We went to ooty in June. I have to take certain number of vacations in Club Mahindra by this year end or they will lapse. That is one reason I took the membership, it forces you to take vacations. So this time it was Derby Green at Ooty.
We had very less expectation from this trip, Plan was to go through Bandipur, Masinagudi route and come back through Gudalur route. Last time we went through Bandipur while going to Vythiri, we did not spot a single animal so hopes were very low and had heard that oooty is a very commercial hill station, so expectation was low there too.
We started early morning from Bangalore at about 6am, soon hit the Mysore road through Niceroad. We were at Mysore at about 8:30AM after stopping for breakfast. After mysore there was traffic till Nanjanagud and then we were quickly in gundlupet.
This time luckily we found some deer. There was an Indica taxi whose driver seemed to be an expert at spotting the animals. We just followed him and spotted elephants and deer. The forest was lush green and the roads were great.
We reached ooty by 10:30 -11:00 through Masinagudi route. This is one great drive with 32 steep hairpin bends.We checked in the Derby green which was really good, remember our expectation was low.
In the evening we went to Botanical gardens. We walked around the beautiful trees and manicured flower gardens. I started feeling mild headache. This happens to me in most of the trips.
The reason mostly is that I would not have slept properly on the previous night because of the excitement of long drive. Add to that I am a foody, generally I overeat and get sick on trips. Nowadays I have understood this and generally take care but I still need to watchout.
So after walking for some time I sat on a bench. Saanvi and Archana wanted to cover other part of the garden which I refused. I sat with Ishaan and they roamed around and returned.
Ishaan had got free space to run around and he kept running, falling, getting up, running aimlessly falling again.
We then went to Rose Garden and it started Raining. Archana and Saanvi took the umbrella and went to see Rose garden.
I sat with Ishaan in the car. durrrrr durrrrr.
Rain had stopped by now and we proceeded to ooty lake for a boat ride.
This time we wanted to take a boat ride as we missed it in vythiri, pokoot lake. I did not want to paddle so option is to take a 10 seater boat. We waited for some time and another family came and we shared the ride. Lake and surrounding was beautiful with mist playing its part.
It was pretty cold out there. Ishaan and Saanvi had refused wear sweaters and left them in the car. Now they were shivering. You can see Ishaan in Archanas shawl and saanvi in a bedsheet :).
We went back to Derby green after the boat ride. I quickly had my dinner + nice tablet and crashed. Plan for next day was to take the train ride from ooty to conoor, visit some tea estates (drive around ooty)and visit to my friend Maj.Puttanagoudas house.
I got up early completely refreshed. Had heavy breakfast again :). I like breakfast buffets at Club Mahindra.
View of the ooty racecource from the hotel. Thats is why it is called Derby Green.
Went to the station by 9:45, but there was already a long queue for 10:00 train. So we decided to return and try for 12:00 PM train.
We returned by 11:30 parked the car, and got the tickets. So 30 mins in advance is enough. One thing about the seating in the train, while going from ooty to conoor you should be sitting on the right side window while facing in the direction of train movement
Most of the views will be here as you will be looking at the valley. while on the other widow you will not see much. While the co-passengers were coperative we exchanged places couple of times. Some of the views were excellent and we all enjoyed the train journey to conoor.
From conoor we took taxi back to ooty. Had our lunch, took some rest and went in search of tea estates and views. After crossing wellington we toook a detour in a small road as suggested by a villager. We encountered some of the most beautiful views. It was now becoming dark and I got a call from Maj.Puttanagouda to come home. We went to Wellington. I think it is armed forces training center. We were waiting at some distance from the front gate for him to come and take us. A squad of army jawans passed by. Saanvi suddenly said "look pappa terrorists". This is what she sees in TV, terrorists. Where do they/we educate our kids about army and the good things. Shame on me, I need to educate her on our Army. We had pretty good time and super dinner at puttus house. He used to call me as Inzamam(cricketer) at school, that is because of my size as well as I belonged to Adilshahi house. We left reached resort late in the evening.
Since we had reached in 4.5 - 5 hours while coming to ooty, we thought we will leave at around 10:30 after breakfast, no need to hurry. This time we were planning to return via gudalur route. While having breakfast Archana saw a arts and crafts shop. She spent(wasted) some time there and by the time we left it was 11:30.
Gudalur route is pretty scenic. There are no steep hairpin bends, lots of tea estates, tall Nilgiri trees greeted us.
Weather was pretty good today. I drove slowly, stopping at many places to take snaps.
Opened the sunroof to let the pleasnt sun in. We were again hungry after crossing gudalur, driving to mysore for lunch would be too late. Near Gundlupet we saw "pug mark" jungle ladges and resorts restaurant. It was almost closing time, but we were in and had a great lunch.
I changed the plan to return via chamarajnagar, kollegal, kanakpura to Bangalore. I had heard this road, although not 4 laned, but pretty good. Also I had the GPS so no fear of getting lost.
This way I wanted to avoid racing with Maniacs on Mysore - Bangalore road. This road was good for most part of it, there were a few places road is narrow and enters towns/ villages. I would recommend this road to anyone going to ooty/vythiri etc. We reached Bangalore before sunset.
Bangalore welcomed us with its traffic and noise. Totally it was a great trip, although most of the mountains in ooty are covered with small homes, and you rarely see untouched nature.
Ooty is a great hill station. We will go there again, probably in a couple of years.
