Planning to travel as a team of office colleagues any time soon, here we leave a trail of our path, or I should say here you could re-live our experiences of our first team trip to Ooty, Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu.

You will never know when this travel sickness will hit you! It’s more likely to have more severe effects when the whole office feels sick of the same. That’s how it all started planning for a team trip. Lucky enough, we got our founders with the same sickness! LOL. Yes, we are fortunate to have founders who consider giving us a fascinating experience.

We have multiple options to start with, Kodai, Munnar, Wayanad, Bodi, Coorg, and the list goes on. Though it was never exhausting to do hours of search for our first trip destination & with unison, we finalized the highest peak of Tamil Nadu, Ooty alias Udagamangalam, the Queen of Hills. We were super excited!

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The seasoning for the trip started with the proper initial step of booking train tickets for all of us (15 members) from Chennai central to Mettupalayam, the nearest railway station to Ooty other than the heritage stream mountain toy train. Though all our seats were confirmed a day before the departure date, we were allotted with ‘RAC’ (one berth is shared for 2 people to sit). To be precise, we were allocated 7 berths (to be shared by 14 persons)

Then necessary ingredients were all ticked, including booking a scenic resort with a beautiful waterfall view from rooms & pool area, Mystique villa. The significant difficulty we faced in this period was to find a travel vehicle for our entire 2 days trip.

We were more interested in visiting the wildlife forest Mudumalai & diversity-rich Masinagudi. Still, the shortest route to those places was restricted to travel by large vans & own board vehicles (other than locals). So we hired two Jeep kinda local vehicles (Two Thars), which later turned out to be the perfect decision we cherished throughout the trip.

All set, let’s start the trip!

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Beginning of the soulful Journey

After hefty traffic & panic calls from our bosses, the last six of us reached Chennai central on time. The Journey started, as an answer to my prayers, we were allotted a few extra berths as the trains crossed various towns. We all were excited about the sun rays we would feel by the following day.

The Autumn was about to start just after 2 days; by 6 am, we reached our last stop, Mettupalayam railway station, received by two on-time jeep owners, Arumugam & Thurai. The model of the vehicle maybe 1994, but the condition & pick-ups just amazed us.

Mountain tea has some really different tastes, a raw flavour, Wah! The day started with the warmest tea. The route gets you through the foggy, winding roads across the hills, verdant coffee, and tea estates to the Queen of Hills in the Nilgiris. So! We’ve arrived at Ooty, one of the most popular holiday destinations in Tamil Nadu; the hill station about which we’ve heard for the umpteenth time since childhood; the filming location for several films; the hill station with Tamil Nadu’s highest peak.

Team visit to Masinagudi & Mudumalai Tiger reserve (Day 1)

After lunch, on the way towards Masinagudi, the sharp steeps & horror accident stories shared by the Arumugam gave us a broad picture of why the route was restricted only to local cars & small trucks.

Masinagudi welcomes us with beautiful small ponds & spotted deers, missing not cormorants & Indian elephants along its way. The velvet horns of male deer, upside-down eating flying squirrels, beautiful peacocks, ferocious bear, majestic trunks & harmless sambar were a few notable faunas mentioning on our jeep safari in Mudumalai, Though all our eyes were on bushes, looking for a striped king of jungles in Tamil Nadu & Karnataka (just two days back before our visit, morning safari tourists were lucky to sight one mother & two cubs).

The waterfall view inside the Mudumalai jeep trail entrenched our appetites to bathe on the waters it flows (no way to reach there, it’s just a viewpoint). The thirstiest view can be so eye-gazing one, should not be missed! Return was so calm & there were hardly any vehicles accompanying us to the top again. It was so thrilled & Chilled.

A Rejuvenating moves inside Ooty

After a high warm-campfire-stargazing night, we had enough rest for the next day to start. So, after a typical budget resort breakfast (white bread, eggs, idly, sambar & coffee), we started the day towards Ooty. The climate was a little warm, sunny & chilled mountain breeze. Our first stop was at pine forest with a lake view, a good place for our team pic.

Ooty for years, has a botanical garden, definitely worth spending at least half a day exploring numerous flora species & 100+ years old plants. Still, we planned to visit the new tourist attraction, the Karnataka horticulture garden. Yes! It is developed & maintained by the Karnataka government’s horticulture department.

Karnataka Shri Horticulture Garden, Ooty: The second largest garden in the queen of hills. Filled with beautifully crafted plants & horticultural arts, this is a must-visit. A whooping 50,000 planted pots inside the park rejuvenate our minds. The suspension bridge, 12 height tree maze setup, center stage setup, Glasshouses for succulents & flower house for floral plants, all inside the garden, were something that will stay on our minds for at least a decade.

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Hyderabad Biryani House, Ooty: A must-try for all biryani lovers! We had our lunch here after waiting for about 25 mins or so. It’s worth the wait, the taste was authentic Hyderabadi (reminding me of my Hyderabad trip a few years back). Two of our founders said, “Back before 7 years, we came here to Ooty & had this biryani, their taste & quality still reminds the same”.

Tea factory, Ooty:  Returning to the plains without buying tea & chocolates for our families can make many uncomfortable, be cautious. So we had some time shopping for chocolates & dust teas in the tea factory where they also show the complete factory tour of both. Ooty plants grow well in plains (even in Chennai). So get yourself a few plants, they are unique compared with nurseries in Chennai.

Later that day, we started moving down via Kothagiri, it’s another route that is 10kms extra compared to the regular way. Still, the scenic tea estates may give you more chills than the breeze. Moreover, the gigantic muscular Bison could be easily spotted in those tea estates. So we suggest you travel by both routes, one for up & other while coming back.

Finally, we board our train at Mettupalayam railways station with all our hearts overflowing two days of fun-filled Ooty trip happiness. We still agree with our first decision on fixing Ooty as the destination. Indeed, she is “the queen of hills in Nilgries,” waiting for you & us to mesmerize us again in the future.

Here, we take this opportunity to thank the entire PickMyAd team for your involvement and incredible cooperation in making this trip a success. More to come for sure!

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