The idea of an Ooty trip was abrupt, but unanimous. The plan was to leave Bangalore on 26th afternoon, halt overnight at Mysore, leave to Ooty early morning of 27th, spend 2 days there, and leave on 29th to Mettupalyam, and finally to Bangalore on the afternoon of the same day. Since it was the off-season, advance booking of hotel rooms were not necessary. The mode of travel was our car, as we felt the drive towards Ooty would be a very memorable one.

We left Bangalore at 2 26pm. Mysore road is mostly good (except for a few stretches were road-work was still going on). We reached Mysore at 5 30pm covering a distance of 148 kilometres, and unpacked our baggages at Hotel Siddhartha. We also paid a visit to Mysore Palace, and enjoyed the evening and the amazing light lit palace. 

The palace is open to visitors only until 6pm. The palace is lit up evenings and its really fascinating !! 

After a good sleep, we left towards Gopalaswamy Hills early at 6 20am. The roads were fairly alright except for a few bad stretches. The sun looked really beautiful, and we stopped for sometime at Nanjangud. We then moved on towards Gundlupet, where the roads were amazingly straight. About 15kms from Gundlupet are the Gopalaswamy Hills which we reached at 8 15am. Its about 90kms from Mysore.  

I guess we were the first visitors there that day, and the entire atmosphere was absolutely serene, and peaceful. A dog whom we named Narayana followed us wherever we went, and he enjoyed the bread crumbs we fed him.
 

We spent about an hour at Gopalaswamy Hills, and moved on towards Ooty. On the way, we passed through Bandipur forest area, and luckily came across some wild deers. It was a spectacular sight, we were in their territory, and we had to make the slightest possible noise to be able to catch them on camera. Although elephants and bisons too are known to be seen around the forest area, they are a rare sight, and we could not find any.

These brave deers posed for the camera, looking at a deer, by-chance in the wild is so different than looking at it in a zoo, or a safari 

About 19kms from Gopalaswamy Hills we reached a checkpost. About 4kms from the checkpost we came across a deviation. One of the routes is a longer one to Ooty (about 70kms). The other shorter one (about 40kms) passes through Masinagudi, and consists of 36 hairpin bends, and is also the most enjoyable one. It took almost an entire hour to cover the hairpin-bends and a distance of about 36kms. And of course, we got some lovely views on the way.
 

We reached Ooty at 12-15pm. Hotel Lake View was to be our place of accommodation, and we were provided with 2 lovely cottages. 

After some rest and lunch, we moved on to Ooty Lake. There were 3 kinds of boats available - pedal boats, rowing boats and ferries. We preferred the rowing boat, and although the rowing is done by a pro, he was kind enough to give us a chance to try out some rowing (needless to say, we failed miserably at it !!). The boating was only for 3o minutes.
The last objective of the day was to do some shopping at Charing Cross (much like our Commercial Street).  

The night was terribly cold, and any amount of clothing was not enough to prevent us from shivering.
We returned back to our cottage at about 10pm, lit the fire-place and enjoyed the warmth for about an hour

The moment all the twigs burned out, we ran and crouched behind the thick quilts, and slept like logs. I slept so peacefully, like it was a board exam !! 

The next morning (28th Jan), we moved on towards Doddabetta Peak. Its about 13kms from Ooty and is a vantage point for some really wonderful hills and valleys

The sea of clouds all over is so tempting, it makes you want to jump over cliffs just to float around !!
 

The Tea Museum was worth a visit, and we were given a brief understanding about the synthesis of tea powder from tea leaves. We also did taste some Cardamom Tea and it was really good. Tea Powder was also for sale and came in varieties like Chocolate, Leaf, Dust, Cardamom etc.
 

After some shopping, we left towards the Botanical Gardens. This is another must-see spot, and is similar to the Lal-Bagh of Bangalore, although smaller. It does take about 2 hours to look around, the Flower Show during May is really wonderful 

The huge lawn here is really inviting, school kids enjoyed the most rolling around, and the greenery everywhere was beautiful  

The Rose Park is just about 1.5kms from the Botanical Gardens, and there are uncountable number of roses all around. Its a huge park, and very much worth visiting, during spring  

The evening was what I was most looking forward to. It was the time for the Nilgiri Train, a one-way journey from Ooty to Coonoor. We simply called it the Chayya Chayya Train !! 

The train was scheduled to arrive at 5-50pm. There is also an afternoon train at 2-30 which travels back and fro from Ooty to Coonoor. But its rush-hour at noon, and the evening train is almost empty, so it was meant for us. The journey was absolutely awesome, what with a few tunnels on the way, the hills and valleys on either sides were breath-taking, and the best part was the speed of the train which was just around 20kmph. 

We passed through 4 stations to reach Coonoor. The return journey from Coonoor was by bus (frequency being one every five minutes). We reached Ooty again at 8-30pm. Again it was fun at the fire-place and back to the inviting bed.
 

On 29th of Jan, we checked out of Hotel Lake-View and left towards Mettupalyam on Conoor Road. The road was terrible, but the route was extremely awesome. Coonoor is about 18kms from Ooty. The road from Coonoor to Mettupalyam consists of 14 hairpin bends. We reached Black Thunder at 2-35pm, which is about 30kms from Coonoor. We could spend only about 2 hours at the water-park, and enjoyed all the water slides, the Thrillarium, and the Lazy River as well. The best part was dad accompanied us at all the games, irrespective of how rough or scary it was.
 

We left Black Thunder at about 3pm had lunch and moved on. The return journey was to be a terrible one, which we hadn�t expected. We left Mettupalyam at 3-30pm and reached Annur at 3-50pm, which is about 22kms from Mettupalyam. From Annur, we took on the Satyamangalam Forest route. This time, though we spotted a few deers on the way, it wasn�t possible to catch them on camera. 

The Suvarnavathi Reservoir, with the back-drop of blue hills was a spectacular sight. The road from Satyamangalam worsened, although it was supposed to be a National Highway (NH 209). We reached Chamarajanagar at 6-45pm. The road was absolutely bad even until Maddur and thereafter it remained bad, until we reached Mysore road. It was only then we thought perhaps we ought to have taken the route through Mysore, but of course, that route is much much longer (by about 40kms) and the road is just about ok. We reached home only at 12-30am, and it was back to Wild Bangalore. It was surely one outing I'll remember always, but hey I have college next day, so I need to start of my IInd Semester, I now need to go !!

 

If you visit Ooty:

• Its good if you can get your own vehicle, or hire one, as the route to Ooty, especially the one which consists of 36 hair-pin bends is really a breath-taking one !!
• You cannot depend much on the boards around Tamil Nadu, as they are mostly in Tamil. Its always better to ask about 3-4 people if you are confused about which way to go
• At Ooty, the restaurants aren't really that clean, so you have to live with it. Hotel Durga, as we found, was one restaurant where food tastes really good.
• At Ooty, parking tickets and entry tickets are really common, and they cost a lot. Near the Botanical Gardens, we had to shell out 30 bucks just for parking, so be ready for it
• Home-made chocolates, tea powder, oils, baked foods and woollen clothing are the most sought after at Ooty, so don't miss it
• Doddabetta Peak, Botanical Gardens & Rose Park, Tea Museum and the Ooty Lake are a few of the must-see spots here
• Don't even dare to miss the Ooty train, its one journey you'll remember forever. There are one-way and two-way trains to Coonoor and Mettupalyam, and you may have to reserve tickets (except for the evening train which is empty)
• Roads around Ooty aren't that good, so be prepared for a rough journey
• A few economy hotels you could opt for are Hotel Lake View, Nahar Residency & Woodlands
• Just in case you also plan to go to "Black Thunder", make sure you have about 4hours minimum to enjoy the water park
• Its off-season during Jan, hotels are cheaper, its less crowded, and you can enjoy the thick mist, than when compared to the Summers.
• Finally, please don't dirty the places you go to, plastics are banned in Tamil Nadu, so try to never use them, and finally - enjoy !!