Runaway to the Woods - Day 2

Pykara and Mudumalai National Park

On the second day, our destination was Mudumalai National Park. But we chose to cover some of the tourist spots on the way too. There are two ways to reach there; one via the beautiful downhill road with dangerous hairpin bends to Masinagudi and the other not so dangerous but a long way through Gudalur. The Pykara falls and the lake lies on the Gudalur way and so started first in that direction.

On the way, we first reach the Hindustan Photo Films Mfg. Co. Ltd. The products manufactured here are sold in the brand name of 'Indu' which means 'Silver' in Sankrit. Once this company was the proud of Ooty but now it is running in total loss and many VRS packages are announced to the employees so that the government can shut it down as soon as possible. The local people feel that the governments lack of interest to update technology and some of the politician's greediness to swallow this vast property resulted in this slow death of the company. When you move further, you can see all the housing quarters and other buildings of HPF turning into ruins.

  Then comes the Cinema Shooting spot; where the all actors of the southern Indian movies are dancing on the grass hills in the name of duets since the time of MGR, Sivaji, etc. As we have seen this place many times both in real and on the screen, we moved to the next place. The next one in the Pine Forest, which is also a cinema shooting place used by the young heroes now. For example, the 'Paiya' song sequence was shot here. We skipped this place also and moved to the next.

Next comes the Pykara lake and the falls. We decided to visit the falls first. To visit the falls, you have to park your vehicle on side of the road and go on a short walk on a hill up and down. The falls is not huge and more like a natural checkdam but very beautiful.


After the falls we made a U turn and returned to the Pykara lake Boat house. There is a toll for the short road from the main road to the boat house and I have seen better roads than these even inside the deep forests of Ooty. In Pykara, all type of boating are available including speed boating. Since my parents are afraid of the word 'speed', we went on the motor boat seating 8 persons sharing with a malayali family.


After the boat ride, we returned to the Masinagudi road since it is a short route to Mudumalai and in better condition than the Gudalur road. But it is very dangerous with many hairpin bends and our driver said that the police mostly allow only the local vehicles through this road.

We reached Masinagudi at midday and decided to finish our lunch here. Since this is the main route to Mysore from Ooty, and It passes through two National Parks, Mudumalai and Bandipur. Masinagudi has some moderate hotels and I had my usual sunday lunch - briyani (could get only kerala style) here. FYI, Masinagudi also has a CCD.

Mudumalai has been in my checklist for a long time. Even though I have went to through this route to Mysore a couple of times before, I didn't get to see it. When my father was working in Ooty, once my parents came here with some special guests for a night safari, and keep boasting about it whenever I mention the name. So visiting Mudumalai and seeing wild elephants and a tiger moved to my top priority list.

We reached on time for the first afternoon safari. I thought it has better chance of seeing the wild animals since those were not disturbed by any safari vehicle's noise for a few hours. As usual I could not see any animals on the way to Reception Centre, and the board there saying Sighting wild animals is just a matter of luck also didd't help to lift up my spirit.

The safari route was shorter than I thought and a great disappointment for me. The vehicle went on the Mysore route for a short time and took a left turn and went on half circle around the reception center and reached the center from its back. There are many artificial ponds along the path for the animals but most of them were dry and just mud with elephants footmarks. All we could see was many spotted deers and Indian bisons called Gaurs. The only elephant I saw through this safari is the one was a kumki elephant that was tied near the safari van parking shed.



After this very disappointing safari we returned to Ooty and reached home for dinner. Even though I want to blame the Forest Department for having bad safaris like this, I know that it is not entirely their fault too. First, the time I chose to go for the safari is a bad one. Even wild elephants need their afternoon nap. Second, As I expressed in the blogpost about Bannerghatta National Park, when you don't want to see the animals outside captive and in a vast area, you should also be ready to meet disappointments like this.

But the forest department also can do a better job by maintaining the ponds, taking a longer route for the safari and having some resorts like Karantaka is doing in Bandipur. So the final verdict is, if you go in early morning or later evening and have a great amount of luck then you can some exciting animals here and Mudumalai will be a worth trip for you.

Runaway To The Woods - Day 1

This trip was done in the last week of August  2014, and I started writing this blogpost in November. Finally it made out of my drafts in January 2015. 

Ooty is the backyard of Coimbatore. As a resident of Coimbatore, my visits to Ooty should have crossed a dozen by now. But unfortunately it hasn't happened yet. I should have gone there whenever I need some fresh air or a cup of fresh tea in the chilled weather or just when to kill my boredom in the weekends. But, till now every visit of my Ooty is just like a typical tourist who comes once in a year and just tries to cover most of the common places within a weekend. Unfortunately this time also I couldn't change this jinx. But every time Ooty looks new to me and the new addition of my Sony RX100 II to this trip made me feel like a first time visitor; so no complaints.

Why this sudden visit and the reason behind this title ? Last week I had an important test for my dream job. But in the last minute I got freaked out and felt like Short Term Memory 'Ghajini'. So I made a quick plan on Friday evening and told my parents that I want to go to Ooty. The one thing in my parents are more lazy than me is in making travel plans. So after a lot of (useless) discussion, around late morning, my father decided that we will take the bus to Ooty and not the car.  

So after a slow and steady climbing on a government bus, we reached Ooty around 2.30 pm. Since my father worked there for an year, he knew the city and some persons there. We got down in Charring Cross and booked a room in Meadows Residency. 

After a quick lunch in the Oven (the hotel's restaurant and aptly named for its space I think), our first place in the check list was Doddabetta. The light drizzle and the clouds made this, one of my best visits here.

On the way to Doddapetta peak lies the tea museum. The entrance fee is minimal and you can get hot tea as complimentary inside. Also you can see the tea manufacturing stages and get all kind of products manufactured in Ooty here.

From the factory, you can see the Government Arts and Science College of Ooty (Where my dad worked for an year) and Ooty Stone House, which was used as residential place for the principals and soon to be converted as a museum. The Stone house was the first bungalow to be built in Ooty and it was built by John Sullivan, the founder of Ooty. The tree in front of the bungalow is named as Sullivan's Oak in his remembrance.

Back View of Stone House from the Tea Factory

Our next stop was the most crowded tourist attraction of Ooty; the Ooty Botanical Garden. Since the main objective of this trip is to get most out of my new camera, I tried to take as many pictures I can with whatever I know with my camera. It was more like the rumination process of a cattle and somehow I got a few fair pictures in it.

When we came out of the Botanical Garden it was nearly 6 pm, and closing time for the Rose Garden. But using the influence of a former professor of local government college, we gained the permit to go inside (The security's sister studied in the same college). Since this was a off season we could only see a few Roses and most were just buds or already died. The really unique varieties here are Black Rose and Green Rose, which are placed just adjacent to the entrance. I forgot how many total varieties are in the garden but it was definitely more than a hundred. And they are planning to expand the garden further more.


After finishing the Rose Garden we went to the Ooty Lake just for a small walk and a foursquare checkin. With that, the first day of Usual Ooty visit came to an end. But I had high hopes for the second day since it has a place where I wanted to visit for a long time.