"The Team"Ootacamund!!!
May 18th,2007
Been one year since I left Bangalore for Mumbai; never even thought of getting a summer internship back over here. “Kottaram” had shifted from Rajarajeshwari Apts, Bommanahalli to Airport Road. Balaji, Sinu, Panantha were still here along with Anoop the latest entrant and Praveen’s uncle, Sivakumar (Chittapan sir) who had come over for a month. Well, two weeks later, all of us thought of another trip together –Ooty.
Youth Hostel and the Scorpio
Friday; Friday night we left in a Scorpio from Airport road – the roads were good, so we were out of the city in one hour’s time. In another hour or so we were in Mysore, and then on it was a travel through the forest! There are two ways to reach Ooty , one a short trip through the forest of 36 kms and the other around 76 kms; Since there were no forest officials guarding the shorter route, we went for it and got a glimpse of elephants, wild gaur, sambar and lots of deer.
Saturday; Reached the Youth hostel around 05:30 early morning; was very cold indeed….Except for Panantha who went for an early morning trek through a few railway tunnels, all others were busy with their sleep till 12:00! We then headed for Doddabetta, the highest point! Since there were no security personnel near the fence on the cliffs, we got through and wandered deep into the forests, this was good indeed! Not that dense jungle, but indeed there were distinct marks all around the path we took that proved animals had been around. Later went back to boat house but that really spoiled the day. It was so crowded; we had to run away from there.
Doddabetta ; deep inside the terrain
Sunday; Next day we visited the rose garden and the botanical garden. Balaji , Sinu and Panantha were busy clicking pictures of roses and bees, while the others went around posing for quite a few clicks .
Botanical Garden; The Angry old Tribal guarding the temple
Botanical garden is worth a visit; we moved higher up beyond the collector’s bungalow to the highest point where we saw the Toda settlement. A rude altercation with an old tribal man guarding the temple did not set us back, Balaji was a bit perplexed indeed, but we still managed to visit one of the huts there and saw the bullock enclave too.
Buffalo Enclave with inscriptions; Toda Tribal Temple
After that, we started our return journey. Enacted a sorry figure in front of the forest police which helped us in traversing back through the shorter 36 km route; through the forests-one is sure to sight lots of wild animals.By the time we reached Mysore, I could hear some lively debates going on between Anoop and Chittapan Sire! Later we stopped by Hotel Viceroy to have some late night food , the results which would haunt all of us for the next one week- people beware of the food there! By 13:30 we left Mysore back for Bangalore and reached our Apartment by 15:30.
Resting just after leaving the TamilNadu check post
None felt the trip was lively enough but we learnt a bit; we had never planned for the trip- maybe that was a mistake. Dead tired; just dropped down on my bed and slept off…….
Resting just after leaving the TamilNadu check post
