Paryatane...: Queen of hills and more

Nilgiri Hills:

Ooty was part of our honeymoon plan which could not be covered then. We had made plans to visit Ooty 3 more times over the years and had to be put aside for reasons which were beyond our control every time. So after 7 years of making plans, for the first time finally we decided to visit this hill station this time and planning and bookings were done well in advance.

Route map of the trip

Day 1 (13/01/2014):

We could hardly sleep the previous night because of the excitement of much awaited trip and woke up at 4:00 AM. We got ready and left home by 5:00 AM. Road towards Mysore had less traffic but high beams from the traffic on the opposite side slowed us down. But we had enough time in hand so drove carefully and slowly and reached Madhur at 6:30 AM, had breakfast at Kamath Upachar and reached Mysore by 8:00 AM.
From here my new Sat Nav system took over to guide me. Road towards Bandipur was empty and in wonderful condition.

On the way to Bandipur

We had sighting of few monkeys, deer and mongoose here and we drove on.

We crossed Karnataka border and entered tamilnadu. Once we entered Madhumalai, the road became narrower and slowed us down again.We crossed this section and reached Masinagudi, road condition improved from here and the start of much awaited 36 hairpin bends. On this ghat section we stopped for the first point of interest of this trip, Kalhatti falls at 11:15 AM.

To go to Kalhatty falls, stop at 16th hairpin bend. There is enough space for couple of cars to park here. And to reach the falls you have to walk about 300 mts from here. Shop keepers here informed that the falls is active only during monsoon and it was dry now. So we roamed around a bit and soaked in the beauty of the nature and moved on.

We left from here after spending about 15 mins and continued our journey uphill. Once we crossed Ooty we realized that we had missed Ralliah Dam. We inquired and found that we have already crossed the point where we had to take deviation and also found out that there is not much water there anyways. So we made call to resort where we were booked for the day in Kotagiri and informed them that we should be there in next 30 - 45 mins.

On the way to Kotagiri

Here my wife climbed on a stone posing for a photo and twisted her ankle. We reached Kotagiri at 1:30 PM. We were served a hot cup of tea and lunch followed at 2:30 PM. Resort staff were kind enough to go to a medical store in the town and bring medicine and bandage for my wife's leg. We rested for a while post lunch.

Weather was pleasant at 18 degrees even in the afternoon. We left the resort at 4:30 PM and went in search of Longwood Shola. GPS device and google map could not locate this spot and asking people did not help as no one knew about this. So we changed our plan and went to Nehru Park in the town. This is a mid sized park in the center of Kotagiri town and well maintained. We spent about an hour roaming here.

Nehru Park, Kotagiri

We did some shopping for tea powders, honey and chocolates here and went back to resort at 6:15 PM. It had become pretty cold now and sun was setting too. We enjoyed the sunset, had a wonderful dinner and went to bed by 9:30 PM hoping that my wife's leg will be in better shape by next day morning.

View of sunset from resort balcony, Kotagiri

Day 2 (14/01/2014):

Woke up at 6:00 AM and watched the sun rise.

Sun rise at Kotagiri

Freshened up and left for Kodanadu view point at 7:15 AM. Kotagiri was filled with fog and we drove slow enjoying the atmosphere. There was lot of police patrolling en route as Jayalalitha was in town for election campaign. We reached Kodanadu view point at 8:00 AM. Fog was settling down and there were hardly any people there. This is a wonderful place to visit, less known to people and recommend to visit this place for sun rise or sun set. We clicked a lot of pictures here and thoroughly enjoyed the surroundings and it s calmness.

Kodanadu View Point

These pictures do not do any justice to the beauty of this place. The only way to see the beauty of this place is being there. We left from here at 8:45 AM and returned to the resort at 9:15 AM. Had a wonderful breakfast and checked out at 11:00 AM.

Review of resort:

We stayed in Twin tree resort in Kotagiri. Wonderful place on the hill top with greenery all around. They have a well maintained garden too right in front of the resort. We enjoyed our stay and food here, especially the dosa and sambar served for the breakfast. We recommend this place to anyone who is visiting Kotagiri.

We left Kotagiri at 11:00 AM and reached Catherine Water falls at 11:50 AM on our way to Coonoor. Drive to this waterfall is real joy with umpteen number of twists on a narrow curvy road between the tea estate. Once you park the car you have to walk about 300 mts to reach the view point and another half KM to the base of the waterfall from there. My wife decided to give some rest to the swollen leg, so i walked to the view point to see the waterfall.

Catherine waterfall

The above picture is a full zoomed and cropped image of the waterfall to show its existence. Next picture will show what exactly you get to see from the view point.

Catherine waterfall from view point

Catherine waterfall is marked in red in the picture, and this is what I got to see from the view point. I did not want to waste any time or energy to walk another half KM to reach the bottom of the waterfall and decided to return back to parked car. We diced not to venture into any more waterfalls in this tour. Our advise is to visit waterfalls in this area only if you are visiting during or just after monsoon.

We started back from here at 12:15 PM and reached our resort at Coonoor at 1:00 PM. We checked in, had sandwich and tea, as we had a feast of breakfast in Kotagiri and decided to give some rest to my wife's leg for a while.

I was woken up by birds chirping and peeped out of window to be pleasantly surprised by a lot of peach trees at their full glory of pink flowers. I left my wife to rest and walked out and inquired about these trees. I was informed that this was the back of the TN Govt. Horticulture departments area and they grow these trees along with other trees here and this area is the extreme end of the Sims Park. There is just a wired fence that separates the resort property and the park.

Grey- headed Canary Flycatcher

Peach flowers

Coffee table at the back of resort

He was watching me click pictures and happy to pose when his turn came

At 4:15 PM we left from resort to Dolphin's nose point. On the way we stopped in the tea estates fro some photo opportunities and also had a pit stop at Lamb's Rock.

Tea estate on the way to Dolphin's Nose point

Lamb's Rock did not interest us, so we moved on. We reached Dolphin's Nose point at 5:10 PM.

Dolphin's Nose Point

We could see Catherine Waterfall from here too

We waited to watch the sun set from here and it was wonderful sight.

Sunset @ Dolphin's Nose point

As this is winter sun set by 6:00 PM. By 6:15 PM we too left as people had started leaving and the shops too were getting closed there.

We reached resort back by 6:50 PM. We had a nice dinner and went to bed 9:30 PM as we had to wake up early next day morning.

Day 3 (15/01/2014):

A much awaited day of our life. Time for Chaiyya Chaiyya train journey. We had informed the resort staff about our plan for early morning train journey to Ooty previous night itself. We woke up at 5:30 AM and got ready by 6:30 AM. Our breakfast was ready, had tea and breakfast and left resort by 7:00 AM. We reached Coonoor railway station by 7:15 AM. We purchased our tickets and the journey began at 7:45 AM.

Coonoor Railway Station

Tickets to the journey of a life time

Train was getting ready for the first trip of the day

Our journey was flagged off

It was a beautiful morning journey

We didnt want to try this tea

And the train moved on

This is the best train journey I have had till date and a must try if you visit Ooty. We reached Ooty at 9:15 AM. Our original plan was to return back in the same train to Coonoor. But by the time we reached Ooty the tickets for the next trip was sold out and the next trip was 3 hours later. So we took a bus back to Coonoor and reached by 10:00 AM.

Few points about this train journey:

Try to take early morning trip from Coonoor to Ooty as trains will be less crowded from Coonoor and early morning is the best time to enjoy this trip the most.
Try buying 1st class tickets, general tickets costs 5 Rs and First class costs 85 Rs. Locals use this train too for daily commuting and general class will be very crowded with tourists and localites going to work .
You can not buy return tickets, so plan your return journey accordingly. Usually the immediate trip back will not be feasible as the tickets would be sold out in Ooty station by the time this train reaches there.

We returned to resort by 10:15 AM. Had tea and some more snacks and went to SIM's Park which is at walk able distance from the resort at 11:00 AM. This park is spread across 12 hectares and has a lot of old large trees compared to flower plants.

Information about SIMs Park

SIMs Park

An interesting head gear of a kid playing in the park

We left SIMs park at 1:00 PM after clicking loads of pictures and had lunch at Mahalakshmi Bhojanalaya. We did some shopping for home made chocolates and spices and returned to resort. We left for Ketti Valley View Point at 4:00 PM after a coffee and reached there at 4:50 PM. Evening sun was peeping through the clouds and forming wonderful display of golden light on the hills on the other side of the valley.

Ketti Valley

Chaiyya Chaiyya train was on its evening trip

An interesting resort facing the valley

Houses on the hills

We left at around 5:30 PM as the cloud cover was spoiling the sun set view and reached Coonoor at 6:30 PM. We went to the town in search of plum fruits. We also did some shopping for chocolates, spices and olive oil in Viji's Bakery. My wife also shopped for a saree. Had some snacks at Hotel Lakshmi and returned to resort by 8:15 PM.

Review of resort:

In Coonoor we stayed in Wallwood Garden Resort which is located near SIM's park. An excellent place for stay. An old British bungalow is restored and converted to a hotel. Very professional staff and clean surroundings. Icing on the cake is that it is adjacent to SIMs park and a lot of birds visit the resort property. We found the food to be touch expensive here. We also shopped for fruit jams here. Best part is you can taste these jams for your breakfast and buy the one you like.

Wall wood Garden

Family room and fire area

We chose room Gulmohar

Day 4 (16/01/2014):

We woke up leisurely at 7:30 AM. I went around the fog covered resort looking for some more birds. We freshened up, had our breakfast and checked out at 10:30 AM. We reached our resort in Ooty at 11:15 AM. And surprisingly the place we visited the previous evening, Ketti Valley was stone throw away distance from our Resort. We checked in and left for Doddabetta at 11:45 AM. We reached Doddabetta in 20 mins passing via Tea Factory, we decided to visit Tea Factory on our way back. Road to Doddabetta was in pathetic condition and there was extra security set up as forest department was hunting for a tiger in the region which had attacked few people in nearby village.

Right at the entrance garbage dumped reminded us about the fate of tourist places

Could not resist this piping hot groundnut, it was yummy

Counter to buy tickets

Telescope tower at view point

View of surroundings from the telescope house

We found this place average compared to Kodanadu View Point. Doddabetta is a pure commercial tourist place and i would pick Kodanadu View point 10 out of 10 times compared to this. We started our walk back to the parking area and these birds got my attention on the way.

Great tit

Dotted Dove

We left for Tea factory at 1:15 PM and reached in 10 minutes. Here you get to walk through the factory and watch the tea making procedure. This is also a good place to fill your shopping bags with chocolates and tea powders.

We left tea factory at 2:00 PM and reached the Rose garden at 3:00 PM after our lunch in Kurnji's Hotel. First thing i asked myself as soon as i entered this garden was, ' Can you really have such a big rose garden?' . This place is huge and it was like sea of roses. They came in all sizes and colours. We walked around in the park for about 1 and half hours and could cover only half of it. My wife's wrapped and swollen leg had no rest since morning and she could feel it. We decided to leave from here at 4:30 PM and return to resort for some rest.

We learnt language of roses too

We left to see Charring Cross at 6:00 PM after taking some rest. We reached Charring Cross at 6:15 PM. We spent some time there and shopped for some more chocolates in Choco Galleria. This place was by far the best place to buy chocolates, the variety available here is unmatched and we recommend this place to buy chocolates in Ooty.

Charring Cross

We reached resort back at 7:30 PM and had early dinner, sat out side the resort for some time and watched fog engulfing the resort and went to sleep.

Day 5 (17/01/2014):

We woke up at 7:00 AM and got freshened up and left for St. Thomas Church at 8:15 AM. We stopped on the as at Charring Cross. Ooty was still sleeping and all shops were closed.

Charring Cross in day light

We reached St. Thomas Church at 8:40 AM. Church was yet to open. Care taker who lives near by saw us and opened the church door for us. We spent about 30 mins here clicking pictures and left from there at 9:15 AM.

St. Thomas Church

We had breakfast in Hotel Aryan on the way and reached resort by 9:45 AM. We left resort at 10:20 AM for Lovedale Railway station. We reached the railway station at 10:35 AM. This is a small railway station in the midst of the nature and when we reached there it was covered with fog. We walked around the station and clicked a ton of pictures.

Lovedale Railway Station

We left from here at 10:50 AM and reached Ooty Lake at 11:20 AM. Ooty lake is a over crowded and over hyped place with plastic wastes all around. We had expected this. We were in no mood for going for boating here. We sat there for some time as our next plan was lunch at it was too early.

Ooty Lake

We left from here at 12:00 PM. We reached Fernhill Palace at 12:20 PM. This palace belonged to Mysore Maharaja and now converted to a Hotel. This is a wonderful place and we spent almost one hour exploring the surroundings and clicked a lot of pictures.

Fernhill Palace

We decided to have our lunch here. We were looking for a buffet, it was not available on that day. We ordered our royal lunch and enjoyed every bit of it.

Lunch @ Fernhill Palace

After heavy lunch we left Fernhill Palace at 2:00 PM and reached resort at 2:40 PM. We rested till 4:00 PM after the heavy meal and refreshed our selves with a cup of coffee. We left for Botanical Garden at 4:10 PM. We reached Botanical Garden at 4:30 PM. It is another most popular places of Ooty along with Ooty lake. And as expected it was buzzing with people. We ambled around for some time and clicked some pictures here. But personally speaking we found Rose Garden better than this place.

Botanical Garden

Around 6:00 PM we came out of Botanical garden, did some shopping out side the park and returned back to resort at 6:45 PM. Had a nice dinner and a good sleep.

Day 6 (18/01/2014):

Woke up at 6:45 AM and watched the sun rise across the Valley right out side the resort.

Sun rise @ Ooty

We freshened up and left for Kamaraja Sagar Dam at 7:15 AM. When we reached there at 7:55 AM, we found the gate locked for much of our disappointment. We had a glimpse of the dam which was covered with fog.

Kamaraja Sagar Dam

On our way back we stopped at pine tree forest on the road side at 8:10 AM. Fog, early morning sun and the pine trees made this place really beautiful in the morning. We soaked in the beauty of the place and clicked tons of pictures here. We left from here at 8:30 AM as we were feeling hungry.

Pine Tree Forest

We returned to Ooty town and stopped for breakfast at Lakshmi Illam near Charring Cross and returned to resort at 9:20 AM. We started again towards Emerald Lake at 10:45 AM. Most part of the 25 KM journey had decent road, though narrow but scenic. Final 7 - 8 KMs had bad roads with lot of pot holes to deal with. MMI did not have the route charted for Emerald Lake, so we had to stop and ask for directions. We stopped at point where we could get a birds view of Emerald Lake and surrounds on the way.

Birds view of Emerald Lake on the way

We reached Emerald Lake at 12:00 PM. There were hardly any people. We spent almost an hour walking around the lake and clicking pictures of this nature's beauty.

Emerald Lake

We left from here at 1:15 PM and went towards Emerald Dam and Avalanche Dam. Both these dams are closed for public visit. We then drove towards Avalanche Lake. Again we had had to negotiate a bad stretch of raod through out this 10 KM drive and reached Avalanche Lake gate at 1:55 PM. Upon reaching here we realised that the rules have changed here and private vehicles are no longer allowed to go to the Lake. Bus facility is provided from the gate to visit the lake and couple of other point of interests. First trip starts at 10:00 AM and each tour takes 2 hours and the last trip for the day is at 3:30 PM. Unfortunately both the trips at 3:00 PM and 3:30 PM were fully booked by the people waiting there. So we had to return back disappointed. ( Leaving this for our next visit)

We returned back to Ooty town, had late lunch at Dominos and picked up some more chocolates at Choco Galleria and returned to the resort at 5:45 PM. Tomorrow, time to pack our bags and return.

Review of resort:

We stayed in I-India resort in Ooty. This resort is on the Ooty - Coonoor road. It is located right at the edge of the Ketty Valley. Sitting out in the open area and watch the fog cover the entire valley and rush towards the resort is an amazing feeling. Here the situation from no fog to no visibility can happen in 15 minutes, thats how dramatic this place is.
It is also equally amazing feeling to wake up early for the wonderful sight of sun rising across the valley. Food was decent and this is comparatively budget place with basic facilities, but sheer beauty of the place makes the stay worth here.

I-India Resort

View of sun rise from the resort

Day 7 (19/01/2014):

We woke up at 6:15 AM , freshened up, settled our bills and left I -India at 7:40 AM. We reached Lakshmi Illam and found that their kitchen is yet to open. We had a coffee and left from there with out breakfast. We had a long way and few pit stops planned for the day. Our first pit stop was at Kamaraja Sagar Dam as we observed a small path that goes down near the closed gate while passing through. Curiosity got better of us and wanted to find out where this path leads. The the gamble worked, it lead us to the catchment area of the dam. We had missed this pathway previous morning as the fog had covered everything and we could not see it.

Kamaraja Sagar Dam

We left from here after a quick stop and drove towards Tree Park. We reached Tree Park at 8:50 AM. Since it was early morning there was absolutely no body here and we spent about 30 minutes here exploring this place.

Tree Park

We left from here at 9:15 AM and reached Shooting point at 9:20 AM. Shooting point is just 2 KMs away from Tree Park.

Shooting Point

We walked up to the top here and walked around for about 30 mins. Sun was already up and making his presence felt. We were hungry as we had skipped our breakfast as well. We had a tea and some biscuits here and left from here at 10:05 AM. On our way we took deviation towards Glenmorgan. Road to Glenmorgan was as good as no road. We drove carefully and reached Glenmorgan and found that the tea factory and tea estates are not accessible for public. We suggest to skip this place as it is waste of time going here. We lost almost 1 hour in this 20 KM in total drive. This also highlights the road condition that it took 1 hour for 20 KMs.

Glenmorgan

We reached Pykara falls entrance and learnt that there is no water in the falls. We drove on and reached Pykara Lake at 11:25 AM. Stretch leading to Pykara Lake is very badly managed and demands very careful driving to avoid bottoming your car.

Distance to fer point of interests from Pykara Lake

Pykara Lake

We left from here at 11:40 AM and drove on. Stopped on the way to buy some fresh Carrots. Road condition was average in the ghat section and we reached Gundlur checkpost at 1:15 PM. We stopped here for lunch at Puja Restaurant. After quick lunch break we left from here. Road condition improved and we could cover some ground quickly. We reached Nanjanagudu and took deviation towards T Narasipura. Again road condition worsened as this stretch of the road was under construction. Looks like every politician was getting ready for elections by improving the roads of his area. We stopped near a beautiful lake at T Narasipura.

A beautiful Lake at T Narasipura

We drove past Malavalli and reached Kanakpura. From here the traffic got thicker and slowed us down again. Finally reached home at 7:15 PM battling the famous Bangalore traffic. Thus concludes a week long trip to the some of the most beautiful hills in Nilgiris. For us the highlights were Kodanadu View Point, lunch at Fern Hill Palace and Emerald lake. A next trip to Ooty will definitely be to visit Avalanche lake and watch all the falls in flow flow some time during a monsoon some year. Till then long live the Queen of hills.

Paryatane...

Sunday, 28 September 2014

Queen of hills and more

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