Plan: I had been planning a trip to Ooty since long time but most of the time either it would be too much work at office or will be occupied in other things. This time again I wanted to go out for Reena’s (wife) birthday and had shortlisted few locations. One of them of course was Bandipur :). Then suddenly it prompted to my mind that why not Ooty. It would be good to visit Ooty during summer and celebrate her birthday too. I started working on plan for a trip from Bangalore to Ooty by car. As Ooty is around 300 kms from Bangalore, it was better to drive in own car rather than going through tour and travel companies. It also provided us flexibility to stop whenever we wanted with absolute privacy.
Travel from Bangalore to Ooty: The road between Bangalore and Ooty is mostly good to excellent. We took Bangalore -> Mysore -> Bandipur -> Mudumalai -> via Hill road to Ooty. There is another way also which goes through National Highway# 67. More on highway road later. We started at 7 am from Bangalore and finally reached Ooty around 2.45 pm with multiple stops at McDonald, Coffee Day, Local dhabas and just to relax at Bandipur National Park reception. Generally I drive fast during journey but this time we decided to go slow and enjoy the journey because Ooty wasn’t too far away. One of the interesting point for me was traveling through Bandipur National Park. I always love being there and it has never disappointed me. Some or other wild animal will pop up next to road while I travel through it. May be it’s just a co-incidence but I enjoy this co-incidence and treat it as good luck. This time also we saw pack of deer(you see them all the time as they stay close to park reception), an elephant grazing just next to road and a Sambar deer. The hill road has a total of 36 hair pin bends and it is fun navigating through them. The bad part is there is no proper place to stop the car in between. This is needed as the scene below is nice and it would have been better if people could stop and enjoy the panoramic view it has to offer.
Accommodation: I had been to Ooty in 2003 and one of the hotel which had caught my attention was Hotel Lakeview. Although we did not get accommodation then, I decided to give it a try this time. I did booking in advance. The booking procedure is cumbersome as you need to deposit money in their HDFC account (you can do online transfer too) and then need to fax counterfoil for reservation confirmation. After too many e-mail exchanges the lady on other side settled with scanned copy of counter foil. The hotel is situated just next to lake and is very good value for money. They offer cottages (consisting of one bedroom, living cum dining room & a bathroom) at much cheaper rates than you get a room somewhere else. The place is clean and food in restaurant is also good. I was not in mood to drink for a change but I suspect they don’t serve liquor in hotel. You will have to bring your own.
Places of Interest: This is the toughest part to choose in Ooty. There are few local attractions like botanical garden, Lake, Doddabetta peak but the best part is visiting Coonoor. Since I went their during peak season, the toy train between Ooty and Coonoor was absolutely packed. This forced me to take my car to visit Coonoor. Tea plantations of Coonoor are something exciting to see.
Lush green expanse with few people working here and there among the plantations is worth seeing. One can also buy different varieties of tea from the shops selling there.
Return from Ooty to Bangalore: We had decided to come back to Bangalore by same route we had reached Ooty. But destiny had something else for us and my mistake we took NH67 route from Ooty. After traveling for almost 4-5 kms we realized this wasn’t the way we had come to Ooty. But we also knew this road will take us to Bangalore as signboards were reading distance to Mysore. I stopped the car on roadside and then within a minute of discussion we thought lets explore this route. And we realized later what a nice decision it was. The view and drive through NH67 between Ooty and Gudalur is awesome. Immediately after around 9 kms from Ooty there is a shooting point. I guess it’s a part of western catchment because I could see hills filled with grass and very few trees. I have heard about western catchment area between Ooty and Kerala but have never been there.
Once we crossed this, the road started taking us through tea plantations and small reservoirs alongside the road. The scene was amazing. The weather was comfortable. We started stopping more alongside the road than driving.
After we traveled through those scenic views, we thought all good things are over but just to our surprise we entered into pine forest area. The long and majestic pine trees dwarf the vehicle and road. Suddenly we started feeling that we are in different part of world.
The pine tree forest accompanied us for few kilometers and then we reached Gudalur. After Gudalur, the road enters into Mudumalai wild life sanctuary. We were talking about all the scenic views we had just crossed and all of a sudden we had to stop. The reason? A tuskar standing just next to road and feeding merrily. I stopped there but it wasn’t willing to go anywhere. So I made the decision to cross the road but not without doing anything :). I had Sigma 10-20 wide angle lens mounted on my camera and this is what was needed to click an elephant from so close. I started driving slowly towards the elephant and clicking photographs. It seemed to be fine posing for pictures and did not create a fuss.
Comparison with Kodaikanal: OK, I am including this because sometime back I had published trip report to Kodaikanal. I personally like Kodaikanal more because it is less polluted, less populated, less commercialized and overall a better place. Ooty is quite bigger than Kodaikanal, so it has lot of rush and everywhere I saw people running around. This is the last thing I want to see during holidays as I can see those things everyday in Bangalore. Ooty lake has lot of big motor boats operating, which create big waves and disturbance for somebody hiring two seater pedal boats. There is no quiet place in Ooty (at least I did not find one) where you can sit and just enjoy the nature, which is in abundance in Kodaikanal.
Ashu ….. Nice topic. The photo with the lake is super…
I think u r really missing a D5000 🙂
Regds
Vijoy
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Hi..! I planned to visit ooty for a week. Can anyone Get best travel deals on ooty tour packages.
[…] Trip Report – Ooty May 2010 3 comments 3 […]
Ooty has been spoilt because of its crowd. this is just the city….. but u do have places like western catchment, ladki lake, upper bhavani, glenmorgan… and a lot of other areas in ooty which is excellent when compared to kodaikanal.
thanks for sharing your experience. ooty is a small heaven in south india. i have been there once only and fortunately got a chance to explore some of the best places to visit in ooty . it was totally amazing.
such a nice place