So, on with the next adventure!
My parents arrived on the 22nd Feb on the direct flight from London which gets in at about 5am. So after a few hours of much deserved sleep, we spent the afternoon picking up a few things at the local shops, swimming and cooking.
Ben's birthday was the following day, so we decided instead of taking his gifts with us we would have a nice celebration evening that day.
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| Happy Birthday Ben! |
The following day we were up early and headed to Mysore for the a day of sightseeing. In a similar trip to what I did with Ben before we went to Tipu's summer palace, Gumpas and Brindavan gardens (see my previous post on Mysore for details) before heading into town for lunch and then to our hotel to check in. Our driver Sathya then heading back to Bangalore while we visited the palace.
All around Mysore we kept seeing yellow cows. To start with we individually thought we were seeing things, but it quickly became obvious pretty much all the cows were actually yellow! It took a bit of finding out, but my understanding is that around the festival of Makar Sankranti (harvest festival), they give the cows a wash with a turmeric based medicinal wash. this turns them yellow or a month or so.
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| A lovely yellow cow specimen at Mysore palace |
This time we left before they started to light up the palace and went to meet Ben at our hotel. He had been to work for the morning and then got the train over to join us. After finding time for a quick beer we headed back to palace in time for the sound and light display that they have every evening. Only to find out that it wasn't on that evening! Apparently they are changing supplier for the show and it is out for tender at the moment. Naturally there was nothing to tell you this except a flustered security guard and the website doesn't let on when we checked beforehand. Ah well, although there was no show we could see it lit up from the gate.
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| Mysore palace through the main gate |
The next morning we headed to Bandipur national park, one of a number of adjoining national parks that make up the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. This one is in Karnataka and we stayed at the government run cottages for another safari package, much like the one we did with Jane and Dennis in Kerala. I have to say, this one was much better organised! They also provided really excellent food. The package started with lunch and then an early evening jeep safari into the park, finishing at about sunset.
Bandipur is another tiger reserve, although I have to say, I don't think anybody had high hopes for seeing one. Well, not until another couple in our jeep who were staying for 3 days said they had seen one yesterday! Needless to say, although we saw a lot of birdlife and quite a few other animals, the tiger eluded us. As did the gaur, elephants, sloth bears and leopards! In fact, the biggest thing we saw on the first day were deer. It was still a lovely drive with beautiful views in the evening sunshine.
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| Good to know we were being looked after! |
The early morning safari was a bit more successful, with lots of langur monkeys, a striped necked Mongoose, and right at the end, an elephant!
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| Gray langur monkeys |
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| Evidence of a tiger - close, but no cigar! |
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| A striped necked mongoose |
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| We finally saw an elephant, just as we were on our way back (of course!) |
Then it was back to the resort for a well earned breakfast and shower and we were picked up and headed up over the boarder into Tamil Nadu and up into the hills. After stopping at a few view points en route, we reached Udhagamandalam (or known by pretty well everyone as Ooty). Where we stopped for lunch and a trip to the botanical gardens. Ooty was mega busy as it was a Republic day weekend, so we swiftly moved on to Coonoor, where our hotel was.
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| Ooty botanical gardens |
Coonoor was somewhat calmer and a our hotel turned out to be quite of town in the middle of tea country, the position was certainly lovely. That evening we just chilled out in the hotel and arranged a sight seeing tour for the following day. The sights turned out to be mainly view points down off the hills towards to the plains below and across the tea plantations. There were certainly some stunning views but we were fairly desperate to get out of the car so after some discussion with the driver he let us out on route and we walked along to the next view point. He obviously didn't quite understand what we wanted to do as he followed us all the way, but we had a nice little walk! Then back to town for a very good lunch and a trip to the Coonoor botanical gardens with a spot of pedal boating for me and Ben. From which you will be glad to hear we arrived back in one piece (the boat had an horrendous squeak and was distinctly lop-sided!).
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| Ben & my dad enjoying a tea break |
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| Enjoying the view |
Then we headed back to the hotel and read a bit and generally lazed about before going for a little wander through the local tea estate and watching the sunset.
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| Through the tea as the sun started to set. |
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| The chap we met on the way back (being sure not to tell my mum until we were within reach of the gate!) |
The following morning we went to visit a tea factory, which was interesting. Unfortunately not much of it was working, as the day before had been a public holiday so no tea had been picked, and consequently, there was no tea to process. Then we had a little wander around town, visited and church and the market before heading back to our hotel for lunch. He then dropped us off at the railway station (very early, but nevermind) where we were catching the mountain train down the hills to Mettupalayam.
In the engine shed
On our way!
It was quite a fun journey, through some beautiful landscapes, it was just slightly unfortunate that we were very much sat on the wrong side of the train, so most of our views were of rock and bushes.
Once we arrived in Mettupalayam, the end of the line on the mountain train, we got a taxi to Coimbatore in order that Ben could catch him flight home after dinner. It was somehow a bigger city than I was expecting! So, the journey took us quite a while in the traffic, but with made it to the hotel in time for a quick dinner before Ben caught a taxi to the airport.
From there my parents and I headed to down to Kerala, but I think I shall talk about that next time. This post has gotten a bit lengthy!
Only 3 weeks until our next visit to the UK now, I have a lot of blogging to do to catch up!
Love to you all,
xKathryn
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