[raihan]

How is the condition on the Kanakpura road these days? How are the crowds in Ooty?
Planning to go this weekend.
Thx.

[ankan.m.blr]

Originally Posted by ravib

How was the food at this restaurant now? It was earlier called as "The Kitchen" which was just below average and i believe their management recently changed (or just a name change to attract more people but same quality food )

-Ravi

The restaurant has changed hands I heard. The food is better compared to 'the kitchen'.

[ankan.m.blr]

Did a Bangalore - Ooty trip with a night spent in Bandipur last week (31-March-2018). Started from home (near Marathalli jn) at 4.10 AM and was pleasantly surprised to reach Bandipur at 7.40 AM. Bangalore -Mysore road is gradually deteriorating and very uneven till Maddur due to patchwork all these years.Stopped for breakfast at the Bandipur forest canteen and reached Ooty via Masinagudi. After a brief halt at Ooty, came down via the Gudalur route. This route has a lot of rough sections & potholes; some sections are now undergoing tarring. A few photos from the tour.

[sandsun7]

Originally Posted by ankan.m.blr

Did a Bangalore - Ooty trip with a night spent in Bandipur last week (31-March-2018). Started from home (near Marathalli jn) at 4.10 AM and was pleasantly surprised to reach Bandipur at 7.40 AM.

By Bandipur canteen, you mean the Pugmarks restaurant attached to the Bandipur Safari lodge? How do you rate the quality of the breakfast there?

Woah! A bear sighting ! That is one damn lucky day for you! I have traversed this stretch so many times but has never seen anything more than Elephants, Gaurs, Deers and Monkeys.

[ankan.m.blr]

Originally Posted by sandsun7

By Bandipur canteen, you mean the Pugmarks restaurant attached to the Bandipur Safari lodge? How do you rate the quality of the breakfast there?

This is a privately operated canteen (open to all) in the campus of Bandipur forest reception office & safari centre. Its located just beside the cottage 'Vanashree'. Not much variety is available in the menu; mainly south Indian breakfast items like idly, dosa, upma etc are available. The food is served quickly without much waiting time, hot & fresh; the taste is average though.

[WheelWake]

Hi Guys,

So the summer is here and so are the plans for a summer road trip. Planning to goto Ooty for 2 nights (20th and 21st). I will be starting from Mumbai suburbs early on 18th 5AM. My next day 19th is open right now. I am not able to decide if I should stay in Bandipur/Masinagudi/Wayanad for 19th Night. I am assuming the total drive is 18-20 hours depending on the destination and this should take me a day and a half. Hence i am kind of torn between the above options.

Can someone suggest please what would be good stop over for 19th & accordingly for 18th ? (before I head towards Ooty on 20th). i will be travelling with oldies, young one apart from US.

TIA

[sminni]

Planning to go blr-ooty
Should I take Kanakapura road or mysore road
Starting 1st may early morning
Returning sat 5th may 12 noon from ooty

[Acharya]

Friends
During my last trip from Ooty to Blr, I was stopped twice by police while trying to enter Ooty-Masinagudi route, which has 36 hairpin bends.
It was morning time and police were not allowing vehicles to come down from Ooty on this route.
I had faced similar block three years ago as well.
Does anyone know, if there are restrictions on using Ooty Masinagudi route?

[NPV]

Originally Posted by Acharya

Does anyone know, if there are restrictions on using Ooty Masinagudi route?

Generally, during long/holiday weekends when traffic volume is high, cops stop vehicles going downhill (reason given is to prevent accidents). This has been in place for a few years now and discussed in earlier posts as well.

[blackstallion76]

Friends,
Been to Ooty last weekend. We experienced 7km long traffic jam from Ooty Commissionarate road to Naaduvattam going towards Gudalur. Some 2kms stretch were being tarred on May 1 when 90% of tourists planned to return back.
There was also blockade due to some minister visiting Doddabetta.

To cover 300kms, we took 11hrs and affected the lunch timing and pathetic Mysore road traffic. On top of that, frequent police checkposts with cameras on election duty.

[sminni]

Travelled bangalore to ooty 1st may and back saturday 5th may '18
mysore road (mysore) - gudalur - ooty
(avoided the hairpin bends route as family not too keen)
either direction started morning 7/8 am and reached destination 3/4pm with couple of breaks.
road overall good.
1st May very high returning traffic specially between bandipur to ooty
(ooty very crowded)
Could not find good place to have tiffin items during lunch time in mysore - both ways

[gadadhar]

We stayed Amberina estate bungalow in Devala near Gudalur during the weekend before May 1st. We had gone to Guruvayur on Saturday evening, finished an early morning Darshan and drove through Nilambur to Devala.

Fellow families in the resort warned us about the more than 1 hour traffic block they encountered inside the Bandipur forest at the police outpost for election checking on Saturday. I was also worried about the horrid traffic I might face while returning to Bangalore on May 1st after a long weekend.

After a bit of googling and talks with the estate folks, we decided to drive towards Sultan Bathery and then take Muthanga route to Gundelpet. Devala is 18 kms from Gudalur, and the Bathery route was in the opposite direction of Gudalor. This route was showing as only 16 kms and 25 mts additional than driving through normal Gudalur, Muthumalai, Bandipur route.

We started after 11 am, it was a very peaceful drive with scarce traffic till Gundelpet. Road condition was excellent and we relied completely on Google maps, bypassed Bathery town through Nulpuzha and joined before Muthanga forest gate. There was election related checking at one point before Gudalor, but it didn’t cost us more than couple of minutes.

I was planning to drive through Chamrajnagar, Kanakpura, but trusted Google again and drove towards Nanjengud and then took Bannur Kanakpura road (SH17 was showing 45 minutes longer). I was prepared for heavy traffic after Kanakpura, but it turned out to be among the best rides on that road with less than normal traffic (road work didn’t cause any trouble at all). We reached home comfortable by 5 pm with a 30 mts break, overall driving time being less than 5.30 hours from resort to home.

This option won’t be the fastest for people coming from Ooty through Gudalur to Mysore/Bangalore since it can be around 35 kms additional driving. But if you want to have a peaceful drive and experience Kerala roads and try some Kerala food at Bathery, it is not a bad option at all.

[red.devil_19]

Hi all,

I had been to Emarald and Avalanche with my friends in January 2015 and absolutely loved the placed. Now I am planning to visit Ooty in the second week of June with my parents. They've seen all the usual places in Ooty a couple of times already and this time I would love to show them around Emarald and Avalanche as they are nature lovers.

My question is regarding the road conditions from Ooty to Avalanche. Back in 2015, the road was motorable but that was in January. Could someone tell me how it would be like in June? I will be driving my Chevy Beat petrol.

Also will the jungle safari, that takes you upto Upper Bhavani lake, remain operational in June?

[tstlnt]

Originally Posted by red.devil_19

My question is regarding the road conditions from Ooty to Avalanche. Back in 2015, the road was motorable but that was in January. Could someone tell me how it would be like in June? I will be driving my Chevy Beat petrol.

Also will the jungle safari, that takes you upto Upper Bhavani lake, remain operational in June?

Yes, i have been there recently (first week of May ) and its easily doable with Beat.

Regarding jungle safari, it should be operational, barring day specific constraints, if at all any, on your day of visit. Better to reach early since forest department operates the safari in 3 batches 10 a.m., 12 noon and 2 p.m. Better to carry some food or snacks

Mod Note: Please quote ONLY the relevant bits of a post. Quoting a full, long post inconveniences our mobile readers.

[adutta2k]

Hi,

planning to do a bangalore-ooty trip in the month of july. I have done this stretch many times before and I take the mysore road-bandipur-ooty route. For some reason google is showing the coimbatore route as the fastest option (7.5hrs). Does anyone know of any issues with the mysore road option?