Final day of our visit to Ooty and the surrounding places. The last day had been fantastic after the beautiful landscape views.

Today was early morning departure again to see the remaining places and also head back to Bangalore. We planned of seeing the unknown place of Billekkal around 20 km away from Ooty.
We went to Pankaj Bhojanalaya for another day’s heavy breakfast and this time it was even better.

We were little early to the restaurant and the city tourism was waking up slowly. The service was also very prompt with better tasting food than yesterday. After a heavy breakfast we went to see the famed Ooty Lake which seemed over hyped due to some movies being shot there. The lakes we had seen in the region of Red Hills were no comparison for this one. We quickly explored the area and headed forward to see out next destination.

The place of billekkal was unknown to almost everybody and we had a hard time getting to know of its where about. We descended down the Ooty hills and stopped at Kalahatty waterfalls to inquire further. It was again bad luck for us and we continued driving further down. We reached the entrance of Mudumalai forest and stopped to inquire from our friends at home. The cellphone network up in the hills was erratic with signals dropping unexpectedly.

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The day 1 of our trip was little hectic due to overnight travel and we had planned of keeping it light for traveling around the locations.

Today we had planned of going to Red Hills which is located around 20 km from Ooty and is known for its untouched environment and extremely beautiful valley and picturesque lake views. By 9:00 am all 4 of us were ready to start the journey. The morning was chilly with slight wind and green surrounding with dew drops shaping as pearls reflecting the first rays of sun rise. We went straight to Charring cross and looked for a breakfast destination.  We wanted to stuff ourselves with something heavy as we were not sure of the lunch meal. We found a local restaurant named “Pankaj Bhojanalaya” which is on the first floor right opposite Sidewalk café. It is not a very high level place but the food is very nice. It serves paranthas of different varieties and this is just what we wanted for the adventurous day ahead.

In an hour we started our journey to Red hills after gathering some information from the local people. Our driver had also not heard of this place and hence we needed some road directions as well apart from the places of interest. A good thing about the roads in the this region is that they are very clearly marked out with hair pin bends information, distances to destinations and other useful travel related information at regular intervals.

The route to Red hills started from Ooty to Read more

It was a hectic day as we had arrived in the city of Ooty the same day after an overnight journey. We found an old cottage which was inexpensive for 4 of us and also the feeling of staying in an old cottage was good. Tourists can choose amongst many types of accommodations on offer ranging from student’s accommodation, budget travelers to high end ones. If you can book the rooms/dormitories in advance it will help but I think you can easily find a place for yourself even at peak tourist rush seasons.

After a quick morning routine, we got ready and started the day heading straight to Coonoor which is around 30 km from Ooty main city. The first destination in Coonoor was SIMS Park which has trees dating back to 19th century. The park had mostly
families as visitors for picnics. There is a small lake for boating at the center of park for tourists to enjoy the lay drive of oared boats.. The park is on a hill slope and hence is maintained in steps. We spent close to an hour seeing all the different varieties of trees and the landscaping done for tourism. The entry fee for park is INR 10 per adult and INR 30 for a digital camera. Outside the park were small temporary shops setup for tea, coffee and snacks. We also had many fruits which seemed to be from trees inside the park.

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It was a beautiful winter day and an upcoming long weekend for a perfect weekend getaway to a close by hill station. We started the journey on Christmas day at midnight.

The destination was Ooty as the base and travel to the surrounding lesser known and unexplored places of Red Hills and the surrounding valley views. The drive to Ooty is around 300km from Bangalore and takes about 5-6 hours. We reached around 7:30 am due to the closure of roads at Bandipur national forest which remains closed from 11pm to 6 am. The wildlife in that region comes on roads and vehicles pose a threat to their habitat and hence the decision by state government.

The drive of last 50 km is through the hills and takes more than average time. There were 36 hairpin bends which were demarcated on the roads. There were also reflector mirrors to prevent any kind of accident from either side. Generally there is a view point in such places to allow visibility till far points. We reached at this place at 1350m altitude to see a milky layer of clouds just below our level. It was a nice view seeing half the mountains below this creamy layer and the top rising above it. Finally we reached the top at 1750m altitude as one of the road side boards reflected this number.

This is the setting up of an excellent 3 days ahead. Each day wil be posted as a separate blog post. stay tuned to experience the majestic and picturesque views. Restless readers can directly jump to the complete gallery here.

Day 1 experience

Day 2 experience – Red Hills

Day 3 experience

Just back from an excellent trip of Ooty and more specifically Red hills which is located around 30km from the main city.

The scenic landscape views are something which have made a photographic impression on my mind. The valley views were just breathtaking. There were many lakes which form the hill top were just majestic in the green environment surrounding them.

The photos has been published at my site on the travelmate section. You can view the complete GALLERY HERE.

A sample photo can be seen below

If you are looking to spend your holiday at this destination my experiences on different days might help you in the planning

Day 1 experience

Day 2 experience – Red Hills

Day 3 experience