[procrj]

"Some journeys are but ports in the sea, while some are lighthouses that make you stop, reflect and proceed"
-RJ

The Golden hour


Every journey has a simple value at its core. Some are for fun, some are in search of peace & quiet and some are to experience culture & heritage. I personally believe that most journeys start with an intent but end up with something very different at its core. This journey to the catchment areas of Nilgiris has a very simple value at its core - unbridled nature.

Basking in glorious sunshine


This image has been stuck in my head for the last few months. The mirrorlike sheen of the lake nestled among the emerald green hills is a pretty picture but what makes me come back to this image again and again is not its picturesque beauty. It’s the beauty of the entire ecosystem in spite of human intervention. This was just one of the many moments that made me stop, look around and enjoy the beauty that surrounds me.

Parsons Valley Retreat(PVR) is this quaint little home stay located in isolated catchment areas of Nilgiris (a few kms from sandynulla). Over the last few years, it was part of a restricted area of Nilgiris rainfall catchment region and hence was off the radar for most travelers. Towards the end of summer, my friend CSK saw this post on Facebook about Parsons Valley retreat and on further enquiry, it was made clear that the homestay was open again for general public.

Shades of green


Rains were delayed and we quickly headed up kalhatty, zipped around the tea estates, drove through some bad/very bad roads and entered this small valley located bang in the middle of 3 catchment areas. The drive down into PVR is challenging (to put it mildly) but the view is absolutely worth it. A small farm nestled in a quaint valley with a stream of fresh water flowing near it. All around it was surrounded by woodlands and short stretches of rolling grasslands. We checked into our rooms and a had a delicious but simple TN style homecooked lunch. We started talking to the caretaker and based on their inputs, planned the next 24 hours.

Words can't do justice to the beauty of this place and hence I will let the pics do the talking.

Watching the world go by


Ringed by untouched woods


Never say goodbye….


After spending some time lazing around the small stream right outside the homestay, we decided to take a stroll through the woods to a nearby valley. After a 20 min hike, we reach the top of the valley and spend some time gazing at the majestic views while being acutely aware of the fact that we might be wandering around tiger territory. After a few quick clicks we walked back to PVR to enjoy some hot coffee by the stream. Post sunset, the cold started setting in and we lit the bonfire after a simple meal and sat up sharing wildlife and travel stories between us. We decided to hit the bed by 10 pm as it had been a long day and we planned to visit few of the dams early next morning.

Live streaming of pristine beauty


Tadaaa - Welcome to the valley


4.45 am start the next day in order to watch sunrise from Porthimund dam. The pitch dark sky is lit up by innumerable stars and was a beautiful sight to behold. We drive through some moderate to bad roads in the grey hours. All we can see is silhouettes of hills and valleys all around us and the broken road. After a staring match with a huge wild male buffalo, we reached the dam just before the sun lit up the sky. The next 30 min at the dam was just sublime. We stood and stared at the sky and watched the golden rays paint the hills. All this time, Baz Luhrmann's sunscreen song is playing in my head

Awaken.Arise


A speck among the giants


Songs of nature - see, hear & experience


The billi kudure basking in the views


The cook guides us to a viewpoint from which we can clearly see Emerald lake in all its beauty. We drive around a corner and lo and behold, we have emerald lake in front of us and the hills are basking in the warm sunlight. The hills are my muse and I hope that someday I have all the time to walk around the valleys and explore many a trail. After a quick stopover at Parsons Valley dam, we get back to PVR. After a hearty breakfast, we are on our way back home but decide to chance our luck at Bandipur for the evening safari.

This is where my home is, somewhere up in the hills,
Where blue skies and windsong, are nothing but cheap thrills.


CSK managed to pull some strings and we get ourselves a seat on the JLR canter. Spotted deer, elephants, gaurs, crested serpent eagle, couple of owls - lots of sightings. Suddenly the driver gets a call and we race from one corner of the jungle to the other in search of the big cat. We spent 45 minutes driving around in circles hoping to sight a tiger. It was almost time to drive back to civilization and the driver decides to take one last turn around the pond in which the tiger was sighted earlier. As we near the pond, we see a sub adult male walking out of the water and just before he disappears into the lantana, he turns around and stares at us for about a minute. My first tiger in the wild - perfect end to an awesome weekend.

A pointed look


Curiosity Spotted


Salt cravings


Walking the ramp


That heady mix of terror & joy!



Can't help but think of these great lines by PB Shelley

..Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Its human nature to build, build and build but today, it important that we stop and think.
Pristine, unbridled nature is something that everyone needs to experience and pretty soon, there might not be a lot if it left for the future generations.
Hope that as responsible travelers, we all do our bit to respect and protect whatever little natural beauty we see around us.

Route and Road Conditions

• BLR - Mysore ORR - Gundlupete - Bandipur - Masinagudi - Kalhatty - Thalaikunda: Usual Ooty route, nothing new to update. Not sure how kalhatty is now post rains.
• Thalaikunda - Sandynullah - Parsons Valley Dam: Good 2L tree lined roads which were a breeze
• Parsons Valley Dam - Parsons Valley Retreat: Steep, Bad roads that’s mostly just stones and gravel that needs some very careful driving. Not sure about conditions now after the heavy rainfall that this region received during the monsoon. Only doable in cars with 190+mm of GC and enough low end grunt to climb up steep slopes.
• Parsons Valley retreat - Porthimund Dam: Mix of decent to bad roads that are only as bad as the roads in BLR. Only need to keep an eye out for wildlife.
  
  

  https://youtu.be/SN6bQ_7HnuE

  
  

[SmartCat]

Moving thread from Assembly Line to Travelogues forum. Thanks for sharing, Ravinder!

[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by procrj

Parsons Valley Retreat(PVR) is this quaint little home stay located in isolated catchment areas of Nilgiris (a few kms from sandynulla). Over the last few years, it was part of a restricted area of Nilgiris rainfall catchment region and hence was off the radar for most travelers. Towards the end of summer, my friend CSK saw this post on Facebook about Parsons Valley retreat and on further enquiry, it was made clear that the homestay was open again for general public.

I hope it is legally open. It was shut down in 2016!
https://www.thehindu.com/news/nation...le16085143.ece

[procrj]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

I hope it is legally open.

Yep its legally open. Took the owner 3 years to get the needed permissions. This was one of the first questions we asked when we realized it was open again.

[Maddy3008]

Awesome pictures procrj ! Especially liked 'Songs of nature - see, hear & experience' and 'Basking in glorious sunshine'. Liked the shot of the crested serpent eagle as well. They look like somewhere in Scotland or maybe Peak District in the UK. Nice work with the camera. Also, congratulations on the tiger sighting. Once the nature / safari bug bites, it is generally a point of no return

Looking at your TUV at such picturesque location makes me want to take my TUV also to somewhere in western ghats and go camping ! Hopefully will find some time around the Diwali weekend to do a small road trip.

[ts1506]

Beautiful pictures and write-up.

Was looking up on this place after reading your travelogue. Came across some posts mentioning that the road from Ooty to the valley is extremely bad, and most people prefer to take a local Jeep.

How is the road in reality? Since I see a Creta and TUV in your pictures, I assume its not a full 4x4 territory, correct me if I am wrong.

I drive an EcoSport, I'm hoping that would be decent enough to handle the road.

[gadadhar]

Place looks awesome for a break away from the crowd. I have stayed in Red hills which is a similar place near to Emerald lake.

Stream inside the campus looks so beautiful, do they allow fishing in the premise or nearby lake.

Thanks for letting world know about this hidden place. I am unable to find the contact for booking, could you please share details and the tariff.

[Jethro]

Excellent write up and the addition of the poetic aspect just adds to the rather mesmerizing and seemingly surreal images that you have posted. You have just compelled me to add this location to the must visit places immediately.

[prsnck]

Great place..awesome images.. nature..beauty..abound..!!

Could you please PM the Resort contact details if you feel free to.

Rgrds
Prsn

[nkumarblr]

Beautiful pictures and well written Travelogue. After reading it, I have added this location in my wish list.

[vinbie2019]

1. I see you Creta and TUV300 in pictures, can you compare how Creta handled the bad section of road from Parsons Dam to PVR?
2. Can you say something that TUV300 did exceptional well compared to Creta? I know it is an unfair comparison, but very curious to see owner's take. There is a pride in the car we own.
3. Overall kmpl figures.

[procrj]

Originally Posted by ts1506

Came across some posts mentioning that the road from Ooty to the valley is extremely bad, and most people prefer to take a local Jeep.

Do read the route & road conditions section of my post. The last section of the road is challenging - steep inclines peppered with rocks/stones/gravel etc. Im sure it would have gotten worse post rains as heavy vehicles (truck/tractor) do come to the farm daily. Hence i would suggest you talk to the owner before deciding to drive.

Originally Posted by gadadhar

Stream inside the campus looks so beautiful, do they allow fishing in the premise or nearby lake.

Not sure. We were all vegetarians

I am unable to find the contact for booking, could you please share details and the tariff.

Will PM you the details.

Originally Posted by prsnck

Could you please PM the Resort contact details if you feel free to.

Will PM you the details.

Originally Posted by vinbie2019

1. I see you Creta and TUV300 in pictures, can you compare how Creta handled the bad section of road from Parsons Dam to PVR?
2. Can you say something that TUV300 did exceptional well compared to Creta? I know it is an unfair comparison, but very curious to see owner's take. There is a pride in the car we own.
3. Overall kmpl figures.

TUV is built to take bad roads and has loads of low end torque hence none of the bad sections were a problem really. The Creta did take one under-body hit while going downhill but that was more of a judgement issue and not a problem with GC or the car.

The only perceivable difference was while climbing uphill, My friend CSK was driving relatively slow, probably because the creta is a soft roader and needs to go slow on bad roads where as the TUV just sails over the bad sections as long as you keep it above 25 kmph. Apart from that, not much of a difference.

F.E of my car has been in 14 to 14.5 kmpl range irrespective of terrain. Probably because on straight flat roads I tend to push the car and in the hills, its just chugging along. Also do consider that mine is the 84 bhp version. Lots of folks with the 100 bhp version have reported F.Es ranging from 17-19 kmpl when driven in the 80-90 kmpl range over long distances. That IMHO is very impressive for a 2 Ton 3 pot car.

[locusjag]

Originally Posted by vinbie2019

2. Can you say something that TUV300 did exceptional well compared to Creta? I know it is an unfair comparison, but very curious to see owner's take. There is a pride in the car we own.

If I may also answer your query - the way the TUV chugs along in gears 1 & 2 without accelerator input is truly exceptional. I even took a hairpin bend once in Ooty in May this year in 2nd gear, with 5 passengers and a full boot, with no accelerator input. It chugged along eerily as if it has a naturally aspirated diesel engine. The 2 stage turbo simply works its magic in such situations. This, along with its bad road capabilities, has to be the TUV's shining qualities.

Originally Posted by procrj

Yep its legally open. Took the owner 3 years to get the needed permissions. This was one of the first questions we asked when we realized it was open again.

As a side-note, 80% of hotels/resorts in Ooty were "sealed" when we went to Ooty in May. Yet the owners were all listing their properties in travel aggregator sites and they were flying by night literally; we're talking a seal on their front door, guests being routed via the backdoor, no lights were switched on at night, no name-board or sign to advertise the property...the entire town was full of such occupied properties.

[isrsuresh]

Hi,
Could you please share PVR resort contact details?

If possible please share how you have paid for stay...

Regards
Suresh

[isrsuresh]

Hi Procrj,

Can you share Parson Valley Retreat contact details?