Botanical Gardens, Dodda Betta, Shooting Medu
Dodda Betta is 8km from Ooty Botanical gardens. Though the vehicles
reach till the peak of the hill, people also prefer to walk to reach
Dodda Betta peak. When we went there, we were welcomed by the traffic
jam. So, after parking the vehicle some way behind, we climbed the hill.
Dodda betta peak also has asphalted roads. 
Wondering what is it all
about, this was our arrangement to make sure that everyone in our group
gets to enjoy the travel in Nilgiris Heritage train from Coonoor to
Ooty.
Nilgiri Heritage Train, Ooty
Nilgiri Heritage train (also
called Nilgiri Toy train) from Mettupalyam arrives at Coonoor at 10 30
am and departs from there at 10 40 am. Tickets for the train are issued
only half an hour before the departure.
Anticipating the rush for
tickets, two of us stood in the queue as there was a restriction that
only 4 tickets will be issued per person. There were 2 types of seats - I
class and II class, priced at Rs.76 and Rs.3 per person.
We had bought
tickets for I class, but did not find any drastic differences between
the classes - each row of I class seats had 4 seats and II class row had
5 seats. Apart from that, I class seats were little more cushioned than
the other.
Train Entering a tunnel
Coonoor railway
station officials arranged for another small train starting from Coonoor
which left at 10 45 am. Journey in the train which passes through
tunnels, travels in middle of hills, was a nice experience though I
would not term it as great. May be the hype around it created lot of
expectations in me. In this journey, we took snaps of the landscapes of
Ooty and of course, of the heritage train. I also shot several videos of
the train travel, which eventually made me run out of camera batteries.
Train travel was just over an hour, thus reaching the Ooty railway
station at 11 50 am.
Train on bridgeOoty Lake :
We
had visited the Ooty lake on Day 1 of the trip in the evening. After
hearing from boating co-ordinators that we need to wait for an hour for
our turn, we dropped the idea of boating there. When Heritage train was
reaching Ooty, we could spot the famous lake. After purchasing some
books at Higgin Bothams at Ooty Railway station, we headed towards Ooty
Botanical Gardens after picking the four wheeler, we had parked in Ooty.
Ooty Lake
As it was a Sunday, entrance of famous Ooty Botanical Gardens was
crowded. Ooty botanical gardens was full of trees of various heights,
flowers of various colors and people from various backgrounds! Well,
this makes an ideal picnic spot for family crowd. My camera batteries
dried up after taking few snaps of the place. Now, only Nidhi's camera
was operational.
Ooty Botanical Gardens
Dodda Betta
This
was a surpise for me as I had always imagined ground at peaks of hills
to remain natural. A telescope installed here, enables you to view the
distant Coonoor town from here. After Dodda Betta, we are returning back
to Bangalore, thinking thats the end of trip and no more places to be
visited. But soon after leaving Ooty, we got down at Kamaraj Sagar dam
and Shooting Medu. Realizing the difficulties in Kalhatti Ghat road, we
had now chosen the Gudalur route to reach Mysore.
Another view from Dodda betta
Kamaraj Sagar Dam
Also known as Sandynallah Reservoir, this apart from being a picnic spot, is also a good place of study for enviromentalists.
Kamaraja Sagar
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