Ooty, Bandipur and GopalSwamy hills

Ooty, Bandipur and GopalSwamy hills

Its a nice 2 to 3 days trip based on when you start the journey. Ooty, Bandipur and Gopalswamy Betta (hill) must be packaged in a single trip for the best experience. All the 3 offer adventurous experience. The Gopalswamy betta is quite an amazing trip with very challenging yet safe drive up the hill. Bandipur offers a forest and wildlife experience. Ooty is an hill station with many hills around with coffee estates. It offers a picturesque view of nature with a lot of greenery and nice peaceful environment. 
 
We started our journey, on Friday night 12 pm in "Freedom of 4 wheels, Scorpio-ZOOM" and reached Mysore at 2.10am.

We didn’t forget to have a cup of hot coffee from small vendor (in cycle) in mandya, opposite Govt bust stand.

Took some pics of the Mysore Palace at 2.10 am and we stayed in Bombay tiffany’s, Mysore (could have booked better lodge).

Next day (Sat), we started to Gopalswamy hills around 7.am. GopalSwamy hills is around 78 km and takes 1hr drive on Nanjangud road.

You can find some very good restaurants and coffee day shops on the way to gundlupet, nanjangud road.

After having the breakfast in Gundlupet, continued the journey to GopalSwamy hills. We reached there by 8.30 AM.

From past 4 months Karnataka Tourism dept. has arranged KSRTC buses to the hills, and have banned the entry of private vehicles from the foot of the hills.

There are 2 buses, that starts from 8.00 am till 4.30pm and you can find the buses for every half an hour.

We took the bus and reached the temple around 9.30 am. It was a beautiful journey towards the top of the hill.

There is a beautiful Lord Krishna Temple at the top of the hill. It has some very good historic importance. After visiting the temple, we went around the temple premises, took some pics. Just enjoyed the nature at its best.

Gopalswamy Betta

There are military personals around the temple, restricting the people within temple premises, as it is the beginning of Bandipur, Tiger reserve forest. Spent couple of hours in the temple premises and then returned back.

We had some snacks and tender coconut at the base and just relaxed for a while. Later we left towards Bandipur, which is 23km away. Safari in bandipur starts at 3.30 pm and hence we spent some time in a restaurant on the way to Bandipur for lunch. We reached Bandipur at 3.pm and then went around for some time. We spotted hundreds of deers all the places around bandipur. We took safari at 3.30 pm (350INR/person) in a Van. We went around the jungle for an hour and spotted elephants, deers, different kinds of birds. Unfortunately we didn’t find the wild cat :(... My suggestion is to have safari at 5.pm as can see many wild animals around the pond. 

Route Map

Then we started our journey towards Ooty. There are 2 routes from Bandipur to Ooty.

Bandipur - Theppakaadu - Masinagudi - Ooty.

i.e 10 km - 2km - 22km

Bandipur - Theppakaadu - Gudalur - Ooty

i.e 10 km 22 km 50km

The main traffic to Ooty (bus, trucks etc.) goes via Gudalur. However, we took the Masinagudy route, as it is adventurous and saves 30-40kms.You’ll find the safari point, forest guest houses and even an elephant camp (Mudumalai Elephant Camp) near this junction. Masinagudi is a very popular destination among trekking fans and also popular for the many resorts/home stays around. For about 15-20km you’ll be on the first or second gear while climbing and negotiating the 32 hairpins bends.

For private vehicles, we can take the TP (travelling pass) at 2 places after crossing Bandipur forest. One is near Gudlur and one is near Thalaikonda (masinagudi route).

Scenery enroute to Avlanche

Scenery enroute to Avlanche

We saw some elephants on the way to ooty and reached Ooty around 7PM. It took nearly 2.30 hrs for us to reach ooty from Bandipur.

Bandipur

Bandipur

We stayed in a very good Oyo certified hotel, Al Woodland. It was very well maintained hotel opposite to rose garden. After getting refreshed in the hotel, we went for a small walk in the chilling hill station weather (8 deg). Had 2 cups of coffee in a small coffee shop. Also, we came to know that most of the shops gets closed by 8pm due to cold weather.

Sunday, we went for a small walk in Ooty rose garden (entry fee 30 INR/person). Couldn’t find much varieties of the roses, as it was post Republic day. Garden is very well maintained and perfect place for a morning walk and some good pics. Later, we had choices of visiting, kunoor train/botanical garden/ paykaara lake etc. We chose to explore the new place, Avlanche Lake. There are some rumours in the net that we need to obtain permission from the Govt dept. for visiting the Avlanche Lake. But, it’s all fake. We travelled 1 hr from Ooty towards Avlanche Lake. It’s a beautiful journey with some hairpin bends and tea estates. We can find some other good lakes in and around.

Avlanche

After reaching the Avlanche, eco-tourism spot, we need to take a Govt bus to reach the actual destination. Its 150 INR per person in bus and 300 in jeep. It takes 45 mins to reach the Avlanche Lake. Bus stops at couple of scenic places & Bhavani temple for 10 mins. 

Avlanche

Later we spent half an hour in and around Avlanche Lake and enjoyed the scenic beauty. No boating facility available yet.

Finally, it’s a very good place to visit in ooty. But, I do recommend the same only if u have plenty of time, as it take 4hrs for 1 place alone.

Later we reached ooty, around 4pm and had the lunch. Left Ooty at 5pm and took the Gudlur route to explore the same.

We found some good tea estates, tea shops. Pykaara Lake, shooting spot and many other scenic spots on the way to Gudlur. Couldn’t spend much time, as we need to cross Bandipur by 9.pm.

We reached Gudlur at 7.30pm and started towards bandipur after showing the TP at the Tamilnadu checkpost.

We reached Mysore at 9.30 pm and had some good chats at Mysore, Sanitorium place :). We then left towards Bangalore and reached by 12.00 pm, which ended our beautiful journey.

Stay:

Mysore: Mango Hotel (preferable and quite reasonable)
Ooty: Al Woodland, Oyo certified hotel

Best Time to Visit:

Mild Summers and Winters (avoid rainy seasons).