Road trip from Perundurai to Ooty, Tamilnadu (#Perundurai_Ooty) in early January 2021.
My wife and I had been contemplating taking a short trip within Tamilnadu. We were sceptic about crossing the state borders because of the COVID-19 situation. On 1-1-2021 I was searching for resorts in Anaikatti and Ooty. Sterling Elk Hill at OOTY had a marvellous deal for our 2 nights/ 3 days so I booked it immediately. E-pass was required for Nilgiris District so I had booked that too.
I have been to Ooty plenty of times with my friends and familyI. However, this time was special because it was our first trip in 2021, the first trip in our Kia Seltos & I was driving by myself to a hill station for the very first time. On 5th January 2021 we set out for shopping all the essentials for the trips and we packed them at night just before going to bed. We planned to keep it as minimal as possible so we had all our essentials in one trolly.
Day 1
We started at 9.30 am and headed to Ganeshapuram (8kms off-course) to meet a friend of mine. We spent 30 mins in his house and left after a good brunch.
Our route : Perundurai - Avinashi - Annur - Mettupalayam - Baraliyar- Conoor - Ooty.
We stopped at Baraliyar for E-Pass check and that was it. No pitstops until we reached Sterling Elk Hill, Ooty. We checked in to a suite with a tremendous view that forced us to sit down and enjoy it. I even made a time-lapse of it. Check it out using the link below if interested.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmDDvHGjJFA
We refreshed ourselves and quickly set out for Domino's Pizza for a quick bite, did some shopping for dinner and headed back to the hotel by 6.30 pm. We planned to enjoy the activities in the resort but unfortunately, all the activities were shut due to the COVID-19 situation. Quite a bummer. I had prepared chicken for us along with which we ordered some other edibles from the resort’s restaurant and had a scrumptious dinner.
Day 2
We did not have an explicit plan on the places to visit. As the weather was foggy we planned to skip viewpoints. We started our day with 'Wenlock downs’ where we parked our car by the road and walked uphill, clicked some photos enjoyed the view. We spent about 30 mins on this spot
We had a refreshing cup of Ooty Tea and left to "Pykara waterfalls". Here we again parked our car by the road and walked for about 15 mins to the waterfall. The last time I had visited this place, it had a rocky path, was not maintained well, but now it was quite the opposite. We spent about 30 mins in this place and left back to the car. Electric shuttles were available to the car park and we took them to save some time.
It was lunchtime already and we had decided to go to "Earl’s secret" a popular restaurant in King’s cliff, Ooty. We had our lunch which was decent but had to spend about 2 hours due to delays in Service. However, I did have a good time as I spent it with my loved one.
It was 4 PM when we left the restaurant and we didn’t have many places in our mind to visit. We decide upon visiting St.Judes Public School and Junior College, Kotagiri, the school where I was a student once upon a time. The melodies of ARR kept us company in misty weather, the route was incredible and we appreciated it.
DAY 3
The weather outside made us want to crawl in our bed and never leave it, making the best use of room service; But unfortunately, that could not be the case since we had to check out. We went to a store near the Botanical garden and did some shopping. Typical stuffs that tourists buy, Oil, spices, Chocolates..etc. We had enough time to kill, so we went to the botanical garden, clicked on photos.
We started from Ooty and stopped in Conoor to get some “Varki” from Indian bakery, Conoor. It’s quite famous and much recommended. A.R.Rahaman’s melodies, foggy weather with drizzles and drive with my loved one; it was just perfect. We reached Mettupalayam by noon and decided to take a detour to Coimbatore to visit the Adiyogi statue.
We went to my cousin’s house, had good dinner over a good chat. We left to my home town at 8 Pm, reached home at 10.30 sharp and dozed off with great memorie
Source: Travelogue by Venkat Vignesh posted in Indian Roadie group on Facebook.
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* Tamilnadu Trails
Best resort near coimbatore
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