An unexpected holiday to the Niligiris

I was sad as Saju left for Jakarta on a long trip and this call from my chilhood friend Suchi inviting me to a holiday at Masinagudi couldn't have come at a more opportune moment. I jumped at the prospect of going on a holiday all by ourselves,of course our kids could'nt be left behind. This was something I had never done before.
We left Bangalore around 10 and there was peak holiday traffic on Mysore road. A breakfast stopover at Mac Donalds and we reached Mysore. There was a confusion on which road to take after reaching the Columbia Asia junction, I am always used to taking a right turn there and take the ring road to reach the ooty road near the mysore airport. This time we took a left and roamed through the city and reached the highway. Quick south indian lunch at Gundlupet and we were set for the forests.
It was just after the rains and the entire stretch of Bandipur forest was green and fresh. As we passed through we were on the look out for some wild animals, but as usual we could spot only deers and monkeys. After the Bandipur forests, we entered the Tamilnadu, end of the same forest, known as the Mudumalai.  Our destination Masinagudi, is just around 17 kms from Mudumalai. The winding road is a pleasure to drive with forests and the Nilgiris in sight.
We were booked in at the Zest Casa Deepwoods, a branch of the Club Mahindra holidays. The property is almost at the end of the road in the Masinagudi town. The town is a small place made famous by the tourists. However,  the place has still maintained its freshness. The surroundings are pristine, close to the famous Nilgiris. The imposing mountains are just lovely. The resort is located almost at the foothills of nilgiris. As any Mahindra resort, the ambience is kept as natural as possible. The resort is not very big in size and may have around 10 cottages I feel. A lovely feature of the resort is a stream that flows on one end of the property, though it is not a part of the property. It is just nice to spend sometime there, especially in the mornings. There are some stream facing cottages, they must be nice to stay.
There is nothing much for sightseeing at Masinagudi.  Most people visit Ooty which is just around 28kms away or take a elephant  safari at Mudumalai . We just drove towards Moyer dam, but couldn't find it, so we stopped near a temple, which was near a canal of the dam. With two kids constantly bickering, there is not much one can focus on exploring. We had some burgers etc at the only decent looking place, I do not remember the name of the restaurant though.
The resort doesn't have much to do in terms of activities, some two hammocks,  a badminton net and an unoperational swimming pool is all they have. They have some activies for the kids like finger painting etc. So we thought that would keep the kids occupied and we booked ourselves for a traditional massage. The resort people couldn't keep the kids occupied for 10 minutes and they were back, knocking at the doors. Nevertheless,  the massage was also nothing great and I felt as if we bathed in oil.
The next day, we checked out in the morning after breakfast. Masinagudi is an apt location for relaxation in midst of some sylvan surroundings. The combination of weather, sunny mornings and cool evenings also give a soothing touch. There are ample number of farm stays and resorts at Masinagudi, suiting budgets of all ranges. Enjoy the fresh air and the laid back atmosphere.