My therapy-my bike, my medicine-My bike, My companion-My bike. Week full of crazy work and when weekend shows up, its time to gear up and head out. When there was a discussion of heading out to Ooty and Wayanad for a days ride, I was excited- excited beyond imagination. I have always wanted to ride in the cool twisty roads surrounded by serene forests and this was one heck of an offer. I jumped in and said yes I am joining. What better way to set my twisted off head due to tons of work straight than hitting the twisty and curvy roads of Ooty.
Sunday 2AM was decided as the time for departure, and as usualy, sleep eluded me. However hard I tried to, all I could do was drool over the beauty of Ooty, and to add over to it, the list of places what I had missed in my previous visit were the ones that we were planning to visit this time around. So mentally picturing and framing my photos and thinking of how fun it will be, alarm started screaming. It was time to head out and so did I.
Everyone was on time and we left for Bandipur at 2AM taking the Bangalore-Mysore highway. Whoever named this road a highway should be shot in the knees. There are millions.. no zillions of speed breakers on this road and lot of them crawl up at you and show up at the last minute like a surprise visitor, or more like an unwanted guest. Lots of these are unmarked and some of these are really hard to spot even in the day light. Somehow we waded through all these and reached Bandipur gates at 6AM which is the exact time for them to open. Stopped for a cup of tea and pulled out the camera.
Some nice views all around on a foggy morning.
Bandipur gate which was just open for vehicle movement. Travellers please make note that the gates are closed from 8PM to 6AM as this is a reserve forest area. Plan your travel in this route accordingly.
So done with tea we headed on into the forest. The roads have speed breakers every 100 meters. This is to stop people from over speeding and hitting the animals. Early morning, you get to see lot of animals. We spotted elephants, deers, lots of monkeys and some one spotted a fox. The views inside the forest had nothing great to write about since this being summer, all we could see were dried trees. It was the fog that made the journey amazing. The roads were smooth except for the occasional speed breaker and we stopped somewhere for a few clicks.
Few Deer who gracefully posed for a pic
The roads inside Bandipur forest
PC: Pratik Gupta
We crossed over to Tamilnadu in quick time and we took a left from Mudhumalai gate towards Ooty. The fun starts now as this road is decorated with 36 super steep hairpin bends. I was looking forward to these and was grinning from ear to ear. The road till the base of Ooty hill were average and very narrow. We started the climb and I who was tailing the group all this long started leading in all excitement.
Few pics en route:
Once the curves were done and dusted, we headed for breakfast in Ooty city. Filled up the hungry tummy and the next destination was Avalanche lake. If you read my previous travelogue of Ooty, you will remember that I missed this place due to heavy rain and this time I wanted to make sure that I visited the place.
We headed on, loosing way, people sending us in all directions, finally it was Google Maps to the rescue and we continued on our merry way. The roads need a special mention here. They are brilliant, smooth, super curvy, super scenic and every damn thing is superb on this road. I stopped for a few clicks as I knew few of the best spots from my last visit.
Emerald lake as from the road:
The city:
Emerald lake:
We reached Avalanche to find out that we had to take the bus service from the department to visit the place and it would mean loss of 3 hours. We had to visit Wayanad too and hence we decided to skip the trip. But this is when few people in the group started to say no to Wayanad. I was a little disappointed as I have always wanted to ride in the Ooty-Wayanad road. Finally we decided not to visit Wayanad and head out after visiting Emerald lake.
We spent time here clicking pics and having fun. As it was noon and we had no other plans we could relax. Few pics from Emerald lake.
There she is, she completed 10K Kms with me in 4 months.
A panorama of the lake.
Some more posing:
We had food in Ooty and headed back leisurely. A little sweet talking to one of the security guards ensured that we could take the same route we took on our way in. Slowly steadily we descended the ghats. Here I guess few kids were in a hill climb race on their bikes, and one of them suddenly crossed our way in haste in one of the hairpins. Lucky for him and us that we could stop in time. To those kids if you are reading this, please try to take your lives out where there is no one else to be harmed. Don't hurt others due to your foolish acts.
Met another group of people, couples actually who were clicking pics of our group ride. Got stuck in rain and somehow reached back home by 3AM Monday. I was a little heartbroken that I could not visit Wayanad, but that is coming up shortly post monsoon. Till then the journey continues and I will be back with a new destination. Stay tuned for more.
Sunday 2AM was decided as the time for departure, and as usualy, sleep eluded me. However hard I tried to, all I could do was drool over the beauty of Ooty, and to add over to it, the list of places what I had missed in my previous visit were the ones that we were planning to visit this time around. So mentally picturing and framing my photos and thinking of how fun it will be, alarm started screaming. It was time to head out and so did I.
Everyone was on time and we left for Bandipur at 2AM taking the Bangalore-Mysore highway. Whoever named this road a highway should be shot in the knees. There are millions.. no zillions of speed breakers on this road and lot of them crawl up at you and show up at the last minute like a surprise visitor, or more like an unwanted guest. Lots of these are unmarked and some of these are really hard to spot even in the day light. Somehow we waded through all these and reached Bandipur gates at 6AM which is the exact time for them to open. Stopped for a cup of tea and pulled out the camera.
Some nice views all around on a foggy morning.
Bandipur gate which was just open for vehicle movement. Travellers please make note that the gates are closed from 8PM to 6AM as this is a reserve forest area. Plan your travel in this route accordingly.
So done with tea we headed on into the forest. The roads have speed breakers every 100 meters. This is to stop people from over speeding and hitting the animals. Early morning, you get to see lot of animals. We spotted elephants, deers, lots of monkeys and some one spotted a fox. The views inside the forest had nothing great to write about since this being summer, all we could see were dried trees. It was the fog that made the journey amazing. The roads were smooth except for the occasional speed breaker and we stopped somewhere for a few clicks.
Few Deer who gracefully posed for a pic
The roads inside Bandipur forest
We crossed over to Tamilnadu in quick time and we took a left from Mudhumalai gate towards Ooty. The fun starts now as this road is decorated with 36 super steep hairpin bends. I was looking forward to these and was grinning from ear to ear. The road till the base of Ooty hill were average and very narrow. We started the climb and I who was tailing the group all this long started leading in all excitement.
Few pics en route:
Once the curves were done and dusted, we headed for breakfast in Ooty city. Filled up the hungry tummy and the next destination was Avalanche lake. If you read my previous travelogue of Ooty, you will remember that I missed this place due to heavy rain and this time I wanted to make sure that I visited the place.
We headed on, loosing way, people sending us in all directions, finally it was Google Maps to the rescue and we continued on our merry way. The roads need a special mention here. They are brilliant, smooth, super curvy, super scenic and every damn thing is superb on this road. I stopped for a few clicks as I knew few of the best spots from my last visit.
Emerald lake as from the road:
The city:
Emerald lake:
We reached Avalanche to find out that we had to take the bus service from the department to visit the place and it would mean loss of 3 hours. We had to visit Wayanad too and hence we decided to skip the trip. But this is when few people in the group started to say no to Wayanad. I was a little disappointed as I have always wanted to ride in the Ooty-Wayanad road. Finally we decided not to visit Wayanad and head out after visiting Emerald lake.
We spent time here clicking pics and having fun. As it was noon and we had no other plans we could relax. Few pics from Emerald lake.
There she is, she completed 10K Kms with me in 4 months.
A panorama of the lake.
Some more posing:
We had food in Ooty and headed back leisurely. A little sweet talking to one of the security guards ensured that we could take the same route we took on our way in. Slowly steadily we descended the ghats. Here I guess few kids were in a hill climb race on their bikes, and one of them suddenly crossed our way in haste in one of the hairpins. Lucky for him and us that we could stop in time. To those kids if you are reading this, please try to take your lives out where there is no one else to be harmed. Don't hurt others due to your foolish acts.
Met another group of people, couples actually who were clicking pics of our group ride. Got stuck in rain and somehow reached back home by 3AM Monday. I was a little heartbroken that I could not visit Wayanad, but that is coming up shortly post monsoon. Till then the journey continues and I will be back with a new destination. Stay tuned for more.
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