Day-3
Day-3 Started early to avoid the rush that would be heading back to Bangalore. Started at 7am and reached Pykara Lake. The boat rides are for 20-30 mins and take you few kms inside the lake with dense forest on either side. It was a good experience seeing 4 varieties of monkey jumping down the forest and drinking water from the lake.
Pine Forest on the way to Pykara
Pykara pictures.
Route Taken for Pykara
A picture of Bong-Duster before hitting plain lands.
From Pykara we took the Gudalur route and headed straight for Mysore Palace. Reached Mysore palace at 4pm and I knew I would be royally stuck on Mysore road traffic. Anyhow we went for ticket counter and had to wait a solid 40minutes in queue. Mysore palace was flooded. Quickly finished the tour inside and even my kiddo was irritated. Stopped for few minutes at Srirangapatnam just to view the fort from outside as Mysore palace was heavily crowded. I had mentally prepared myself for crazy stop and go traffic at Mysore road as I had just hit the rush hour. My wife meanwhile started researching on roads bypassing Bangalore. To our astonishment immediately after crossing Maddur we saw a 4 lane newly built road that would later touch the Tumkur road. Calculating the road condition from google map average speed we found the road to be “theoretically” descent.
My logic on roads, specially non hilly roads is -
Average speed by google – road condition
60-65kmph – ohhyaah !
55-60kmph- excellent
40-50kmph-
below 40kmph -
The Kunigal-Muddur Road did not disappoint and the scenic beauty was excellent. It reminded me a lot of North Bengal BotolBari route with paddy fields on either side. The journey is easy if you have a smart navigator who understands the need of the hour and it was none other than my Wife.
Mysore Palace to Home via Srirangapattnam
After some evening snacks on the Tumkur highway we headed for Home. The Bangalore airport to Home run was done relatively stress free for last 570kms while tailgating a KL registered Volvo C60. The driver was great and maintained a steady pace. He slowed down after toll gates and waited patiently for puny 1.5l k9k to catch up with the mighty 2l.
To sum it up …
If you are from Hyderabad or up North and need to visit a place that needs passing Bangalore and moreover on a weekend, make sure you pass Mysore road before 4-5am or 4-5pm.
Mysore road needs a lot of patience, you could have ABS and arecareful, but the car behind might not have either, maintain safe distance. The humps make situations trickier.
Driving in Ooty is almost similar to driving at the Himalayas except roads are 30-40% narrower at few places.
People follow lane discipline except few outside registered vehicle who are probably in the learning phase. Specially Zoom car or other rental cars.
Nov-Jan and May-August are considered peak season in Ooty. Plan your visit and book much ahead of time. Hire a guide who knows the roads and shortcuts and specially the one-ways before you enter and exit Ooty.
Ooty is a well maintained place and it’s a place you can visit more than once.
Our Guide mentioned that it snowed in Ooty this January 2017.
Hope this blog helps fellow travelers with routes and other driving decisions.