Travelogue of Ooty


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On December 18, the plan was made to travel to ooty. first i drove from Chennai to my home town vriddachalam to pick my parents, cousin brother and his wife and their 2.5 year old kid.

december 19: started around 6 am.
route: Vriddachalam-attur-salem-bhavani-avinashi-annur-meetupalayam. drove steadily around 90 and reached mettuplayam by 12.30 pm for lunch.

for mettuplayam took the kallar-kothaigiri route. right after crossing kallar check post, we had our first wild life sighting. herd of deers. we are clipping and pics and suddenly a police patrol honked behind us. I drop the camera down. that's it. photo mode is not working. only videos can be taken. the patrol asked us to move and we obliged.

reached ooty around 3 pm after a leisurely ride. first we decided to stay in ooty tamil nadu tourism hotel. it was too cold by 3.30pm. the kid can't bear the cold. then we decided to move to the plains and so my father suggested tamil nadu hotel in mudumalai. we started from there and by the time we took kalhatty route and reached the tamil nadu hotel by 6pm.

then the plan was
december 20: sincara,moyar,gopalsamy hills,safari. there came a schoking news that safari's are closed for census. it will be open only on december 24.
december 21: upper bhavani, avalanche and emrald dam
december 22: ooty town
december 23: going down via manjoor,geddhai,,mulli,karamadai.

the four day tour was cut short into one day tour due to the sudden illness to my grand mother and we returned to Chennai.

continuation of December 19: we ordered the food, we found we are short of milk for the kid. so after 6.45pm me and my cousin went to mudumalai to buy some milk for the kid and eatables. while returning at a blind left turn a leopard crossed the road from right to left and i was doing around 40. the leopard was very close the the car,it was sudden input and the car went of the road and i heard a loud thudding sound. the car was still running. i slotted into reverse the rear wheel was spinning and the car is not moving. my cousin frightened me telling that the leopard may be near don' get down. i prayed my stars and got down. as it was dark, couldn't spot anything. but i could see the front wheels are in air. then i found the car has climbed a small stone and actually the stone was right under the engine guard. i tried pushing the car to no use. then we slotted into reverse gear, revved hard and the car come out and i was closely looking at the warning lights.nothing came up. then we are made to wait for 15 frightening minutes by a jumbo in the middle of the road and at last by 7.50 we made to the hotel. then i checked the sump guard has a big dent and was bent in. the guys at the hotel told me not to worry. it can be fixed. next morning took the car to a repair local guy and he hammered the guard to get it back in shape. then we continued the forest visit. first was moyar, singara and then to gopalsamy betta. after coming from gopalsamy betta we received the news of my grand mother's illness. then we packed and left for Chennai.
 

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Thread Starter #2
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pics of wild life

some more pics of wild life from moyar and sincara.
 

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Thread Starter #4
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Re: ooty travellouge

we roamed all the day through the forests of moyar,sincara,masingudi,mudumalai,bandipur.The drive through moyar forest helped us to see more wild life then the conventional ride through masinagudi to mudumalai. moyar is a place to be seen. it is so calm and there is no vehicle movement. while coming back, we were stopped by the forest guards questioning us. then they become friendly and said not to stop and get down from the car as the area has tigers.

query: I have more videos since photo mode didn't work in my cam. the videos are larger is size. I tried talking screen shots on media player and the quality is not good. Could some one tell the way to upload huge videos or better software to screen shots so that i can upload all the pics
 
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Re: ooty travellouge

we roamed all the day through the forests of moyar,sincara,masingudi,mudumalai,bandipur.The drive through moyar forest helped us to see more wild life then the conventional ride through masinagudi to mudumalai. moyar is a place to be seen. it is so calm and there is no vehicle movement. while coming back, we were stopped by the forest guards questioning us. then they become friendly and said not to stop and get down from the car as the area has tigers.

query: I have more videos since photo mode didn't work in my cam. the videos are larger is size. I tried talking screen shots on media player and the quality is not good. Could some one tell the way to upload huge videos or better software to screen shots so that i can upload all the pics
Though there were some hurdles, the trip looks very adventurous. Sorry for the camera and the vehicle's engine guard. Indeed you were lucky to spot so many wild animals.

Video clippings are normally uploaded through YouTube, if the size is more it will take a longer time to get uploaded, depends on your net speed. And I think our experts here will give a better option if there is.

Thank you for sharing your experience and pictures
 
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Re: ooty travellouge

...
Video clippings are normally uploaded through YouTube, if the size is more it will take a longer time to get uploaded, depends on your net speed. And I think our experts here will give a better option if there is.

Thank you for sharing your experience and pictures
Thanks Pravin for the travelogue [clap]
Yes I agree with AR Ram on the video thing being posted on Youtube and linked here.
In a travelogue I would like to see more of information on the places, and any special attentions such as hotels or special interests etc. So I would expect each point of interest on a separate post some description and supporting photographs. It looks like you have taken more videos than pictures, but nothing you can do now. Try to take the screen shots(but choose the best pics only because you can not achieve much clarity by screen shots.

Post the videos on the Youtube, and link it here. But make sure to make the videos short and sweet.

BTW, that was a hair raising incident in the middle of forest [surprise]

Waiting for more from you.
 
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Re: ooty travellouge

Thanks Pravin for the travelogue [clap]
Yes I agree with AR Ram on the video thing being posted on Youtube and linked here.
In a travelogue I would like to see more of information on the places, and any special attentions such as hotels or special interests etc. So I would expect each point of interest on a separate post some description and supporting photographs. It looks like you have taken more videos than pictures, but nothing you can do now. Try to take the screen shots(but choose the best pics only because you can not achieve much clarity by screen shots.

Post the videos on the Youtube, and link it here. But make sure to make the videos short and sweet.

BTW, that was a hair raising incident in the middle of forest [surprise]

Waiting for more from you.
thank you Ram sir and Indian. I'm processing the videos there are more exciting videos of spotting a leopard in the moyar forest and a jumbo and sloth beer. I curse myself for dropping the cam. the toggle switch between photo and recording got damaged so can't switch to photo mode.

place of stay: Tamil nadu tourism hotel, mudumalai. located straight opposite to the reception center where you can get tickets for jungle safari. the cost was 1200. It has 3 double cots. neat atmosphere and top class cleanliness. worth for staying as a family. past 9 you can spot deer, wild pigs right near your door step. we saw a heard of nearly 100 deer right in front of the room where we stayed.

they prepare food on the basis of order. non-veg is not available but egg is there. the reason for no non-veg as it may attract wild life from forest. the food was tasty better than some costly hotels in ooty.

you can reach moyar and sincara from masinagudi. left goes to cincara and right goes to moyar. moyar is a dense forest. you can see the moyar dam if the duty guy is freindly you can get into the hydro electric dam of moyar. there is also a trekking route from moyar to moyar valley and thengumaragada. you need to prior permission from forest office in ooty. travel at any time of a day you can spot wild life.

sincara is a also a hydro electric tunnel. to reach the tunnel you need to walk for 8kms. there is no restriction for wild life enthusiasts. sincara is lush green medow with few trees.

both the places are worth visting.
 
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Nice travelogue and oh !! what an escape you had buddy. Good pics could have made the thread more beautiful, but I understand your situation. Post videos as suggested by Ram Sir and Indian. I still need to see Ooty which is my childhood choice
 
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...
place of stay: Tamil nadu tourism hotel, mudumalai. located straight opposite to the reception center where you can get tickets for jungle safari. the cost was 1200. It has 3 double cots. neat atmosphere and top class cleanliness. worth for staying as a family. past 9 you can spot deer, wild pigs right near your door step. we saw a heard of nearly 100 deer right in front of the room where we stayed.
...
Wonderful info Pravin, [clap] Last year I did visit this place, but did not stay here. Looks like very interesting place to stay at night! Next time I will do it.

... I still need to see Ooty which is my childhood choice
RK, definitely you should visit Ooty, one of the most beautiful places in India! [clap] Good camera is a must as there are lot of interesting things. We did your Ooty trip just last year for 5 days but we did stay in the Ooty city. I forgot to write my Travelogue on it [frustration]
 
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@Indian

I have grown looking at ooty in all Telugu films as most of them used to got shooted there in 80s and I am sure I will visit with my family in next year[:)] without fail along with some TAI families too[:)]
 
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Hi,
Driving to Ooty in december is a courageous decision. Its very very cold in Ooty at this time of the year. So How is your grandmother doing now.
 
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grand mother is okay. she just fell ill. but my dad got worried and cut short the trip. ooty is too cold. but mudumalai is manageable not too cold.
 
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Hi Pravin1987. Just the TL I was waiting for. Thanks for sharing.

we roamed all the day through the forests of moyar,sincara,masingudi,mudumalai,bandipur.The drive through moyar forest helped us to see more wild life then the conventional ride through masinagudi to mudumalai. moyar is a place to be seen. it is so calm and there is no vehicle movement. while coming back, we were stopped by the forest guards questioning us. then they become friendly and said not to stop and get down from the car as the area has tigers.
Very interesting...

Can you give me more details of your drive to moyar and sincara? like the road condition, whether we need to get permission from the forest officials for just driving through these forest routes?... if so from where?


place of stay: Tamil nadu tourism hotel, mudumalai. located straight opposite to the reception center where you can get tickets for jungle safari. the cost was 1200. It has 3 double cots. neat atmosphere and top class cleanliness. worth for staying as a family. past 9 you can spot deer, wild pigs right near your door step. we saw a heard of nearly 100 deer right in front of the room where we stayed.
I have been trying to get contact details of this hotel for months. This hotel does not turn up in their site for online booking. Do you have any contact details... like a phone no. from the hotel bill? Is it easy to get a room there? What is your feedback on this hotel and it's service?


Did you go on safari?
 
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Hi Pravin1987. Just the TL I was waiting for. Thanks for sharing.



Very interesting...

Can you give me more details of your drive to moyar and sincara? like the road condition, whether we need to get permission from the forest officials for just driving through these forest routes?... if so from where?




I have been trying to get contact details of this hotel for months. This hotel does not turn up in their site for online booking. Do you have any contact details... like a phone no. from the hotel bill? Is it easy to get a room there? What is your feedback on this hotel and it's service?


Did you go on safari?
reach masainagudi from mudumalai. there is a road junction left goes to moyar. right goes to sincara. the roads are good apart from the occasional speed breakers. there is no need for forest department permission. but the patrol vehicle may stop and question you. my dad works in Secretariat chennai, so they didn't speak anything. if they ask you, you can tell them we have come to meet our realtions staying in tneb housing board.the road is mainly used for tneb. both sincara and moyar are hydro electric stations. moyar is 12 kms from masnagudi. you can go till the moyar dam. sincara is 14 kms from masingudi. both of these places are not tourist spot. these places are for those who love to drive amble around in 1st and 2nd gear and love to see the wild life. the moyar forest is very dense. sincara is a good spot for photography lovers.

both mudumalai and bandipur are closed. mudumalai open on december 25 and bandipur on december 26. I have misplaced the hotel bill. there is no need for online reservation. there is ample amount of rooms. the costs are 850,1000,1200 but it depends on season. top class rooms and also you will get working geysers.

they prepare food on the basis of order. non-veg is not available but egg is there. the reason for no non-veg as it may attract wild life from forest. the food was tasty better than some costly hotels in ooty.

We found more wild life than we spotted on our previous visits where we went for jungle safari. drive to moyar during early morning like 6, you can see the tuskers and also leopards and lucky can spot tigers.

if you are a nature lover, you can go to places like parson's valley, upper bhavani, avalance, bikeeti, mulli,geddhai. these places are free from crowds and full of nature. parson's valley, avalance requries persmission persmission from ooty dfo office located in charring cross. My actual plans are to visit the place listed above. I will go back and visit these places once again in the month of january.
 
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reach masainagudi from mudumalai. there is a road junction left goes to moyar. right goes to sincara. the roads are good apart from the occasional speed breakers. there is no need for forest department permission. but the patrol vehicle may stop and question you. the road is mainly used for tneb. both sincara and moyar are hydro electric stations. moyar is 12 kms from masnagudi. you can go till the moyar dam. sincara is 14 kms from masingudi. this is not a tourist spot. these places are for those who love to drive amble around in 1st and 2nd gear and love to see the wild life. the moyar forest is very dense. sincara is a good spot for photography lovers.

both mudumalai and bandipur are closed. mudumalai open on december 25 and bandipur on december 26. I have misplaced the hotel bill. there is no need for online reservation. there is ample amount of rooms. the costs are 850,1000,1200 but it depends on season. top class rooms and also you will get working geysers.

they prepare food on the basis of order. non-veg is not available but egg is there. the reason for no non-veg as it may attract wild life from forest. the food was tasty better than some costly hotels in ooty.

We found more wild life than we spotted on our previous visits where we went for jungle safari. drive to moyar during early morning like 6, you can see the tuskers and also leopards and lucky u can spot tigers.

if you are a nature lover, you can go to places like parson's valley, upper bhavani, avalance, bikeeti, mulli,geddhai. these places are free from crowds and full of nature. parson's valley, avalance requries persmission persmission from ooty dfo office located in charring cross. My actual plans are to visit the place listed above. I will go back and visit these places once again in the month of january.
Woh!! That's quite an information, thank you for sharing.

Did you try to upload the videos?
 

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