Dorai time again

Sinna Dorai Mango Range : 

I never thought some one could be so busy for such a long time where you do not get time to do what you like doing the most and that someone includes me. But life has been such for past year that never realized how penning down a blog about a trip which was done more than a year ago went so low on priority. Now that being said, let me get back to my travel story.

After our visit to Sinna Dorai's Valparai property in Jan 2016, crave for a similar experience was on the high and what better option than another bungalow of Sinna Dorai in the Niligir Hills, in a small town called Pandalur. Booking process was easy, spoke to the estate manager of Sinna Dorai Valparai property who connected me to the property manager in Mango Range and we confirmed the availability and booked our room.

Route Map

Day 1 : 30/06/2018

 We woke up at 4:00 AM , got ready and left home by 5:10 AM.  We crossed Silkboard at 5:45 AM and left Bangalore around 6:15 AM. We stopped for a majestic view of sun rise near Kanakpura.

As we had woken up early, we were feeling hungry early, so stopped for breakfast at Hotel Mandarti near Kanakpura at 6:45 AM. This place was already filled with hungry travelers like us , so it took some time for them to serve our breakfast. After breakfast our car refused to start for some reason. With the help of a taxi driver and few locals push started the car. Delay in breakfast and car trouble cost us almost an hour. From here we drove past T Narasipur and reached Nanjangudu at 10:00 AM and stopped for a tea here. Once we reached Bandipur we slowed down to comply with rules of driving in reserve forest and also hoping for some wild life sighting. We spotted the usual languors, elephant, deer and bison on the way.

 We reached Gudalur at 12:00 PM. Here I stopped at a traffic signal which turned red as I had to take a right from here towards Pandalur, but a police manning the signal asked to continue, assuming the red light is only for people going straight I started driving, immediately another police man caught me for jumping the signal. I argued with him in vain and eventually had to pay the fine. But this whole thing cost us another 30 mins.  We reached Pandalur at 1:15 PM and reached the hill top where the bungalow is located by 1:30 PM.

Once we checked in and had our lunch it started to rain. We slept for a while and woke up by 4:00 PM. Had tea and snack in the evening.

We went for a walk in the tea garden after tea, how ever we had to return back quickly as the rain was on the horizon. We spent rest of the evening relaxing and enjoying the rain.

 Post dinner enjoyed the desert served and went to bed by 9:00 PM.

Day 2 : 1/07/2018

Woke up at 6:00 AM in hopes of watching sun rise, but since the valley was filled with fog we didnt get that opportunity. However we could here a lot of birds around us though couldn't see them because of poor light. Once the lights improved we spotted many birds and clicked some photos of them. We had this bench made from dead tree out side the room which was an ideal spot for us to watch the birds. Around 8:00 AM we had our break fast and then continued to click more bird photos.

 We went to an old  gold mine in the property at 10:45 AM. Mining was happening here alost a century ago. We entered the man made cave to this mine, but  we had to stop half way through as it was very slippery and was dangerous to walk because of rains.

From here we went to Athikunna tea factory, one of the 3 factories in the property and watched the process of making tea powder.

We returned back to the bungalow and had our lunch, Post lunch we relaxed for a while as it started to rain. It is amazing how quickly here weather changes and fascinating to see cloud rush towards you through the valley and in no time you move from a  clear day to pouring rain.

 In the evening went for a walk in the tea garden, clicked some more photos of bird and also watched few elephants grazing in the opposite mountain and returned to resort post sun set.

We had our dinner by 8:30 PM and retired for the night.

Day 3 : 2/07/2018

Woke up around 6:00 AM and it was much clearer morning, though sun rise was still elusive to us. But mornings are amazing here as you get to hear and see a variety of birds in this area. We had our morning coffee and break fast by 8:00 AM.

We had no plans for the day and we wanted to stay in the bungalow and do nothing. We spent the day chatting with the property manager and her husband who manages all the 3 tea factories and exchanged the travel stories with them.

Rest of the day was spent, eating, chatting, watching the birds and yes also elephants, but today full family was out there. Tomorrow we leave from here to Coorg to visit my wife's parents and stop over there in the night and back to Bangalore day after.

All in all a wonderful, relaxing rich experience, just the way the name suggests.