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Part 3 of 5South India, 2019

The long road to Ooty

Travelling on alone, I take an early bus from Bengaluru through the forest to Ooty, check into a quiet cottage and get a fright when the lights go out on the first night.

By Thawaio1 min read13 March 2019 · Bengaluru to Ooty

Tall pine trees beside a quiet road in late afternoon sunlight, with a tarpaulin-covered stall and a small blue cart at the roadside.
Pine trees beside the road on my first afternoon in Ooty.

After the wedding celebrations, I continued alone to Ooty, in the Nilgiri Hills.

A long bus ride

My bus was a KSRTC Airavat Club Class service. It left Bengaluru at about 6:16 on the morning of 13 March, and the journey took more than eight hours.

Long stretches of the road passed through forest, and I particularly enjoyed that part of the journey.

Hillside houses with blue and green walls among trees, with a wide, hazy view over distant ranges beyond.
A hillside on the way, a little before one o'clock.

My photographs show that I had reached my hotel in Ooty by the middle of the afternoon.

A quiet cottage

I stayed for two nights at Hotel Lakeview, on West Lake Road. My room was in one of its cottages.

A cream single-storey cottage with a tiled roof, glass doors and a short flight of steps with a railing.
One of the cottages.

The surroundings were very quiet, and there were few people around.

Rows of red-tiled roofs behind a fence, with tall trees and a clear blue sky.
Tiled roofs and tall trees.

Later that afternoon, I took a few more photographs: a park with tents and stalls, pine trees beside the road, and a glimpse of water through the trees, which I think was the lake.

A park on a gentle slope with trees, shrubs, tents and stalls below.
A park in the late afternoon.
Water glimpsed through tall trees and shrubs at the bottom of a slope.
Water through the trees.

The night the lights went out

That first night, the electricity suddenly failed. My room went completely dark.

I got frightened and dashed out towards the customer service centre. That part of the property still had electricity and was relatively bright, and someone was there.

After about twenty minutes, the power came back on.

It was only a short power cut, but it is one of the things I remember most clearly about my stay in Ooty.

The next morning, I had a train to catch.