Mar 11 – 13, 2011
This trip to Coonoor was planned about 3 months ahead of the journey – truly an anomaly!! I had also booked my company guest house ahead of time. However, its also strange that the people who prompted such early planning dropped out of the trip at the last moment :) The gang of 5.5 (inclusive of a 1.5 year old baby) people started off our train journey with some yummy puris (courtesy Seetha), dosas n curd rice in true Madrasi fashion. Post Dec 2009, the gang of Shiv, Seetha, Navya, JK, Karthik & I once again joined in for a memorable trip.
Mar 11
We headed to Mettupalayam from where we were to hop on to the Toy Train or Heritage Train that plies between Mettupalayam n Ooty. It is not too much of an exaggeration if I claim that if he had trekked our entire journey, we would have reached earlier than the train. What was supposed to be a 3.5 hr journey extended to 6.5 hrs with us being totally famished towards the end. The first few stops led to Kodak moments but slowly changed into frustrating moments 2 hrs into the journey.
Thanks to our lovely cooks at the guest house, we got yummy lunch as soon as we reached. Like all other hillstations, our options for sight-seeing at Coonoor were a bunch of viewpoints. We visited a couple - Dolphin’s nose, Lamb’s rock. Both the places that we visited were devoid of crowd thanks to the late afternoon visits and enthusiasm of our driver who showed different facets of the location. We spent a good amount of time walking around, exploring, relaxing, clicking, singing (ahem… ), chatting at each of the viewpoints. I can still remember the bright purple flowers at Dolphin’s nose…
Night had set in by the time we were back for some hot onion bajji & egg bhurji. Its always nice catching up with old friends … there’s so much to talk and you don’t feel that its been ages since we connected. Our night melted away thus – talking!
Mar 12
JK, Karthik, myself & our driver (who backed up as the guide) set on a trekking expedition amidst some beautiful tea gardens. I can bet that the tea gardens offered the best pictures in a long time! The path was well laid out for most of our trek and we climbed up & down some hills before we reached the pinnacle. The intense, cold and gushing wind assured that we were up above the sea level truly in the arms of nature. We had carried a pack of sandwiches and munched on happily with the breeze for company. Traversing along the trekking path was easy but we covered a lot of distance and were totally exhausted. We left at 7.30 am and reached back for a late lunch around 2.00 pm… While we were busy trekking, Shiv & family went for a leisure visit to Sims Park; Navya was super thrilled with the flowers, trees and water around.
World Cup Cricket match between India & SA would engage us for the reminder of the day. Putting aside the exhaustion from the trek, we huddled up cheering and fearing for the men in blue. Navya offered the other dose of entertainment with her constant innocent acts. It was sad that we lost the match finally… but thankfully it dint bog us down much n we resumed into snacking + chatting for the night.
Just a week before our journey, JK had decided to shed his singlehood status…. and reinforced it time & again through his sudden escapades for hours together. His mobile escaped bursting out from the heat, thanks to the Coonoor cool weather.
Mar 13
I have never stayed in Coonoor in all my trips to Ooty and post this trip can vouch for the fact that Coonoor is a heaven compared to Ooty. Its sparsely populated yet has access to almost everything required; but most importantly, the weather is very pleasant. Coonoor is beautiful, with tea gardens enveloping the hills soothing your eyes as you move about. We had our return train in the evening and planned a quick trip to Ooty. On our way, we crossed Wellington – the army cantonment area and the locales looked majestic!!
We had little time in which we visited Pykara lake, Rose Garden and Botanical Garden. Boating at Pykara was fun; though we did not get to see the lake brimming with water thanks to our visit as late as March. Trust the place is lot prettier post monsoons. Rose Garden gave a new dimension to us this time. Rose garden was everything complete except roses. Suddenly they make you realize that your garden grasses are more pleasant than those dwarfed thorny bunch of dry sticks. What a difference the roses give them when they blossom. Life cannot be better understood! Botanical Garden was good but the crowd and time constraint ensured that we couldn’t enjoy it all. The mercury level at Ooty was significantly higher than Coonoor and the charm of the hillstation is lost. Trust the place has been commercialized beyond limits by now.
If you are in the southern part of the country and looking for a relaxed vacation, head to Coonoor – I recommend!!
Overall rating:
Priya’s rating: 6.5 / 10
Karthik’s rating: 7 / 10
Tips & Tricks:
1. If you ever want to try the Toy train for travel, ensure that you are loaded with snacks, books, cards and other means of entertainment.
2. Coonoor / Ooty temperatures are much more favorable in Oct – Feb; am sure the place is a treat to watch post monsoons
