“Hikes, boats, hills & tea plantations in Ooty” Emzbly’s photos around Ooty, India
Posted By: admin // Category: Hiking
A TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow of a travel blog to Ooty, India by TravelPod blogger Emzbly titled “Hikes, boats, hills & tea plantations in Ooty”. TravelPod is a company of TripAdvisor™.
Emzbly’s travel blog entry:
“We arrived in Ooty on Friday 12th February after a long and treacherous hair pin bus journey up to the hill station. It is not as I imagined and feels a little neglected and unloved. The place is teeming with groups of boys on holiday and Indian couples honeymooning. There is a theme park called “Jolly World” which doesn’t look very jolly but the lake is beautiful and once you get accustomed to all the staring and cameras being shoved in your face it is not too bad!
We were very lucky on our first day to meet Giri who is a manger at Hotel Darshan. He gave us some tips on the best places to see including Cairn Hill which isn’t in any of the guide books. Because it is off the tourist trail the walk to the top is tranquil and it was just us and the wild boars, barking deer and giant squirrels! At the top is a watch tower which we climbed to look out over Ooty and a small temple. The walk is one of the last surviving from the days of the “Britishers” and on the route are tablets inscribed with poems.
We walked to Fern Hill Palace from Cairn Hill (past a very scary couple of dogs whose owner used to live in Wembley Park). The palace hotel is incredible and very grand and you can imagine the Raj entertaining his guests on the lawn or in the hunting bar.
On Saturday we went to Coonoor on the Nilgiris toy train — it was quite busy on the way there and we had sat on the wrong side of the train for the views! The journey is breathtaking though as the train winds it’s way to Coonoor. At the station we met Abdul who offered to be our guide and took us around the sites of Coonoor. We visited ‘The Sleeping Lady’ (tenuously named as resembling a lady asleep), ‘Dolphins Nose’ (again not clear why!), ‘Catherine Falls’ and ‘Lambs Rock’. The sites were heaving with tourists and were therefore also littered and noisy. The monkeys were in their element though. We also visited a tea garden and Abdul explained that in the privately run factories, workers are given schooling, a house and 2 blankets as part of their pay deal.
That evening mum & dad rang and I was chatting to them outside the hotel when a bus load of muslim girls pulled up. They literally surrounded me and even though I was on the phone began to swamp me! The tourists in Ooty are keen to take photos of us and the day we went out on the lake, we were persued by men in boats with cameras!
On the last day we went for an 18km trek which took us through tea plantations, villages, forests and up to a peak that looked down over Mudumalai National Park. The views were amazing and our Guide also showed us a Todas temple with a tiny door where only small boys are allowed to enter for a sort of initiation ceremony. There were two other couples walking with us along with our guide and we stopped off in a village restaurant for some food at lunchtime. It was very very hot and we were overjoyed to see the car at the end (particularly Laura who covered herself in a shroud for most of the day)!
On Tuesday we caught the bus back down to Coimbatore, it was heaving and the bus conductor was a bit grumpy with us because of our bags — probably the longest 3 hours of my life.”
Read and see more at: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/emzbly/1/1266738025/tpod.html
Photos from this trip:
1. “Cairn Hill”
2. “Hiking!”
3. “Laura clinging to the watchtower”
4. “Monkey Bridge”
5. “One of the tablets”
6. “Tablet in the woods”
7. “At the top of the watchtower”
8. “Fern Hill Palace”
9. “Tea Garden”
10. “On the toy train”
11. “With Abdul at Dolphins nose”
12. “Monkey!”
13. “Overlooking the National Park”
14. “Todas Temple”
15. “On the hike”
16. “Laura’s shroud to avoid the sun”
17. “Walking through the tea plantations”
18. “Hike”
19. “On the lake”
20. “Comandeering our boat”
21. “With the lovely Giri”
22. “Lake!”
23. “Our hotel”
See this TripWow and more at http://tripwow.tripadvisor.com/tripwow/ta-00bb-b0b8-75c6?ytv4=1
Duration : 0:2:38
This is a segment from the film Life with an Indian Prince. In 1939 two young Americans traveled to India to experience the falconry practices of Indian royalty and to photograph and film wildlife for National Geographic. In addition to hunting with birds of prey, members of the royal party used to hunt with cheetahs. This sport and way of life has disappeared into history. This rare footage is quite unique, and most probably the only of its kind.
Wolves Fishing