The Experiential Trip - Ooty wild walking

by Nayan Gadre (India)

I didn't expect to find India

"It resembles Switzerland, more than any country of Europe… the hills beautifully wooded and fine strong spring with running water in every valley…". This was quoted by John Sullivan, the founder of the British settlement of Ottacamund (Ooty). He noted that the weather was healthy and unusually temperate, ideally suited as a "resort for invalids", for soldiers among British ranks. His words still echo after 250 years, and Ooty is popular across India, hence, the Christmas of 2019, I decided to visit Ooty. Ooty is deeply seated in the Nilgiri range. Texture-wise its completely different from the more commonly construed South India panorama, i.e. the Heritage temples, rice fields, hot and humid climate. Here its mostly cold and wet, churches and tea (lots of it). The trip does not seem monotonous, as every few hours, there is a change in the landscape. We begin the ascend after the Bandipur Tiger reserve and after several hairpin bends a layer of cloud hits you on the way up and then you are above it. If the weather is clear, you can see blue skies, else its another layer of clouds above. For the experiential part, we visited a Tea Factory where we got hands-on with the Tea making process. The aroma inside the factory can make you high on tea. We then visited the Steam Locomotive shed. I have never been inside any kind of a train engine, but I am pretty sure none of them are as complicated as the steam engines with so many knobs to rotate, levers to pull, indicators to keep watch. The trains run on meter gauge and together with the Darjeeling Mountain Railway, are given a UNESCO heritage status. We reached our Ooty homestay tucked half a kilometre from the approach road inside a forest. We didn't expect Bison's to visit the property for grazing, we saw one even before we started our stay, so that was a good sign for sighting other wild animals too. The forest was mostly of lantana plants, eucalyptus, wattle, Silver Oak and pine trees. The cottage was made of stone masonry, with slopped mud tiled roofs, no paint required outside as most of the walls and pillars were covered with green and flowering creepers. The vegetables used for serving us food were organically grown on their farm. There was little cell phone network and no internet connectivity, so they had provided a small library to keep us engaged. We set up a campfire facing the huge open space, where we spotted a Sambhar Deer. They wander into the farm space at night and you can spot them from there shiny eyes. Our cottage looked like James Bonds's ancestral home "Skyfall" after twilight. The next day early morning we saw a pair of elephants, on the hill in front of the cottage. There were boulders around but it was astonishing to see wild elephants climb them at ease to cross through the valley. We went for a hike near the estate. The trail was through the same forest we came but forked towards a hill temple upwards. There was a spot in the valley where the land and sea breeze met which caused the clouds to dramatically rise and fall by collision. At the highest point on the hill, we saw a Sambhar dear up close and a Sloth bear from a distance. Our guide then pointed at a Neel Kurunji Flower plant which blooms once in 12 years. The locals used to measure age using its flowering cycle. The last super bloom happened in 2018 so the next one would be in 2030. There, at the highest point, we had a few minutes of contemplation and the thought of not returning just brushed my mind. Back at the cottage as it was Christmas, we made a Christmas tree from the foliage of leaves and flowers. I just observed some handicrafts used for interior decorating, those were the Toda handicrafts of the Toda tribe native to Ooty. The next day, after having breakfast and the last few glimpses of the wild elephants at the nearby hill, we found ourselves browsing through an Outlook Traveler magazine for our next destination.