Tuesday, August 30

Otty in Monsoons !!!

It was my 2nd visit to Ooty aka Utkamandalam.....monsoons of 2010...

my first vist to Ooty was in peak winter's , new yr 2007, 5 friends and an awesome driver made the trip memorable in many ways......
more days spend , more sites visited, many obstacles handled and it was one of its kind visit.

But the 2nd visit to Ooty or rather would say to Coonoor was short and sweet...
just 4 of us.... and a indica...just 2 days... a debutant driver for out of the city limits drive and monsoons.....

The trip was planned suddenly, arrangements made on the run and home stay booked after reaching ...
in all this nothing went bad, thanks to our luck :)

we planned to start very early in the morning , but one dear friend of ours always has the habit of challenging time and so we started almost 2 hrs late than our plans...
it was just dawn and 4 enthusciasts started for the long road journey...

it was very first time i tasted Muda Idli and i am a fan since then of Kamath's Muda Idli....
it was almost 9.00 when we crossed the city i adore - the city with the very beautiful , majestic and twinkiling palace , city of Mysore....

we started on perfect day with bit of sun and clouds sailing up in the sky ... but by the time we reached mysore it was getting hotter...
we were enthusciastically waiting for the Bandipur forest reserve to start in the hopes of some shade....

Bandipur came with all its pleasantness.... the winderness .... silence.... ocassional vehichles crossing.... many wild animals harmlessly roaming... and 5 of us enjoying the drive.. looking at the great western ghats in front of us at sky high range.....

Gradually we started gaining height and by the time we reached ooty we were part of the sky high majestic niligiris....

Now the tough call came... with all the rain and lunch and short-sweet pykara visit we had lost time ...
Ooty by 4.00 pm in Sept evening was almost dark and desserted....
We decided to go directly to Conoor in the hopes of covering at least some view points before it was completely dark ...

Looking for directions and asking the few lonely souls on our way we managed to guide our amateur driver to the mountains of coonoor..
By the time we reached Lamb's rock view point all we could see was clouds sailing below and sound of rain on our shoulders...

with 2-3 hot hot cups of local tea we got some warmth and hopes ..
and we started asking the shop-wala about some place to stay for the night...
someone overheard us and urged to help... and we became skeptical to appreciate his help, with so much unknown fears but with a "marta kya na karta" feeling we started following the person to the hotel location....

a home stay, name was not visible, no network on phone, and super hungry...
no energy to bargain the prices at those hours we decided to take one big room with extra mattresses arranged....

but it was one of the most amazing experiences i have ever had....
bon-fire , dinner arranged outdoors - a full buffet of local veggie delight and authentic food from the slopes of ooty....
as we retired to our room, there were discussions about old days.. college life.... happiness and miseries... the then life and hopes and despairs...
the fun... and what not....

we slept late , but around 5.00 am i woke up and when i tried to see outside the room which was all darkness the previous night was now "wowwwwwww .. breathtaking ...."
the whole of metupalayam city was visible.... our home stay all surrounded by lush green tea estates of conoor and the trail to the top of lamb's rock just at our backyards.....
it was truly an experience to remember my whole life.....

with not much time to spare and just the sunday available for all the sight seeing and return journey to cover we started getting ready....

a sumptuous breakfast.... a small walk to explore the local.... lots of photography...... and we were set to head to ooty...
with minimal time spent in ooty sight seeing we just sticked to boating in ooty lake ..that too from a back door entry :) ...saved us time....
shopped for chocolates and headed for bangalore....

but to our worries, it started pouring and the visibility was confined to less than a meter only...
with the fear that bandipur gates would be closed if it becomes late we just prayed for our lives while we descended the western ghats range....
somehow we made it safely to the plains and were back in our familiar cozy beds in our respective homes by 3.00 am....

a weekend full of stories to tell and experiences to share...
my 2nd ooty visit ..summarized here and the movie still playing in my head

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