Postcards from the Nilgiris

"Come to the book as you would come to an unexplored land. Come without a map. Explore it and draw your own map."

Stephen King

A short trip to the mountains and forests, to be one with nature, to dream, to fill in the lungs with fresh air, to listen to the sounds of nature,to wake up to the misty mornings and watch the starry nights; well, well, well, the list is endless and so are my desires every time I visit such places. I have never been a painter except for the times when I visit a beautiful place and watch nature and its wonders. The daybreak with its myriad colours seem to create a beautiful painting the canvas of nature. Any nature lover would become a painter. 

This was a post I had started composing just after our trip to The Redhills. It was our second visit to the place I baptised 'the Switzerland of India'. It is late I know but still I wanted to share the 'belle photos' with all nature lovers.  Hence, without speaking any more I shall leave the photographs to do the speaking. Enjoy the visual tour!

Of mountains and lakes and a magical trip.....

'I want to make memories all over the world....'

      In my case 'all over the world' gets replaced by 'in my backyard'.... I had once come across this quote while surfing through some sites for quotes. And found it apt, simple yet something that made so much sense. I want to roam all over the world making memories and have already embarked on it :-).... While planning for it, I realized that there is so much to see in my own country. So why not start from here itself!  And we have been travelling for some time now. We come back from a short trip to the mountains and hills and I find myself planning for the next! Do I sound crazy? Possible! Looks like I am a victim of 'travel-mania'! The travel bug has gotten to me with all its strength and isn't leaving me at all! To top it all, I have been lucky to live in Bangalore; the city spoils one for choice of destinations! There are n number of places around here to take a pick from. 

Red Hills was our destination this time; and while selecting the place I never knew that it will be such an out of the world experience! Yes, we have visited this part of Ooty before so were a little prepared about what to expect in terms of weather, roads and the natural beauty. But this particular place surpassed all expectations. It was tranquility personified; the peace, the calm, the weather, the natural beauty and also the comfortable stay all rolled and packed into this holiday at Red Hills. While I enjoyed the serenity of Lake Emerald from the resort, I experienced a slice of heaven on earth! I remembered how I harboured this intense  craving to visit the Swiss countryside. The colourful photographs I have seen of those places made me dream of them....sometime, maybe sometime, I kept chanting in my mind. But this visit to Red Hills had certainly impacted my dream; we have all of that here, in our very own backyard:-)....

Well, there is a little history behind the name of the place, Red Hills. According to Vijay Kumar, who owns this magnificent place, ' Willie Collins came from Red Hills in England. This place reminded him of his place and he named this as Red Hills.' As you keep reading on, you will know who Willie Collins was and  have more information on this splendid property of Mr.Vijay Kumar. I read about this beautiful place in a few sites. And armed with all these information and reviews from the various guests who lived in this gorgeous property, we chose the place. We had visited this part of the Nilgiris before and were absolutely blown over by the magnificent scenic beauty! The emerald green water of the Lake Emerald blew us away completely! What a spectacular sight it was! Straight out of a travel magazine; on the other side, Lake Avalanche made a pretty picture with its forested islands and meandering course. The verdant vegetation all around, the lakes visible through the trunks of the tall trees; oh! I would say this would be a painter's delight! 

Such places can soothe our tired minds :-)...such visits can be so relaxing. Our drive up to Red Hills, though tiring physically was relaxing mentally ! Once there, we fell in love with the place instantly. The bungalows resembling those of the colonial style with high ceilings, large windows, fireplaces, wooden flooring, a neat little sit-out, all added to make the place even more charming. What caught my fancy was the dining room with a view of a tall peak, shooting straight up. The table by the window overlooking the mountain was to be my place for the next two days! I had already made up my mind the moment I saw this! Every time I sat there for my meals, I felt as if I was traveling by train through the Swiss countryside. I know this might sound strange to most but my imagination ran wild. The numerous times I  have read Heidi can be squarely blamed for this fertile imagination! So that was the story of the dining room. And now comes those benches with a view. I call them' the benches with a view'! The white painted benches on the  green carpet of the grass with the meandering lake Emerald is something I shall not be forgetting anytime soon!

As I write about Red Hills here, I would like to include a few things about the estate as has been told to me by Mr. Vijay who owns the place. In his words, " The property was established by Willie Collins in the year 1875. My dad bought the property in 1937. It was my family home and I was born in this house. In 1992 we opened this place for guests as a home stay and we continue to do so."
And we were lucky to have come across this beautiful place. We not only had a pleasant stay there but also made great memories.I guess it is time to let the photographs do the talking. Most of the photographs might look a little hazy as it was cloudy and we tried to capture it as it was :-)....

The star attraction was Lake Emerald.

the view from our veranda..........

as the lake meandered on............

It was cloudy as can be seen and most of the photographs have been clicked in the regular setting.

One side was the Lake Emerald and on the other side were the mountains and the tea plantation...

one more view.................

What a lovely bungalow! I wouldn't mind staying here forever :-D

the tea bushes along the slopes.........

Can you spot the waterfalls?

top of the world........We trekked up, huffing and puffing as we climbed up to have this magnificent view!

at the top of the mountain ( ? )......... I would love to believe that I climbed a mountain!

The dried up branches created a beautiful pattern.....

What a pretty sight these wild flowers made!

view from the top...........

Loved the perfect contours!

To me, seeing is believing!

The mountains in the background, the wild flowers strewn all along our way, the tricky climb up, all made for a glorious morning!

Seeing is believing at times and we shall do just that! While I document my experiences at Red hills here, I shall upload a few photographs of the place, too. But believe me, when I say that these visuals are nothing compared to what my senses have taken in:-).....

And here come the clouds like a whiff of smoke !

I loved the tiny temple :-)

Pretty, isn't it?

And there were these pretty wild flowers all along our path ........

A group of bikers stopped by Lake Avalanche to enjoy the beauty and made for an interesting photograph!

And look at those colourful houses on the slopes of the hills!

selfie time up on the mountains.......

picturesque.............

Lake Emerald

The mountains behind me and the lake in front of me ; I couldn't have asked for anything better!

One of my favourite places there........

 And finally Moby here! The friendliest one I've ever come across!

Of tranquility and peace.......

"Wherever you go, go with all your heart."

Confucius

"Certainly travel is more than the seeing of sights;"

Mary Ritter Beard

And I could not have agreed more to these sayings. During each of our travels, I have accumulated memories of places, people and things; memories that keep coming back again and again and leaves beautiful sensations in my mind. We keep planning our short trips with passion, eagerness and a lot of love. This time was no exception.

Our short and sweet trip to the Nilgiris was something I had been looking forward to after a whirlwind six weeks of engaging and hectic class schedules. In between those, we selected a few places around Bangalore. After a flurry of emails and telephone calls, we managed to zero in on this utterly gorgeous place near Ooty. And then came the waiting time. The interest kept building up in all those days of waiting for the D Day! The travel time as estimated went for a toss as we were not aware of the road widening that was happening on the Mysore Ooty highway. It took  us more time than we had thought of. It was quite a hinderance to the otherwise smooth drive. But the fact of taking in the crisp mountain air very soon kept us going. We both have a love for mountains and forests, some strange inexplicable emotion connected to these. We drove through the forests of Bandipur and then Mudumalai. The road took us through the sound of the crickets and chirping of birds,through herd of deer and troop of monkeys. The occasional rains have been washing the leaves clean making them glisten in their coats of green. It was a beautiful sight. We have driven on this road many times before and each time has been enjoyable. On reaching Masinagudi, we decided to save time and take the shorter route to Ooty. This route has its own charm:-). It has 36 hairpin bends, a little tricky to negotiate but absolutely gorgeous view. So off we started our climb uphill passing by thick forests, deep gorges, pretty flowers dotting the mountains and several breathtaking view points! The wild mountains this time had a lot of colours on them; the reddish and greenish leaves looked like autumn leaves. All along my heart sang a happy song and my eyes danced to the play of clouds against the blue mountains. Tiny hamlets dotted the mountain trail. Colourful homes of the mountain people looked like a pretty postcard. I have always felt that we live in a beautiful country! The sentiments and emotions surge whenever we travel. There is so much variety. Incredible India, indeed! 

Ooty town, of course, does not inspire or attract us! We find it extremely commercial and over the years it has become crowded. But the serenity of the mountains can be experienced the moment we leave the town behind us. By now, we could feel the crisp cool mountain breeze! The ferns springing up from the mountain side, the wisps of smoke from the pretty houses along the mountains,curling up into the sky, the pristine lakes dotting the landscape; what an absolutely charming picture this made! These were not mere sights to us; they made us philosophical and wonder at the marvels of nature............

The Destiny itself was a stunning place! Adorned with rolling green meadows, farmland, dainty cottages and a placid lake! Does it conjure up a delightful picture?  :-D..... It was no less than a real picture, one from the pages of those glossies.... One from those travel magazines.....so gorgeously beautiful it was! I am certainly falling short of words to describe the place! One needs to be there to experience the beauty! The view from our room was too, too pretty for words! Something like my painting while I was in primary school! A lake in between the mountains, the trees so green, the tiny colourful flowers dotting the green grass, the birds flying all across the skies, the smoke curling up from the chimneys of the hillside hamlets; well, well....I am running out of words now! Our Moby Dick was a beautiful one, too! All I did there was read, take long walks, pamper myself in the in house spa and watch the lake and the rain:-)... C'est la vie......:-) what more did I need! I forgot to count calories as I gorged on those delicious dishes, the homemade chocolates and what not! 

Overall, it was a beautiful holiday. It left me craving for more :-)... Greedy me! So now it is time to start planning for the next one; one more of those beauties up in line.

The mountain side was dotted with tiny pretty flowers; nameless to me but what a pretty picture they made with their simple unassuming beauty! And those ferns were so very pretty!

And here is another peek at them! I had to stop on our way down to click a picture of them :-)

The view from our deck was mesmerizing!

Another one while it rained in the evening! The beds of cabbages soaked in as much as they could, glistening and shining!

A favourite of mine :-)... What isn't there here! The blue and the white and the green and the purple.....

Those rainy evenings............

Our room, Moby Dick :-)

Another view...loved the warm colours and the earthy tones.......

Half open, half closed but the most perfect view........

The tripod stood there, all of those days......probably enjoyed all those pretty captures!

I simply loved this view! Never for a moment got bored of seeing it!

Destination chai point! On our way back from The Destiny, we stopped at a shack for some hot chai and along with it got to see the most amazing view!

Couldn't have enough of what we saw!

How about some chai here? We stopped over to enjoy some lemon tea here!

Coffee with French and some awesome view !

:-D

The postcard :-)

This field doubled up as a stadium and the horse riding pad!