OOTY - a Queen of Hills

OOTY Trip Details  (08 to 09 -Oct-2011) 2 days trip:

First Day :

As we went by bike , started 5 :15 AM from BTM.. it took around 7 hours  for us and we reached there around 12:15 pm J

After that we searched for the hotels , caught one local guy , gave same money to him and got the nice/cheap hotel finally around 12:45.It costs us around 1300/- per day as were 6 people, shared accordingly.

After getting fresh and all, we had our lunch around 2-2:30 pm , there you can get non-veg aaram se & of good quality. But  for veggie people it was lil bit difficult .For the dinner we got one good hotel in the market only  and had nicely.:)

After lunch , we moved towards Lake for boat safaari  (this was nice experience as ooty is famous for this ) and there u will get some botanical gardens also that u can visit, your wish and

Also we visited Children’s train  ;) , it was much Fun for us.

Then we started around 4:00pm towards Doddabetta peak, It is the highest point in the district, It is merely 10km from Ooty. There we spent our evening had coffee and came back to the citya.

It was around 6:30pm and the  Ooty was in its full form i.e. was chilling like anything our hands was getting frozen. Then one of  my friend suggested that we should sit in some close place now. Like this we cant roam.

Then we got into one CCD and had burgers n all.:) we spend lil time ova there and finally via market (doing some shopping) we came back to our room as we were very tired also after riding this much Kms bike.

Second Day :

We woke up early in the morning and the best part was we got warm water to take bath in the Hotel itself, but it was after 7 am.  Some of my friends got up so early and they thought warm water wont be there and they have taken bath like that...:P:P

Then we had our breakfast idali saambhar at some nearby hotel around 8’O clock .(for this 2 of our friend went out and searched in the morning itself) and again we started moving towards Coonoor (17Kms from Ooty) . On d way we clicked some good scenes and in some places air was chilling in a day time itself.:O

There we visited Sims Park (Coonoor)  but it was not that much good, we can go to Lal bagh here in Bangalore far better. But before that Sims park, you can visit  Madras Regimental Center , its worth place to see.

On d way itself u can see all the Batalian Force, our India Logo/Flag and all. It is just and outer view u cant go inside but worth to watch.

Then if still you guys have time , u can visit Echo Rock, shooting point and Dolphin's Nose in Coonoor only.

And Finally while returning back there is 2 Mysore road, there you have to be very careful in choosing the road as in one road you will get  Pykara Falls  but on the other road you will get 36 HAIR PIN Bend Curve (this was awesome Faadu road curves, i.e.  breathstopping curve  ) and won’t get that falls. So, there you ask some traffic police and then proceed.

In the falls, nothing is there just lil bit sight scenes, so if you have leisure time only then i would suggest you guys to go there else don’t go.

While returning to Bangalore , you try  to cover 2 Bandipur and Mudumalai forest  in a daY time itself. (safe side).

Some more Info about the way to OotY:

Ooty is 284 km from Bangalore by road. The journey takes about 8 hours by 4 wheeler n above, depending on the condition of the road. You can take a shorter route for which a diversion has to be taken at Mudumalai wildlife sanctuary. This route will take you past the small towns of Masinagudi and Kalhatti. This route will curtail the distance to Ooty by about 50 km. Keep in mind that this road is closed at night as it passes through the jungle, so you may actually have to spend a few hours at the check post which is closed invariably at night. Only good drivers should take on this road as it is very narrow and steep.

You'll find some eateries and a fuel station in the town of Masinagudi. There are eating places between Bangalore and Mysore, and within Mysore, but from Mysore to Ooty one should carry some food, as there are very few restaurants. A small restaurant was there in  Gundlupet.

Start early if you can so that the drive through Bandipur and Mudumalai forest can be done leisurly taking in the occassional animal sightings.

Shiv GanGa

Its been a while since I did any trek near the 'betta's near Bengaluru coz last trek we did in december to 'SavanDurga', Ramnagar.

         Shiv Ganga is about 50-60 kms from Bangalore on the Tumkur highway. Its a one day trip. We started at around 8am from our Place (BTM, Bangalore) and reached Majestic-KSRTC bus stand, from there we got the bus for Dobbspete around 9:25am and we reached Dobbspete around 11am (in just 1.5 hours). The road was very nice and thanks to KSRTC bus who made their significant contribution to reach there in that much time.From Dobbspete it was still 6 kms and for that only 'auto' facillity was there. You need to bargain that auto fare and anyhow they would come to standard price 10rs. 

         aFter reaching there, we started climbing up, there were two temples oF "lord shiva" in the hill, one at the bottom of the hill and another at the peak. The first temple is about 100-150 steps and it was clearly constructed with a nice stone stairway, so it was not difficult to climb. That temple was carved inside the mountain as a cave.

                   Behind the temple was the way which leads to the top of the mountain, for first few meters the path was reasonably good, with stairs carved out of mountian and then as we climbed up the hill it got more steeper and no steps, you should use the stones lying there as stepping stones, it was pretty hard path but still you can make it.

                We had 'Bhel-puri' and 'Cold drink' at one small shop in the midway, the most dangerous thing in the Shiv ganga is not the steepness of the mountain, but it was the Monkeys over there, i was having a carrybag with my camera, suddenly one monkey jumped at me, i started running up the hill, then my friends there showed sticks to that monkey and i got rid of that, thank god I got saved. So it is advisable thing to you, better not to carry anything in your hand, have a back bag and put everything in that.

                 As we moved further the weather became so wonderful, and it started raining ovaa there.Again we stopped at some tea shop and had "Hot Hot Pakode with tea"(yummmyyy). It was amazing experience we had first time at the hill and you wont believe we clicked the photos also in that rain.:)

           aFter clickinG pictures n all we moved further then we saw the 2nd temple on the very high hiLL and the real trek starts now. I mean a very tough steep steps !! But track had Iron rods for our support. Now I can see steps where we cannot climb without the support of hands. As we climbed up, it became more and more difficult. I was damn tired but didn’t show that.

       Here comes the last trekking steps. A nanDi’s statue was carved on a rock top with steps to climb. We have done a lot till now and why should we hesitate for the last shot rite.?.

            Next attempt was climbing the top most rock on that hill as rock with Nandi is not the highest point. It was a piece of cake with no steepness. We spend around half an hour on the top around 3 PM.

             It was the toughest trek which I ever had in my whole life till now. At least we should do it once in a quarter to keep ourselves away from bad stamina and threat of heart attacks. This mother of all treks continued till the very end with a photo session break in between.

         Trekking down was very easy and fast compared to climbing up and then we returned to bengaluru.