A passage through time

04 May 06
Another trip for my trusted car... A little tougher this time.
I have tested its endurance by taking some long trips, but this one is slightly more tougher. Ooty, via Mysore, Bandipur. A bit of hesitation was there initially, but got it cleared with people who did it before, and my car gladly agreed to that(As if I ever gave it a choice)

Reached Bandipur around noon, and was eager to see some real wildlife. Ananya was eager to see the "Bambi forest" for a while, and I promised to take her to Bambi today. As I approached Bandipur, assured her that there would be Bambi and his friends in this forest. Forest looked much greener than my previous visit last year, thanks to some good monsoon the previous season.
As soon as I entered the forest, a mangoose crossed my way. my first glimpse of some wild life, and a lot of brids, even though it was mid day, there were some nice birds, drongo, barbet, etc greeted me, tried getting a couple of them, but not very good angles for photo shoot, as I was not aware of things to expect ahead, I didnt stop and decided to go ahead, enjoying the surroundings and viewing birds rather than trying to capture them. Then came a Bambi, followed by few others.

Driving along the highway, with a few taxi zooming past us, I was enjoying the drive through the forest just checking if I will lucky to find something, Tiger would be next to impossible, in the middle of day, Elephants, there is a possibility, but you need to be lucky, I was expecting just some deer, or a peacock or two, just as were driving along, Jyothi said, can we be lucky today to find some elephants, suddenly I found something along the left side of the road. Yes 3 adult, and a baby elephant along the side of the road, enjoying some tree as a snack. I stopped the car at a distance followed by another car behind me, while I try to get my telephoto aimed to the elephants, a bit sceptical if I should open the door, and try to get a shot, this other guy behind me got down the car, got close to the elephants and took a couple of shots and posed for a photo with elephants behind him. I was amazed at the courage/stupidity of this guy trying to get so close when there is a baby in the herd.

Entering Tamilnadu, Mudamalai looked more greener than Bandipur, and the distance for Ooty is some 80+ kms, and as soon as I reach Masinagudi, the board reads Ooty 36 kms, There are 2 options now, either take the longer route of 70 kms which have more buses, and may not be very good, and a shorter route, half the distance 35 kms, I heard from Kousik that there are 36 hair pin bends, I just took this shorter route, as Kousik has already covered that route. This route looked pretty good till Thepekadu, and beyond, a Sambar stag greeted and slipped back into forest near Thepakadu, and I was moving on pretty good. Lot of birds, and I was wondering where are the hair pin bends, and then came the real challenge. The board read 36/36 hair pin bends, I was aware that there are 36 hair pin bends, but didnt know that we would cover 5000 ft in 36 bends and 20 kms. After a couple of turns, it gave a glimse of the challenge, and my trusted little car took that in its stride, and successfully completed it, with a break between turn number 18-20

Ooty was very crowded being the peak season with holidays for kids, but the place is gifted with nature. It has been a really long time of what I remember sleeping without a fan during this time of the year.

As I travel back from Ooty, there is a Bharat Petroleum petrol bunk on the outskirts of Ooty towards Mysore road, which said, "Fill up your fuel here, you will pay more in Karnataka"
I will follow next time my friend, I will up just enough to reach neighbouring state if I am crossing any border.

This is a picture taken on my return journey in Mudamalai, TN