Jungles of Masinagudi..Hills of Ooty and City of Mysuru in 6 Days #Karnataka #Tamilnadu #Nature

Tripoto
26th Nov 2017
Photo of Jungles of Masinagudi..Hills of Ooty and City of Mysuru in 6 Days #Karnataka #Tamilnadu #Nature by Jyotin Prachand
Day 1

We (Jyotin, Anki and Manu) were planning for anniversary vacation and this time we wanted to explore south.. trip we planned was perfect cocktail 🍸 of Jungles 🏕️... Hills⛰️.. and City🏙️. So, as planned friday afternoon we left from Pune to Bengaluru via train.. reached Bengaluru next morning visited few relatives in Bengaluru and stayed overnight. Next morning our cab arrived on time to take us too "Inn the Wild" literally that was name of our hotel in Masinagudi. After lot of research and reading reviews I found this hotel.. and it was probably best stay of my life. Hotel was in kind of core zone of Mudumalai forest so can't be reached via cab .. our cab was only taking us till Singara Check Post.. from there gypsy🚙 was arranged by Hotel. After 6 hours of long drive we reached Singara checkpost.. quickly boarded gypsy. Ride from Singara check post till our Hotel was bone shattering 👻 .. somehow we reached there in single piece.

Hotel had many huts .. I booked Jungle facing hut 🏕️ for us.. It was spacious one and squeaky clean. After checking-in we went for lunch.. food was so delicious that we called chef and thanked him and asked few recipes too😉. In evening we went for Jungle walk with our guide along with few other people staying with us. Walking on foot was scary as we were roaming around in core zone adding to that our guide was showing spots where they last spotted big cats🐅🐆. We were back to hotel after 1 hour of exploring surroundings and had dinner in some time. Then came another adventurous experience ... Night Safari. In between 8-9 Pm gypsy came infront of our hut for Night safari.. we quickly boarded. During Night Safari .. guide was flashing torch high up in trees.. mainly to spot leopard as their eyes glows as reflection from torch light... they can be easily spotted. However we didn't spot any leopard that night. After coming back we went for sleep.. then suddenly later around 11:30 Pm I heard some sound ouside.. looked out of window. To my surprise .. there were 400-500 deers 🦌 surrounding huts. Could not express that experience in words.. Just Awesome!!

Campfire post Dinner

Photo of InnTheWild, Masinagudi, Tamil Nadu, India by Jyotin Prachand

Spotted Deer during evening forest walk

Photo of InnTheWild, Masinagudi, Tamil Nadu, India by Jyotin Prachand

Outside our Hut @ Night

Photo of InnTheWild, Masinagudi, Tamil Nadu, India by Jyotin Prachand
Day 2

We got up early for morning forest walk.. it was just us three and guide this time. Morning is best time for birding and indeed that day we hit the gold ... spotted Hornbills. #bucketlist moment ❤️.

Hornbills

Photo of InnTheWild, Masinagudi, Tamil Nadu, India by Jyotin Prachand

Hornbills were indeed beautiful birds and luckily I was able to capture few snaps of them. We spotted many other birds.. after 1 and half hour we were back.. had breakfast. Day time we spent exploring area by ourselves.. ofcourse closer to hotel. We spotted many bird and animal species -

Woodpecker

Photo of Jungles of Masinagudi..Hills of Ooty and City of Mysuru in 6 Days #Karnataka #Tamilnadu #Nature by Jyotin Prachand

Parakeets

Photo of Jungles of Masinagudi..Hills of Ooty and City of Mysuru in 6 Days #Karnataka #Tamilnadu #Nature by Jyotin Prachand

Giant Squirrel

Photo of Jungles of Masinagudi..Hills of Ooty and City of Mysuru in 6 Days #Karnataka #Tamilnadu #Nature by Jyotin Prachand

Peahens taking a stroll

Photo of Jungles of Masinagudi..Hills of Ooty and City of Mysuru in 6 Days #Karnataka #Tamilnadu #Nature by Jyotin Prachand

Spent rest of afternoon post lunch by the lake near our hotel reading books.. spotting animals .. playing cards.. spotting animals again. Rest of the schedule was same as previous day.. evening ride .. dinner .. night safari.

Day 3

Today.. after Morning forest walk and delicious breakfast we left for Ooty. From Masinagudi to Ooty its just 35 Kms.. we requested hotel to arrange Jeep 🚙 for our travel. Even though route being very short .. but it had 36 hairpin bends.. and Anki vomitted 🤢on every bend while we go up the hill. Within two hours we reached Ooty .. checked-in our hotel. Here I booked a studio apartment... it was huge apartment with all amenities.

Since we have half a day left.. we called our cab to cover few of attractions. First we went see pine forest by the lake🏞️, our guide told us that many movies are shot here. We spent some time there and then moved to next spot Wenlock Downs. Its a hill with fantastic view for forests behind... after exploring it we went to last spot Pykara falls It is a must see while in ooty .. beautiful waterfall.

Lake next to Pine Forest

Photo of Ooty, Tamil Nadu, India by Jyotin Prachand

Wenlock Downs

Photo of Ooty, Tamil Nadu, India by Jyotin Prachand

Pykara Waterfalls

Photo of Ooty, Tamil Nadu, India by Jyotin Prachand
Day 4

Todays plan was to hit Coonoor and then cover rest of the spots in Ooty. Coonoor is another hill station in Nigiri's just 20 Kms away from Ooty. Initially I wanted to reach Coonoor via Nilgiri Railways but with train timings and all couldn't manage so rental cab was the only option. We left from our hotel in the morning and reached Coonoor in an hour.. first spot was tea gardens.. roaming in tea garden is always fun.. we also got photos clicked in traditional costumers. Next we went to Lamb's rock.. and then too botanical garden in Coonoor. After spending first half of the day in Coonoor we headed to Ooty, in Ooty we explored Rose Garden 🌹 (Many many types of roses), Botanical Garden and Ooty market. We ended our day with anniversary dinner at our Hotel.

Tea Estate @ Coonoor

Photo of Coonoor, Tamil Nadu, India by Jyotin Prachand

View of valley from Lamb's Rock

Photo of Coonoor, Tamil Nadu, India by Jyotin Prachand

Rose Garden, Ooty

Photo of Coonoor, Tamil Nadu, India by Jyotin Prachand
Day 5

After lush green forests and high hills .. now is the time for city of Mysuru. I first heard Mysuru in my childhood when Dussehra festival of Mysuru was broadcasted. So mode of travel was by KSRTC bus 🚞, it took slightly more than 4 hrs for us to reach Mysuru. Half of the day was gone.. to make most of the remaining half we left immediately after check-in in our hotel. We covered Tipu Sultan's palace and Vrindavan garden on first day. Both the places were amazing and worth a visit. Musical fountain show at Vrindavan garden was just awesome!!

Tipu Sultan's Palace

Photo of Mysuru, Karnataka, India by Jyotin Prachand

Musical fountain show @ Vrindavan Garden

Photo of Mysuru, Karnataka, India by Jyotin Prachand
Day 6

Last of 6 day tour starts with visit to Chamundeshwari Temple 🚩, one of the shaktipeeth temples. Famous nandi on the way to Chamundeshwari is huge and beautifully crafted. It took us 2 hours to take darshan.. next we went to sand art museum and sand statue's were amazing. We were pleasantly surprised by sand art museum visit... worth a visit definitely. Next up jaw dropping Mysuru Palace.... it was huge .. interiors of the palace were even more beautiful... probably one of the well kept palace in India. It took us an hour to explore the palace. After Mysuru palace we went to Mysuru zoo.. one of the best zoo I have seen in India. Variety of animals and birds we saw was extensive ... only zoo in India having Giraffe's. People can also adopt animals in this zoo by sponsoring food and other stuff of animal.. such a nice concept it is. Manu was amazed seeing so many animals and birds... and that's when we ended our trip. Next day we left for Bengaluru via train🚂 and from Bengaluru another train to Pune. Enjoyed every moment of these 6 days!!!

Nandi @ Chamundeshwari

Photo of Mysuru, Karnataka, India by Jyotin Prachand

Sand Art

Photo of Mysuru, Karnataka, India by Jyotin Prachand

Mysuru Palace

Photo of Mysuru, Karnataka, India by Jyotin Prachand

Mysuru Zoo

Photo of Mysuru, Karnataka, India by Jyotin Prachand