Right Place Right Time

Last weekend I spent traveling around the Nilgiri’s in Ooty and Coonoor…
It was raining heavily along the entire western coast. And till a few days ago we had news of heavy rains in Ooty. So while planning the trip we had totally different expectations. But on the way as we were closing in on Ooty we realized the fallacy of our assumptions. No encounters with rain.

It was early morning 3 00 when we reached Ooty. The temperature was very low and after a journey of 8 hours, we were just willing to get into the cottage and sleep.

The Rain had its effect on the city…. It was remarkably fresh… when we come to Ooty in summer… even though the city has pleasant whether, it is not fresh… everything is dusty. This time everything was real fresh and it had obvious impact on the overall mood… a feeling of being full of energy…

Even though this was a short duration trip, we were behaving as if we had come for a long duration. Usual scenes of getting up late and no enthusiasm for exploring the new place. First thing that we did was to play cricket rather than roaming around the city.

Coonoor was breathtaking as usual… every time u go…. Every angle you see those gardens give a equally stunning view… and then combine this with the clouds of a rainy season. And I have no words for the view…

From Coonoor we traveled back to Ooty by the toy train. Again it was a fascinating experience.

We returned back to Ooty by around 6 30 pm and after that all we did was shoping for vegetables and then Mission Cooking…. From 7 15 till 11 00 we were after cooking only. We struggled for 4 hours just to prepare one vegetable, some rice, few roti’s and some pakode. I really wonder what if someone’s mother was present with us… she would have prepared food for all within an hour that too single handedly….

The next day morning we visited DoddaBetta… the highest peak in the Nilgiri’s…
The travel towards the peak was more interesting than the peak itself…. I will never forget that travel through the forest literally “filled up” with clouds.

From doddabetta after spending some time in the Botanical garden, we were on our way back to home. This time we took a different route to Mysore through the jungles of Mudumalai and Badipur… with hope of spotting some wild animals…

Here we came across a classic example of how we are intruding into the lives of these animals. We spotted a place where a few vehicles had stopped along the road. Expecting some wild animal, we too joined them. It was an Elephant. It watched us for some time and after it was so irritated with all the vehicles that it simply attacked us. All the vehicles had no option but to run for safety. It was a big elephant easily capable of turning a car upside down…

This was not my first trip to Ooty… I had visited this place three times before but still I like to come here again and again. I just love that smell of the Eucalyptus trees that fills up the entire valley and those tea gardens of Coonoor

As compared to all previous trips this was a more stereotype typical family kind of picnic. Thanks to all families we had in the group. We typically did all the things that we encounter on such occasions.

Right from the delay’s in getting up early and the time pass after that to the great ceremony of cooking food. On the first of picnic instead of getting ready fast, we spent time playing cricket. Same thing next day also…along with the cooking episode where we wasted precious time that we could have utilized for exploring the city…

Overall it was being at Right place… Right Time… But not in so right company….