Trip to Ooty

On Independence Day 15-08-2018 planned a trip to Ooty,

Started from Chennai home at 6.30 am, it was raining, filled petrol in Shell pump and started towards ooty, traffic was sparse, did a prayer at Eraniamman temple vandalur. rain continued till paranur.

Next halt was at paranur, as usual queue of 15 vehicles, waited cleared then  crossed Tindivanam, a friend was supposed to come at Villupuram, sent a message to him, but he was at his office for Independence day celebration and didn't turn up, hence rushed villupuram reached ulundurpet,.

It was time for breakfast and thought of taking breakfast here but Aryaniwas was crossed and all restaurants were on the other side, moved and took right turn in to salem road and continued there was no sign of any restaurant, tea shop or habitation, reached veercholapuram toll plaza and stopped at the only restaurant available it was a small shack, but hunger took precedence, ordered Dosai and tea finished it within 20 minutes and started to Ooty.

Ulundurpet Salem road is a mix of 2 lane and 4 lane, 7 bypasses of 2 lane configuration come at every 10 to 12 kkm distance, for every 15 minutes road will change from 4 lane to 2 lane and it is a pain to travel on this road, no proper indication of 4 lane and 2 lane changes, few information boards are there, added to it so many barricades on the road, it has become a trend to place barricades on the road for no reason.

Reached Salem, sankagiri round about and took a left turn to take sangakiri road, this road is 4 lane continued towards chithode and made a stop at Texvalley,  the place advertises 1200 shops are there, in the rear complex many branded showrooms are there. Front house a low price version shops which also sell all textile goods but there is no known names. Spent 1 hour at texvalley did some purchase and left by 2.30 pm.

Reached perundurai junior kuppanna for Lunch, ordered Mutton biriyani and chicken pallipalayam, Biryani was satisfying, pallipalayam chicken was their signature item but that day the signature was a scribble i think.

After lunch started stopped at bhavani river to see the furious flow of water released from Mettur, it was 2 lakh cusec release on that day so river was flowing to  the brim, a delight to watch, soon police came and asked us to disburse.

Next halt was at Avinasi, as usual another friend was supposed to come here, but he also didnt turn up due to other work, so continued to Annur next halt.

A relative was to come from Coimbatore to annur to meet us, as they were running late filled petrol, reached Annur by 3.30 and waited, finally met the relative and started by 4 pm.

Rain started from mettupalayam onwards and continued the climb to Ooty, two govt buses were proceeding ahead without giving space to move followed them for 30 minutes and finally overtook at katteri, crossed coonor ketti and reached the place where the resort was located.

WIth the help of google and local enquiry took a wrong route and headed towards thalaikundah, after few minutes realised that it is a wrong route took a turn and came back to the start point, again enquired with the local, luckily the resort security accompanied to guide us.

The road, was it there, took a dirt road, filled with craters and water filled potholes deep enough to scratch the underbody, cursed the roads, the place and 20 minutes of struggle left us at the resort. with heavy rain welcoming us almost drenched us the luggage and all the surroundings. Weathermen had warned very heavy rainfall and it was there pouring heavily.

Checked in to the room and settled, dinner at the restaurant was not good in taste there was a buffet spread of many items but none of them were tasting good.

Next day 16-08-2018, went to the Ooty market and made purchase of bakery items, spices, home made chocolates,  again rain started pouring so returned to the room. Night dinner was also the same type.

The road, the location, the climate, the food all made us to wonder why at all to come to this place.

Quickly decided to check out the next day and started from the resort by 8.30 am. Previous day rain had caused tree fall and traffic was blocked fore many hours, fearing road block started from ooty, as usual rain accompanied us.

Reached coonoor and it was glorious sunshine after so many days, climbed and came down to mettupalayam and decided to visit Karamadai. there was no well marked sign boards to indicate the karamdai road, added to it due to some bridge work the road had a diversion and it went in to many bylanes.

After enquiring at so many places reached karamadai aranganathan temple, no rush was there the priests never cared or offered pooja, visited the temple prayed and came out.

Started back, at bhavani river there was a huge crowd, gathered to see the river flow, had to wait for 10 minutes to cross the bridge, reached salem by 2 pm and had Lunch at selvi mess, mutton biriyani was ordered, but only one was available, took one mutton one chicken biriyani the taste was okay.

Started from Salem by 2.30 pm and crossed ulundurpet by 4 pm, at last all the 2 lane 4 lane mix n match got over and entered NH 45 and oh what a relief, quickly crossed vikravandi, tinidvanam and paranaur.

Tinidivanam was crowded and took 20 minutes to come out. Next bottleneck was paranur with huge queue and bumper to bumper traffic made slow progress till tambaram and reached home by 7 pm.

Al toll plazas fastag  was working