Trip to Ooty Part-1

Approach summer vacation, my heart start pumping faster. 24X7 daughter will be home and every day have to be ready with something exciting for her. Also, she always complains that we do not take her anywhere during her vacations. Actually, the duo's (father and daughter) holiday never gel with each other. But this year was exception. Father was on an official meet till the 11th of May in Bangalore and daughter's vacation was to start from the 12th of May. So, dad made sure not to loose the opportunity and asked us to join him on the 12th in Bangalore so that we can spent a couple of days in Ooty. We packed our bags and baggage and boarded the morning flight to Bangalore.

Akanksha was very excited. Her excitement was exaggerated by the glimpse of her classmate in the flight who was on the way to her homeland, Kerela, with her mother and sister. I exchanged my seat with Merlin(my daughter's classmate) and both the young ladies had a great time together.

Merlin

Akanksha

By noon we reached Bangalore and bid adieu to Merlin and her family and joined daddy dear waiting anxiously in the airport exit area. Everything was planned perfectly by the father to make sure his little angel enjoy every moment of her holiday. But the evening was somehow ruined by a heavy downpour and have to cancel site seeing in Bangalore and instead thought of visiting our relatives there. Though we could not visit all, yet we tried to visit a few and it turned out to be quite satisfactory.

The next day early morning we set out for Ooty via Mysore. On the way we dropped in at Mysore zoo.

These two lion and lioness are adopted by Anil Kumble. I have seen a nice concept in this zoo that all the animals are being adopted by someone or the other for one year. Means, they pay for the maintenance of that particular animal for one year which makes sure that the animals are being feed and treated well by the zoo authority as the guardians always keep a close watch.

Akanksha not ready to leave. She was minutely looking at all the animals and was sad while leaving. We could not allow her to spent some more time there as we have to reach Ooty before dark. 

The way to Ooty by road passes through Bandipur Tiger Reserve Forest, in the state of Karnataka and Mandumalai Wildlife Sanctuary, in the state of Tamil Nadu. It was a thrilling experience to pass through these two National Parks. On the way we spotted many wild animals.

Than we passed through the wonderful Nilgiri Hills..

Father and daughter wanted a click amidst the Nilgiri grooves.

 Whoever passed through this point made sure to stop the car and enjoy the view for few moments.

On the way we spotted a small local colorful carnival with people engrossed dancing and merry making.


As we proceeded towards Ooty the altitude kept on rising and the weather became pleasant and the surroundings serene.

Then we reached the beautiful Pykara boat house. It is a lake in the midst of the Nilgiri hills. It is about 12kms in stretch and the only source of water being the rain. 

Than we went to the Pykara falls about 3 kms ride from Pykara boat house. The local people said that since the rain did not start yet the force of the falls was very low. Other wise it look more beautiful. Though we were not very lucky to have that view, still we enjoyed and loved whatever we got to see.

 Akanksha coming up after having a close look of the water rushing down.

Deep in thought. 

After that we drove straight to Ooty with all the wonderful memories with us and Akanksha with loads of questions for us to answer.