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.

Wildlife calling

The time for yet another short holiday arrived. The last one was in August, but it seemed quite sometime back. I get excited right from the time, we finalize a place, the entire process of doing some research on the place, bookings, packing etc everything enlivens me. This time the place was Bandipur and we decided to stay at Country Club Wildlife Resort. This would be the first trip to a wildlife resort and were looking forward to some wildlife sights, roars at night etc.

Accommodation at Country Club

@ the pool

Set off from Bangalore at around 6.30 am on a foggy January morning.  We deviated from our usual breakfast stop and had our fill of masala dosa, chow chow bath and filter coffee at Shivalli, just next to KFC on Mysore Road. No more stops and we reached Bandipur by 1230. The staff was welcoming and very hospitable and were led to our studio accommodation. The rooms are decent, with a sprinkling of the flavor of the nature, with paintings of wildlife in the rooms and come equipped with a fire place, which alas is not operational. Quick lunch and some sleep, we were ready to step into the pool. 

Tree House

It was Saksham's first time at the swimming pool and he was not very comfortable, the water being quite cold. Anyways hope he gets to love water eventually. Later on we spent sometime watching a wildlife movie, which is shown every evening at the resort, played some Table Tennis (after a long time.. evoked memories from school), warmed ourselves around the bonfire and retired for the day.

The next morning we were supposed to be going for a trek\nature walk to the nearby Mangala dam. But then, it turned out to be too cold to venture out without sweaters\woolens. Its gets pretty cold in the wild, we knew, but thought we could brave it out, we could not :(. And moreover weren't we supposed to be on a holiday? So why wake up early???? Seeing the better side. The day was spent in some countryside exploration, there are a couple of villages near the resort and the afternoon was for the much awaited jungle safari.

There are two options for safari, either with the Govt that charges Rs 300 per head for 45 minutes + Rs 1000 for any digital camera or the resort arranges it with the Jungle Lodges and Resorts and charges Rs 1000/- per head for 2 hrs. We went in for the second options, all in hopes of sighting some wildlife. The bus spent 2 hours or a little more than that, but guess the wild animals sniffed out the presence of some city dwellers lurking around and decided to act pricey. So we had to be contented with hordes of deers, sambhars, a lone elephant,  a mongoose and lots of monkeys. Well morning safaris have better chances they say... but then you got to wake up early. The safari timings are 6-9 am and 3-6 pm.

Next day was turn to go to Himavad Gopalaswamy Betta housing the Krishna temple, which is believed to be covered with Hima(snow) all through the year. The place was chill even at 12 noon with cool breeze blowing in. The temple is accessible only between 8 am -4 pm, as it is said that there is presence of wildlife on the road during other time. This place is a nice drive of 25 kms from the resort.

Other places that one could visit from Bandipur are Mudumalai forest which has a wildlife safari on a elephant back(18 kms) or Ooty which is around 75kms away.

So as all good things come to an end, this holiday too came to end but not without an cherry on the icing, which came in the form of scrumptious Jowar roti meals at Kamat Lokaruchi on our way back. And planning for the next trip begins!!!!!!!!!!!!

*All photographs courtesy my dear husband