Bangalore to Ooty Trip - 20th June 2009

Bangalore to Ooty Trip

Car : Zen Estilo

Odo reading at the start : 17784

Date: 20th June 2009

Travel members: Me, My wife and My 8 month old Kid.

I am planning this trip for almost two months ago. I planned to go to Ooty with my Parents when they were here in May. We could not do it because of my brother's tight vacation schedule. So, I have decided do it with my wife and kid. Initially, I planned it with one of my friend. He agreed and then later he could not make it bcoz of some family function in his native place. Finally it is up to me to decide the place to stay, the duration of the stay and travel plan. I have planned it on 27th of June but changed it to 20th for some personal reasons. I have gone through lot of travelogues, reviews and other details on the internet for the travel, hotels and the sights in Ooty. First decision made - Travel start date 20th June 2009.

My hotel search starts and after going through lot of reviews on the internet, decided to stay in Sagar holiday resorts. The off season rate comes around Rs 2000/- per day + Taxes. This fits into my budget and hence called them to get more details. They asked me to email. I did it in the same day. I have not received any reply from them even after 4 days of follow-up over phone. So, decided to look for other options. I came to know about another hotel called "Meadows Residency", close to charring cross. This is my travel to Ooty after almost 10 years. No memories of Ooty in my mind. So, I have decided to stay close to the city so that there will not be any commuting problem for me. I mailed meadows and their response is too good. They clarified all the details to me. I am happy with their response and decided to take a pearl type room in the hotel. Second decision made - Hotel & Room type finalized ; Meadows residency near charring cross & Pearl type room (Tariff Rs 1500/- per day + Taxes).

On my preparation for the trip, I have bought a car seat for my kid. I have upgraded the headlamps (stock headlamps) of my vehicle with 100/90. I have also some cold weather clothing for my kid. On my way back to home from office on 19th June, filled petrol for the full tank in one of the bunk in outer ring road and checked air pressure. It is all set for me to start my travel the next day.

My wife is in full swing in packing things for all of us. All the necessary and essential items were packed and I have cross verified it by 11 PM on Friday. I have also gone through weather forecast in Ooty for the next four days and it looked good too.

Day 1 - 20th June :

Our kid got up too early at 3 AM and started playing. I managed to sleep for another hour while my wife lost her sleep with the kid. At 4 AM, she started preparing coffee and hot water is ready for me. After having a good bath, I have loaded the vehicle with all our bags. I have taken my kid's stroller too. It came handy in few occasions in our trip.

I have started exactly at 6:15 AM from BTM Layout and started towards Banashankari via Jayadeva flyover. I missed the right cut towards Mysore road in Banashankari and ended up in Kanakapura Road. After few direction queries, landed in NICE road and after traveling for 5 mins (at 110 km/hr) reached the Mysore road. Nice road is very well maintained. The toll cost is Rs 16 for vehicles going to Mysore and the distance is 8 Kms from the Kanapukura Road - Nice Road Intersection to the mysore road. Entered Mysore Road at around 7 AM.

After an hour break, we started from Maddur tiffins at 8:45 AM and continued our journey towards Mysore. After slowing a bit in Mandya traffic, reached Mysore Palace at 10 AM. Taken the left in the Mysore palace signal and taken the right in the first round about after the Mysore palace. After crossing the side entrance of the Mysore road, I could see sign boards shows Ooty in the upward direction.

Ooty is about 160 kms from Mysore. The route to Ooty from Mysore is Nanjagod -- Gundlupet -- Bandipur -- Mudumalai -- Masinagudi -- Ooty. There is another route to Ooty which goes via Gudalur. The diversion to Masinagudi and Gudalur is at around 4 kms after the Tamil nadu check post. The drive via Masinagudi is full of Ghats and there are 36 hairpin bends on the uphill drive. The distance to Ooty is almost double via Gudalur route.

I have started my drive towards Gundlupet, the next destination on the way to Ooty. After travelling about 15 mins in the road towards Gundlupet, there are greeneries all along the road. For the next few kms, the roads are not so good but can do the road in 60km/hr. After about half an hour on the road, I hit a road which is in extremely good condition. The road is recently laid and is in good condition. One can easily touch 120 km/hr in this road. I have maintained good speed throughout this section and reached Gundlupet in no time.

It is shock after Gundlupet. There is no sign of tar in the road stretch after Gundlupet towards Bandipur. For the next one hour, I have to travel only at 30 km/hr. The road is in the same bad condition for 10 kms and the time taken to travel this stretch is just more than half an hour. Just after the bad road ends, there are two restaurants on the left side of the road – Hotel Bandipur Plaza and Pug mark restaurant. The road condition is good and about few mins of travel, I am inside Bandipur forest. Journey from Mysore took nearly two hours to reach Bandipur including the bad patch of road.

Drive inside the forest is pleasant. All greens around and the sound of birds and animals are pleasant. I have managed a steady speed of around 50-60 kmph inside the forest. There are blind curves and lot of updowns on the road. Caution needed while driving as there are lot of animal crossing spots on the road. Speed breakers are put in at adequate place to avoid over speeding of vehicles. I have not seen any of the wild animals in my drive inside Bandipur. After driving for about 20 mins, I reached the end of Bandipur. We have sighted a peahen in the middle of the road.

I have entered Tamilnadu Forest range (Mudumalai) at around 12:10 in the noon. It was drizzling inside Bandipur and the same weather continued in Mudumalai also. From the tamilnadu checkpost, it is around 4 kms for the T-Junction. Police in the checkpost given information on the two direction to Ooty. Since I know it already, I have decided to take the first option of Masinagudi-Ooty through the 36 hairpin bends. Though I have clocked individually all the 17500+ kms in the vehicle, this is the first time I am taking up a ghats and hairpin bends. I am little thrilled though not nervous on entering the Masinagudi road.

Care should be taken while driving inside Mudumalai too as there are lots of animal crossing spots in the road. Road condition is extremely good. Better to avoid horn inside forest as it will disturb the wild life inside. There are lot of “No Parking” boards inside the forest cautioning the travelers not to stop on the forest road.

After driving for about 10 mins from the TN checkpost, I reached the T-junction. I have taken left at the junction towards Masinagudi. The sign board just after the junction says “Ooty 36 kms”. The forest is thick and dense and the road is a single road with lot of turns and up/downs.

After driving for about 35 mins on the road, I have encountered the first hairpin bend. The bend is sharp and the road is at almost 45 degree angle. I have taken almost all the hairpin bends in 2^nd gear. I have to change to 1^st gear in couple of hairpin as the vehicle in front of me has slowed down.

It took nearly 30 to 35 mins to cross all the hairpin bends (incluidng 10 mins break at one of the hairpin bends). Finally, I managed to reach Ooty by 1:45 PM and after calling the hotel for directions, reached the hotel at 1:55 PM.

I have reached the Hotel Meadows residency at exactly 1:55 PM. I was told there that they do not have any free rooms and they have made a booking for me in another hotel called Ponmari Residency. It was about half a km from the meadows to Ponmari. One of the person in Meadows guided me to the hotel and help me out there.

I was shown two rooms – one with rent 1850 + tax and other with rent 1500 + tax. The difference between the two rooms is the bath tub in the bathroom. So, I have decided to go for the room with rent 1500.

After dumping my luggage into the room, we got refreshed. My watch shows the time as 2:45 PM. One problem with this hotel is that it does not have 24 hrs running hot water. Hot water will be available in the taps only in the morning. If needed on other times, they will do a bucket service.

We have ordered couple of briyani and it is served in 15 mins. After completing our lunch, We have decided to take a little nap. Time is 3:30 by then. My kid and wife has extended the sleep and we were ready only by 6 PM. So, decided against visiting any spots and gone to charring cross for shopping.

It is difficult to find parking even during offseason and some how managed to get one after about 5 mins of search. Walked all along the charring cross for one and half hour (carrying my kid).

At 7:30 PM, we have decided to walk to Hotel Nahar to have the dinner. I have read lot of reviews about the hotel and as said in all reviews, the food is good. There are only few waiters in the hotel and it took almost 15 mins to serve water. Food is very costly. We took few dosas. We have completed our dinner by 9:00 PM and started walking towards the car.

Time shows 10:00 PM when we reached the hotel. After watching TV for an hour, I went to bed at 11:00 PM and by that time, my wife and kid were already in their midnights. Day 1 completed and the tripmeter reading shows 271 Kms.

Day 2 – 21^st June :

We are off schedule straight away as the cold weather extended our sleep by an hour. After getting ready, I booked a indica cab for our trip to Doddabetta and Coonoor through the hotel travel desk. I have negotiated the rate to Rs 900/- for the entire trip. We rushed up and boarded the cab by 9:45 AM.

Cabbie drove it straight to Doddabetta in half an hour. The day was sunny and we had a good time around taking photographs. It is difficult for me to walk uphill carrying my kid, somehow managed.

After spending about an hour, boarded the cab again and headed towards a Tea Factory. It is good time there in tea factory looking at various processes followed in making the tea powder. After going through the factory, we were given a complementary tea. We purchased some tea packets for my parents and in-laws. After taking about 10 mins rest, we proceeded towards Coonoor at 12:30 PM. Cabbie knows lot of short cuts and in another 10 mins, he reached the Coonoor road.

While travelling on the coonoor road, we could see lot of good valley view. Clicked few photos on the valley views and proceeded towards Coonoor. The road towards Coonoor is good and very well maintained though there are lot of turns and blind curves.

We were travelling for an hour and the route to Coonoor is via the military area. Road inside the military area is good and very well maintained. We reached tea garden and it is owned by yesteryear bollywood actress Mumtaz (as per my cabbie). It spreads across acres. We got a closure look of the tea plant and leaves. There is also a factory outlet for the tea powder. I bought ome green tea leaves. It is very costly - 1kg Rs 900. After taking photographs, we started our travel towards the view points. The road inside the tea gardens and towards view points are good but very narrow.

After driving for about 20 mins, we reached the view point entrance at 2:10 PM. It is the entry to the view point and we need to walk another 10 or 15 mins to get the various views. We were already tired and my wife is scared of monkeys. Since it is monkeys all around, my wife decided not to go for the view points. After spending about 30 mins in the entrance, we decided to walk back to the car.

We got a packet of cherry and started walking towards the cab which is around 50 feets away. We are the only two people on the road. After seeing the packets in our hands, a group of monkeys surrounded us and started to show their ugly faces. We feared of attack and I have thrown the cherry packet to a distance on the hills. When they ran for the packet, we managed get inside the car. It is a scary experience.

It is already 2:30 PM and our stomach started ringing bell. Our cabbie stopped at a restaurant in Coonoor for lunch. The restaurant name is Orchid square and the food quality is not so good. Since we are hungry, taken some briyani and curd rice.

After driving for about 15 mins, we reached SIMS park. The park is good and we spend about an hour in the park. As we have walked a lot already, we sat at one of the park bench for some time and returned back.

Our plan is to leave Ooty by Monday morning (max 11 AM). But we thought that it is not possible to do any more sight seeing on that day and hence decided to extent the stay by a day. Completed the SIM’s Park at around 5 PM and started our travel towards Ooty. I asked my cabbie to help me in getting the home made chocolates. He took me to a super market and I have purchased around half a kg chocolate for my family and friends.

We ended the day’s trip and we were in the hotel at 6:30 PM. My son started playing in the bed after a hectic day of travel. I glued to the TV on the T20 international final between Pakistan and Srilanka. I have gone to bed after seeing Afridi hitting the winning run. Day 2 ended with the same tripmeter reading in my car. It is complete day rest for my car in the cold weather.

Day 3 – 22^nd June :

Plan today is to see all the sights in Ooty and have some plan of shopping too. We are ready by 10:30 AM and we started our walk towards Botanical Garden. It is just behind the hotel. After walking for about 10 mins, we reached the entrance of the botanical garden. The climate is cool and sunny. After taking some 10 mins rest on the grass, started walking around the park clicking pictures.

After walking around the garden for 2 hours, we walked into the shops just opposite the garden. Purchased some clothes and started walking back to our hotel. My watch shows 2:00 PM when we were in hotel. After refreshing ourselves, we walked down to the restaurant and had some good south indian thali.

My car ignited after about 40 hours of rest. We started our travel towards Rose garden and after few direction enquiries, reached the garden at 3:20 PM. There were no crowd and we have walked around the garden. Though there are not many varieties of rose, we took photographs of the available roses.

We started towards Lake at around 4 PM from the rose garden. After few direction enquiries, reached the boat house. The kid is only 10 months old and he is naughty too. So, decided against boating. We were sitting and watching the people boating in the lake.

After spending half an hour in the lake, we have decided to walk out. When we were at the exit, we have seen a sign board “Mini Train”. We have decided to experience it. It is a small train which runs along the lake for about 5 mins. Ticket for adult is Rs 10. Taken the ride and when we are back at the car, time is 5:45 PM.

After an hour shopping at Charring Cross, reached the hotel room at 7:15 PM. As we could not do the packing, we have decided to do it next day. I have called one of my colleague to inform that the plan got delayed by a day.

After watching TV for some time, we went to bed at 10 PM. Entire day we carried our kid in stroller and it helped us a lot. Day 3 ended happily with my car running for mere 16 kms. Tripmeter reading at the end of the day is 286.

Day 4 – 23^rd June:

Plan is to leave as early as possible and the drive is through Gudalur covering other sights on the way. We got up at 7:30 AM and started packing our things. After having our breakfast, we are ready to leave by 9:30 AM. I called up the hotel reception and informed them at 8:30 AM that I will be vacating by 9:30 PM. But the bill is not ready at 9:30 PM. When they got the bill ready, there is some typo in the bill (Rs 357 is entered as Rs 3577). After few shouts within themselves, they have given the final bill. Paid the bill and loaded my car with our luggages. When we start our return journey, my car clock shows the time as 10:50 AM. I informed my parents over phone that we are starting our return journey.

After filling up petrol for Rs 500, started our travel towards Gudalur. I drove for 20 mins in the Gudalur road and found vehicles parked on the road side. Having heard from people in the hotel, I have confirmed it as Pine forest. Stopped to take photographs and my wife’s friend waiting outside. So, she decided against getting down from the car. I have taken few photographs and I could also see the river running at a distance from the spot. We have to go downhill for a closure look. We have decided against going downhill and continued our journey. In another 2 or 3 mins travel, we got to see a small dam on the road side. It is Kamaraj sagar dam (not sure about the name). No crowds, just seen it from the car and continued our travel.

After travelling for another 20 mins, we reached 8^th Mile. It is a good spot with lot of greeneries around. We have to walk uphill for around 10 minutes and then got the chance to look at the various views around the location. It was good view from there but walking uphill is tiresome.

After spending some 20 mins on the spot, we continued our journey towards Pykara falls. Road to Gudalur is good and also very well maintained. But the road has lot of blind turns and since it is also downhill, caution needed while driving.

We reached Pykara by 12:30 PM and after parking our car, we have to walk for about 15 mins to reach the falls. The view and the water in the falls were good. We enjoyed it and our son especially observed the water sound keenly. After spending half an hour, we walked back to our car. Time for my son’s lunch and it took another 15 mins to get him ready. We decided not to go to Pykara boathouse as we are behind the schedule already. So, we decided to complete our sightseeing and started our journey towards Gudalur, our next place for lunch.

It is the same road for another one hour. We reached Gudalur at around 2:30 PM. Since my kid is sleeping in his seat, we decided to take parcel. I and my wife had our lunch in the car. After lunch, I started to drive towards Mudumalai. Time - 3:00 PM.

Within few minutes of drive, we entered the thick and dense Mudumalai forest. The travel inside Mudumalai was pleasant and the climate was also good. I drove at a constant speed of 60 kmph throughout the forest.

My wife suddenly screamed and said that she has spotted a deer on the road side. I could not reverse as I have travelled few meters. That was the first wild life we have seen in the forest. I slowed a bit and little curious to see some other wildlife. I constantly watched the road sides to make sure that I won’t miss again. Forest road inside Mudumalai is good and the climate is pleasant to drive inside the forest.

At around 3:35 PM, I could see a huge black figure on the right side of the road. I alarmed my wife and my wife is ready with the camera. Yes, it is a wild elephant and it is grazing just 10 feets from the road. A jeep is standing right opposite to the elephant. I just overtook the jeep and parked my car on the left side. My wife clicked a photo of the giant creature through the rear windshield.

A group of monkeys were on the road exactly after 10 mins of encountering the elephant. It gave way only when the car is close to them. Another few mins of travel, I have completed the Mudumalai section and into the Karnataka state limits (Bandipur forest).

Road inside Bandipur is also good and I maintained the same speed throughout the forest.

After driving for about 15 mins, we have encountered a bunch of spotted deers on the right side of the road. There were grazing and moving at the same time. My wife clicked few photos of the deer crowd.

At around 4:30 PM, we completed all the forest road and reached the Hotel Bandipur Plaza. After refreshment, we had a cup of tea. We started to move from there in 10 mins. Straight away, I am into the bad road stretch kms towards Gundlupet. It took nearly 30 mins for me to drive on the road. Finally, reached Gundlupet at around 5 PM.

It is good road after Gundlupet and I maintained 100 km/hr throughout the stretch. It took nearly an hour and quarter for reaching Mysore from Gundlupet in decent speed. Reached Mysore at around 6:15 PM and drove straight into Kamat Madhuvan for evening Tiffin.

After having tiffin, we started from Kamat Madhuvan at 7 PM. I drove on the straight road towards palace and reached the main road towards Bangalore in another 15 mins.

I got a chance to use my headlamps which I upgraded it recently from stock bulbs to 100/90 bulbs. It is worth and I got a good view of the road. The light throw is also good. I am able to maintain speed of 100 km/hr and am watchful of the speed breakers. I am able to see all the speed breakers at good distance. I was about to miss one but with the good throw of the light from the headlamps, I found it around 50 feet ahead and brought my vehicle to halt from 100 kmph before hitting the breakers. Other than that, it is quite a wonderful night travel on the Bangalore-Mysore road.

There were lot of lorry traffic on this stretch. I tailgated one indica cab whose was doing the same speed as me and reached the Banshankari right turn at around 9:30 PM. After few direction queries, I reached home safely by 10:20 PM.

It is wonderful drive throughout the day first along the ghats, then along the forest, then a bad road stretch and then good roads towards Bangalore. After offloading the vehicle, noted down my trip meters. B said 301 kms (only return journey) and A said 587 kms (total journey). Odometer reading is 18371 at the end of the trip. It is incident free trip of about 590 kms with my kid and wife. We enjoyed each and every bit of the trip.

Feedback on the hotel :

Pros :

· Close to charring cross and Botancial Garden

· Spacious room and Bathroom

· Prompt room service and house keeping

Cons :

· No 24 hrs running hot water