Saturday, June 27, 2009

Sudden Trip to Ooty 2009

Hi Guys,

This travel to Ooty was not actually planned and there is a reason to take this trip and start within 1 hr this is all we studied in MBA and now i am also able to use management skills in Sudden touring, in Management sense we can develop a new theory named SST (Sudden Strategic Touring).

Conditions which made liable to Tour Suddenly
It was Saturday night around 10 pm room light went on enquiring with the caretaker he gave a bad news for all of us that Power is expected to come by 8 or 9 am as a pole has fallen and entire area is under darkness. The people were talking in Malyalam so dont know how to react on their gossips so returned to my room started my Search Hunt for Candle. Atlast got it and sat silently seeing it fighting against darkness. But another incident welcomed me as candle could only give a backup against dark for 1 hr. Then what's next??

Options Available?
There were 2 options in front of me:
(1) To sit whole night and sweat in such a hot humidity of Kerala and bonus of becoming a good dinner for mosquitoes.
(2) To do midnight riding and enjoy the whole day somewhere and return by evening.

Where to Go?
Now other delima was where to go. But LP (Lonely Planet) was there to guide where to approach. LP suggested 2 areas:(a) Ooty - 190 kms(b) Kodaikanal - 365 kms I did calculations which indicated it's wise to go to Ooty.

Atlast OOTY (Tamil Nadu) !!!

Arrangements made?
Now as Destination was finally made, next stage was to pack the necessary items in Candle Light. Items packed:

(1) Camera (Its good to always keep your camera battery charge after returning from a trip as we never know when we leave for the next one so this habit did worked)

(2) Lonely Planet India & Eicher India Road Atlas

Major Setback to cancel Ooty?
As it is a Hill Station so early morning there will be cold and i had no jacket to fight cold. So sat and thought what to do as last eperience of Munnar at Midnight there was extreme cold and chill early morning due to which we were searching to get a place to save ourself at 4.30am (Will share it later). Atlast, made my mind to face any such sitation there itself and "Jo hoga dekha jaega". Got ready and weared a Full Sleeve Short Shirt above the T-Shirt which i thought can handle a bit of cold and will protect my hands from Sunburn also which later were really effective.

Journey begins.
Starting prayers sitting on bike and hoped bike to be good during the entire journey as midnight breakdowns leave you nowhere. Left at 1.40 am. Fuel was 2 litres in bike so went to ATM and took 600 bucks. The guard at ATM was a bit afraid seeing me as gloves in hand and a bag but he was reliefed when i left from there. Atleast he did a bit of his duty by being alert for a few minutes & now the jouney begins.
The route was CALICUT - Koduvalli - Thamressery - Wayanad - Gudulur - Ooty.After covering Wayanad ghat section i moved towards the Meppady village which is surrounded by tea plantation but as i did not thought earlier the weather conditions here were entirely. 3 am there was not even a single vechile passing by and nature's counter attack with dense fog visibility was zero but continued riding slowly seeing the white line on the middle of road which was clearly visible. At 4 am saw the board epressing "Bye Bye Kerala" i entered into Tamil Nadu. The person at toll gave a receipt of Rs 10 and he started asking where i am heading for and same situation here also he was suprised that i am going Ooty on bike. I think people need more literacy on Touring on Bike so we can say govt to start a course on Bike Touring...Then continuous riding for next 2 hrs i reached Gudulur and then Ooty was only 60 kms and Ghat section of Ooty begin. As i was moving nearer to Ooty the cold and chill hitting hard on my physical strength of bearing it. Ooty welcomed me with chill & freshness of tea & Coffee plantations surrounding you it makes you feel why we live in metros or Towns better to stay here till last breath but we all have responsibilities which cannot be put in recycle bin as we do easily using Computer's. Took breakfast break at Hotel Sanjay ordered a Dosa and Tea. Both eatables were not up to mark as expected seeing the infrastructure.Time to get freshen up as rided continuosly for 6 hrs. Opened LP and started deciding where to go first. As by the map my location was near to Botinical Garden so then i headed for it at 8.20 am after a 1 hr breakfast break.


(1) Botinical Garden (Time Spended- 8.30 am to 9.20 am)- Parking ticket Rs 10 for Bike, Entry Ticket Rs 10 & Camera entry Rs 30. But the garden was not according to the expectations and there were barriers to enter whereever we wish to praise the beauty so after taking some clicks of Flowers and Garden i left back for another place called Rose Garden.




(2) Rose Garden (Time spended- 9.45 to 11.15 am) - No bike parking charges, Rs 10 for entry and Rs 30 for Camera. By the name itself we come to know that Roses and it is truly worth visiting and I got happy to see so many roses with good desription about them. I clicked many snaps here and people were starring me as i was clicking roses too close to roses with SLR.



(3) Dora Betta (Time spended 12.40 to 1.15 pm) - It is said to be highest point in Ooty but truly i did not like the beauty as the place has turned into a big selling point as vendors are sitting like Karol Bagh convencing tourists to purchase items. When i started for Dora Betta the traffic was heavy in Ooty and traffic jams were everywhere but bike does not have to stuck na so thats the best thing for bikers to come out of traffic jams.

Feedback about Ooty
Ooty is a famous tourist sport of Tamil Nadu and South India but it has lost its beauty and on weekends there is huge rush on the tourist places so traffic jams occurs frequently and pollution make you feel that whether i am at a hill station or in city traffic. If you are planning to enjoy the nature aand bauty of the "Queen of Mountains" go on Weekdays.
I left back at 2.15 pm from Ooty and touched Calcicut at 6 pm .With the blessings of God one more Touring came to an end with motivation to go to some other place next weekend.

Hope you all like reading......

3 comments:

  1. Nice snaps Abhijit. And you started off at the ungodly hour of 1:40 am??? You must have enjoyed the journey though....btw what bike u had?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Visit kolli hills. You will like this place.

    visit kollihillresorts.weebly.com for further details.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cool trip...nice pics as well...

    http://www.captivecaptures.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete