kotagiri is a small town about 35KMs from Ooty, Tamil Nadu. Its a beautiful town and the tea estate adds to the beauty.This trek was organized by BMC ( http://bmcindia.org/events/bmc-trek-to-kothagiri.html) - Thanks to them and special thanks to my friend Shamanth for guiding this trek :)
Nisha and Myself along with a group of 9 other people participated the trek. We reached BMC office on Feb 2nd by 8:15PM. We started in the tempo traveler by ~9PM. We reached silk-board junction ~9:45PM which was one more pickup point. The group was complete and the journey started by 10PM. We took a very late dinner break by ~11PM and another short break ~3AM. I had a disturbed sleep till 3AM and then i was awake till we reached the camp site by 6AM on 3rd Feb.
The camp site was a beautiful location much inside the tea estate . The weather was very chill and the local camp helpers provided with a refreshing Tea along the campfire. The group took a good break and got fresh for breakfast. After a nice breakfast we started the trek by 9AM.
The first stage of the trek was a short walk of ~1KM along the tea estate.
Finally we reach a rocky cliff which is west facing and the view is of mettupalayam.
We moved ahead though the rocks till we reached the end of this path. We return back the same direction but this time we retracted via the bushes and not the rocky path.
We reached the small water stream which we passed when we started the trek. Took a short break there and started the treak again after crossing the water stream. The trail was inside the tea garden and we started to climb. The weather was quite enjoyable.
Throughout the trail, there were small flowers grown wild on the part. It was interesting to observe these small plants and its tiny flowers all the way.
Here i saw the flower of the Tea plant for the 1st time in my life.
The trail continued through the tea garden to reach the top of a small hill. The view was nice throughout. There were areas in the tea estate where the tea leaves were getting plucked.
The trail continued through the tea garden and we hit the adjacent road. We crossed a small village which looked to be quite old.
Nisha and Myself along with a group of 9 other people participated the trek. We reached BMC office on Feb 2nd by 8:15PM. We started in the tempo traveler by ~9PM. We reached silk-board junction ~9:45PM which was one more pickup point. The group was complete and the journey started by 10PM. We took a very late dinner break by ~11PM and another short break ~3AM. I had a disturbed sleep till 3AM and then i was awake till we reached the camp site by 6AM on 3rd Feb.
The camp site was a beautiful location much inside the tea estate . The weather was very chill and the local camp helpers provided with a refreshing Tea along the campfire. The group took a good break and got fresh for breakfast. After a nice breakfast we started the trek by 9AM.
The first stage of the trek was a short walk of ~1KM along the tea estate.
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| Initial view when trek started |
Finally we reach a rocky cliff which is west facing and the view is of mettupalayam.
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| The Viewpoint |
We reached the small water stream which we passed when we started the trek. Took a short break there and started the treak again after crossing the water stream. The trail was inside the tea garden and we started to climb. The weather was quite enjoyable.
Throughout the trail, there were small flowers grown wild on the part. It was interesting to observe these small plants and its tiny flowers all the way.
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| Small and colorful |
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| We see this everywhere!!! |
Here i saw the flower of the Tea plant for the 1st time in my life.
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| Tea Plant |
The trail continued through the tea garden to reach the top of a small hill. The view was nice throughout. There were areas in the tea estate where the tea leaves were getting plucked.
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| View from the top of the hill |
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| Pano shot of the tea garden |
The trail continued through the tea garden and we hit the adjacent road. We crossed a small village which looked to be quite old.
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| Village |
Further the trek continued through a small trail which had small bushed and trees on the sides.
The first thought which came in mind when i saw this is that - We need more such trees in Bangalore...its all disappearing at a very high rate in the name of Development!!!!
Continuing, We saw a set of Indian Gour peacefully gracing!!!We silently passed by.
The destination of this trail was the Catherine falls. The trail was bit bumpy. Nisha and me were bit slow in this stretch .....finally we reached the nice falls by 1:30PM. The group had already reached and few of them started to dive into the the water.
We had the packet lunch and a short break. After that i took a dip in the falls.....the water was like ICE.....i have not stood in such cold waterfall....really really cold!!!
The group enjoyed the trek and the falls till now . By ~2:45PM we planned to start back. I had request our guide to get a vehicle near the falls and avoided the remaining trek. So 6 of us from the group returned to the camp site in a hired vehicle while the rest of the group enjoyed the remaining trek.
We saw this gour from the camp site itself.....
The group started to retire one by one. Around 10:30PM even pulled myself inside the sleeping bag!!
It ended on a large tree after that the tea garden again appeared.
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| Nice Old tree!! |
Continuing, We saw a set of Indian Gour peacefully gracing!!!We silently passed by.
The destination of this trail was the Catherine falls. The trail was bit bumpy. Nisha and me were bit slow in this stretch .....finally we reached the nice falls by 1:30PM. The group had already reached and few of them started to dive into the the water.
We had the packet lunch and a short break. After that i took a dip in the falls.....the water was like ICE.....i have not stood in such cold waterfall....really really cold!!!
The group enjoyed the trek and the falls till now . By ~2:45PM we planned to start back. I had request our guide to get a vehicle near the falls and avoided the remaining trek. So 6 of us from the group returned to the camp site in a hired vehicle while the rest of the group enjoyed the remaining trek.
We saw this gour from the camp site itself.....
When i shot this the remaining trek group arrived. I pointed to the gour when they busted out in laughter. I came to know that they had head on meeting with set of gours on the return trail and they had to walk longer path to avoid them :)
After the break and snacks most of us headed to see the sunset at the west viewpoint.
Sun was about to set but still bright when we started from the camp ...
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| Thinking of setting!!!May be |
We reached the viewpoint to see the beautiful sunset and colours...
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| Sun Set |
As the chill wind started to intensify, the group headed back to the camp site. We had a nice enjoying camp fire, singing and brief dumb-charades game followed by dinner.
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| The camp-fire!! |
After a sound sleep, i woke-up ~5:45AM. The fire was put again to beat the morning chill.
The group had breakfast and we started the return journey by ~8AM. We walked up the trail to board the TT. The first destination was Ooty. We reached the Ooty Tea-factory by ~9:30AM. The visit was quite interesting. One interesting is the expansion of "TEA - Teymnpol enzyme acid " explained by a factory guide. We started again by ~10:30 to break at the chocolate shop 10 mins later. Everyone bought the fudge chocolate....supposed to be the best there and yes i had to agree....
By the time we left Ooty it was ~11AM. The Lunch break was at Gudalur. We started the journey towards the Mudumalai forest with the hopes of spotting some animals....
The forest has already gone dry and quite sunny. Also notices some fire, most of them were put by forest department in a controlled way ......We spotted few spotted deers, 3 elephants.
With couple of breaks after that we finally reached the last stop at bangalore by ~9PM.
It was finally a very good trip. Felt nice to meet new people and made good friends :)
