Officially named Udagamandalam, Ooty or the "Queen of Hills" is the most popular hill station of the South and also one of the best known hill resort of India. So, we planned a trip to enjoy its extraordinary scenic beauty from Bangalore by car.
We started from Bangalore on 25th September at about 5am. Taking route through Mysore road, we entered the SH17, via Channapatna, Mandya, we reached Mysore ring road by about 7:15am.
Then via Nanjangud, we entered the Gundulpet town by 9am and take the NH67. The road from this point to Bandhipur National park was also unforgettable. And now onwards the journey is through the forest.
The forest saddles both Karnataka and Tamilnadu states across their border. On the Karnataka side the forest is called Bandipur National Park while the forest on the Tamilnadu side is called Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary. Both are tiger reserves and National Parks of importance. And the whole forest falls in Western Ghats.
About 20 min drive, we cross the check posts and we entered Tamilnadu state and we were then at Madumala National Park by 9.40am. The board saying "Be a silent passer" can be seen on road sides. We could see spotted dears, peacock, elephants and gray langurs in these forests. After crossing the forest area, we reached a junction Theppakadu, from here there are two routes to Ooty. One via Masinagudi and the other via Gudalur.
We choose the route via Masinagudi, since this route is shorter and had about 36 hairpin curves. The scenic beauty of Western Ghats while climbing these hairpins is really a memorable one. I wished I had camera on my eyes so that I could snap each moment.
At last, we climbed the 36th curve and had to go a bit more to reach the Ooty town. By 11am, we reached Ooty town and had to search for a good hotel. And by 12pm, we hired a room at Queen Residency. This hotel was situated in between the carrot fields, so we could see ladies digging out the carrots and collecting them in a bag.
We had our lunch at the hotel and took rest. By 6pm, we planned to go out and see Ooty town. It was so cold outside that we had to wear the woollen dresses. We had dinner in the town and were back at room by 9pm and had a good sleep.
Next day, we got up and had our tea enjoying the scenic beauty and the cold, also we planned some places to visit for the day. So we set off by 9am, had breakfast and reached the Ooty lake, so we planned to go for boating before the sunny afternoon.
Ooty lake appears in an L-shape, and it was artificially formed by John Sullivan. We took the row boat and enjoyed the beauty of the blue hills, munching the fresh Ooty carrots. There are also lake gardens and toy train rides nearby.
The next nearby place was Thread Garden. It was a unique experience to see the colourful flowers exquisitely made from threads. It seems that the plants and flowers are entirely woven by hand without any help from machines; even needles have not been used in creating these wonders. The effects are so elaborate and natural that it is very hard to believe that they are artificial.
Then we set off to see the highest peak of Nilgiris and Tamilnadu. Again we had to climb through hills enjoying the beauty of tea estates, carrot, cabbage cultivations to reach the tourist spot "Dodabetta peak". The view of Ooty town from this peak was just awesome.
Then while climbing down from Dodabetta peak, we visited the "Tea factory and museum". It has an entry fee and they show the whole process of making tea from the tea leaves, we also bought some fresh tea powders. There are also homemade chocolate stalls nearby to this area.
The wax museum is also a spot to visit, which is just on the same route. Here the wax statues of personalities of Indian history are housed in a 142 year old bungalow.
The Ketti Valley also known as "Switzerland of Southern India" due to the year-round pleasant climatic conditions and the view point called "Valley View" is located on the route to Coonoor.
Tired of travelling and being hungry, we reached back to the town and had a fantastic SouthIndian Thali. With stomach-full, we thought of entering the Botanical Garden and take rest for a while. By then it was 3:30pm. It is an English styled terraced garden in an area about 22 hectares and has the most colourful collection of flora in Southern India. There are about 1000 varieties of plants, shrubs and trees. The beautifully maintained garden also has exotic varieties of orchids, rock plants, medicinal plants etc.
The Raj Bhavan is also located nearby. Walking around the garden takes hours and by 5:30pm we took almost a glance of the garden and came out. The Tibetian shops nearby this place are good for shopping.
That was the planned schedule for the day, and we had our dinner from Hotel Aryas in the Ooty town and were back to our room at Queens Residency to escape from the chilling cold outside.
Since we had to head back, schedule for the day was very short. We had to wait a bit for our breakfast in the Ooty Sarvanas, but never miss the delicious breakfast from this hotel.
Then by 9:30am, we reached the Rose Garden, the largest Rose Garden in India, perched on the lower slopes of Elk Hill and are over an area of 6 hectares, being landscaped over 5 terraces. There are several varieties of roses with each variety name being written, but since it was not the rose season, we could not enjoy the beauty of roses.
By 10:30am, we went to the Ooty Municipal Market to buy carrots, cabbages, sugarcanes and apples. They were so tasty and cheap.
And then it was time to start back to Bangalore, but I did feel that time didn’t permit me to visit many more places at Ooty like Pykara falls, Sim’s park etc. and by 12pm we took the same route to reach Bangalore. So next time have to plan a trip to Ooty for 1 week.