The Bangalore-Ooty Road trip!

PART 1 - the journey!

The Chariot: Red Chevy Spark, 1.1L Petrol
The Knights(or knightesses?):Michelle , Sudipta, Komal
The Date:15th August 2008,Friday 0700 hrs
The Mission: A Road Trip to Remeber
The Distance: 300 kms (one way)
The Route: Bangalore-Bidadi-Ramnagaram-Channapattana-Maddur-Mandya-Mysore-Nanjangud-Gundlupet-Bandipur-Mudumalai-Theppekaddu-Masinagudi-Kalatti-Ooty !!

On the break of dawn, while Bangalore sleeps, 3 zealous women awaken to embark upon a trip they would like to tell the world about.

Now that I am done with the 'start with a bang' effect, lets get to the details.
After 2 days of frantic search for accomodation and last minute lists and preparations, my rommies and I left towards Maratahalli! Not that it was part of our bizarre plan, it was a desperate necessity. You did not think that we could go on such road trips without a camera! No, I still do not have my SLR , and neither did I have my C702 then. So we had to wake up sleepy head Nigel, after travelling in the opposite direction, to borrow his camera for the trip. Once the last item on our check list was ..well..checked..we finally drove towards Mysore Road at 0700!

Since it was infact India's Independence Day, we were feeling patriotic and so "Maa Tujhe Salaam' played in a loop for a while in the car. The goosebumps never stop do they!

The NICE Road was as usual the start of a beautiful journey. Sudi was at the wheel!

First Stop was MTR,Maddur for breakfast, and it was one of the most delicious breakfasts!Lovely,crisp medu vadas and idli sambar! And of course, can't do without my chai. A couple of muffins were bought from the adjacent CCD to oblige to the use of its certain services.

With souls refuelled, we were off for an ambitious drive!Next stop,Bandipur. The SH7 did little to slow us down.The bypass takes you through less developed areas and MSIL. With the Chamundi Hills in far distance, and an old roadstone marking our destination, we could not resist shooting some "Jab we Met" snaps! Well that's what my roomies baptised them as!

At this junture , I took over the wheels for a non stop drive to Bandipur.At least that is what we thought.It was close to 10am. Little did we know that the stretch through Gundulpet would go through innocent country side with blue mountains, lust green fields and bright yellow sun flowers! Absolutely heart warming!! Happy locals and Happy us!

A small interjection to point out that the scenic sights were arrived on terrible roads. Thankfully it is a small stretch and there seems to be evidence that repairs are imminent.

Stop at CCD just before Bandipur ,I could not resist a cool ice tea in the pristine breeze. After freshening up, and driving through some irritating traffic we entered the Bandipur National Forest. The roads winds through tall and full bamboo groves of the most delightful green colour.The steady drizzle only wanted to make our hearts sing. The rhythmic,lone sound of the wipers brushing against the glass almost made us hear lullabys. No heards of elephants greeted us but we were not very disappointed.


The state border stared at us in a distance!The territory of Tamil Nadu beckoned us with a completely different flora. The inspector questioned us on our source. Surely he had seen 3 girls on a road trip before! The lady officer seemed proud of us!

The Mudumulai National forest is more of a deciduous forest dominated by tropical trees like Teak. Ooty is 17kms from here through Masinagudi.However since the last stretch is a climb through Kalatti Ghats and its numerous hair-pin turns the time taken is a little less than an hour.

Ooty charms you. The houses,the streets and without a doubt, the weather and the tall pine trees with tops covered by thick fog. The drizzle continued. Its pleasantly cool. At 1pm, we had arrived at our destination:Ooty,a hill station that has attracted weary urbanites to its cozy laps of tea estates and lakes. Will the journey that had so livened our spirits be ousted from its position as the best part of the holiday by a hill station balancing its charm with the growth demand of a developing India full of getaway-thirsty sapiens?

Find out, in Part 2: Ooty - the 24hr stay!