Coonoor Calling

I am bored, and what I do best when I am bored is write, write blog-posts. Also, I keep promises. As I promised this blog is about the Coonoor Trip, the trip which was planned long back and yet when it was about to start, there were so many issues. Anyway, learnt a lot of lessons from this trip which I will try to share with my readers as well. It was long since we went on a trip and it was long I had taken any good pictures. A good photographer always have to travel, that is what my opinion is. The plan was super, we will go by bus to Ooty and then catch the narrow gauge train to Coonoor. I do not like Ooty much as it is always crowded and as a result is very dirty. The last time I was in Coonoor was as a part of a package tour where just one day was allocated for Coonoor. I loved the place and wanted to be there again. We looked for trekking routes, but they are very less documented (or available online). So, the plan was just to roam around the places in Coonoor on foot. The group was of five this time. After taking everyone’s permission I booked the tickets in KSRTC bus, both to and fro, from Ooty. It was a long weekend and since we were booking pretty early, we got the seats easily. But then, when you have people with frivolous attitude in your team, it is difficult. The day before we were starting one guy was convinced that he was going on Sunday; Bangalore-Coonoor-Bangalore in one day! Dude, there is something called Google Maps!

Lesson 1: Never consider people with tongue-in-cheek attitude for your plans. Only plan with serious people or gentlemen (man of one word J).

Then the problem of ticket cancellation. It seems tickets booked from KSRTC online are not eligible for partial cancellation, and we did not want to take the risk of cancelling all our lovely seats. So the only option was to find someone at the bus stand without a ticket (very uncertain, but possible in India).

Lesson 2: If you do not want to follow Lesson 1, book tickets in bus via the KSRTC counters/shops, they allow partial cancellation.

And we started, and yet another problem. Long weekend, and Bangalore is teeming with migrants, so everyone was going home. And on top of it, India was in the World Cup Cricket finals; as a result, more people were going home (to enjoy the finals with family, cricket is a religion here, and the WCC finals is like a great celebration). The end result, KBS/Majestic was crowded and even all the roads leading to the bus station was crowded. We had to walk/run for about 3 KMs to reach the bus station only to wait again for 2 hours for our bus. In all the commotion, the bus was not able to find its way into the station, so we were escorted by the driver to the bus and I thank him for not forcing into the station cause then we would have never came out. Also, there were some construction work going on in KBS and so platform 7 is shifted beside platform 22 (or was it 24??).

Joy Ride

Amidst all the problems, the bus started finally, and we were on a roll. The KSRTC Volvo (Airavat) buses are ok types, though I felt that this one was a bit old. It was already late, we skipped dinner (just had biscuits) and slept off. Though  the bus started late, we reached Ooty by 7:30 am in the morning. The train was at 10:15 am, so we had lot of time to waste. Thankfully the station was deserted and we got a few good snaps. The  morning in Ooty looked quite different, calm and peaceful, with horses going here and there, much different from the usual crowded and dirty look to which I was used to. We killed time by visiting the lake (though we were not allowed near the lake), and feeding crows and monkeys.

When the train arrived, we were a bit disappointed as the engine was a diesel one, and we were expecting the old steam engine. But I was happy with the seats as it was the last compartment, which means we will get the full train to shoot when it goes though the curves which it will many times during the journey. The three other passengers were foreigner ladies with cameras and lot of stories to share. They were talking so much that I can write a full post about their discussion (yes, that means I was also listening very attentively!). The train journey was just awesome, the small train travelling through the curves and tunnels of Nilgiris. Nice views of the tea gardens and lots of photo opportunities. We reached Coonoor in an hour, took a big auto to Hotel Vivek.

Hotel Vivek is quite a popular hotel here, the only hotel which has many rooms and is reasonably priced. It is near the Bedford circle, and provides nice view of the valley if you are in the right room. We quickly freshened up and went for lunch. As mentioned in all the reviews of Hotel Vivek, the restaurant was nice, though it said “Multi Speciality”, but the food was good and correctly priced. After lunch, we took out our cameras and went walking nearby. The area around the hotel is nice, as there are no other hotels nearby. We went to a tea garden shooting some birds and tea leaves. We made it back soon as the final match was about to start. But, I guess we were very tired and I felt asleep in the first few overs of the match. Realized that the sleep you get in a bus is actually an illusion and you do not actually get the rest, but is it much better than driving a car since you have to be fully alert in that case.

By evening, we were recharged, and went out to get some snacks during the half-time. Being a town on the hills, it looked like no one was interested in the cricket match. I can be sure that at other places, everything would have been shut down and the roads deserted. The second innings was interesting (we hardly watched first innings) and was good with the different types of fries that we brought in. And at the end of it, we won. Not much of celebrations here, I just called my dear ones and congratulated them. There was already a party going on in the hotel lawns, so a few shouts there, but we did not get dinner. Well that was not much of a trouble as we were full with the snacks. The day ended on a happy note, victory is always sweet.

Daisies

The next day was our big program, we woke up early and proceeded to Sim’s Park as planned (it is 1 Km from Bedford Circle). But it was closed and will open after 9 am, so we decided to give it a miss. We walked back to Bedford circle and asked here and there, and started our walk towards Dolphin’s Nose. The road was good, motor-able, we were not the only folks who were walking, many other morning-walkers were also there. It was early and thankfully there were not many vehicles around. We walked under the nice sun, amongst the tea estates. In one of the tea gardens, we met a group of bisons. It was amazing to see those huge animals grazing in the tea gardens, and we were over-excited and ran along them with our zoom lenses. It was a bit scary, the huge alpha-male was looking at us time and again, but after some time it understood that we stand no match against his big horns, and so it decided to rest amidst the tea bushes. But the Mothers were as anxious, and did not let us away from their gaze for one minute. After a lot of photographs of tea-eating bisons, we moved forward. The weather was lovely and the views were awesome, the walk was tiring yet refreshing. We passed small villages mostly populated by the workers in the tea gardens. A bus was also plying on the road and we had already decided to board it on the way back.

We had tea near the “Sleeping Lady” viewpoint. We could not see the sleeping lady as it was still foggy, we did see the lady while coming back, but the place was very crowded by then. We walked, rested, shot and again walked. The roads were winding, sometimes uphill, sometimes downhill. The crowd increased as the day progressed, most travelers stay in Ooty and come to Coonoor for a day trip. Few people were enthusiastic to see us, and asked our whereabouts, yes with 3 DSLRs, 2 tripods, many lenses and woodland shoes, we were looking like members of some photography and hiking club.

In the jungles there, we saw what was most unexpected, a (actually two) giant red flying squirrel. The first time I saw, I thought it was some soft toy, but then when it started jumping around from one tree to another, I was very excited. It is not always that you see these rare animals in their natural habitat. We waited long to get some good photos, but they were shy. We moved forward. After 12 Km of walk, we reached Dolphin’s Nose. It is a viewpoint, but you cannot see any Dolphin anywhere. We were famished and thirsty. The bread-omelet and chilly bhajji tasted awesome. By now, we were fully tired and we can never walk all the 12 KM back. The bus comes every half hour, but start a bit uphill. We had a bit of time, so just lazed around, seeing people searching for dolphin’s nose in the valley; some theory was floating that we were actually on top of the dolphin’s nose, but didn’t hold good. At about 3:30 pm we walked back, uphill. There was a bus stop, we waited there. Clouds were gathering, so I packed my camera in its protective cover, and waited. The bus came quite late and thankfully we got seats. Then I fell asleep.

Flying Squirrel

When it rained and when we passed Bedford circle, I don’t remember. We reached Coonoor bus stand and decided to get down. It was drizzling, and the weather was fit for more pakodas and bhajjis. We packed parathas, omelets and bhajjis again, and took the same big auto to our hotel. After gorging on the food, we slept. The evening was a lazy one, took a walk around the town. Since it was a Sunday, many shops were closed. And no other restaurant looked tempting, it was the Green View Restaurant in our Hotel where we went for dinner. The restaurant was better now, and like everyone said on various reviews, the food was good, again.

The final day was a bit lazed one. Legs were not paining as much as I thought it would. Called up a cab driver (whose number we got from the hotel reception). He would take us to a tea factory, and then to Ooty for Rs. 700/-. Yes, it was costly, but when the car came and it was a Manza, I stopped complaining. After checking out, and having a heavy breakfast, we were on the way to tea factory. It was nearby, some factory, open to visitors. The tea valley view was nice, a lot of photography there. Then we went to see the CTC (Crush, Tear, Curl) process inside the factory. Though I am not at all a fan of CTC tea, the inside was interesting. The smell of fresh tea leaves was intoxicating. The process was quite simple, no doubt the tea leaves are cheaper. Then we did a bit shopping, Masala Tea, Spices, and Chocolates (Black Currant and Rum & Raisins).

The bus was on time and left sharp at 2:45 pm. I was able to sell the return ticket too and was happy. Then the bus conductor started distributing plastic bags, I thought it was for the waste papers and packets, but no, it was kinda airsickness bag! And really it was very useful, the bus was twisting and turning like a roller coaster and imagine riding a roller coaster for 2 hours! Everyone was doing it, I was feeling dizzy in the head, and was thanking our decision to not have lunch before boarding. We were trying to sleep, but it was really difficult. Finally, when we reached the plains, it was a great relief. The rest of the journey was very monotonous, except a few wild elephants in Bandipur, nothing happened. We saw three comedy movies and reached Bangalore KBS at 9:30 pm. Then took a super-fast auto and reached BTM by 10:30 pm, had our dinner at Tandoor Palace and were back to home by 11:15 pm. I was asleep even before I hit the bed!

PS: Thanks Achintya for the photographs from Flickr.