Ooty - Queen of the hills

Nestled in the Nilgiris Mountains is a tinsel town “Ooty” officially known as Udagamandalam which allures visitors in abundance to witness its postcard picture perfect beauty. This is a very famous hill station in Tamil Nadu, India and has all the required ingredients of a charming hill station thereby attracting many tourists throughout the year. It is the most popular holiday destination in South India worth visiting for a weekend stay.

Long weekend was approaching for Christmas and it was holiday time. All of us were equally frustrated being at home since March due to Pandemic and were longing for a break. Without a second thought, the obvious choice for relaxation was Ooty 😊. So here is the blog about our journey, places we covered in Ooty and some tips on how pandemic has changed the way we travel now.

Day 1 – Dec 25th, 2020

We decided to leave Bangalore early at 5:30 am in our car so that we could evade as much traffic during our onward journey. The nearest airport is Coimbatore in case you are planning to take a flight and from Coimbatore you can hire a cab to reach Ooty.

We crossed Mysore quickly and decided to take the Nanjangud, Bandipur, Masinagudi route in order to reach Ooty. Google map showed the total time to reach destination as 8.5 hours.

We took a quick stop at Nanjangud temple to offer prayers to Lord Nanjundeshwara (Lord Shiva). Queue for darshan was not that long so we could get a hassle free darshan. The gopuram is very impressive. The entire boundary of the temple is dotted with beautifully sculpted figures of Gods and Goddesses.

Once you come out of the temple, you can take left and walk straight towards the Kapila river to enjoy coracle ride. We have enjoyed this ride during our earlier visits to the temple. Hence decided to walk back to parking lot and continue our journey. But this place is good for a one-day break/long drive from Bangalore and Mysore.

We drove continuously and finally were stopped at a huge congestion at Bandipur Forest Entrance by officials. Since we were about to enter Tamil Nadu from Karnataka, we were supposed to take a e-pass as per COVID SOP guidelines and we were not aware of the same. Luckily the procedure was simple to do the registration from phone. Please ensure your check COVID SOP guidelines whenever you plan to travel outside your state and go prepared with all the e-passes required.

Post this check post, there was a snail moving traffic into the Bandipur forest till we reached the Tamil Nadu border.

Looks like due to so many vehicles movement, all animals were in hideout. We could spot some deer’s and an Elephant almost while exiting the forest.

Post that there was traffic congestion throughout our journey till we reached Ooty at around 5 pm. We did not anticipate that it was a long weekend and most of them would have headed out for a much-needed vacation just like us. We had lunch in Ooty town since it was not arranged in the Homestay for us. But food wasn’t that great in the restaurant we chose.

Finally, we reached out Homestay “Atrium Grande” and we were impressed with the first glimpse itself. Located in the heart of the city with market and other places just 1.5-2Km from here. The view of the town with the lush green tea plantation is very scenic from here. This compensated the tiredness of our journey. There are two big villas with 4 rooms each – lower floor and upper floor. If you book it as 2-3 families together then the entire villa is for you. We had booked 2 rooms hence we got the ground floor and the door from dining to upper floor was locked. But it’s a good place for relaxation.

Weather is super cool here, so please carry your woolens. While the days are relatively warmer, the nights are breezy and cold.

Please make sure you carry towels since they are not provided at the property. In fact, in most of the hotels they have stopped providing towels owing to COVID SOP. So please keep this in mind now.

We freshened up a bit, clicked some pictures and then relaxed rest of the evening. Dinner was provided at the Homestay both veg and non-veg, but we had to pay for this. Limited options but very delicious. Post heavy yummy dinner, we took a stroll around the homestay to enjoy the night view.  And we slept early since all of us were very tired.

Day 2 – Dec 26th, 2020

We woke up next day for yet another breathtaking view as the sun was rising slowly. 

Breakfast is complementary. Again, limited options but very delicious. While we knew that the most famous tourist spots were the botanical garden, Toy train, Ooty lake boating, tea factory etc, we did not want to visit crowded areas. I was interested in taking a ride along the Ooty Toy train though but that was closed due to COVID. I have heard that this is the best thing to enjoy when in Ooty as you will get spectacular views of the mountains while riding from Conoor to Ooty. So once things get back to normal, please plan for this we well.  

Hence, we inquired with the homestay owner what are the places worth visiting here in a day. So, he recommended us to visit Doddabetta Peak, followed by Tea factory and then Pykara Lake for boating. These were the places to cover for today. We set off leaving our woolens back since it was getting quite warmer as the day was setting in.

Doddabetta peak

Drive to Doddabetta peak from our homestay was around 6 km (20 minutes’ drive). Parking lot was crowded as expected. There is a walking trail to the peak and any age groups can easily make it to the peak.

Doddabetta translates to “Big Mountain” where Dodda means Big and Betta means mountain. This is the highest peak of Tamil Nadu and lies at the junction of Eastern and Western Ghats.

It offers mesmerizing views with clouds right in front of your eyes. At first glimpse, you feel like you are in heaven. There is a telescope room, in case you want to get a panoramic view of the peak from all directions. 

This makes for a perfect holiday spot amidst majestic hills and misty clouds. Worth the visit for some amazing photography.

Tea Factory

While returning we stopped at Tea Factory and Chocolate factory. It was crowded as expected and we had seen tea factory in Waynad hence were not interested in the same. But if you are interested in knowing how the tea leaves are plucked, dried and what goes into the making of tea powder, do make time to visit the same.

What caught our attention at this place was an adventurous camp. Both Tea factory and Eagles adventure camp are located opposite to each other. So based on the crowd and your interest, you can chose where you want to go 😊.

Eagles Dare Adventure Camp

This is a great option for tourists who want to try out some adventures like Zip lining since while you are doing so the view downhill is truly amazing. 

There was a huge queue with families and super enthusiastic kids who were interested in doing this. Hence, we decided to drop the plan and head straight to Pykara lake which was a 1-hour drive from here.

From Ooty, you need to take Mysore-Gudalur route to reach Pykara lake. There are signboards hence easy to drive and reach this place. 

There are Pine Forest trails on the way. Hence you can take a pit stop and enjoy walk along pine forest. There is also a nature trail walk. You will encounter many such spots. You will need to choose, plan and make time for the same.  We did stop at one place to take a break and clicked some pictures. 

We also noticed lot of traffic congestion on our way to Pykara lake as well due to one-way roadblock by road tar machines. Very wrong day they chose to repair the roads due to which there was snail moving traffic here. Finally, we reached Pykara Lake Boating place at around 2:30 PM.

Pykara Lake

The first look of the lake is breathtaking. We first though we will have lunch and then take boating tickets. But the enthralling views this lake was offering was just irresistible. 

We had ice creams and juice at the parking and went straight to the ticket counter. Jet speed boat is the most famous ride here because of the thrill it gives. But the wait time was long and only 3 members of a family could go in one boat. So, we took a ticket for 8-seater boat (Duration -20 minutes) and headed to the queue for the ride. Queue moves fast since there are enough boats and managed well here. It was our turn, we put on our life jackets and hopped onto our boat. We took one big round of the entire lake and view from each side was different and picturesque. It was very calm and serene here. We really felt it worth driving so long and getting here for this experience.

Post the ride, we were hungry and headed straight to the restaurant. There is only one restaurant here with limited options (Veg fried rice, noodles, bread omelet). So, no other choice we had food here only and started back to Ooty.

Reached our Homestay at around 6 pm and relaxed a bit. We decided to have dinner outside today and headed to explore Ooty market.

Ooty Local Market

Things to buy in Ooty Market – Home made chocolates, Aromatherapy oils, Woolens are the stuffs which mainly people carry back home from here. And off course the tea powder from tea factory.

After spending around an hour exploring the market, we had dinner at A2B (Adyar Ananda Bhavan) and food was good here. A2B is situated right at the heart of Ooty market and hence easy to locate. One thing we noticed that most of the restaurants here were running with less manpower and they were not able to manage the huge long weekend crowd. Food also wasn’t that great in the restaurants we had. Hence would recommend having food in A2B if you are not taking food in your homestay/hotel.

Post dinner, we headed back to homestay where Bonfire was arranged for us. We relaxed a bit and hit the bed for a sound sleep.

Day 3 – Dec 27th, 2020

Time to say adieus to this lovely place. We woke up, got ready and packed our bags. Breakfast was served and we ate to our heart’s content since it was Yummy. Completed the checkout process and bid adieu to the homestay staff for ensuring us a comfortable stay.

While heading back we took Conoor, Coimbatore, Salem, Hosur route to reach Bangalore. On the way we took pit stops at some viewpoints for some more amazing views.

We had one iconic place to cover today – Adiyogi Statue in Coimbatore. And google maps was showing 3 hours journey to reach this place from Conoor. Hence, we decided to drive continuously without any more stops.

Adiyogi Shiva Statue

From the main highway when you take a right to drive towards the Adiyogi statue, please ensure you have food at good restaurant you spot on the way. We really had a hard time locating restaurants in this route. Finally, we could spot one Saravana Bhavan and had our lunch. Google maps is required since surprisingly there are no sign boards which could lead us to this iconic landmark – Adiyogi statue.

It was quite a tiring journey, but the moment was reached this place and saw this huge statue of Shiva peacefully meditating amidst the mountains, it just healed all our tiredness.

The Adiyogi statue is a 34-metre-tall, 45-metre-long and 25-metre-wide steel statue of the god Shiva designed by Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev. This was built at the Isha Yoga Center, Isha Foundation mainly to inspire people towards inner wellbeing through Yoga and meditation.

You need to walk a bit from the parking lot till you reach the statue. Please carry hat/cap and water since there are chances you might get dehydrated. There is also a meditation center behind the statue called Dhyanalinga and we could see people walking towards it. But we decided to visit next time since it was getting late for us to head back to Bangalore.

It was a long journey to Bangalore from here with few breaks for tea and dinner. But this perfect holiday retreat in Ooty for sure recharged our mind and soul. I would recommend this charming hill station for those looking for concord and tranquility.