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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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.
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| @ Sathiyamangalam guest house |
Look forward
for more on my travel... decided to make many posts out of it
