A brief on my travel to Nilgiris

Kodiveri dam-falls, created by carving 20 foot wall of rock in 1125 AD

One week has passed since I came back from my travel to Nilgiris aka Ooty and its surroundings and it was about 2am when we reached home on Sunday (April 9). Begin on 3^rd April morning; we reached Kodiveri waterfalls by evening traveling about 450 km from Chennai via Salem ‘n’ Bhavani. It was very hot day and as we move close to Salem it turned terrific hot. Even the AC car couldn’t keep heat away completely and only thinking that we delayed the drive back home by wandering on hills until 2pm and leisurely dropped via Mettur ‘n’ Krishnagiri. I know the state has been going through historic drought but I still had hope there should be some water flow at Kodiveri falls come dam. And yes, there’s water more than what I expected and that surprise continued to flow throughout my travel.

The interior of our room

Though there were few disappointments when we tried to venture certain areas that I want to explore but the journey doesn’t went that way rather unexpected routes and doors opened for me. We had a comfort stay at the Nilgiris and just outside the Ooty town, called as Funcity, the area has handful of homestays and resorts but still quite calm always. Half a km inside from the Ooty-Coonoor main road, the couple of rooms we booked for 4 days (for 6 people) had beautiful views from the balcony overlooking the Elk Hill and fields of carrot and greenhouses. The interior of the rooms are very neat and spacious enough for 3 per room and well lit by led lamps. The travel wasn’t hurriedly and we moved around leisurely checking couple of places in Ooty and Coonoor apart a long drive to Upper Bhavani.

The view  from our balcony overlooking  Elk Hill

It was a long-time dream for me to check Upper Bhavani Dam. I have been to the backwater area of the Upper Bhavani (in 2011) traveling through the Avalanche forest and it was a great experience and sheer pleasure to venture the wilderness. Then, we had permission to drive up to Upper Bhavani dam but we turned back halfway as my parents hesitated to go deep into the wild forest. But that time visiting the dam doesn’t need permission to go via Kundha, which we tried this time and went up to forest check post and turned back as we denied entering the dam area due to the restriction  since some antisocial intruded the forest. When we tried to check the Pilloor Dam, while driving up to Ooty on the unusual road, we faced the same and the 3 check post we crossed had the photos on antisocial to mark the seriousness as well as warning.

A post shared by Jeevan Kumar (@jeevan.grp) on Apr 10, 2017 at 10:14am PDT

Tea plantations  and  pristine mountains  behind

By this travel I have covered the western side of the Nilgiris to the most but I still want to go there again sometime because the wealth of nature is abundant there and words could not describe the pristine I admire there. So far I haven’t written about the western catchment of Nilgiris and I believe people who are truly interested will seek information on available, alike me. And it is a great natural source of Tamil Nadu which needs to be preserved seriously and the forest officials are doing their best. Our stay at Sathiyamangalam, before heading to Ooty, was very convenient and guest house was spacious and disable friendly where I could come around the beautiful house in my wheelchair. Located on the bank of Bhavani River and canopy of trees create cool ambiance with birds frequent around.

@ Sathiyamangalam guest house

Look forward for more on my travel... decided to make many posts out of it