 9th Mile.

Further Posts Planned:

• Route and Time Taken
• The Places
• Flowers of Ooty
• The Resort
• ANHC on the Highway

[akas_chauhan]

Good start and Nice picture there. Post the remaining part soon.

[f450]

Originally Posted by SkyWalker

Options were limited - Wayanad,Coorg,Yercaud, and Ooty. Wayanad and Munnar are planned during Dec 09, so we ruled it out.

Beautiful picture. D40/DSLR right?

And why not Kodai?

[viv1984]

Hi Skywalker,

Which hotel you stayed? Did you like it? We are planning ooty trip between may 26-28. We are 5 adults.

Any idea Hotel Orchid Inn and Hotel Blue Hill International. These hotels have 3 bedded and 4 bedded room..

[SkyWalker]

Route and Time Taken

I am a big believer in beating traffic so an early ride was a no-brainer.

BLR To Ooty
Route: Bangalore-Mysore-Nanjangaud-Bandipur-Masinagudi-Ooty
5 hours 30 minutes (5:40 AM - 11:10 AM)
Checked into 11.45 AM to Sinclairs (spent some time finding this hotel)

Once you hit Mysore Road, you can hit some serious speeds. There is traffic, but ANHC didn’t disappoint. It made short work of the traffic and sped through effortlessly. There are some annoying speed breakers on roads, a few unmarked. We have been warned and both of us kept the vigil, and it helped. Nearing Mysore, there's a board on Mysore road showing a right deviation and a by-pass to Ooty. We stopped there, and were confused. Some local inquiries later we were told it’s a longer route, it hits Gundalpet. We were advised to ignore the sign, keep going towards Mysore palace and take the Nanjangaud route. So we did.

Inside Mysore there were some deviations, and we had to ask for directions in 3-4 places. Anyway soon hit Nanjangaud. Roads aren’t that great, and there are annoying ripple bumps which start here. These keep making occasional appearances in large and small sizes all the way till Bandipur. I drive cautiously among band roads but still keep ahead of all cars - and then a Silver Baleno flies past me. My wife reads "IceMan". Iceman91 - would that be you?

Halted for Lunch in Nanjangaud. I love dosas.

Past Bandipur you will get a diversion and a narrow bridge. Once again the prominent one marked Ooty (straight) turned out to be a longer route. We took the deviation on the bridge which is shorter, but goes to the famous 36 hairpin bends past Masinagudi to Ooty. Lots of passenger buses crawling along and it’s difficult to carry any speed to those nasty bends. Can’t overtake that well in the narrow bends. Growl.

Back to BLR

Route: Pykara-Gudalur-Mudumalai-Bandipur-Mysore Byepass-Bangalore
Time: 5 hours 45 minutes (11:30 AM -5:15 PM)
Reached Home at 5:30 PM

We checked out from Hotel around 8:00 AM and headed straight to Pykara. Spent time around the shooting place, falls and boathouse and decided to hit back to Bangalore at 11:30 PM. Now this route goes via Gudalur, Mudumalai and hits the junction with the narrow bridge I have mentioned previously. The route is long, winding, narrow and pleasant to drive.
We halted for lunch in JLR Pugmarks. This is a resort from Jungle Lodges group, and was a nice place. They keep a tab of tiger sightings. Unluckily we didn't spot any tigers, or luckily for us tigers didn't spot us.

Coming back, we decided to try the by-pass to Mysore that we avoided previously. Good Decision. Its longer, but good roads and hardly any vehicles seem. Once we hit the Mysore highway traffic thickens. Played “need for speed” with quite a few vehicles on road.

Enough Talk. On to the pics…

[snaronikar]

Nice teaser. Waiting for more pics and narration.

@f450: Kodai will take more time for driving (8~10 hrs)

[SkyWalker]

Flower Power

Ooty boasts a fair amount of flower power. And I am not talking about the Botanical garden and Rose garden either. If you are a nature/flower lover (like my wife) you might want to take a hike off the beaten track and see what the wild side offers you. There's always a surprise, like this wild rose she found during our trek. I will let the pictures do the talking.

[iceman91]

Beautiful pictures. Yes Skywalker it was me
I too went away for the weekend. But I stayed in Masinagudi, Jungle Hut.
Did drive up to ooty at night. more like tradition, if in that area we dont leave without hitting the ghats.
Was a loely trip except for the traffic.

back to you.. enjoying the pics.

[SkyWalker]

Originally Posted by f450

Beautiful picture. D40/DSLR right?

yep. That's the D40 alright.

Originally Posted by f450

And why not Kodai?

Originally Posted by snaronikar

@f450: Kodai will take more time for driving (8~10 hrs)

right! I didn't want to drive as much over a 3 day trip.

Originally Posted by viv1984

Hi Skywalker,
Which hotel you stayed? Did you like it? We are planning ooty trip between may 26-28. We are 5 adults.
Any idea Hotel Orchid Inn and Hotel Blue Hill International. These hotels have 3 bedded and 4 bedded room..

I stayed in Sinclairs. It was good. Not sure about the other hotels. MakeMytrip and some other websites do have online search for good hotels with some user reviews, recommend you try them.

Originally Posted by snaronikar

Nice teaser. Waiting for more pics and narration.

uploaded a few more. more coming soon...

[ashwinsid]

@Skywalker,

A great teaser. Waiting for the full thing.

I am traveling to Ooty on May 14. Can you elaborate on the Mysore Bypass road? Even I will take the Ooty-Gudalur route while returning to Bangalore.

[pjay_in]

Waiting for more.. the teaser was cool. Liked the other pics too.

[gadadhar]

Cool snaps. Waiting for rest of the series.

[ph03n!x]

Boy, we crossed paths - we (me, neoranjit and few friends) drove from Madras to Ooty, and on to drop anchor in Masinagudi until Sunday noon..!

[SkyWalker]

The Hotel
Expecting a crowd we started looking at the resorts first. Destiny Farms didn’t work, and Neemrana was booked out too. Why am I always late with these things? A quick search lead us to Sincalirs. They claim it to be "The highest located hotel in South India". Hmmm... ok. Checked some reviews and they sounded good. On to the booking then.

The Hotel is located somewhere en route the Doddabeta peak. The road upwards was narrow and treacherous and at times nonexistent. Once inside, the Hotel was great. Food options were limited - only buffet for lunch and dinner, exorbitantly priced and the spread was Spartan. Rooms are clean and well arranged albeit a bit small.

The view more than made up for the shortcomings. Situated at the top of a hill it provides a magnificent view to Ooty valley. The nights are well lit and the decorations, arrangement and flora and well done. They have a few green meadows for you to take a leisurely stroll, which adds to the charm.

[SkyWalker]

Originally Posted by ashwinsid

@Skywalker,
I am traveling to Ooty on May 14. Can you elaborate on the Mysore Bypass road? Even I will take the Ooty-Gudalur route while returning to Bangalore.

If you are planning to drive in the morning (lets say you hit Mysore around 8 AM) it might make sense to go via Mysore as traffic will be less. You cant miss the by-pass. Its prominently located just before you enter the Mysore city. While coming back if you are nearing the evening it might be pleasant to drive through the by-pass as traffic should be sparse there and you will enjoy the drive, even if its a a longer route.

Originally Posted by ph03n!x

Boy, we crossed paths - we (me, neoranjit and few friends) drove from Madras to Ooty, and on to drop anchor in Masinagudi until Sunday noon..!

yep,it would have been good to catch up. There's always more long vacations coming and i am sure we will bump into each other soon enough

Originally Posted by iceman91

Beautiful pictures. Yes Skywalker it was me
I too went away for the weekend. But I stayed in Masinagudi, Jungle Hut.

some cool driving there dude!

Originally Posted by iceman91

back to you.. enjoying the pics.

Originally Posted by gadadhar

Cool snaps. Waiting for rest of the series.

Originally Posted by pjay_in

Waiting for more.. the teaser was cool. Liked the other pics too.

thanks folks - yes, there's more coming...