Advertisement
Published: November 20th 2015
Edit Blog Post
Ooty- A well known hill station and a dream destination of many, including me. Being in a close place like Coimbatore, I was waiting for the day to visit Ooty.
The day came as an Easter Bonanza when we had a meeting there. I tailored a 3 day plan to Ooty, admitting 5 other colleagues. We made the booking of hotels, cabs and etc.
On the day, we all gathered together at Gandhipuram Bus stand from where our cab driver took us. It was 6 in the morning; we drove through Kurumbapalayam, Karamadai to reach Mettupalayam. Here, we had our breakfast. Then, off to the paradise of hills.
The route from Mettupalayam to Ooty is very scenic though curvy roads hit you and make you feel sick. The driver gave a ‘matured’ ride to us. The windy roads, the drizzles, the sun that playing hiding behind the clouds most of the time, the green environment, the fresh and chill air all together make your ride an amazing one. You may have clogged ears due to pressure of air and cold as you drive upwards. There are many hair pin bends throughout the way that make your drive wavier.
Around half past 8 we reached Coonoor. It was chillier than Mettupalayam. Some of the place covered with mist. We drove straight to Ooty, to attend the meeting at 10.
The clock struck 1, when we came out of the meeting hall. Now, we had the half day and other 2 whole days for Ooty. We drove to our hotel and dumped our luggage in our respective rooms.
Now, time to explore Ooty.
Our first destination was Ooty Rose garden. After buying the tickets, we hopped in the garden. The garden was full of roses. Roses of many colours, a treat to eyes. Some of the roses were very big, to our surprise. Most of roses were getting brown and dried due to the cold weather. There were some photographers who mocked the people for the photographs.
Then, we drove to Ooty Lake for some boating. The place was near and took just 10 minutes to reach. There was so much crowd and we struggled to park our vehicle. Somehow, after the parking, we bought tickets for us and the camera. We went in. There was another ticket counter for the boating. We took tickets
for motor boat that costed us Rs. 450.
We boarded the boat and off to go with the aisle of the trees at the both sides. We saw some ducks playing the water. The climate was chill and the ride made it more chilly. A windy ride it was. The ride was of 20 minutes, after which we came out to have some snacks to warm ourselves. We all grabbed coffee and hot chocolate each and walked though the bank. There were many attractions and games for children and adult. There was also a mini toy train which goes along the lake, a major attraction for the kids. After some time we came out to see the horses that were available for riding. They charged Rs.200 for half an hour which seemed costlier to us, so we dropped the plan of horse riding. The temperature started dropping so we ran back to our hotel. On way we stopped at a local Chai wala.. He offered us Varkees to taste. God.. that was the delicious snack complementing the tea. We ordered for more and bought 2 kgs of varkees atleast each for home.
Our next day tour plan started
with Government Botanical Garden. We wanted to give this place more time. The botanical garden established in a huge area that covered all types of flora you can name. There were exotic kind of plants and trees. Huge trees will bring your mouth wide open. Some of the plants dates back to years and grab special attention in the garden. At one side of the garden, there were topiaries of the many shapes that become the photo shoot destination. There’s also a sales outlet where saplings were sold. There was a big sitting lawn, but was wet due to drizzling. We didn’t sit though we wanted to. Still some people were sitting and kids were playing on that. We came out.
After that we drove towards Doddabetta peak. The way became steep as we climbed up. There were large eucalyptus trees at either sides of the road. The fragrance of the eucalyptus filled the air.
On the way we stopped at Doddabetta Tea factory. The tea factory was built in the midst of the Nilgiri hills. We walked up to reach the factory. Once we are inside, we could feel the warmth of the running machines. First we
saw the leaves were getting filtered on a long steel bed. It is then, dropped down to the rollers to get rolled, fermented and then fried. The noise and the fragrance of the rollers and tea filled the place. It is amazing to see how the tea has been processed from tender leaves to a matured, fermented quality tea powder. There is section where the roasted leaves are separated to add flavours. They use many flavours like, elaichi, chocolate, ginger, masala (spices), etc. Then, at the end everyone is offered free tea for tasting. The tea gave refreshment out the tiredness due to cold. After the tea, we came out to move into the chocolate making section. We bought some chocolates and then, few eucalyptus oil (Nilgiri Oil) from a sales outlet.
The next stop was Doddabetta peak. We parked our vehicle at the base and walked up to the view point. The walk was little tiring. The peak was worth seeing. The whole place was covered with mist. We were kind of shivering. We walked to the point and the tip of the sight. There was deep valley in front of us that was covered with mist all
mist. We couldn’t see anything other than the white mist. There was a telescope tower but was not in use, as we could not see anything clearly.
We were literally shivering now so, climbed down straight to our hotel. We had our brunch and then drove towards Pykara falls. The route was very scenic and cold. First we reached the lake. The view of the lake was very good. It was calm and flowed smoothly. We sat there for some time to enjoy the nature. Some were into boating. After spending some relaxing and peaceful time at the lake we came to the falls with a few minutes’ walk. The waters were dropping itself with a big roar. It was breathtaking and our heart skipped a beat. The roar of waters filled our ears. It was amazing. Spending our quality time there, we moved back to our hotel.
The next morning, we checked out after the breakfast and drove to Coonoor (that was missed while coming).
The first thing we did was to visit the Dolphin’s nose point, because we heard we could see Catherine falls from here. So, we reached the place. To our relief, there was a clear sky. We saw the torrent of Catherine falls. It looked beautiful. It deserved lot of clicks from our cam.
Then we moved to SIMS Park. This was the small version of Ooty Botanical Garden as there was wide range of Fauna. We went through all the sky long trees and exotic plants there. There were some beautiful flower plants and the crotons. There I saw a tree which has turned into a rock and also a Rudraksha tree among the various trees. It was quite a big park, with three levels of steps. At the bottom, there was a lake with boating facility.
After spending an hour there, we moved out to drive back to Coimbatore.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.067s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 6; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0423s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb