In my childhood days, I was always excited at the prospect of a Coimbatore-Ooty road trip as we visited our grandparents' ancestral home in Coonoor for the annual summer vacation. In the last few years, I have taken the much abused route via Mettupalayam many times.
So, when my friends suggested taking the Manjoor option to Ooty for a Sunday drive, I was very excited to take a beautiful new route through pristine forests and tea plantations. This road is on the border of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, along the outskirts of Silent Valley National Park. The primary Mulli Karamadi road starts from Karamadai and traffic thins drastically once you cross this town. Once you cross Pillur, traffic is close to zero.
After the Pillur water purification plant, there are thorny deciduous forests on both sides of the road. The day time traffic is minimal, but this route is famous for its night time traffic of elephant herds. The "green tunnel" stretch was beautiful and this is where the first feeling of being in a forest hits you. We drive slowly and keep an eye out for a stray elephant or two.
A few kilometers after the ghat road is a Tamil Nadu Forest check post, where we register our vehicle numbers and proceed. There are huge hills on both sides and we get a view of the Coimbatore plateau as we ascend the ghat roads.
We stop at a bridge overlooking the Bhavani river for some photos (some ridiculous ones at that !!!).
We drive very slowly through the roads, as the bends become sharper and we become wary of turning right into elephants loitering on the road.
The only time we stopped was to allow this little fellow cross the road -
After driving a particularly eerie stretch, we encountered a car driver coming from the opposite direction, who shouted something at us as he sped by. We could not make any sense of it but we had a strange feeling that we were not alone. We reduced our speed to a crawl and wearily kept an eye out for any movement or disturbance in the bushes alongside the narrow roads. Our "sixth sense" was confirmed when we saw massive elephant droppings and shattered vegetation on the road - it was sure we were not alone anymore.
We were both excited and fearful at what we will encounter in the next few minutes - much as I would have loved to see elephants in the flesh, I did not want to disturb a herd going about its business in these parts, where the chance to escape from its fury is close to zero. As we progressed, we were a bit relieved when we did not see any elephant blocking our way. At one of the villages, we stop to explore this elephant watch tower - an old lady mentioned to us that a few elephants had entered this hamlet a couple of days back to feast on their farms.
As I looked out at views of this remote place, it was a "middle of a forest" feeling. The villagers lead independent lives untouched by the modern comforts we take for granted. And their small farms, on a territory owned by wild animals, is regularly raided by elephants as it falls bang in the middle of the elephant corridor. I have sympathy for these villagers, but you cannot escape the feeling that we are encroaching the land belonging to animals.
As you ascend the 43 hair pin bends, the views of the Silent Valley National Park become better. We stop at a few view points along the way, as we could not resist these stunning sights.
The powerhouse and pen stock pipes of Kunda Hydro electric project can be seen from the road, as we move further into the forest. After the powerhouse, there is another deserted stretch where we own the road and we use it to test our running and camera skills !
After ascending the 43 bends, we reach the tea estates and within a few kilometers, we reach Manjoor town. It is time to enjoy some delicious bananas (notice the net protection against the rampaging monkeys). We crossed a pack of monkeys, looking for their daily dose of destruction - we were just glad that we were not in their list today.
The kilkunda and backwater of Kunda 1 power project can be seen from Manjoor -
We stop at Korakundah Tea Garden (highest tea garden in India) for a cup of tea and biscuits. The pleasant weather makes us want to take a nap, before we resume our journey back to Coimbatore.
Soon, it was time to leave and the winding roads through the tea estates were a delight to drive in - we took the Mettupalayam option for our way back home, as it was better to avoid late evening elephant traffic on Manjoor route.
I had a most wonderful day, which reinforced my belief that you cannot have enough of a place even if you have been visiting it for a long time and there is always something new to explore if you are willing to leave your home comforts and take the road less traveled.
The final surprise in this tale was when my friends showed me this report in the local newspaper the next day - it was the exact route we had taken and we missed this group by minutes (or hours, I don't know). As I looked at the photo, I got the chills and wondered what we would have done if we had encountered these guys. That is a question to which I will never know the answer and if I am being honest, I am happy that the question was not posed to me in the first place.
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