In the second week of May, we went on a camping trip to Conoor/Ooty with my parents and my brother’s family. We drove in two cars and the kids had fun. On our way there, we stopped in Mysore for a day. We took the kids to the zoo, visited Chamundi temple on the hill and saw the palace lit by night. The kids would have enjoyed a visit inside the palace, but there was no time for that.
We left Mysore early next morning and drove to Ooty. Beyond Bandipur National Park, it is a beautiful drive. We saw some deer and elephants. The ascent to Ooty thru narrow winding roads was quite breath taking. We even did a small hike to a hill top when we took a break from the driving. The first day at the camp, we just relaxed after the fairly long drive. It was my niece’s birthday, so we bought a cake and had a small celebration. She also distributed toffees to all the campers. Tents and the camping experience were very new to my parents and brother’s family. It was organized by the Youth Hostel and was a decent experience. According to PK, this is luxury camping in many ways – tents are pitched and ready, they provide mattresses, blankets and pillows and food is ready when you need it. One negative was the hot water for showers. Very slow and long lines to get a bucket of barely luke warm water. The bathrooms were clean but were woefully inadequate in number, especially in the mornings. But the best thing was the weather. It was so much cooler than Bangalore and was very pleasant through out our stay.
The next day we drove back to Ooty and did a whole day of sight seeing. We visited Doddabetta first. Again, the drive up is very scenic. It was crowded and finding parking was hard. We didn’t stand in line for the telescope. But the views from the top were awesome. Next stop was Ooty lake. Finding our way here, the 2 cars lost each other and we ended up in different boat houses of the lake (it is a fairly big lake). We were trying to get back together, but weak cell signals, dead batteries etc prevented that. So we each had lunch separately and went on motor boat rides. The lake was quite breath taking – one of the most beautiful I have seen in India and it was very clean too. After that, we found each other and headed to the Botanical garden. This was VERY crowded. By now, everyone was pretty tired too and not in a mood to walk around much. It had been over 40 hours since we had coffee and were desperately looking, but couldn’t find it anywhere. Tea is the most prevalent and was the only thing served at the camp and in most other places. Around 5, we started back to our camp in Conoor. The drive from Ooty to Conoor is very scenic but is also very slow. It takes almost 45 minutes to an hour depending on traffic, for the 19 km drive.
Next day was all day sight seeing of Conoor. Conoor is much prettier than Ooty. Main places to see are Lamb’s rock, Dolphin’s nose, Sims park and tea gardens and factories. First stop was Lamb’s rock. The way is not very well marked, and whatever few directions are there have been tampered with by antisocial elements. These guys want to be your “guides”. We reached there, did a small hike, took some pictures. Next stop was going to be Dolphin’s nose. While driving from here, a Swaraj Mazda banged into us and our rear right wheel got tangled with his front right wheel. It was quite an effort to untangle and our bumper tore in the process. It was quite a scary experience. None of us were hurt but the kids and I were sad to see the damage to the car. Since this was on a narrow road with dozens of switch backs we didn’t get to hang around and calm ourselves down, so we continued with the day’s agenda. Dolphin’s nose view point and the drive to get there is absolutely mind-blowing. But parking is a disaster and the very narrow winding roads and the abundance of tourist buses, minivans, taxis makes driving very hazardous in my opinion. So I couldn’t quite fully enjoy the scenery around because of the heart-in-mouth driving experience. We went back to the camp, had lunch, enjoyed the solitude (only our group) and went back again around 5 pm to Sims park. We enjoyed this park much more than the botanical garden. Many different types of flowers/shrubs and there was a huge kids play area. We also enjoyed paddle boating. Outside the park, we finally got the coffee we were all craving for a few days now.
The next 2 days was a light agenda. The kids had wanted to ride the toy train from Conoor to Ooty. We had heard that it would get very crowded, so we went for the very first trip in the morning, at 7.30 am. But this was crowded too because of commuters. And the price difference between general and first class tickets is very huge, so for big groups, it makes a difference. We reached Ooty by 9 and were at a loss for what to do. Because the whole point of the trip was the train ride. Most sights worth seeing in Ooty, we had already seen. And at 9 am, many would just start to open. Reluctantly we went to the rose garden, and were vindicated. The reluctance was totally justified. There were a few varieties of roses, but they were not the healthy, in-full-bloom kinds. They were all wilted and withering and looked pathetic. We must have been there a total of 20 minutes or so. By then the crowds also started streaming in and we promptly made our way towards the exit. We didn’t have the patience to wait around for the train schedule, so we just took a bus back to Conoor. After lunch, we left SK and my niece with mom and went for a walk in the adjacent tea garden. We also visited a working tea factory. It was a good walk and just after we returned, it poured heavily for ½ hr. We made it back just in time.
The next morning, we left early since we had a whole day of driving. We wanted to do a wild life Safari ride on the way. Rides were closed in Mudumalai because of an elephant census and on Bandipur side we reached just past closing time for morning safari rides. We reached Mysore around noon and had a great lunch (jolada rotti oota) at Kamat Madhuvan. We were back home by 5 pm and had the whole weekend to recuperate and catch up on chores around the house.
Summarizing the camping experience:
- + Availability of blankets, pillows and mattresses were all a big plus. Sleeping bags are not very comfortable to sleep on for 4 nights!
- + Availability of hot Food and packed lunch facility was a A +, so that we didn’t have to always hunt for decent eateries wherever we were at lunch time.
- + Bathrooms were clean, even if very basic.
- - It was bit crowded (~25 families). Smaller group would have been much more enjoyable even if it costs more per family.
- - The number of bath rooms, buckets and mugs were terrible. There was always a wait for everything.
- - The hot water for showers – Very slow and long lines to get a bucket of barely luke warm water.
- - Safety – there were reports of some thefts etc.
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