Masinagudi Trip
The plan to get away was soaking for a long time but it took the "spirit of energy" to execute it . Late evening a month back , we jumped up and down , scrambled websites for fares , booked tickets for onward and return in a jiffy and then got ourselves winded to get the accommodation and transportation done . Over time as the date of the journey became nearer , one member backed off due to school commitments of his daughter ( how much we missed him and his tender care for children was evident during the trip ) . As you go through the link to the photo album , you know who made the trip and who did not ( guess out ).
This was my first trip past Ooty .. It was a nice drive down from Ooty to get to the terrain of the jungle. Masinagudi is just before the point where the Mudhumalai Forest Sanctuary begins. ( It is on the Ooty Mysore Road and you can get in from Mysore as well )For those who are not comfortable with the drive up or down the hills , there are 36 hairpin curves down the road from Ooty over a four kilometre stretch to get to normal terrain as you drive to Masinagudi. There are close to nine resorts on the lane that is off the main road that leads to the Masinagudi town . The resorts are closer to the foot of the hill and the view of the hills from the resorts is breathtaking.. Sometimes the hill tops are visible .. Most times either a cloud cover or a thick mist prevents visibility and these views are terrific.
We choose to stay in DeRock -- (They call themselves living in the Jungle and it is true in some ways) Why because it was recommended by a colleague who went there a few weeks before us . It is not easy to get to the resort without a capable transport due to its positioning on a hilly terrain. Only Jeeps can climb up and once inside the resort , you are at the mercy of the resort with no quick get away possible. But the resort itself is great with great space to roam around and with a good restaurant . The Cottages which we stayed had three rooms which each family of the three travelling families occupied. They were neat and spacious and comfortable and cosy. We missed the TV channels , the newspapers but had to put up with availability of mobile network that allowed email traffic.. The food is very good at the resort. Prices may pop your eyes but in terms of the quality and availability of food joints around the area , it is a great trade off. We had one meal outside on a sight seeing trip and swore not to attempt to eat anywhere in that region except at the resort..
So , What did we do
Basically nothing .. Laze around , yank , pull legs , laugh , ran around with kids , chase rabbits , eat , sleep and what more you want when you do not have to work. No pressure at all ...
That apart --
1. Took a forest safart and saw animals that we would have never seen except at the Zoo. There were Hyenas , Leopard , Tiger ,Cheetah , Lion , Bear , Porcupine ,Elephants , Wild boar , Peacock ( that is a bird )and Deer . All free , roaming and at a close distance . Was that list not impressive ?
Except that we saw the liststarting from Elephants onwards and nothing else …. ( he he ). There were sightings ahead of our visit but not when we went around. One thing that we decided having been disappointed at not sighting Wild life was to treat everything we saw as wild.. So we saw .. Wild cats , Wild Rabbits , Wild Goats , Wild Buffalo , Wild Turkey and so on...
2. Drove through the Mudhumalai range and the Bandipur forest range ( Karantaka side ) to get to the Gopalswamy Betta temple on a hillock and realised that we missed the opportunity to do some trekking .
3. The drivers of the Open jeep that we took to go around were great guys .. Their eye sight for the locating things on either side of the road in to the jungle was quiet sharp. They located Deer's or wild boars at specific points and used to stop and reverse right in the middle of the lane . Was worried about someone bumping us from behind. Did they care or were they cautious.. Not sure ...
4. Children had a very good time.. They are so easy to manage on their own ( get in to trouble when we try to manage them ) and get in to natural groups…and are happy always
5. It was a great trip to celebrate friendship and happiness …...The pictures tell you the story of smart young men ... and their familes ....
The only disappointment was on the way back to Coimbatore , we wanted to halt at Ooty and do some sight seeing , which the rain gods would not allow. It poured through the return to Coimbatore till we got to Mettupalyam from where there were intermittent drops of rain.
Link
http://picasaweb.google.com/Srikanthsrividya/Masinagudi?authkey=Gv1sRgCLX5jKK9tMXkAg#
This was my first trip past Ooty .. It was a nice drive down from Ooty to get to the terrain of the jungle. Masinagudi is just before the point where the Mudhumalai Forest Sanctuary begins. ( It is on the Ooty Mysore Road and you can get in from Mysore as well )For those who are not comfortable with the drive up or down the hills , there are 36 hairpin curves down the road from Ooty over a four kilometre stretch to get to normal terrain as you drive to Masinagudi. There are close to nine resorts on the lane that is off the main road that leads to the Masinagudi town . The resorts are closer to the foot of the hill and the view of the hills from the resorts is breathtaking.. Sometimes the hill tops are visible .. Most times either a cloud cover or a thick mist prevents visibility and these views are terrific.
We choose to stay in DeRock -- (They call themselves living in the Jungle and it is true in some ways) Why because it was recommended by a colleague who went there a few weeks before us . It is not easy to get to the resort without a capable transport due to its positioning on a hilly terrain. Only Jeeps can climb up and once inside the resort , you are at the mercy of the resort with no quick get away possible. But the resort itself is great with great space to roam around and with a good restaurant . The Cottages which we stayed had three rooms which each family of the three travelling families occupied. They were neat and spacious and comfortable and cosy. We missed the TV channels , the newspapers but had to put up with availability of mobile network that allowed email traffic.. The food is very good at the resort. Prices may pop your eyes but in terms of the quality and availability of food joints around the area , it is a great trade off. We had one meal outside on a sight seeing trip and swore not to attempt to eat anywhere in that region except at the resort..
So , What did we do
Basically nothing .. Laze around , yank , pull legs , laugh , ran around with kids , chase rabbits , eat , sleep and what more you want when you do not have to work. No pressure at all ...
That apart --
1. Took a forest safart and saw animals that we would have never seen except at the Zoo. There were Hyenas , Leopard , Tiger ,Cheetah , Lion , Bear , Porcupine ,Elephants , Wild boar , Peacock ( that is a bird )and Deer . All free , roaming and at a close distance . Was that list not impressive ?
Except that we saw the liststarting from Elephants onwards and nothing else …. ( he he ). There were sightings ahead of our visit but not when we went around. One thing that we decided having been disappointed at not sighting Wild life was to treat everything we saw as wild.. So we saw .. Wild cats , Wild Rabbits , Wild Goats , Wild Buffalo , Wild Turkey and so on...
2. Drove through the Mudhumalai range and the Bandipur forest range ( Karantaka side ) to get to the Gopalswamy Betta temple on a hillock and realised that we missed the opportunity to do some trekking .
3. The drivers of the Open jeep that we took to go around were great guys .. Their eye sight for the locating things on either side of the road in to the jungle was quiet sharp. They located Deer's or wild boars at specific points and used to stop and reverse right in the middle of the lane . Was worried about someone bumping us from behind. Did they care or were they cautious.. Not sure ...
4. Children had a very good time.. They are so easy to manage on their own ( get in to trouble when we try to manage them ) and get in to natural groups…and are happy always
5. It was a great trip to celebrate friendship and happiness …...The pictures tell you the story of smart young men ... and their familes ....
The only disappointment was on the way back to Coimbatore , we wanted to halt at Ooty and do some sight seeing , which the rain gods would not allow. It poured through the return to Coimbatore till we got to Mettupalyam from where there were intermittent drops of rain.
Link
http://picasaweb.google.com/Srikanthsrividya/Masinagudi?authkey=Gv1sRgCLX5jKK9tMXkAg#
Comments
Good to know that you all had fantastic time. Sri you did not write about the same to same feeling when you all had face to face or side to side look at all the species mentioned in the list and hence request you to continue your note in the upcoming blog on that account. Very happy to see the children growing, Sahana, Kavya, Sasiresh all have really grownup and looking very pretty. Pls keep sharing this wonderful itenary for the benefit of others. Cheers, Srini
Masinagudi Homestay
Thanks for sharing such a significant information.